The Blood-moon festival had come, and I was just as tense as when I first heard about it almost two weeks ago. Most of the time coming up to this, I, and a lot of others had worked hard to train, doing the best we could, so that we had the opportunity to put on a great show for all to see.

Eros and I had changed up our sparring, mostly focusing on our forms and preciseness, instead of our general speed. We had also added something else to our shared time, where, instead of fighting, we would help each other with aspects of our show. For Eros´s show, we had gathered all of his equipment, and he had asked me to throw them at him, for some reason. When I had thrown them, he would catch them, juggle them a few times, and then gently put it down on the floor, while still juggling and receiving weapons from me. I tried to not question it, as it would probably ruin the surprise when the day for the full show came.

Elora and the rest of her classmates had also been receiving different tutoring, which was more than likely due to the upcoming festival. She had refused to talk of it, and the other bodyguards refused to say, what they would be doing, saying that ´it would ruin the illusion´.

And, I had, of course, also been getting taught differently than regular things. After having completed the Multitasking lesson, Metis had let me choose, what to do in the class. Only until the festival had ended, of course. After that, she would be solely in control of lessons again. But, let's focus on, what Metis and I had been working on throughout these last couple of days. We had been doing a somewhat complicated technique called-

Didn't we agree that you wouldn't try to cram in practice, while the festival was ongoing?

I'm not practicing! I'm simply reciting, what I'm supposed to do.

That's called practicing!

I sigh, open my eyes, and loom my eyes over the festival, checking out, where the different things were. I had found a larger than the normal hill that had some rather comfortable seating at the top. Even better, that it was situated just fifty meters from, where the massive festival began. From here, I was able to see all there was to see of the festival. The festival itself was mostly made up of a lot of temporary buildings, most of the time made of some time of wood, but some of the more fancy things, like the stage, where all would be performing, was made out of some glittery stone. The festival was divided into different parts, each having some task to perform. There were the food booths, which mostly dominated the right side of the festival. To the left were a lot of smaller sites, such as a place, where many of the artisans would be showing off their wonderful works, the magical dueling place, where people would use non-lethal spells in an attempt to stun the other person, the physical dueling place, where people would fight using something that looked like boxing, and there was also, of course, the petting zoo, where all those who wanted could pet tamed exotic creatures. That was a place I would be visiting tonight. In the middle of it all was the shops, where people were selling trinkets, the game booths, where you could win prizes, a music place, with live music, and, the best for last, the massive stage, with enough space for an audience of at least one thousand.

Sadly, my adventures during this festival would be solo, as Eros had called in a favor, and would be having a pleasant afternoon with Elora. I would have just joined up with some of the other bodyguards, but they had their job to do, and I wanted no part in that. No involving myself with that during my free-time. Therefore, it would just be me, myself, and I.

And me.

You don't count.

With that everything thought over, for the third time in the last ten minutes, I supposed that it was time to join the fun.

I got off the bench, which I had been sitting on, and began getting down towards the crowded festival entrance.

Quickly, I reached the entrance and got in line to get inside. The line moved quickly, and, in no time at all, it was my time to get inside. But, before I could get inside, a hand appeared in front of me, causing me to stop in my tracks, and it dragged me to the side, allowing others to get through.

In front of me was a giant of a man, whos hand was the one that dragged me to him. He stared down at me, not saying a word.

“Can I help you?”, I asked.

I said, massaging my side that had been shoved around a bit.

“Don't move.”, he said, using his hands to stop me from moving around. I didn't resist his grasp on me, not wanting to cause a scene.

After another thirty seconds of the man eerily staring down at me. At last, though, he finally talked.

“The boss heard that you've been seeking information about a creature, and thought that this might help”, the man said, holding out a familiar book with a weird star engraved on its front. It was the book Morgan had been reading when I was at the infirmary.

“Thanks. Could I ask how your-” And, he had walked away before I even started talking.

With that dealt with, I finally began my adventure into the festival.

The first place I would be visiting would be the food booths, as I hadn't gotten anything to eat yet, and they were what was closest by.

But, just because they were close didn't mean they were easy to get to. The food booths might have been one of the most crowded places at the festival, second only to the stage. It was easy to understand, why one-fifth of the whole festival was solely for the food market. Even worse a problem, when I finally got there, the choices were too many. Half of the stuff I didn't even understand. There was some traditional stuff, like cooked potatoes, fried rice, and something that reminded me of pasta. Then there were some other things, like literally frozen fire, which seemed to be quite popular with some of the larger guests. How they managed to do it, I didn't want to know. Why people were eating it, even less. And the frozen fire wasn't nearly the weirdest thing there was.

But, I didn't come to ogle at food, but to eat it instead. At last, I chose to buy something called Thunder-bread. It looked a lot like plain, old dark bread, but it turned out to be much sweeter, and it even had a hint of fruitiness. The person at the counter told me you were supposed to put something on top of the bread, but I simply ignored the advice. It was much easier to simply eat the bread as it was. No chance of spillage.

I also bought myself some dessert. The varieties were as large here, and the only thing I recognized was the heavenly sight of the butter-pies that I had tried back when I had eaten with Erik so long ago. I thought about simply choosing it due to familiarity, but decided against it. I was supposed to try new things and not old ones.

What, I chose looked kind of like a large cupcake, with cream and a nice-looking berry on top. The guy at the counter told me it was called a Mysterious Sleek Shelp. Each time I took a bite out of it, the taste of it changed. First, it was something similar to the strawberry flavor. Then, their vanilla flavor. After that, chocolate flavor. And that was that cupcake.

I thought about buying another, curious if the flavor would be the same, but decided against it. I needed to get a move on if I wanted to see it all before my performance.

How I dreaded.

Focus on the now, not the future. We have some games to check out.

And that we did. Luckily, the game booths were not as crowded, but there were still people here. Some of the games, I had seen before, but most were new to me. There was the traditional games like ring toss and spin a prize. There were many others, but only a single of them piqued my attention.

In one of the smaller booths, at the near corner end of the paths was an old man with long greying, who a table in front of him. On the table were three cups.

The old man saw me approaching and motioned for me to sit down on the chair on the other side of the table.

“Welcome, young man”, the old man said, his voice slightly wheezy. “Are you interested in playing?”

This seems interesting.

“What do I get if I win?”, I ask.

“Double the amount you bet”, the old man replied, with a nearly silky voice, as it was ruined after he began coughing after finishing the sentence. “Interested?”

Double your bet? Sounds great.

It sounds risky to me. We need more details.

“Before, you had my curiosity, but, now, you have my attention”, I answer. “What does the game entail.”

The old man cackled but quickly stopped.

“Finally, a player!”, the old man said, in a clear, honeyed voice. “The game is simple. I will put this ball,-” He pulled out a small metallic ball, and held it with his spindly fingers. “and put it underneath one of the cups. After I've shuffled the cups around a bit, If you guess the cup it is under, you win. If you don't, you lose. The game is as simple as that.”

It seems simple enough.

Then, where is the thing that makes us lose our money?

That's what I don't get. One way to test it out though.

I dropped a silver on the table, and the old man winced for a moment. Did he not get bets this high usually?

“Will this be satisfactory for a bet?”, I asked innocently, already knowing it was much more than enough.

“I-It is”, the old man said, greed clear in his voice.

He quickly put the metallic ball before looking over at me.

“Ready to start?”

“Yes.”

The old man began to move the cups around, moving them one at a time. After a couple of seconds, though, he stopped for a second, before starting again, this time much, much quicker than before. These movements were not those of a weak old man. I didn't let that distract me, though, and still focused on the position of the ball. It was hard to track the movements, but not impossible.

After fifteen seconds of rabid shuffling, the old man suddenly stopped and removed his hands from the cups.

“Well, young man”, the old man said with a smile, showing his brown teeth. “Which one will you pick?”

You know, it is times like these that I am grateful for having an eidetic memory. Can't fool me with speed, when you give me time to read all of your moves.

“This one”, I said, pointing at the one in the middle.

“A fine choice.”, the old man said, revealing the metallic ball. He got a leather pouch from his jacket and pulled out two silver coins. “There you have your winnings.”

Huh. That was easier than I thought it to be.

“If you want a real challenge, though, you might want to reinvest those coins.”, the old man said.

Now, this is where things get interesting.

“Please do explain”, I said, while putting the two silvers back on the table.

The old man smiled, a weird glimmer in his eyes.

“It will be the same game as before, with a small added detail.”

“And that is?”

“I'll be cheating.”