[crow]

When the time of year rolled around for the festival, Sivain had just about forgotten it. It was Suvi who was clamoring to go, having never gone, and now that the war was over and Sivain had returned, there was no good reason for them not to take her with them. All of this had been presented as an argument to Sivain himself, who was now being lobbied by a determined Suvi to take her to the festival in question.

[crow]

"You've already gone!" she said. "Come on, please? You were away for so long, and I was stuck at the estate the whole time. It was so boring, and you never wrote me even when you promised, and I had to listen to the doctor mope about losing his apprentice and everything."

That last statement gave Sivain pause; he had no idea things had soured so considerably between Suvi and Kenric. But he supposed that if they were stuck with each other for long enough...

[crow]

And Kenric would have been the one forbidding her from running off to join the war at Sivain's side, so that couldn't have done him any favors in Suvi's estimation. Sivain made a note to himself to go and thank the poor man later for his work. It couldn't have been easy minding one child when he was himself worried for the loss of another, and as far as Sivain knew, they never were able to track down Kenric's former apprentice.

[crow]

Sivain himself had made an effort, but there had been so much else going on that admittedly he hadn't had much time to investigate the whereabouts of the boy as thoroughly as he would have liked. And now, with all hostilities at an end, and the trail gone cold, there was hardly anything of comfort to be said to Kenric. In all likelihood, that apprentice was dead.

"Do you think he'd want to come with us?" Suvi was saying now.

[crow]

But Sivain was already shaking his head, wanting to nip that idea in the bud as soon as possible. "Leave him be," said Sivain.

Suvi let go of the idea easily enough. "You're right, he's very busy, isn't he? I hear all doctors are, even when they're somewhere remote like this. He has so many old books..." She paused for a moment, thinking, and then remembered her original topic. "So?" she said. "Can we go? We can, can't we? Please?"

[crow]

"Just give in," said Rhodes, who was sitting atop the windowsill and idly licking one paw. "You aren't going to win this one."

Sivain did wish Rhodes hadn't said as much out loud, but it was the truth and he knew it. Everyone in the room knew it. Suvi certainly did; she had been pleading, but the look in her eyes was not at all the look of someone who truly believed she might be refused.

"You could at least allow me to preserve some illusion of my authority," said Sivain, blandly.

[crow]

The cat laughed, a quiet huff of air. "I could," he said. "But I've found it's more fun if I don't."

And so the matter was settled, and when the date of the festival arrived, they headed out. Sivain had meant at first to arrange transport, but Suvi had demanded that he fly them there himself, and leveraged, again, her long period of wait and suffering during the war to get him to acquiesce. And so they arrived in a great rush of wind and dragon-wing, in high dramatic fashion.

[crow]

In Sivain's home realm, such flippant and careless use of this form would have been severely frowned upon, but here it wasn't even terribly unusual. Dragons, transforming people, gods, magic, all of it seemed to coalesce in a melting pot that ought to have been a disaster, and yet somehow wasn't. It made him think of home, and of the implications of it, that not everything had to be as his uncle had dictated. But it was too late for him to do anything about that.

[crow]

For now, there was the festival, and Suvi's palpable excitement as she explored the various stalls and attractions. Sivain followed in her wake, caring little for where they ended up, so long as she seemed to be enjoying herself. And Rhodes observed all of it from what had become his customary perch on Sivain's shoulder; Sivain was a tall man, and Rhodes was a relatively small cat. It had worked well for them in the war, and neither had seen a need to abandon the practice.

[crow]

They were coming up to a tent when they heard someone calling for an evacuation. At once, Sivain's hand went to his sword, and he could feel Rhodes tensing. Suvi was slower to react, confusion writ across her face.

"Stay here," said Sivain. "I'll come back for you. Rhodes."

The cat looked unhappy, but he understood at once, hopping down to stand beside Suvi. "Go, then," said Rhodes. "I'll keep an eye on her."

Sivain nodded, then headed off in the direction of the commotion.

[Investigate Commotion]

[crow]

[Head into the crowd and look for people who appear suspicious.]

It was hard making his way through the crowd, and it only got harder the closer he got to whatever was happening, but at least it was easier than it would have been if he had had Suvi in tow. Rhodes rarely ever posed a problem since he was so small and rode on Sivain's shoulders to get around anyway, but even the cat's presence did sometimes make it trickier to maneuver around.

He didn't expect to get accosted by anyone though. Sivian's first instinct was to go for his sword as they closed in, but he repressed it with some effort.

[crow]

The war had made him more distrustful, and quicker to draw. He had been working on trying to relax now that it was over, but thus far the transition hadn't been easy. The scientists, if they could be called that, didn't seem particularly alarmed by his reaction though.

Sivain forced himself to ease out of his combat stance and listen as they went through their little spiel.

He didn't like asking questions, and he misliked the idea of working with random strangers who approached him, but if there was a monster out there endangering those who were attending the festival, then...

[crow]

For Suvi's sake, if nothing else, he would have to at least try to do something about this. "Very well," he said, "I will search the crowd." He wasn't one to talk to people when he didn't have to, and knew full well that he wasn't very good at it. He would leave that to the scientists themselves, since they seemed so comfortable approaching random people as it was.

Of course, searching the crowd was easier said than done. The people were very densely packed, and despite his height, he couldn't quite make out what it was they were gathered around.

[crow]

Then again, he supposed maybe it was a moot point. If they were gathered around a giant lizard, he would have heard some kind of proclamation to that effect by now anyway, and the scientists had asked him to search the crowd, not for what they were gawking at. So to that end, he did his best to scan the throng for any sign of something suspicious.

But he didn't manage to find anything after half an hour of searching, by which point he was beginning to feel as though he was being sent on a wild goose chase after all.

[crow]

He did promise Suvi and Rhodes that he would be back. He hadn't specified that he would be back quickly, but he was sure they were getting tired of waiting for him. He didn't want to unduly worry either of them, especially not Suvi, so he made his way back to where they had been, waiting outside the tent for a show.

"So?" said Rhodes expectantly. Suvi said nothing, but the look on her face said that she wanted answers too. "What was all the fuss about?"

"I don't know," Sivain replied. He never had managed to find out what it was, in the end.