a festival-- that means new friends!

Crow was enjoying themselves at the festival, walking along the stalls while also looking up at the fireworks at times. It was awesome seeing all the Stelciar and Phosray exploring and celebrating-- and watching the Phosray fly and spin into fireworks was awesome to watch too! Truly, Crow had never seen anything like it.

"This is awesome!" Crow said to Cynthia, who nodded in agreement.

"It's quite crowded and loud but..." Cynthia starts, trailing off a bit as they have to squeeze past a crowd moving the opposite direction. "It's nice... pretty."

"WHAT? I can barely hear you," Crow says, practically yelling. Cynthia shrinks slightly at the loud sound but repeats what she said, a bit louder. "Oh! True! But it's nice, we don't have these festivals nearly often enough. It's wonderful to see everyone here. A reminder that we're not alone, even after..." Crow trails off as their eyes flick to a particularly loud and big firework that appeared in the sky. "Well. You know."

To this, Cynthia just nods, quiet as always. There's a slight frown on her lips, but it disappears as she looks up and observes the beautiful fireworks. Eventually, they walk by a stall that is advertising a game, something called Furthest Flight. The two Stelciar listen to the rules, but are thinking about leaving when they say that you can only enter as a team of one Stelciar and one Phosray.

"However!" The announcer of the stall said, "You don't need to have a pre-assembled team. You can find a partner right here!"

This gets Crow and Cynthia to stay and hear more about the game, and the announcer continues. "The game is simple! You'll partner up with each other. The Phosray will ride on top of the Stelciar, and the Stelciar flies as high as they can for ten seconds. We'll blow a whistle, and then after that the Phosray will jump off and glide as far as they can. Whichever Phosray glides the furthest will bring the victory to the team!"

"Oh, that sounds interesting!" Crow says, looking over to Cynthia. "Do you want to play? It could be fun?"

Cynthia shakes her head, frowning slightly. It seemed like a lot... what if she didn't fly high enough and her Phosray teammate would blame her for it...

"Aw, come on Cyn~ If you play, I'll buy you something from the stalls--a flower bouquet? A kitty hat? Oooh, the kitty hat, right? You've been eyeing it the whole time."

Cynthia's ears perked up, and her tail flicked. "I have not been eyeing it the whole time..." but she certainly had been. "Okay. I'll play... let's go find partners!"

Crow grinned, excited to see that Cynthia was participating now that there was something to entice her to do so. The two split to find their Phosray partners. Crow partners up with Shi, a chatty and excited green-haired Phosray. The two talk away, both excited to get started and even talking about strategies or plans. Meanwhile, Cynthia partnered with a shy purple-haired Phosray named Lilac, with wings that looked like a butterfly. It would seem that they each made partners that made sense given their personality types, and as such they were all a good match!

With the partners decided, the two teams, along with many other teams, lined up ready to start. With the sound of a whistle, all the Stelciar take off to the sky, flying as high as they can as quickly as they can. Cynthia kept her mind focused on the prize--the kitty hat that she'd get when done--but still, she had to work hard to not disappoint her partner! Crow was a fast-flier, but was mainly focused on having fun! When the whistle blew, Shi and Lilac jumped off and began gliding away.

Cynthia and Crow began to fly down to land, but kept watching to see which Phosray would get the farthest--who'd win! All the Stelciar began to cheer for their teammates, excitedly anticipating who'd win.