2nd adventure: sightseeing and debrief

"Oooohhhhh," he says in dawning understanding and horror. After some struggle on what to say he adds lamely, "I never realized."

The fairies give an inquisitive look at "Akim" when he asks for a small basket after he's reached their pond. However, they're happy to comply, as they figure it's going to be an interesting show, and they line up on the waterfront. They all sit down and watch Konrad finish his preparations while they eat their remaining timbits. However, once they realize what he is doing, they suddenly perk up and begin to cheer him with unrestrained glee.

The red mage, however, knows full well that he'll be mentally exhausted once this little spectacle is over. Throwing one coin at a time and directing them into the basket is not even a challenge, but once he switches to two coins, it becomes apparent to him he'll need all of his concentration to accomplish this small feat, as manipulating two moving coins that are moving away from him isn't something he's used to. He finds out that practicing before he goes up to three coins was actually a good idea, since four of the coins didn't make it in the basket.

This disappoints some of the fairies, but the main attraction is the throw of three coins, not two. The little winged creatures are now jumping up and down to cheer him, chanting "Akim! Akim!". The first three attempts are partial failures, but everybody expected that. The last throws, however, have easily gotten into the basket, and Konrad understand that he has managed to do so because of the ring he looted from the Lorinthian yellow mage he fought two days ago. The fairies are now singing a strange song he never hear before, which consists mainly of short and quick sounds they make with their mouths.

Victory theme:

Bubble appears on Konrad's shoulder, and she proudly says, "For managing to impress this little community, I give you the title of Honorary Fairy! For one day anyway."

"Akim is a fairy! Akim is a fairy!" begin to chant his new comrades.

_______________

"No," continues Fedler as she tries to compose herself. "I... just didn't want to talk about it over there. With the rest of the fairies." She crosses her arms and looks away in an apologetic manner.

Mihai just keeps out of the way, looking away from them.

"Heh, an 'honorary fairy', if you please," he modestly requests, floating all the coins gently up and into his hand, placing them into his pouch for silvers. Okay, this is getting weird. Man, that took quite a lot out of me. "Does my temporary title come with any temporary perks?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm the one who stuck his foot in his mouth. You know, when I was thinking about this party the word awkward was the furthest from my mind. We see how that went." He smiles at his own joke.

Bubble starts to enumerate the amazing privileges he's been granted. "You can use our baths, drink from our well, and eat our food! Oh, you can also sleep here tonight, if you want."

The other fairies are not converging on Konrad to convince him to sleep at the Fairy Village tonight.

_______________

The shift in Steve's tone appears to put Fedler at ease, and she lets herself smile a little. "Let's go back," she says on the spur of the moment. "Breeze is... well, I don't where she is, but I think she'll find it strange if we're gone for too long."

She directs her gaze back at Steve, wanting to change the subject so they can go back to having fun with the rest of the party.

OOC:

Mihai's mood lightens, and he stops looking away from them.

"Of course." He motions for them to go first. "Wish I could play an instrument. I bet that fairy choir would sound amazing with some accompaniment."

"Ha! You'll have to shrink me down to size first," he laughs.

Konrad's evening:

"It would," replies Fedler as she and Mihai go back to the clearing. "But I've never been good at improvising. I also don't have any instrument with me."

_______________

For the rest of the afternoon, the fairies invite the party members to the activities they've prepared; singing, dancing, games, and the play, which is a reenactment of the party's interaction with the statue of Alvo Victivius. Fluffle guided Breeze through the village so she had a chance to participate in each of those activities, and interact with her kind as much as possible. Zelk preferred to watch the others have fun instead of participating, and it became obvious why when she left herself be convinced to join a word game; she was absolutely awful at it. The fairies didn't mind though, since some of them also had difficulties coming up with good answers. As for Fedler, she liked dancing, and she quickly started to teach their hosts on how to dance in pairs, using Mihai as her unfortunate partner. Needless to say, he made many mistakes.

Time flies when you have fun though, and soon enough, it's six o'clock in the evening. Unbeknownst to the party members, some fairies had left the festivities to cook meals for their kind, and they were placing small tables in the middle of the clearing where they could have dinner.

"Sorry," says Fluffle to the whole group, who has just reappeared with the guest of honor. "We would like to cook for you, but you're so... big. So we asked our friends to bring you something to eat."

Not even a minute later, a rough-looking woman in her thirties enters the park with lunch boxes in her arms; she is wearing a white tunic made of silk with a leather jacket on top of it, and dark gray trousers.

"Oh, hey Sarah!" exclaims Bubble, who immediately flies off to her side. "You're just in time!"

"Hi," replies the woman. "Party is in full swing, uh? Here's what you asked for. Freshly cooked."

"Thank you," adds Fluffle, who has just reappeared with the guest of honor.

"Oh, is that food!?" asks Breeze, who begins to examine the lunch boxes from all sides.

Sarah's gaze lingers on the party members.

"Hello, ma'am. I'm Stan Firestarter, sometimes known as Steve to my friends. Long story. This lovely lady is my good friend Ice. Nice to meet you." He waves at her in a friendly manner. "Thank you for dinner."

He takes on and eagerly looks inside.

Fedler gently slaps the back of Steve's head just before he opens one of the lunch boxes. "Don't you look inside one of those until we're ready to eat."

"Yeah!" reprimands Breeze, a accusatory finger pointed at him. "Don't you dare!"

"I'll look after that," adds Zelk, who takes the boxes from Steve.

The woman who fetched dinner for them brings a hand to her mouth, and lets out a chuckle.

"You're certainly good company for the fairies," she says, addressing the whole group.

The fairies have now begun to rehearse what they've just learned, and Fedler has sat down since they don't need her help for now. Mihai sits down with her, and asks, "Uh... how are your toes?"

"Oh, they're fine," she replies, her eyes focused on the dancing fairies. "Don't worry, everyone steps on their partner's toes the first time they dance."

"I'll... try and make the second time painless."

A small laugh escapes her mouth. "I don't mind when you step on my toes."

That leaves him speechless for a little while, and he looks slightly down and away, a bit embarrassed. He recovers, and tries to follow up. "I... Well, I'll try to do better anyway."

"You'll need a few more lessons first." The fairies begin from the top again.

"Ok..." he replies, indicating he won't mind that either. He stays quiet for a few moments, then dares to ask. "Hey, I... figured you could play, but... never asked about it."

"Oh, I can play a few instruments," she responds nonchalantly. "It's been years since I've touched one though."

He hesitantly offers - "We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

She glances at Mihai before she answers. "I would have told you if I didn't want to talk about it."

He sighs. "You're right. Sorry. What can you play?"

"Hmm..." She makes a visible effort to remember. "The lute, the guitar, the flute, transverse and straight, the piano, and...the lyre." She pauses. "I must have gotten rusty at all of those."

Mihai is stunned. "You... were a teenager..." he says, impressed. "Isn't that... kind of amazing?"

She chuckles. "I was 4 years old when I started. It was the flute first. Mom, she just wanted to keep me busy. Then I asked for the piano. And the lute. I prefer the guitar though; it feels like you're holding something strong, not fragile like the lute. I also prefer the sounds it produces."

He picks up his confidence. "Do you think you'd like to play again?"

"Maybe. I never really thought about it." The fairies have now almost gotten the dance right.

"Well, you know... if you ever feel like it... I'd really like to hear it."

It takes a moment before she responds. "I'll think about it."

Mihai goes quiet.  When he speaks up again, his tone is still soft, but more decisive. "I know I can get insecure sometimes." - he offers - "I'll fix that. I promise."

She looks back at him, at a loss for words; until she nods. "It's not really a problem. I'm not the easiest person to live with either."

His decisive tone persists - "Well, I want to find out." -  he replies, without hesitation this time - "And don't worry. I won't ever take two days again."

She thinks about what else to say, but the dancing fairies quickly ask her for more help.

Mihai holds out his hand - "Need your dummy again?"

"Sure." She takes his hand, and proceeds to show the fey creatures how it is done. He steps on her toes only twice. She intentionally steps on his once, but he doesn't mind.

"Oh, sorry," Steve says, rubbing the back of his head. "It just smelled so good!"

"You're certainly good company for the fairies," [Sarah] says, addressing the whole group.

"I'm glad you think so. They are good people and deserve all the friends they can find."

"I see you've met my merry band. Captain of the merry band," he introduces himself, "a pleasure. And I dunno about the rest of you, but I'm ready to eat."

"I have a complicated name. Just call me D." - Mihai finally offers.

"You can call me Red," says Fedler. "Very original, I know."

"And I'm Blue!" announces the fairy mercenary, who is totally unaware of Fluffle's confused expression and has also forgotten the big banner hanging in the air with her name on it.

"Like Stan told you, I'm Ice," adds Zelk. "Thank you for bringing the food, miss...?"

"Valerian," replies the woman. "Sarah Valerian. I'm with the Coins."

"Coins? What are those?" - asks Mihai, not even trying to sound convincing.

Valerian raises an eyebrow, not even a little fazed by his attempt at humor. Fedler starts patting him on the shoulder as she pretends to take pity on him.

Mihai pats Fedler's hand patting him, pretending to thank her for the support.

"Is working as a caterer part of the job description now?" Konrad snipes.

"Where do you think they got the food from?" - he snipes at Konrad

"Your mother," he answers without a glance.

Valerian nods. "Yes, the chef who cooked your meals works for the Coins. As for me, you can consider me the fairies'... 'guardian'."

"......." - Mihai stays silent for a moment, for some reason, then - "The cargo the ship offloaded yesterday was supplying this village?"