“How do you get so messy when it’s already cut into bite-sized pieces?” Yuu sighed.
“They’re still a bit too big for her mouth, I guess,” Misha answered for Anna as she cut some of the fruit into smaller pieces and put them on a skewer for her.
“Thanks!” Pointedly ignoring her brother’s heckling, Anna quickly brought the skewer to her mouth. But before she could take a bite, she was interrupted by a coughing fit.
“Are you okay? Did something get caught in your throat?” Misha asked, worried about the duration of the fit as she rubbed Anna’s back.
“No, I’m okay. My throat just feels a little weird,” Anna replied with a bright smile once her coughing came to an abrupt end as if nothing had ever happened. But her face looked a little redder than usual, prompting Misha to put a hand to the girl’s cheek.
“Hmm. You look a little feverish. Can you say ‘ah’ for me?”
Anna opened her mouth wide, letting Misha inspect her throat.
“No swelling,” Misha reported. “Maybe it’s just too much excitement? You’re probably fine, but maybe you should head home for the day.”
“What? But I feel fine!” Anna pouted. Misha smiled as she stroked Anna’s hair.
“There’s so many people around, you’ll get worn out before you know it. If you don’t take a nap now, you’ll be really sleepy when nighttime comes. You’re going to take lanterns to the altar with your family later, right?”
The lanterns that had begun decorating the city ten days ago were all handmade by the people living there with paint and strips of paper in bright colors. They were just as much a key part of the festival as the floats, to the point many people came to the city during the festival just to see them. Naturally, Anna and her family had made their own lanterns, which now hung outside their home.
On the last night of the festival, everyone took their lanterns to the altar built on the shore of the lake. At the designated time, the priest would offer a prayer for a good harvest in the coming year and set fire to all the lanterns. The inferno would reflect off the surface of the lake in a brilliant display—a fitting climax to the festival celebrating the coming of summer. It normally happened well after the kids’ bedtime, so they had been given special permission to stay up late to see it. The three kids had been very excited when they told Misha about it.
“I can’t miss it again,” Anna moaned. Last year she had failed to keep awake until they reached the altar. The thought of it happening again had her almost in tears.
Yuu and Teto nodded, thinking back to all the games and food they had enjoyed already. “Exactly. So let’s head home and get ready for tonight.”
“We’ve had tons of fun today already, right? Let’s take a break.” They had just about run through their spending money anyway, so all that was really left for them to do was walk around and look at the stalls.
“Why don’t you guys take the rest home with you? The fruit should be fine as long as you eat it today,” Geord said, pushing the tray still half full of fruit toward them.
“We can have the rest?!” Anna snapped out of her pout into an excited bounce.
Geord burst out in laughter, caught by surprise by her sudden shift in demeanor. “Yeah. It’s a reward for you being a good girl today,” he said, patting her on the head.
Yuu and Teto seemed just as enthusiastic. “Thanks, mister!”
“Do you mind if we share it with our families?”
“Of course. Do whatever you like with it.”
Smiling at how the kids’ first thought was to share their prize, Misha and Geord watched the three energetic youngsters set off for home. Anna stood in the middle, carefully carrying the tray of fruit as the three of them disappeared into the city.
Glancing over at Misha, Geord saw something of a shadow lingering in the girl’s eyes, and his smile shifted into a frown. The kids’ families weren’t here, so they wanted to share the delicious food they had been given. What did Misha think as she saw those happy faces?
He hesitated for a moment but in the end decided to play it off as if he hadn’t noticed. “Okay, the kids have gone home, so what do we do next? You won’t be able to walk around at night, so we gotta enjoy the day as much as we can!”
Geord’s words seemed to snap her out of her reverie. After a brief moment of surprise, Misha was back to smiling. “I want to see the lakefront altar. I heard the people who won’t be able to go tonight are already putting their lanterns there, so there are probably a lot already. Shydein said it’s decorated with flowers too, so it should be really pretty even in the daytime.”
“Good idea. Why don’t we buy some lanterns and take them ourselves? The guy in charge will set them all alight at nighttime, so they’ll get burned up even if we’re not there.”
Geord started after Misha, relieved to see no trace of the darkness that had been in her eyes a moment prior.
Since they had so much time, they decided, instead of buying a finished lantern, to stop at a stall selling just the frames so they could decorate one themselves. The shop had colored paper, paint, and small glittering stones to work with. Some of the paper had already been cut into a variety of patterns, and they were free to use any of it. Whether they were aiming for unparalleled beauty or eccentric uniqueness, the only limit was their own creativity.
“You’re quite good at this, young lady. How did you make those flowers?” asked the lady running the stall as she saw Misha wrapping thin pieces of paper into flowerlike shapes.
Recognizing it as honest admiration and not just politeness, Misha gave an embarrassed smile. The flowers she was making, three-dimensional decorations in a variety of sizes, looked professionally done. “It’s actually easier than you think. You take one of these white pieces of paper and cut it in half. Then you paint the edges...”
As Misha began demonstrating the process, two other women working on lanterns nearby asked to join in.
Giving a small sigh of relief at seeing Misha happily talking to her small group of students, Geord then turned back to face the harsh reality in front of him. He had no skill when it came to art, and he knew it. He was willing to give it a try since Misha was so interested, but he never would have done something like this on his own.
“Misha, do you think this is salvageable?”
Since it was officially called the Moonflower Festival, many people used a flower motif in their decorations. Geord had figured he would just draw some flowers on it, but when he was done, he was left with only a splash of unrecognizable color.
Having just finished teaching, Misha turned at Geord’s voice and was immediately stunned. The brilliantly colored lantern in front of Geord was a sharp contrast to his bitter, defeated expression.