Irwyn was followed by his entourage as they trod through the crowd. The people around them were holding various items which everyone except Irwyn couldn't recognise. Among those were such things as pink cloud-like sweets; floating semi-spheres of various colours; large toys similar to ragdolls of animals, though from obviously different materials; and then some other strange trinkets. The eyes of the girls shone with clear passion for all things shiny and sweet, and even Desir showed some interest.

“Over there,” Irwyn pointed at a certain booth where no people currently stood and the group gradually approached. Now that they were close they could easily observe the strange stand. It was as though the booth was an empty room with half a wall missing as to allow people to observe from outside, the interior was mostly lacking furniture, with the exception of the furthest wall. On it were lines upon lines of thin wooden sticks embedded into a solid metal frame and above a long row of various blooming roses, just placed on a wooden shelf instead of inside dirt.

“Welcome, welcome, young guests!” inside the room was a single man who immediately stood up from his lone stool as he saw Irwyn and his entourage approach, “I have something you have never seen before, right here!”

“Then show us,” Irwyn smiled at the man, not reacting to the impossibility of that statement. His head barely reached high enough to allow Irwyn to look into the room now that he was this close. He was simply too short. Although Elizabeth was not much better off, Alice and Desir were fine. At Irwyn’s beckon, the man reached for something below the window and took out a curious gadget. It was a long but relatively thin device of wood and metal. There were various contraptions and steel pieces which were difficult to understand at first glance attached to the thing.

“This thing is called an air rifle,” the man explained “it is a bit similar to bows, though also quite different. You also need ammunition to use it,” he then used a bit of force on the front of the barrel which promptly bent and mostly separated from the rest of the gun, only a hinge leaving it still attached. That immediately revealed a small socket on the inside of the barrel, “This one, in particular, is prepared for usage, or loaded, by putting something called a bullet into this slot,” he then quickly reached into his pocket and took out a small cylinder before he quickly placed it into its place and reunited the barrel with the rest of the weapon, “Then you use this small thing called ‘the trigger’ in order to fire it,” and he also promptly demonstrated by turning around and quickly taking aim. A gentle puff sounded as the gun fired, breaking one of the wooden picks clean in half, “Want to give it a try?” the man finally smiled, “If you can hit 2 out of 3 times I will give you one of the flowers as something to remember me by,” he pointed on the shelf above him.

“Let’s each give it a try,” Irwyn smiled and handed the man a few coins he had already prepared. He also intentionally let the man see the VIP band on his wrist. The man promptly handed over the riffle to Desir who was already awaiting his turn with great curiosity, “Be careful to not pull the trigger while loading the riffle, it could get ugly,” the man warned as Desir cogged the barrel open. With a swift motion he loaded the weapon and casually took aim. With a swift puff, he missed miserably. Frowning, he loaded a second bullet, this time taking a much more careful aim. Puff, and he manage to hit, although barely. The stick did not properly split in two, it was just cracked. Sighing, Desir calmed himself and loaded the barrel again. This time he took even longer to properly aim before he pulled the trigger. Puff, and he missed again.

“Don’t think much of it lad,” the man laughed, slight nervousness in his voice, “I know people who couldn’t hit out of 10 shots if their life depended on it, one out of three on your first time ain't bad at all.”

“I don’t think this really fits me,” Desir shook his head, and seemed to mostly lose interest in the strange weapon as he returned it to the man. After shooting with it three times he felt as though it was a bit underwhelming.

“I am next!” Elizabeth exclaimed her head barely reaching above the stand’s window. The man was hesitant for a few seconds, but eventually handed her the weapon and 3 bullets.

“Careful not to point at anyone once it is loaded. It can be dangerous,” he smiled and warned. To his surprise Elizabeth did not struggle with opening the barrel, in fact, she opened it with ease and stuffed the bullet in with a dexterity unbefitting a 12 years old child. She looked pretty ridiculous as she stretched her hands over the edge, and even had to lean the gun sideways so that she could aim properly while standing on her toes. Puff, and her first shot hit, splitting one of them cleanly in half. Overjoyed Elizabeth loaded in another bullet and shot much faster than before. Perhaps because of her haste she missed. Not discouraged she quickly loaded again and took aim. Puff, and she unfortunately missed even her third shot.

“Good job, you also got a hit,” the man smiled and outstretched his hand. Elizabeth's expression looked slightly sour, but she gave the riffle back.

“My turn,” Alice also seemed very interested in trying it out. Upon getting the gun into her hands she did not hurry to load it, instead she carefully caressed the gun for a few moments, curious about its strange shape. After she finally loaded the weapon she aimed and shot without much confidence in her expression. Puff, and it was a clean hit. She reloaded and shot again. Puff, once again, another wood was shot in half. Surprised by herself Alice loaded once again, and aimed, this time she took much less time to shoot. Puff, and she landed yet another hit.

“Fuwa,” the man whistled with excitement, “This is your first time shooting, right? You are a natural,” he reached onto the top shelf and picked a flower for Alice, it was a crimson red rose. Elizabeth looked at it a bit strangely as it was handed to Alice.

“I don’t know how I did it myself,” Alice spoke after she took the rose, with a quick touch she realised that the flower felt different than it should, “Also, this flower feels a bit weird.”

“That’s my speciality,” the man laughed, “Those flowers are special. Although they feel a bit different and don’t have a fragrance they make up for it by their other traits: They won’t wither and they don’t need water. Moreover, since their stalk is harder you can easily put them through your hair, that used to always be popular back where I come from,” the man’s eyes grew a bit sorrowful by the end.

“I want to see how you perform, Irwyn,” Alice followed the man’s advice and put the flower into her hair. It fit her quite well. Then she looked at Irwyn, perhaps expecting that she might finally manage to one-up him.

“I might disappoint you,” Irwyn gave her a knowing smile and received the weapon. The first big difference was that he did not open the barrel with his hands, instead the metal bent open as though it had a will of its own. Next the three bullets began to float above Irwyn’s hand, and one of them quickly flew through the air into its slot. The barrel also quickly closed without physical interference. Then Irwyn surprisingly did not reach over the window with the weapon, instead he let go of the riffle. Instead of falling down it flew up, reaching higher than Irwyn realistically could with his height.

“I will admit that I do have a bit of an unfair advantage,” Irwyn turned towards Alice and spoke. Puff, the triggered was pulled by itself while Irwyn was not even looking at the targets, “Experience is very important when it comes to these,” Irwyn did not check whether he hit, but everyone else did, immediately seeing that it was a clear shot. By that time the gun was already loaded again, the speed at which Irwyn’s magic operated was extremely swift. Puff, and another cleanly shot-through splinter, “Though there are other elements which affect performance, and properly utilizing your abilities is among them,” Puff, the third bullet flew directly through another stick.

“Great job,” the man received the still levitating riffle after a few moments of silence, the situation was a bit over his head. He was aware of magic, but he himself was just a common man, so the spectacle he just witnessed had been overwhelming. Irwyn just smiled and pointed at the top shelf. Realizing his mistake the man quickly reached up and handed Irwyn another crimson red rose, sweat dripping down his forehead without him even noticing, “Here you go. Please enjoy the rest of the day,” the man awkwardly laughed. Irwyn took the flower and without a moment of hesitation handed it to Elizabeth. When she looked surprised he just smiled and said: “You wanted one, right?” Elizabeth smiled and took it, placing it into her hair just like Alice. She looked quite happy as they were about to walk away.

“There has to be someone with something stronger here than this blowgun, right,” Irwyn asked as though he had suddenly remembered something. The man who was about to sigh in relief as he saw the young mage leaving shook slightly and quickly answered: “A large building that looks out of place, by the northern edge, there is a shooting range,” then he looked around, and after seeing no one had approached in the meantime he leaned forward and spoke in a much softer voice: “You should find old man Gill there, big scar and one-eyed, can't miss him. There is a rumour going around he used to work for magitech before he fled our homeland, might still have some old merchandise on him. Don’t let him know I told you though,” he then leaned back and send Irwyn and his group on their way.

“Magitech?” Alice questioned, clearly unfamiliar with the term which the man was so secretive about.

“I will explain on the way,” Irwyn laughed and step towards the northern part of the carnival.

“Are we going to that shooting range?” Desir asked, unsure how to feel about this.

“It felt underwhelming, right?” Irwyn laughed, and Desir confirmed with a nod, “You should not compare that blowgun to all that the southern technology has to offer. As I have said, they are capable of hunting mages.”

“Then I will look forward to it,” Desir nodded still slightly sceptical, but reassured.

“Let’s go then!” Alice said out of nowhere as she stepped forward, a glint appeared in her eyes after Irwyn's last sentence. That forced the others to follow at a faster pace. Irwyn wanted to almost snicker at this situation. For once it was the excited Alice who led the group through the crowd as they set off.