A Sight To Behold [Moon Dance Festival]

Bonifaz made his way through the forest. Guided by the flame emitted from his hand palm and Duchess. The orange cat with its black stripes and patterns. Every time the cat was swollen by the darkness of the forests it stopped. Waiting for Bonifaz to catch up, bobbing its head left and right.  

"You are quite impatient tonight," said Bonifaz when Duchess disappeared again.  "Hurry up, the festival has begun," said Duchess or so it seemed to Bonifaz. No one could hear Duchess speak words, but he did. He had attributed it to his grief, to have an outlet to speak to his deceased family.
 
Bonifaz speeded up his steps and thought to himself, how would you know. But it didn't take long for Bonifaz to uncover, his ears picked up the faint sound of musical instruments and song. The mage shook his head, "of course."

The darkness made way for light as trees became thinner and sparser. Once out of the forest, the mage was greeted by the heavenly lunar light that enchanted the world around him. Bonifaz stopped and looked up to the bright moon. With teary eyes, he softly spoke the words: “Aletta, I am sorry my love.” He kept standing there for a little while, but Duchess started again.

“Don’t keep standing there. Look at the lanterns,” said Duchess, sitting at the edge of the cliff.

Bonifaz gaze lowered, and rubbed his watery eyes the ragged sleeve of his brown coat. As he fixed his eyes upon the cat, a lantern rose up behind Duchess. Covering the cat in a crimson glow. Soon more lanterns rose over the cliff face and made their way slowly towards the moon above. Bonifaz made his way to the cat and sat down next to her, with his legs dangling from the cliff. Duchess hoped on his lab and together they stared at light special above. “Aletta and the girls would have loved seeing this,” said Bonifaz softly to Duchess.

“I know,” miaowed Duchess.

Word count: 330

With the recent events and no sign of any sort of information on her sister, and trying to find her own path as well. Leaving home was hard, even after nearly 200 years it still felt like something that was so close to you just disappeared. Aurora told her parents she went out trying to learn more about magic and become a better healer, this was only half of the story she told them. The plan was that She would try to find her sister, and the best way to do so was to seek information herself. She heard a rumor of a blacked wing Eldritch up north near Miraid and as soon as she followed these rumors she tried to keep up with them if they were true or not was something different. Her parents have told her that not all people would like to see angels walking around, and so she needs or mostly hide her wings from people as she walked into new places.

With the path ahead, the Angel before you nearing the entrance of. White hair with strings of grey and black as well as slightly glowing golden eyes, that could be seen better during the dark hours of the time. The clothing she was wearing seemed a bit dirty, the white robe with black scaled armor, having the hood of the robe over her head. In her right hand a sort of spear with an almost staff-like appearance, being used as a walking stick. Nearing the entrance of the city Aurora could her music and people talk about it, not only that but because Aurora was so calm she could feel so many emotions once she never really felt before and once she already knew. It was so much and so many emotions Aurora was kind of overwhelmed by it all and got a small panic attack, but collected herself again.

Walking inside people stared at her smiled and waved, "ADVENTURER COME JOIN US" A man with a red brushy beard said waving her over. Before Aurora could answer she got dragged by the man into the crowd.  These people these humans! all of them yelled and talked and music was everywhere, just like the souls speaking loudly into Aurora's own head. "Come on lady loosen up a bit, it's a festival you should enjoy yourself!" The Red Bearded man said again. However, Aurora just looked around for a hot minute and then out of panic just sprouted her wings out, knocking down people behind her and causing a small commotion amongst the humans around her. The red-bearded man looked at her surprised and shouted, "WE GOT OURSELF A ANGEL HERE!" Before he laughed again clearly being intoxicated. But before other people could say anything Aurora hid her wings again and rain out from the crowd.

While the commission was still happening behind her Aurora ran towards the cliffside near the forest, where she knew she could escape for a hot minute. While behind her the commission got louder and people shouted about an angel an angel among us! Getting away and up to the cliff Aurora felt the souls being left behind her back into the city, a small commission could still be heard But it was not her problem at the moment. However before she could feel anything else she felt two different souls before her, one was hard to pinpoint at all but the other standing close to the first soul was easy to read. Aurora caught her breath for a second and then tried to act as normal as she could walk up to the two souls.

Once there she saw a man in ragging clothing hard to hear and the second soul was a cat. Yet the cat was not completely just any normal soul like other cats she has met before. It brought quite a bit of curiosity to her and she was interested in finding out what felt so different about this cat, as well as this well-guarded soul. "Hello there, Would you mind if I joined you here?" She asked as her voice was soft, caring, and almost sounded like it was carried by the wind. Before kneeling down to pat the cat giving off an aura of herself that was clearly meant that she did not mean any harm towards the cat or the man standing there, Surely the cat would feel this aura herself as most animals had a stronger connection with these kinds of things.

word count: 752

As Bonifaz gaze followed the lanterns slowly drifting up to the moon, his thoughts dwelled to eleven years ago. When Aletta and he had snuck away from the celebrating crowds into a field. There they had laid for hours in the long grass, talking, and staring at the moon with the festival music faintly in the background. It was there where he asked her to marry him, were she said yes. It was magical, he thought as tears streamed from his cheeks. Life had more meaning then, when he chased the girl, he loved and when his little girls were born in the years after their marriage. What was he thinking, to ignore his family to acquire wealth and power? A quest that lost him everything, but his worthless life.

Bonifaz snapped out of the past by a voice of a young woman, it was soothing to his ears and stilled the turbulence in his head. He turned his head to look at her and used his sleeve to wipe away the tears. “Please, sit down,” he said with a broken voice. She seemed to be some kind of warrior.

Duchess seemed to instantly like the stranger, eagerly allowing herself to be petted and rubbing her head against the stranger. The cat didn’t speak to Bonifaz but purred loudly in approval.

“This is Duchess, and I am Bonifaz,” he sniffed his nose, “what brings you up here?” He gestured to the stroke of beach where people were participating in the festival.

The man snapped out whatever his thoughts were drifting on and looked up towards his new guest among the cliff. As raggy as he looked he seemed to be lost in some memories, tho he seemed more surprised than anyone as a young-looking woman with white hair appeared out of nearly nothing. Yet her appearance was all but caring, with no intention of harming someone at all having the smallest amount of glow in her golden eyes. The man was not any longer focused on his memory whatever that may have been, but not to her, Aurora.

Aurora smiled and slowly sat down as well still patting the cat on its head feeling its welcoming approval as an invitation of its own. Upon hearing the names of the two in the company she smiled even more nodding in approval herself, "Aurora Tallus, adventuring healer trainee. Nice to meet you both, and for what I am doing here. Well," she stayed quiet for a bit and looked to the beach up ahead of her know her own answer was going to be a lie, "I'm sorry Fleuve’ir,"  She said very quiet looking into the sky where the moon was setting as it was shining on to her before she turned to look at Bonifaz again. " I'm here for training, and I thought while that I'm here with the... festival out and about my training could be on hold for a bit" With a smile she said this yet deep inside she did not wanna have all the attention yet again.

She smiled happily showing a friendly aura around herself as she sat there, "I Myself just wanted to get away from the crowd for a bit, But what brings you and your companion out here and not down there?"  She asked curiously as she now was more interested in this human and his cat companion, as most humans she has met were down there having the best party of their life.

Word Count: 331

The stranger, who now sat next to him, introduced herself as Aurora Tallus.

“Pleasant to meet you, Aurora,” said Bonifaz, as he slightly turned himself towards her.

“Training to be a healer, you say?” said Bonifaz with raised eyebrows and a frown. “My wife was an excellent herbalist,” he said as he turned his face away from Aurora and closed his eyes for a moment. “I did pick up a thing or two from her. We used to collect Simplicia together in the woods and fields around the village. I am… was… more an alchemist.” He paused for a moment, then looked back at Aurora. With a faint smile, he said: “Well, I cannot imagine you would do much studying with all that noise going on… but on the other hand, you will probably be quite busy tomorrow.”

“Understandable,” he nodded. “I… I am not really a people’s person and,” he paused for a moment, “I have nothing to celebrate. I am here to commemorate my engagement.” Tears welled up in his eyes. Bonifaz turned his head away and cradled his face in his left hand. “I am sorry,” he muttered under his breath.

WC: 190

Listening to what Bonifaz had to tell her she smiled hearing him talk about his wife, but what caught her attention was that he spoke of the past and not in the present time meaning something happened to her. But she also didn't wanna go into the dark right away and took the conversation in as he spoke. "Alchemy is quite close to dealing with Herbs, you need to find the right herbs to work with them, some even let to do alchemy with them to create the potions adventures uses these days. I remember back in the day my mother used to tell me about the blue water lily, it grew around the ponds near Hoptus Forest. They both at a healing capability if you extracted the nectar from it, and an ignition factor, if you gave away to a spark by combining the, peddles with some salt."  Aurora said as she looked into the distance. Knowing fully well that her experience was just more than a healer in training as she has lived up to at least 190 years already.

She opened a bag on her side and took out a few flowers and peddles, as well as a book titled natures gifts. The book looked old, like very old and it has weathered over the time of its existence. Inside the book, every page looked a bit musky and molded yet it stayed connected by the smallest tread of the book itself. "I got this book from my uncle, he told me that this book has information about the flowers and herbs around the world. That was 100 years ago, and it still helps me to this day if I find a new plant I have never seen myself." Saying this she did not notice herself saying that she gained the book 100 years ago and just smiled and opened a page to a chapter on these parts of the region. "This page here tells about the ember rose, a rose that only comes up in the day and you can stop them by seeing where snow does not land, their warm seeds keep the flower from dying. It took him 300 years he told me to find all these plants." She said pointing at a hand-drawn painting of a red rose with almost peddles looking like flames.

Word Count: 391