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The carnival had finally come to Arcadia!
At last it was the night that Hisirdoux and Zoe had been looking forward to ever since they saw the trucks pulling into the vacant lot two days ago to set up. No matter where they travelled in the country, a carnival eventually followed, and the two wizards were self-proclaimed masters, knowing what rides were the most fun, what stalls had the best food, and of course the pique reason they always came… the games. After nearly a century of practice, they knew all the tricks of the trade and exploited this knowledge completely in their favors in order to win any prizes their hearts desired.
The lights, the sounds, the smells of fried foods and just a hint of chill night air was invigorating, and Douxie took in a big breath to let it all in. He already had an armload of prizes, but the evening was just getting started as they made their way through the crowded aisles, looking at inviting attractions set up on every side.
“Alright, so darts were a success as usual,” he said, holding up the rattling magenta-colored snake. “Your turn, Zoe. What do you want to do next?”
She scanned around, Archie on her shoulders, as she narrowed down the selection of their next victim.
“Ho-ly crap!” She chuckled, spacing out the syllables as she pointed to a booth down the way. “We definitely need that!”
He bent over a little to match her gaze, but it didn’t take long to figure out what she had spotted. Among the blinding booths and an entire sea of prizes, there it was... a 4ft tall banana with a long white beard and a pointed blue wizard’s cap covered in little stars.
“Bleeding balroths, it’s perfect!”
“Right!? It’s just the right amount of offensive and hilarious.”
Archie meowed in agreement, too many people around to voice his actual opinions aloud, but they understood what he meant.
“I’m going to have to make a few adjustments for this one,” Douxie said, shuffling around their various prizes, and taking the time to tie a massive purple teddy bear to his back using the new snake as a rope. At his hip were two inflatable rubber monkeys one pink and one blue that hung off his pants loops, then a couple of cool band posters rolled up and tucked under his arm. He was starting to regret not bringing a bag, but that always attracted pickpockets, and in any case, these sorts of things always worked themselves out by the end of the night.
“Come on!” Zoe smiled, dragging Douxie behind her as they wove through the crowd and over to the next booth. She almost laughed when they realized it was one of those baseball throwing games, and headed towards it like a woman on a mission as she rubbed her hands together, visibly plotting.
Now, this was not their first rodeo, and they both knew that this was one of the easiest and most notable carnival games to rig. The bottles at the bottom were most likely filled with lead to make them heavier, and the balls were made to be lighter than normal baseballs. Not only that, but the curtain backdrop could even keep these things from falling over if you even did manage to hit it. One quick study revealed to Zoe that this particular setup was a triple threat of rigging, and she shared a knowing glance back at Douxie as Archie pounced off her shoulders and over onto his.
“Step right up! Step right up! Knock the bottles over to win a prize! Step right— Oh! Welcome little lady, you looking to play?”
She approached the booth with a determined grin, cracking her knuckles before slapping down a five dollar bill.
“Came to win actually. Let’s do this!”
“Confident, huh? Looks like the luck is with you tonight.” The carny nodded towards Douxie and their haul. “Well, here you go. Three shots per play. Take your best shot!”
She feigned innocence and took one of the balls, tossing it up and down in her hand before settling on one of the arranged pyramids in the middle and giving it a hard throw.
*CLANG!*
As expected it hit, but barely did anything to knock a single bottle over.
“Strike one. Try throwing it a little harder this time.”
Zoe took another ball, and palmed it between both hands, allowing a more frustrated look to work its way between her brows as she tossed off another throw.
*CLANG!*
This one knocked off the top bottle, prompting an exclamation from the worker.
“Ooh! Only two more to go, but this is your last ball. Want to aim for a smaller prize? One more top shot and you could leave here with a little something from that bottom shelf. What’ll it be, missy?”
She didn’t answer as she took the last baseball and gave Douxie a wink over her shoulder. Both of them took about three large steps back from the booth and the carny watched curiously as Zoe dawned the most professional pitching stance he’d ever seen, and then in a flash, watched her chuck the ball so hard and so fast that it was almost as though the pink flashing lights from the edge of the booth reflected off the rush of air trailing the ball.
There was a sound, not unlike the strike of bowling pins, as the remaining two bottles shot off the table and clattered onto the ground.
The man jumped, eyes wide as he blinked towards the small, pink-haired girl, barely registering her confident outstretched finger aimed in the direction of one of his prizes. He got it down, still in shock as he handed it to her as she took it with a look of pure satisfaction before the two teens walked off into the crowd without another word.
“I’ll be darned…” The carny muttered, having absolutely no idea how that just happened, but it was definitely something he would be thinking about it for hours to come.
Meanwhile, another worker at a booth nearby saw what had just transpired, and he squinted his eyes, watching until he could no longer see them in the crowd before he went back to gathering in customers for his own game.
There was something suspicious about those two teenagers... he thought, grinning wide shortly after.
Laughing uncontrollably, the wizards made their way through the makeshift paths until finally coming onto the food section of the lot.
“Oh man, that was great! You should’ve seen the look on his face!”
“Serves him right for triple rigging!” Zoe snickered. “But, oh man! Do you smell that?”
The three inhaled the mostly food aromas, but with slight additions of charcoal and gasoline coming off of the stalls.
*MEOW!*
“I hear you loud and clear, Arch. Okay, so turkey leg, cotton candy, and what’re you thinking Zoe, funnel cake or kettle corn?”
“Hmm… I think this time I could probably split a—”
“WAAAAH!! WAAAAH!”
Both of them were caught off guard by the sounds of a small child’s intense crying cutting through their conversation, which was actually saying something given the other loud, overlapping noises found at a carnival.
“Don’t cry! It’s okay! Don’t cry!” The father panicked. “Papá will get you another of the ice cream dots, alright? See! Here I go! You stay right by this bench and I’ll be right back!”
He stepped back to the vendor who sold those little dot-shaped ice cream cups as Douxie shared an instructive glance with Archie. He rolled his eyes, but nodded with little hesitation before he hopped down and padded his way over to the little girl in the purple dress. She was still sobbing like it was the end of the world, hands up against her eyes as tears stained her cheeks when suddenly she felt something fuzzy brush up against her legs.
*MEOW!*
With a gasp, she froze, looking down now at the black cat as it sat passively in front of her and blinked its golden eyes.
*MREOW!*
A softer sound, followed by the calming lull of purring and with that, she chuckled, rubbing away the last of her tears and wiping hands against her dress.
“Nice kitty!” she said, her hand coming up and cautiously patting him.
Zoe and Douxie gave each other a thumbs up and made their way over without another moment's hesitation.
“Ah!” Douxie called out calmly, but just loud enough to catch her attention. “There you are, Archie! We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
“Thank you for finding him for us.” Zoe smiled, bending over and letting Archie rub up against her knees. “I’m Zoe. What’s your name?”
She looked around nervously, eyeing the spot where her dad went with new emphasis. “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”
“Well then, fair lady—” Douxie offered her a slight bow. “Allow me to quickly repay your kindness before parting ways. Here you go.”
He took off the large snake and the giant bear before setting both next to her, draping the massive stuffed snake over her shoulders.
“Wow!” she awed. “These are for me?”
“Absolutely! It’s the least I can do after you so bravely rescued my cat.” He patted his shoulder. “Come on Arch, let’s leave the nice young lady alone.”
He hopped up obediently and perched on Douxie’s shoulder, much to the excitement of the little girl. She just watched them with a wide smile and sparkling eyes, completely in awe of these two unique and friendly teenagers.
They looked kind of scary at first, their bright hair and black clothes with all the skulls and pointy jewelry. Still, the little girl sensed only kindness from both of them, and after seeing how nice they were to the kitty, plus how they had given her these two giant prizes, she was resolved within her small heart to grow up just like them one day.
“I like your hair...” she mumbled bashfully at Zoe, hugging the stuffed boa closer. “It matches my snake.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” She grinned back. “So what’re you going to call her?”
“Zoe!” She jumped excitedly, prompting a wide grin from the actual Zoe.
“A lovely name.” Douxie smirked. “And what about your bear?”
She visibly pondered on that and turned towards him.
“Hmm… What’s your name?”
With a chuckle he replied.
“Well, my name is Douxie.”
She snickered and hid her face into the bear.
“Okay then! His name is Doo-Doo.”
Zoe burst out in tears as Douxie let the name process, laughing awkwardly and feeling Archie digging his claws into his jacket to keep himself from bursting like Zoe.
“Oh my gosh... Oh..." Zoe took a much needed breath of air and rubbed her eye before it smeared her makeup. "Oh man! That’s the greatest!”
“It’s not that funny...” he muttered under his breath.
Zoe stood, still dying, as she brushed her skirt off and offered the kid a little wave. “Well, it was nice to meet you. You enjoy the rest of the carnival, okay?”
“Okay!” She waved. “Bye bye!”
Satisfied, they wandered away to find that aforementioned food stand, just as the girl’s father returned with a small replacement cup of ice cream.
“Claire!? Where did— Where did you get those stuffed animals?”
“From Doo-Doo and Zoe!”
“Who?”
She held up the toys one at a time.
“Doo-doo!” She lifted the bear. “And Zoe!” She wiggled the snake.
“Well… Umm… Alright? But if your mama asks, we won them at the ducky grab, okay?”
“Okay Papá!”
“Good. Now, let’s go see if Mama is done with her big important Homeowners Association inspection. Up you go!”
He lifted her up over his shoulders and let her eat ice cream off the top of his head like a table while the two massive toys fell under his arms.
“I like the carnival!” Claire cheered.
Her dad chuckled.
“Me too, now let’s just hope Mama doesn’t threaten to shut the place down early like last year, yeah?”
“Yeah!”
“Oh jeez, I felt kind of bad making the “lad of fortune” back there cry.”
Douxie rubbed at his hair and took one last look back to make sure the poor carnival worker was still okay.
Zoe merely shrugged.
“Hey man, that scam is a skill. If you could pull it off when you were his age, he should just learn to be better at trapping the cups.”
“I guess so? Though, I wouldn’t exactly say it was my best skill back then.”
Archie agreed and hoped down with a meow.
“And where are you going?”
He gave them a look, something suggestive reading across his cat face, and then took off towards the exit, leaving the two alone for the remainder of the evening.
“Huh… guess he’s off to do his own thing?” Zoe shrugged.
"It is boring being a cat at the fair, I suppose?" Douxie agreed, shoving down any and all feelings left over from whatever Archie's little brow-wiggling plot might have been.
"Well, let's keep going then."
They walked further towards the outskirts of the park, trying new paths that let out in more or less the same sections until silence began to replace the once enveloping sounds of the carnival. By their third lap around, it would appear that this side of the fair was practically vacant, all the booths shut and locked down for the night, and given the position of the moon— as well as the digital numbers on Douxie's watch— it was easy to tell that it was decently late at night now.
“It’s eerie this way, isn’t it? It’s easy to lose trace of time with all the lights and sounds— but over here it’s a sobering reminder of how late at night it really is.”
“Mmm!” Zoe stretched. “You said it, Doux. Half the place is already shut down, so why don’t we call it a night? I’ve got to open in the morning anyway.”
“Yeah maybe you’re right.”
“Come one, come all! Throw a ring and win a prize! Throw a ring and win a prize!”
“Who on earth is that man over there shouting to?” Zoe glared. “There’s nobody over here.”
“Poor guy must be desperate. Why else would he still be open all alone down here? Come on. Let’s help him out, it’ll be fun. Plus, it’s one more prize in our arsenal.”
“I guess one more game wouldn’t kill us, but you do it.” She rubbed her arms. “If I throw anything else today, I’m not going to be able to lift my arms tomorrow.”
“I told you not to overdo it at the strength test!”
“I like freaking the mortals out when I hit the bell right after a big guy fails at it. Plus I just like the hammer.”
He chuckled and began transferring all of their new prizes over to Zoe, gifting over his jacket at the same time. The arm rubbing was meant to look like she was sore, but he knew her better than that, and she would walk around cold before ever flat out asking him for his jacket.
She took it with an unspoken gratitude before hugging together all of their prizes as they turned towards the lone ring toss booth, a small light of activity in an otherwise dark corner of the carnival lot.
“Alright, go do your thing. Just don’t give him all your money, you still have rent too you know.”
“Can do!”
As they approached they could hear the man calling proudly into the night. “No one is brave enough to try the ring toss? It’s easy, you just throw and win a prize! Anyone can do it, but few have what it takes to win!”
“I’d like to give it a shot, mate!” Douxie smiled, sliding money across the top of the counter.
“Well, well, well! Let’s get you set up with some rings then.” His voice was booming, which was odd given they were the only three people left in this half of the fair. The man hurriedly scooped up the money and wiggled a ring in his hand towards the targets. “Now, I’ll give you a demonstration. The colors in the back are worth more points. Prizes are labeled accordingly.”
He threw his ammo, and Douxie waited for him to be finished before giving him a small considerate nod.
“Sounds simple enough.”
Hisirdoux was already keenly aware of how this all looked and how the demonstration helped to paint the illusion for this particular game. The rings that the man were tossing were larger than the ones he was about to be handed, and the perspective here played tricks on the eyes to make it nearly impossible to actually nail a winning throw. Still, there was something different about this particular booth, something that Douxie couldn’t quite place. Perhaps it was the carny himself, who still stared at him with an unnerving and uncharacteristically wide grin, wider than most sane people would normally smile. In fact, this expression was so wide and toothy, Douxie almost had to mimic it uncomfortably in order to get everyone’s mouths to go back to normal, and one look at Zoe revealed that she didn't know what to make of it either.
It was probably nothing. He thought, and shrugged it off.
“Alright, kid. Go ahead!”
“Alright! Here goes nothing!”
And as Douxie started tossing out the rings, he and Zoe smiled while the man working the game started to look more and more pleased with himself until Douxie was finally out of shots.
“Ah! Well better luck next time?”
“You know, let’s do one more round,” he said, slapping one more bill up on the counter. “I think I’ve got the feel of it now. One more go should do it.”
"Be my guest," the carnie obliged.
Now all Douxie had to do was aim true and just ever so slightly enlarge the rings before throwing them out. It was a simple trick, and he’d done it for years. He started his throws, slipping just the smallest bit of magic into his tosses, and as they connected with the targets, the smile on the worker’s face quickly turned down to a look of dumbfounded shock. Finally all was done and a still silence chilled the booth.
“Well son, I guess that makes you the big winner of the night.”
“Well, you know, just lucky I guess?”
“Lucky indeed." His grin somehow got bigger as he motioned to the wall behind him. "Go on, take your pick of any of the prizes here.”
The wizard looked, but again came that nagging sense that something wasn’t quite right. The man’s mood had shifted, almost unstably it seemed. Now, Zoe and Douxie were used to carnival workers getting tongue-tied, or confused, even hysterical like the guy who cried earlier at the shell game, or that woman who chased them down three city blocks on Coney Island. This was different, almost unsettlingly so, and both wizards got the sense of it as Zoe came up to whisper in his ear.
“Pick something so we can get out of here. There's something unhinged about this guy.”
“Yeah.”
He nodded and pointed at a small stuffed lobster and the worker obliged quickly, his dark gaze fixated on the two as their discomfort started growing.
“Please enjoy your winnings—”
"Wizard."
Douxie heard the voice, a different sort of voice, guttural and low, but stranger than that, this voice was only heard inside of his head. He looked up slowly, the toothy smile unmoving as the eyes of the carny flashed red, and Douxie swallowed while backing away with Zoe as a sinking feeling settled into his stomach.
"Telepathy!?" He thought to nobody but himself.
"That is correct." Came the answer that both sent chills up his spine and a headache to his brain.
“Oh fuzzbuckets…”
The supposed carnival worker laughed, mostly because that was not the word the wizard had just said inside his head. Zoe had no qualms about saying the actual exclamation out loud as suddenly a small wooden mask slipped off of his head clattered onto the counter in front of them.
A glamour mask!?
There was little time to do much else besides watch as the carny mutated into a large, grotesque blob of shifting red skin and bulk. Four large arms sprouted, two with massive, sharp pincers, as horns stabbed through the head space and all the way down its back and thighs. For a moment neither could really react as the supposed man changed into this monstrous, hulking beast, nine feet tall and frothing with rage.
“Glabrezu!” Douxie muttered.
“Run!” Zoe called, yanking him backwards by the neck of his tank top. “Run!”
They took off, Zoe strategically throwing their prizes at the monster's eyes as it pursued them. They didn't really do much of course, but with the ripped slashing of the banana wizard, there was enough stuffing to momentarily allow them a window to slip away.
Once there was a good bit of distance between them, she pointed back and asked, “You know that thing?”
“Kind of? Not really. I mean, it’s a demon from one of my old monsterology books!” He breathed hard and made a hard right turn, dragging Zoe along with him. “I almost used it as a logo for an old band poster back in ‘86!”
“Well what’s it doing here!?”
“They like tricks and deals, and mostly deceive the mortals by scamming them out of all their money and belongings. I’m surprised it chose to work at a fair of all things though. Honestly, this setup is kind of below a Glabrezu’s skill level?”
“Well you can take him to career counseling when it isn’t trying to kill us!”
“This way! We can’t lead him back to the crowds!” He rubbed his face as they hurdled a stand and kept running. “Oh, of all the times for Archie to run off!”
“GET BACK HERE! THIEVING WIZARDS!”
“Technically we did pay you!” Zoe retorted, shooting off a bolt of lightning afterwards with newly freed hands.
The huge beast roared in response, but the attack barely left any more of a scratch than the stuffed animals.
“Resistant to lightning magic, why am I not surprised? This is like that Quasit all over again.”
“That does seem to be our luck with these sorts of things, doesn't it?”
“So, what’s the plan?”
He looked around and let out an awkward chuckle.
“Not sure. Maybe lure it out into the woods and go from there?”
“Great plan…”
“Give me a break, Zoe, I don’t know how to fight this thi—AaaAAAaaa!”
“Douxie!” Zoe shouted up to the sky, a flash of red shooting by as Douxie could be heard vanishing into the night air.
“GLABREZU CAN FLYYYYY!!!”
Zoe watched as they vanished into the trees and doubled over onto her knees to catch her breath.
“Oh, so this is exactly like the Quasit then… good to know.”
Then with a groan, she stood back up and hurried as quickly as she could into the woods to save her friend.
“Aaa!” Douxie rolled, the bushes breaking his fall as the demon flung him to the ground.
"Die Wizard!"
Douxie rolled out of the way of a pincer, followed by two fists smashing into the ground before he was able to get back to his feet.
"Come on then!" He shouted, a string of mafic slipping down his arm and into the palms of both hands. "Tenebris exilium!"
A blast of energy sent the Glabrezu back a few steps, but as Zoe had observed, magic wasn't really effective against this sort of demon.
"Oh fuzzbuckets..."
*FWAM!*
A retaliating blow sent him sideways through the air, stopped only by the generous tree trunk that chose to block his ascent.
He landed back in the dirt with a groan, but started back to his knees, the blue runes of his vambrace already recharging another attempt at an attack.
"That all you got you big brute?"
With a snort, the massive monster charged for him, when suddenly there was a thundering feel to the earth beneath Douxie's fingertips. He had just a split second to react when suddenly—
“YAAARGH!”
A roar sounded as something burst from the tree-line, a massive figure lighting up the clearing in a blast of silver and blue. There was a blend of red and this new light until a sword appeared and with no hesitation, cut right through the Glabrezu, the beast letting out a final roar before collapsing against the ground, defeated.
Douxie backed away and crawled back to a stand as he rubbed his eyes and looked over his savior with a soft breath. He stared a little and his brows made this confused blend of melancholy memory and happy surprise as he gazed up at the glowing blue sword and amulet embedded into this new figure's armor. Merlin’s design, he recognized, and he remembered the amulet in all its glory too, though he had never actually been around to see it finished, he’d crossed paths with a Trollhunter or two a handful of rare times throughout the centuries.
“Oh wow!” He gasped. “Uh… th-thanks for the assist… umm... Trollhunter?”
“Don’t mention it, Wizard. I saw your magic attacks on my patrol. Be more careful in the future, and try not to lure beasts into our woods so carelessly. There are many magical creatures that roam these areas at this time of night. Someone could get hurt.”
“I—” he was still at a loss for words, but swallowed and managed to pull a few of them out anyway. “I will endeavor to do so. My mistake.”
The massive troll shot him a sideways glare and put away his sword.
“You look familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?”
“I’ve been around?” He shrugged, nervously running a hand through his hair. “But umm, I think I would have remembered meeting you, mister umm—?”
“Kanjigar.”
“Kanjigar, right. Well my name is Hisir—”
“Probably better not to get too acquainted. Vendel has forbade casual contact with the wizards in this town. He says they bring disaster with them wherever they go.” The troll let out a rumbling laugh and gestured to the corpse. “And now I see he was not completely exaggerating with his warnings.”
“Fair point…” Douxie muttered through gritted teeth, his tone trying hard not to be offended.
Kanjigar looked amused again and started back towards the forest line.
“I trust you can banish the demon yourself?”
“Of course. Cleaning up is my specialty.”
Why did I just say that?
“Then I’ll leave you to it, Wizard. Good luck.”
“R-right. And same to you, Kanjigar the Trollhunter.”
“It’s Kanjigar the Courageous actually!” He nodded, a small smirk cracking his stony façade before he turned back towards the shadows. “Farewell.”
He vanished and Douxie let a few relieved breaths mixed with mutterings of self-inflicted humiliation and aggravation towards himself as he opened a portal to the realm of demons, and cast the Glabrezu back where it came from.
Around this time, Zoe burst through a hedge of rustling leaves and ran over to him with an out of breath shout.
“Hisirdoux! There you are!”
“Zoe!”
“Are you okay?” She rushed up and started looking over the scrapes on his arms and the side of his face. “Did you get rid of that demon?”
“Yes to both.”
“Wait, really?” She breathed some more, but her voice sounded more skeptical now as she leaned back. “By yourself?”
“I actually had help...” he whispered, a smile forming. “...from the Trollhunter.”
“The Trollhunter? Really? I thought the trolls avoided all the humans, especially the Trollhunters.”
“Well I am a wizard?” He shrugged. “I guess Kanjigar made an exception?”
“Ooh, on a first name basis?” She nudged him. “How long before you’re picking our drapes in Tollmarket, huh?”
“Cheeky!” He warned with a soft look. “You know humans aren’t allowed in Trollmarket, even wizards. Plus I don’t think he was so keen on getting to know me back. Don’t worry, you’re stuck with me topside for now.”
“Well who knows? Times are changing…” She started to remove his jacket before slipping it back over his bare arms. “Maybe in a few more decades, who knows? We could all be living like Marty McFly and everyone will be more accepting of magic because they’ll be too busy with flying cars and hoverboards to even notice the trolls.”
“You’ve got that right! Maybe not about the film references, but the other part. Change is coming eventually. Merlin predicted as much, but who knows how long that’s going to take.”
“It’ll happen sooner than you think, Douxie. Then you’ll probably be wishing for the time off like you’ve got now.”
He let out a weak laugh, but nodded just as they appeared on the ends of the hill and Zoe let out a soft huff.
“Looks like the rest of the fair’s shutdown. Shame we lost all our prizes, but something tells me this will be a memorable night with or without the cheap stuffed animals.”
Douxie grabbed her hand and led her towards the park. “Come on, let’s end this night on a better note, yeah? There’s still one thing we didn’t get to do.”
She chuckled, a reluctance in her step.
"But the place is shut down?"
"Don't worry, we don't need anyone else around for this!"
There was another confused but amused chuckle at his back while they ran, but she didn’t argue.
They hopped the fence and walked through the empty aisles and over to the ferris wheel where Douxie held out his hand in a bow as he offered her a seat. With that, he cracked his knuckles and in a flash of blue, hit the control box, expecting the thing to power on, but after three awkward seconds of standing there looking proud of himself, nothing happened.
“Ugh! Come on!” He grumbled.
Zoe snickered and stood back up.
“You should stick to what you’re good at, Douxie.”
“You mean being handsome and protecting the world from demons?”
She shot him a face that intensified after seeing how smug he looked before pushing him aside and placing her hand on the box. With a zap, the entire thing lit up in a pink buzz and a small pocket of the park quickly powered back on, music and all.
“There we go.”
“Nuclear!” He awed. “Shall we then?”
With an amused roll of her eyes, she took his hand again and sat down beside him as Douxie pushed the bar down into their laps.
“I’ve got this one!” He said, a bit of blue magic pushing down the lever on the controls as the seats began to move backwards.
They both let in an excited breath, feeling the crisp night air, silent all except for the bit of the lot they’d brought back to life. They rode in silence like that for a while, shoulders pressed together before Douxie muttered a soft incantation and the ride stopped them at the top of the wheel.
Zoe shot him another smug look to which he only shrugged innocently before wrapping an arm around her. She leaned her head on his shoulder in return and they waited like that, watching the dark silhouette of Arcadia for as far as the eye could see. They enjoyed the blissful silence, swearing, if only for a moment… that they could see the small shadow of a dragon flying across the light of the moon and they started to laugh.
"He's going to be sorry he missed all this, huh?"
"Oh, I don't know," Douxie smirked. "Something tells me this was exactly what he wanted tonight."
She snuggled in closer and hummed a comforting sound before a muffled statement broke their bliss.
"I still have to open in the morning, you know..."
"Just five more minutes?"
She smiled and squeezed his hand in hers.
"Let's make it ten."