[crow]

She must have had questions, but she was a professional and a shopkeeper, and knew better than to pry into the affairs of her customers, even the odd ones. And perhaps she had seen stranger things yet in the course of running her stall.

Moon-eyes handed over a silver, producing it seemingly out of thin air, though in all likelihood it came from somewhere within the depths of their sleeves instead. There was certainly room enough to hide a great deal in all their layers of clothing.

[crow]

The shopkeeper took this in stride, taking it from him without anything more than a smile. "Thank you, sir. The mask is yours."

As soon as she said it, Elissar took it from Moon-eyes and held it up to align with their face. "Oh, that's quite interesting," he pronounced, smiling widely.

"Wh-What is it?" said Moon-eyes, clutching their hands to their chest.

"You look like one of those costumed performers they send out to scare children for the Solstice Festival where I come from," Elissar said.

[crow]

Elissar was grinning when he said it, and his tone didn't sound as though he meant it to imply anything unpleasant, and the only part of Moon-eyes that was visible were his eyes, but all the same... Moon-eyes didn't look heartened by the comparison.

Seemingly ignorant of his companion's discomfort, however, Elissar made a slight bow to the woman running the stall. "Thank you for this, ma'am. We'll wear it well."

"Have a wonderful time at the festival," said the woman, waving them off as they took their leave.

[crow]

As they walked away from the shop, Elissar passed the mask back to Moon-eyes. "Why don't you try it on?" he said. "You'll blend right in that way, and you can still hide your face. This has to be less stuffy than all those scarves, right?"

Moon-eyes pulled their scarves up higher around their face. "... I don't think I should wear it," they said quietly.

Elissar blinked. "But why not?"

Moon-eyes looked away. "I don't want to look like a ghoul," they said.

[crow]

Only now did Elissar seem to realize where he had erred in making his comment earlier. "Oh," he said softly. "Oh, Moon-eyes, I didn't mean--- The ghouls would never dress in such..." He looked up and down at Moon-eyes' attire, and was forced to swallow what he was going to say. In fact, Moon-eyes' choice of clothing really did resemble some sort of sad ghost. There wasn't a bright color in the lot, most of it being some variation of black or grey.

[crow]

Elissar sighed. "Alright," he declared, with a determination that the situation didn't warrant in the least, "I'll wear it then!" As good as his word, he put it on, and strapped it into place after fumbling with it a little. As he fiddled with it, Moon-eyes hovered, hands outstretched slightly as though they wanted to do something to help, but didn't quite have the nerve to do it.

Eventually, however, Elissar sorted himself out, then struck a pose with a flourish. "Ta-da! What do you think?"

[crow]

The mask covered very nearly all of his face, so that his mouth couldn't be seen. He wasn't wrong in saying that it would have offered Moon-eyes the cover that they desired, if they had put it on. But it wasn't hard to tell that Elissar was smiling behind the mask. It was audible in his voice, and his eyes where they showed through the mask were two bright crescents of mirth.

"It's awful," said Moon-eyes, but they were laughing as they said it.

[crow]

"Good," said Elissar, with real satisfaction. "I won't be satisfied until I've frightened someone in this!" Moon-eyes' eyes widened, startled, before they seemed to realize that Elissar was merely joking.

"You shouldn't say things like that," they chided, but there wasn't much energy in it. Elissar only laughed it off.

"Well, now that one of us looks merry, let's see about getting some food! There's always food at festivals. It wouldn't be a real celebration if they didn't have any," he pronounced.

[crow]

Moon-eyes said nothing, but neither did they disagree with Elissar or move to stop him. They simply fell into step beside him as he walked down the street, perusing the stalls.

They were, sadly, apparently in the wrong part of the festival to find much in the way of food. Most of the stalls near them were selling trinkets or masks, though at one point Moon-eyes thought they might have spotted a stall selling something that looked disconcertingly like live reptiles...

[crow]

... No, they must have just been imagining that. There was no way something like that would be happening here at a celebration, was there? ... Was there?

While they were pondering over this, Elissar had located a stall that promised something edible, although maybe not something palatable. "Look!" he called, tugging on one of Moon-eyes' shawls. "They have candied geckos over there! What do you say, should we try one?"

"Candied... geckos?" said Moon-eyes. "Not the animal, surely...?"

"I don't know, they look pretty lifelike to me," Elissar replied.

[Wild Pet Found]