Avryn spent the day looking up who Leandros’s parents were. They deserved to know what happened to their child. He managed to home in to the names Duke and Freticia Solus. Residents in Baradov. He noted how Leandros clearly resembled Duke.

  “Guess he was his father’s son, eh?” he turned to the wrapped blade. “Oh, and what is it?”

  He knew Leifren was behind him.

  “Is now a bad time?” he asked.

  Avryn assured him it was not. He wanted to hear him out. Leifren took a seat opposite him. He had a proposal in mind. Jenilah’s birthday was today and he had a role in mind for Avryn.

  “Of course, I’ll do anything. What do you want me to do?”

  “The easy part, distract her until we’ve readied the surprise party,” Leifren said.

  He also produced two tickets. Those were tickets two the Baradov Carnival which would be opening today. Leifren told him to tell Jenilah he bought the tickets and not him.

  “Never been to a carnival before. What’s it like?” he asked Leifren.

  Leifren eyed to the side, he saw Jenilah walking by.

  “I think it’s best you find out yourself. Have fun,” he gave him a pat before going.

  Avryn stood up and saw Jenilah and immediately got butterflies in his stomach. She was a comforting sight in this drab Lost Lands weather. He greeted her.

  “What were you talking about with my brother?” she asked.

  “Oh, just the usual mission stuff,” he scrambled to find his words.

  He produced the tickets to her.

  “There’s this carnival in Baradov that’s opening today. Would you like to go there with me?” he asked.

  Jenilah smiled and nodded.

  “I would love that.”

  “Great, let’s go right now.”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  They took their leave and boarded a ship to Baradov. Once there, they took a cab to where the carnival was at. It was a beautiful sight. A myriad of colors and buildings. It was probably the most people they’ve seen contained inside of one place. They handed in their tickets for admission into the carnival.

  “So, uh, what do you usually do here? I’ve never been to one, actually,” Avryn could not hide his embarrassment.

  “There’s plenty of games to play,” Jenilah eyed the nearby booths.

  She pointed to one and wrapped her arms around Avryn’s. She led him to a shooting booth.

  “You there, sir! Would you like to try your hand in winning a prize?” the concessionaire asked.

  Avryn chuckled.

  “I’m game.”

  The concessionaire explained the mechanics of the game to him. All Avryn needed to do was shoot six small balloons in a row with a pellet gun to win a prize. Sounded easy enough. He was handed the pistol. Avryn shot five times. All five found their mark and popped the balloons. On the sixth shot, it just nearly grazed the balloon. It was too far up and right.

  “Aw, tough luck, mister. But, there’s a prize still,” he handed them a few pieces of candy.

  Avryn handed them all to her. She looked please as she took some bites of it. They wandered around the maze of all the people at the carnival. They saw another booth. This time it was a Ring Toss stand. The objective was simple enough. Throw the ring onto the bottleneck and hope it sticks. Avryn took the initiative again. He needed at least three. He took a deep breath in. He wanted to succeed for Jenilah’s sake.

  The first toss was perfect. It landed right on the middle of one of the bottles. The second toss landed just at the edge of another and circled out. Avryn focused for the final toss. It was a nice try but it didn’t hit its mark. They still got a participation prize though. More candy for Jenilah to enjoy.

  They continued finding the next booth and see if they can improve their chances. A hammer strike booth caught their eye. Avryn led Jenilah to it.

  “I may not be like Valoche, but let’s see if I can match his strength today,”

  Jenilah chuckled and looked on.

  Avryn grabbed the hammer. It was lighter than he expected. He measured the target with it. He heaved it up and slammed it down with as much force as he could muster. The indicator rose past fifty, sixty, seventy, and stopped just shy of eighty points.

  “Darn,” Avryn grimaced.

  Jenilah leaned on his back.

  “It’s okay, you tried your best,”

  He could tell she was enjoying her time, at least. That’s what mattered to him. Just as he was looking for another booth, one caught his eye. The sign read “Punch Out”. He wanted to take her and try their luck there. They walked to the booth and meet with its concessionaire.

  “The rules are simple, lad. Get to land a punch on me and win today’s prize: a pair of diamond earrings for your beautiful lady over there,” he produced it from his pocket.

  “You’re on,” Avryn paid for the fee and got into a fighting stance.

  “Oh, and you have one minute to do it,” the concessionaire added.

  Avryn nodded.

  “That’s all I need.”

  He was led to an arena made by a circle. The two started their fight. Avryn threw in a couple test punches to gauge the man’s agility;. He was deadly fast. A slight wind was created every time he dodged Avryn’s blows. Avryn threw his next punches with quicker succession. Still no success. Ten seconds had passed since then. He threw another unorthodox combo, one he always swore by: an uppercut into an overhead. He tried to set it up a couple times but the concessionaire was dextrous enough to dodge it.

  Time was ticking. There was forty seconds left. Avryn dug deep into his tank of energy. He mustered all of his muscle control to add in feints in between punches. His opponent still had the wits to dodge the absolute barrage Avryn was sending. He danced around with his footwork. Avryn’s punches could be faintly heard like he was pushing air. He glanced to the side to see how Jenilah was faring. She was anticipating every move and enjoying the moment. That was good. Ten seconds were left, Avryn needed to give everything at this point.

  He chased around the concessionaire inside of the circle. Five seconds were left. Avryn assumed a lower stance and then spun around, delivering a wicked backfist to the midsection. The concessionaire anticipated that move to hit the head, never the body, and so he was finally hit. The blow drove him to the ground with a second to spare. The fight was over.

  “I believe congratulates are in order,” the man panted.

  Avryn offered to help him up and he accepted. The man went to grab the prize: The pair of luxurious diamond earrings. He gave them to Avryn. A hard fought fight. The latter thanked him for the match and presented it to Jenilah. The two basked in the moment. Avryn put the earrings on her, with a little help.

  “How does it look?” she struck a pose.

  “Great,” Avryn stared in awe.

  Beautiful, even. But Avryn would not say. It would be too embarrassing for him. He looked at the time. The party should be ready.

  “Hey Avryn,” Jenilah tugged on his sleeve.

  “Yeah?” he looked at her.

  “There’s one more place I wanna go,”

  “Of course, lead on.”