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“Legend, hurry!”
“Okay, Wild, just hold up a sec!”
“C’mon! The Illumination Festival won’t last forever!”
The two winters ran excitedly, following the glowing, brightly lit trees down to town square, where several food and game stands stood. Merchants excitedly called people over, children and adults alike all running to each and every one of the stands, buying pancakes and hot chocolate, playing games and winning toys.
“It’s just as beautiful as always!” Wild exclaimed with glitter in his eyes. “What do you wanna do first?”
Legend looked around the festival, searching for something to do, until his eyes landed on several food and drink stands near the center of the festival.
“Wanna get some grub?”
Wild squealed like an excited child before grabbing Legend’s hand and dragging him towards the town.
They went from stand to stand, collecting bags of custard, several of apple cider, hot chocolate, coffee, soups and tea. They munched on fries and squid and strawberries and kebabs. Even when Legend was full, Wild continued to buy treats from stands until his hands were full, and the white-haired man had to stop him from buying any more food before he spent all their money without being able to play any games.
“Wild, how about instead of blowing all our money on junk food, we play a few games and win some prizes?”
The wild child pouted a little, whining a small "Okay…" as he followed Legend away from the food and towards the more active events in the festival.
It didn’t take much for Wild to get excited again, noticing a shooting game holding a large box filled to the brim with all sorts of snacks.
“Is that one of the prizes?” He asked excitedly, pointing to the box. He could hardly contain his excitement when the stand owner nodded, offering him a bow and 3 arrows.
Wild placed the money on the table and took the bow and the arrows and loaded them all at once.
“Woah there, boy. You sure you wanna try all three at once?”
With a hungry smile and drool dripping from his face, Wild nodded furiously before pulling the arrows back. He took a deep inhale and time slowed as he aimed for three balloons on the wall.
He released his breath.
The arrow flies.
Time speeds up again and with a loud pop, the balloons burst.
Wild drops the bow and cheers, Legend covering his ears in annoyance.
The vendor claps and chuckles at the young man’s excitement. “Well, congratulations, kiddo! Here’s your prize!” He hands Wild a single, cheese-flavored puff corn stick.
Wild stares at the single snack in his hand.
“Is...Is this it?” He asked the old man bitterly. “Just one corn stick?”
“But of course! You wanted a snack as a prize, yes?”
“I thought you meant the whole box?!”
“Hoho, lad, you’d need to pop all the balloons twice to be able to get the whole box!”
“How much, then?”
“What?” Both Legend and the vendor stared at him incredulously.
"How much to play that many times?"
The vendor smirked as he laid down his price.
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"I can't believe you spent over a thousand rupees for a box of corn sticks."
"It was worth it!" Wild cheered as he took a bite out of a stick. “Did you see the way they looked when I shot, like, 5 arrows at the same time?”
“Okay, well, I want to find something to do, too. You can’t be hogging all the fun.”
“Alright, what do you wanna do?”
“I dunno, eat snowy mud crabs?”
The two chuckled at their inside joke.
“Okay, but seriously. Maybe I can like… play the fish game?”
“The one where you try to pick up a fish with the paper net that looks like a wafer?”
“Yeah! Let’s go!”
“O-Okay!”
It took a few minutes but after a bit of bumping and shoving past waves of people, they made it to Legend’s desired game.
An old lady wearing a scarf around her head looked up at them and huffed “50 rupees, please.”
Legend tossed the gem into her hand and she gave him the net. Then, he kneeled down and watched for the perfect fish to catch. Once he found the perfect subject, he struck.
Swiftly, he dipped the net into the water, carefully placing it under the fish before lifting it up. On it, the fish remained, flopping as it gasped for air.
“Wow, first try.” The lady said with a smirk on her face. “Pick yer prize, kiddo.”
He carefully put the poor fish back into the water before looking along the walls of prizes before his eyes landed on a small, flower-shaped hairclip and felt a pang in his heart. He pointed to it and turned to the lady. “That one, please.”
She chuckled lightly and handed it to him. “Couldn’t resist, huh? I can’t blame ya. We dun’t get man’ flowers here in the Winter.”
“What’s it called?”
“Hibiscus. Only grows in the summer. I wouldn’a known if it weren’t for that one merchant in the bunny hood.”
Legend stifled a groan as he took the prize from her hands, bowing in thanks before saying goodbye.
“Pretty flower.”
“Yeah… She was…”
“Who?”
“Oh-uh. No one,” Legend snapped as he clipped the flower to his hat. “Anything else you wanna do?”
“Food?” Wild asked with puppy-dog eyes and a wide grin.
Legend sighed. “Fine”
“HELL YEAH!”
Wild bolted to the food vendors, Legend yelling for him to wait as he chased after the long-haired boy.
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As the night quieted down, very few people were still out, mostly adults drinking, people buying food to bring food home and couples doing as couples do. Legend took a long sip out of his spiced apple cider while Wild paid for a small bag of strawberry taiyaki and put it into the box of snacks they had collected.
“Wanna buy a few more things before heading back?” Wild asked Legend, pulling the box up, closer to his chest in order to keep everything from falling to the snow.
“Wild, no. We have enough food from that box alone to last the rest of the month. Plus, it’s almost midnight.”
“Aww… Okay.”
“Hey, if you want, I’ll make banana and chocolate chip pancakes tomorrow.”
“You? No, nooo way!” Wild cried. “You always make them either too thick or too thin, undercooked or burnt, the ingredients are never spread out evenly-”
“Okay, Okay! I’m a bad cook, I get it.”
“And you always wanna…”
“Dear Hylia…” Legend moaned as he slapped his face.
The whole walk home, Wild complained about Legend’s cooking, the other apologizing constantly for his wrongdoings against humanity. As they neared the house, Wild set the box down a moment to give Legend the key, and together they climbed the stairs before unlocking the door and walking in, removing their shoes and locking the door behind them.
“Hey, Legend, go turn on a movie or something!”
“Fine, whaddaya want?”
“I dunno, put on a festive one!”
“Okay. Is Snow Rabbits good for you?”
“Yeah, sure!”