[Saoire Event 723] Seira to Makar

[Winston]

Some time before The Gifting

It was the beginning of a new trial as Seira awoke after a long night of dreams. As the world came into focus and the light around her dispelled the shadowy corners of the Dream, she spotted something beside her bed.

It was placed delicately atop whatever he usually slept beside. It had a bow on top and a little note that read...

"Me taught yuh might find dis 'elpful for de coming season. Dis whistle will ring out across the hill far miles."

Included in the box was a single blue/grey metal dog whistle.

The specifics of the item above

The Whistle: Made of a blue sand / steel alloy, this dog whistle can resonate such that the dogs will hear the sound, that no human can hear, for miles.

This is delivered at some time that would be convenient for you and the acquisition of the gift you are giving.

I know you might have powers that might prevent people sneaking up on you etc., so please assume that this gift appears in such a way that either it a) does not trigger defences as there's no ill intent or b) only serves to wake them to see the gift (as it's not there one moment but is the next).

Gifting Trial Arrives!

In the run-up to the Gifting, one Winston Millar had all but become a recluse as he spent his trials ferreting away at the preparations for what would come. A great many trials went by as his forge was operated by Cho as the Cadouri was nowhere to be seen.

"Yup, dere... Noh, jost to de right a lit... STAP!"

He commanded

Smokie

with an excitable energy he could barely contain.

As the gifter and giftie both passed through the doorway they chose to use to get to the Gifting, a world of enchantment was revealed as they stepped into what appeared to be the grand, stone-walled hall of a castle. A kaleidoscope of colors greeted them. The air was thick with the sweet scent of their favorite foods and the gentle melody of ethereal music played by invisible musicians.

For those able to see them, Fairies (Spirits) fluttered all around, placing decorations and plucking at musical instruments in a way that made the music feel like it was coming from the walls themselves.

The banquet hall stretched out before them, a dazzling display of festive joy. Glistening crystal chandeliers made of green and gold leaves hung from the ceiling, casting a warm, golden glow upon the room from their luminescent bulbs. The walls were adorned with tapestries depicting scenes of ancient legends and mythical creatures from Idalos and the Dreaming, making unleavable scenes of heroism and gift-giving.

A long, banquet table stood in the center, covered with a rich, emerald-green velvet cloth that cascaded to the floor. On the table, an array of dishes awaited them. Plates were made of delicate leaves, and glasses were of sparkling daffodil cups with an otherworldly iridescence. The air was filled with the tempting aroma of dishes both familiar and exotic –
Succulent beef jerky, seasoned with the whispers of ancient spices, lay intertwined with jewels of dew-kissed fruits from hidden orchards. The meat pies, their golden crusts kissed by the morning sun, cradled tender morsels of magical beasts, their flavors a symphony of wild herbs and savory mysteries.

Amidst the feast, cinnamon buns, swirled with the warmth of cinnamon harvested under the light of a full moon, radiated a comforting aroma that embraced the senses. Each bite, a dance of sweetness and spice, carried the essence of forgotten realms and childhood dreams.

At the head of the table, a ferret known to some as Winston stood, placing some finishing touches to one of the many dishes.

"Welcome, nobal guests, tuh de Gifting!"

he declared, his voice full of a thick accent of the tiny creature's upbringing.

"Com-com! Com en! Feast, dance, sit or talk. Dis place es yars totrial, as we celebrate de magic that binds us all and builds relashunships new an' old trough 'giving'."

He gestured to the room around them.

"Once yuh are done, yuh cun return 'ome, noooh prablem. Ontil den, yuh jost let meh know ef dere es anyting me cun doh tuh 'elp."

The words were undoubtedly practiced

, but delivered with the most genuine joy and intent. He was obviously uncontainable excited to be here, but with that, without leaving the room,

Winston adeptly made himself seem politely busy as his guests meet and greet each-other without his interference

.

Just then, the banquet hall erupted into a symphony of laughter and giggles. The fairies (should you be able to see them) gathered around the table, watching and listening as events unfolded. The air was alive with the fluttering of wings, the tinkling of laughter, and the soft susurrations of a great many playful beings.

As all of this sunk in, a figure made themselves apparent, a very finely dressed butler of impeccable manor bowed slightly to one side. They held a tray with daffodil glasses filled with delightful nectar and bowed.

Shinwa

gestured towards the tray to indicate that a drink could be taken, if so desired, after which he offered to unburden their guests of their coats or cloaks.

!

Message from: Winston

Welcome to your Saiore Gifting Event thread for 2023! How does this work? - So, this is your thread (the two of you) and you can get here via the magic portal, from where-ever you are and will be returned there once you decide to leave (unless I say otherwise! SHOCK! Secrets! AAAAAAAH!). This thread will be eligible for both skill points and knowledge, as long as the usual review requirements are met. It can be whatever you want, of course, but it is a modded event and so I control the surrounding and NPCs, so please don't assume control of them (unless, of course, they are yours). You can bring anything with you that you could reasonably be assumed to carry or BE carrying and of course your gift comes with you You may bring with you any flavour NPCs if you wish, but please either avoid making these a 'mass' of actual physical people (if you have a child or someone that you really feel like bringing, please do). Diri's, Spirits, small creatures/pets on your person, etc. that usually hang around you are also all fine. A 13 foot dragonling or horse, not so much What should you do? - Please post your first post in two sections: 1) "Some time before The Gifting": A section that describes the making or acquisition of your Gift. This can be anything from "Jeoff picks up the gift he made." To a fully fledged description of the shopping/making process. This can/should be a creative and enjoyable writing experience. Write something you enjoy, in any style you enjoy, IF it's something you will enjoy! The emphasis is on FREEDOM not requirement. Don't feel required to make a lenthy section here, but certainly feel free to (rewards will be issued for creative or well crafted gift sections). 2) "Gifting Trial Arrives!": Post your arrival! If you post first, you are there first. If you post second, you can assume you spot your companion on entering and respond to anything they provide for you in their first post. 3) When you have completed this thread, please place it up for review as normal. Once it’s been reviewed, post here to claim your event medal! Rules? As already noted, this is a modded thread so please play/post with that in mind. Winston himself is not here to feature greatly in the thread (this is YOUR thread, not mine) but please feel free to interact freely with him, of course. I will, as a mod, be running this thread beside operating Winston. There is no PC posting order. Feel free to post in whatever order between yourselves and change that as you see fit. Please don't double-post. Post once, then wait for me to reply, then you may post again. ALWAYS feel free to DM me if you want something to happen outside these rules or the thread's current direction. The buffet is tailored for you! Unless otherwise stated, please feel free to assume you find things your character likes and so describe them! Have fun! Posting cycle: This is not hard timeline for posting. I will monitor progress and reply to posts as and when replies are completed.

[Seira Shiryu]

42nd Zi'da 723

Sometime before the gifting

Seira's eyes flew open as she bolted upright in bed.

"Seri?" she murmured softly as she looked around, disoriented.

But Seri didn't answer, and memory quickly returned. Seri had been kidnapped, and she had been hurt during her ordeal. She was okay now though, but she was staying with a relative of her mother's and aunt's to finish her healing. Seira was glad that her twin was okay, but she still felt the loss of Seri's presence in her life very deeply. And that loss often expressed itself in her dreams. At first, her dream had been wonderful. She and Seri had been dancing in a field full of flowers, much like the one in the painting that she owned. But after a while, mist had filled the meadow, and Seri had disappeared into that mist. After searching for her sister frantically for what had felt like a very long time, Seira had woken up.

Seira looked down when she felt something soft bump into her hand insistently. Ryu looked up at her with a reproachful look in her eyes, and Seira quickly began stroking her gently.

"I'm sorry, Ryu. I must have startled you by jumping up like that, didn't I?"

Ryu made a sound that sounded a lot like she was agreeing with her.

"I'll try not to let it happen again, I promise." Seira told her cat as she continued to pet her.

Ryu rubbed up against her arm, and purred. Then she jumped off of Seira's bed, and walked to the doorway before looking back at her expectantly. Seira laughed, the lingering memories of her dream fading as she started to face the new trial.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" she laughed.

Seira dressed herself quickly. As she finished, she noticed a small wrapped package on the small table beside her bed. She stared at it for several trills in confusion wondering how it had gotten there, and how she had managed to sleep through someone entering her room to put it there. Slowly she approached the package and examined it. The blue wrapping paper with the snowflake design, and the slivery white bow were quite pretty. A note was on top of the small box, and when she read it, Seira smiled. Whoever the mysterious gift giver was, they knew what she was planning to give someone for the gifting season. Or at least that seemed to be the case. A whistle that could be heard for miles would be a welcome addition to her gift.

When she opened the box, she did so carefully, folding the wrapping paper up so she could save it for another time. In the box was a blueish grey metal whistle. Seira blew it once to test it out. No sound that she could hear came out of it, but Taerin and Meiryu came running into her room. Taerin was barking frantically and Meiryu gave her a curious look. Realizing what kind of whistle her held immediately, Seira smiled. The whistle would be perfect to add to the gift that she had in mind.

Seira brought it downstairs with her when she went down to feed the animals, and herself. Her morning routine took a little longer without Seri there to make breakfast while she fed the animals, but she was used to that by now. But the silence that had replaced the pleasant conversation between her and Seri as they ate wasn't something she thought she could ever get used to.

Once everything was cleaned up, Seira grabbed Taerin's leash and fastened it to the dog's collar before heading out to the Earth market to get some of the items she needed for her gift. Taerin was delighted to be out on her morning walk, and Seira laughed at her antics as them made their way to the market. Especially when Taerin dived into a snowbank then ran back to Seira and shook herself so that snow flew everywhere and covered Seira's legs.

"You think that's funny, don't you?" Seira asked, trying to hide her amusement as she looked down at an excited Taerin.

It was clear from Taerin's response that she was very much amused indeed. Ever so slowly, Seira reached down and scooped uo a handful of snow. After carefully making certain that there was no debris in the snow that might hurt her gog, she packed it loosely into a snowball, and tossed it at Taerin. Taerin yelped in delight, and the game began. Seira tossed snowballs at Taerin while the dog tried to either catch them in her mouth, or dodge them. The game was fun, but after a while, Seira called a stop to it so that she could get back to her errand. By then, both of them were soaking wet with melted snow, so Seira had to head back home to change and dry Taerin off so they wouldn't get sick. The delay was well worth it in Seira's opinion.

When they arrived, Seira headed straight towards the stalls she need to go to in order to buy what she was needed. She needed to visit more than one stall, but she knew exactly what she wanted to buy, so she was able to get what she needed without spending too much time searching for what she wanted. As she made her purchases, she bought a couple of books for herself as well. After she finished her shopping, she made her way home so she could drop Taerin and the purchases she had just made off before going out to buy the rest of what she needed for her gift.

Gifting Trial Arrives!

When the doorway appeared in her wall, Seira knew that the time had come for her to give her gift to the person that was meant to receive it. She quickly made her final preparations before walking through the doorway. On first glance, it appeared that she was the first to arrive. The banquet hall Seira found herself in was amazing. She could hear an ethereal music that entranced her. Seira couldn't help but hum softly along with the music as she explored her surroundings. The light that lit the room from above was soft and welcoming. When Seira looked up, she saw stunningly beautiful crystal chandeliers that appeared to be made of crystal leaves. Some were gold, while others were green.

Seri would love this. Seira thought wistfully.

Then she remember her aunt's words about collecting stories to share with her twin for when she returned home, and she felt cheered up once more. This would be a good story to share with Seri. To that end, she tried to memorize everything that she was seeing so that she could retell it accurately when Seri came home.

Tapestries lined the walls of the banquet hall. Each one told a story of ancient legends and creatures of myth. Some were ones that she recognized while others were new to her. All of them showed wonderful tales of heroism and the giving of gifts. And all of them were beautiful works of art. In the back of her mind, Seira found herself inspired by the tapestries. Ideas for songs floated through her mind, and she made a mental note to remember them as best she could. It felt as though she was in a magical place filled with wonder; something that was very appropriate given that this was the gifting trial.

When Seira made her way to the banquet table, she found that the air around it was filled with the tempting scents of favorite foods as well as tantalizing scents that were new to her. The plates were made out of leaves, and the cups were sparkling daffodil cups, making her feel as if she were in a wonderous fantasy land. As she filled a delicate leaf plate with a meat pie, several fruits, and a cinnamon bun, Seira made careful note of the look and feel of everything in the room so that she could tell Seri about it when her sister came home.

Seira was so caught up in everything around her that she didn't even notice that she wasn't alone until someone spoke. She blushed as she looked up quickly, and paid attention to the speaker. It was a Cadouri ferret that Seira recognized from the fire last Saun. She didn't know his name, but he had been one of the leaders in the efforts to fight the fire.

After the Cadouri's brief speech, Seira introduced herself politely, and thanked him for setting this up for them. She wondered if she should mention that she had seen him at the fire last Saun, but she quickly decided not to. It was neither the time nor the place to bring things of that nature up. For the same reason, she decided not to mention that she had a very realistic looking plushie that looked just like him. Seira didn't know the Cadouri, after all, and she didn't want to risk embarrassing him. She herself would be embarrassed if someone had a plushie of her after all. While she was thinking about the plushie, she realized that it was a brilliant idea for someone to have made them though. The cadouri was a hero of Rharne. What child wouldn't want a plushie or some other toy in his image to play with and imagine that they were a hero like him?

Instead, she thanked the man that appeared and offered her a drink. She took one happily and gave her cloak to him when he offered to take it. Then she turned to the person she was going to give her gift to and introduced herself politely. Then she gestured towards the three boxes she had brought with her. Two of then were rather large and had air holes indicating that whatever was in them might be alive. All three of them were brightly wrapped and were tied with brightly colored ribbons that matched the wrapping paper.

"These are for you." she said with a smile.

ooc

The two larger boxes contain puppies (both medium sized hunting breeds; a Weimaraner and a golden retriever) while the third contains a book that contains info on how to train dogs; both basic training and how to train hunting dogs and a bluish grey metal dog whistle.

[Makar Hollowbreak]

Looked awkward, still feeling overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the party. Many seemed to be having fun however, and Makar was heartened by this. Still the hunter who spent much of his time in the wilderness did not feel comfortable in this place, despite Winston's kindess he just didn't feel... this. Mak quietly sipped a drink in the corner, pointedly trying to avoid being social not because he did not want to be:, but because at the moment he felt he couldnt'.

Then a girl approached and introduced her, she was small and with ash brown hair, and carrying boxes. It seemed she was the gifter for him. "Ah...t-thanks" he answered. Looking at the boxes, it was more than he was expecting honestly. Approaching the boxes, he looked closer at them, the two with holes caught his attention in the sense that it wasn't just the holes in them, but the sounds coming from them as well.

Tentaively he opened one, and his eyes widened at the sight before him. Seeing a pup with golden colored fur. It barked up at him and whined at the strange looking person that towered over it, and gently Mak reached his hands inside to lift it out where it whined further and looked to the side at the confusing place, then to the woman who had brought him here in puppy like accusation.

Feeling the pups discomfort he gently place it back in the box but left the top unlidded, then proceeded to look ino the second. It was anothrr puppy, and with a greyish cost of fur that was thined than the other. It looled back at Mak with odd facination before being lifted up again. Its tail wagged as it looked around at thebplace with a lot of food smells and wiggled as if trying to leave Mak's hands to investigate.

"Oh... wow. You got me dogs" he stated as he looked at the two pups in his facination, a smile tugging at the coner of his lips ",Thats... wow"

[Winston]

Winston went about making himself bussy. Finishing touches to dishes and catching a few escaping candyfloss clouds that were making an exit for the ceiling. As his two guests talked and Makar opened his gifts, curious eyes watched on from all around the room.

"It is! It is! That's HIM. From the oinkers."

The first fairy insisted.

"Naaaaah. THAT guy was MUCH more flambalty."

Said the second fairy, quite convinced that one's flambalt was of utmost import.

"I don't knoooow. Maybe we should prank him?"

"Well, of COURSE I coooould, but I'm entirely too busy."

"Busy?"

"Busy."

"Doing what?"

"Busy things."

"Like what?"

"Liiiiiiiike..."

The fairy gave a long exhausted sigh. Avoiding getting into mischief (something Winston had insisted was on the 'Target for Totrial' board, whatever that was) was much more effort then they wanted. In truth, Winston found it was much easier to please a mischief spirit when there were rules to be broken. If there weren't any rules, then what mischief could one cause... This of course was NOT something he told the fairies, whom had clearly been told not to swim in the pink drinks or use the blue sweets as footballs. Both of which were not meant for actual consumption anyhow.

"....OK. I give up."

!

Message from: Winston

Yay! Nice posts! In your next post(s), please accept a little (optional) side-quest: The fairies are playful and mischievous, not mean or unkind, but if you don't watch your step you will fall behind. Write some pranks, fun and play, that might be some fun, with you, your spirits or Winston Miller all are up for one. For this, feel free to control a few fairies (if you wish) and even apply a few fairy food magics. They can appear and be seen by you, should you wish. Have a little transient fun while you continue your chat. Play a prank on one another or yourself! As before, please feel free to interact directly and assume things you would enjoy to eat and drink are there for you to have. Anything up to Tier 10 but not extraordinarily rare is up for grabs. Though Winston is more likely to have cooked an inexpensive dish from your fondest memory as a super-expensive dish packed with expensive ingredients. Whatever it is, it would be immaculately well prepared however. Please consider marking up 3 (or more) knowledges in your next post. The fairies around the room are equally as likely to interfere as they are to wait and watch with bated breath. Please feel free to include some inconsequential encounters should you wish to. Rules? As already noted, this is a modded thread so please play/post with that in mind. Winston himself is not here to feature greatly in the thread (this is YOUR thread, not mine) but please feel free to interact freely with him, of course. I will, as a mod, be running this thread beside operating Winston. There is no PC posting order. Feel free to post in whatever order between yourselves and change that as you see fit. Please don't double-post. Post once, then wait for me to reply, then you may post again. ALWAYS feel free to DM me if you want something to happen outside these rules or the thread's current direction. The buffet is tailored for you! Unless otherwise stated, please feel free to assume you find things your character likes and so describe them! Have fun! Posting cycle: This is not hard timeline for posting. I will monitor progress and reply to posts as and when replies are completed.

[Seira Shiryu]

42nd Zi'da 723

Seira smiled at Makar's response when he opened two of the three packages she had given him and discovered the two puppies. She hadn't been entirely certain that giving puppies as a gift was a good idea since caring for a pet was a big commitment. But his smile, the way he stared at the two puppies in fascination, and the tone in his voice told her that he was happy with her gift.

"I'm glad that you like them. With the right training, they will grow up to become good hunting dogs." she told him.

Seira saw a flicker of movement in the corner of her right eye. Startled, she glanced over at the banquet table to see what was happening, but there was no one standing where she had seen the flicker of movement. She blinked slowly, but the scene before her didn't change; she had seen movement where there was nothing to cause any movement. Believing that she had been seeing things, Seira turned back to Makar.

"There's still one more package for you to open." she reminded him with a smile.

Seira saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye again, and this time it was accompanied by a high pitched soft giggle. Once more Seira glanced over at the banquet table only to find no one there. But this time something looked different. One of the daffodil cups was in a slightly different place. Seira stared at it for a trill, but the cup was definitely out of place...and no one was there to move it. Seira was certain that she would have heard someone move away from the table from the short distance away had someone moved the cup and then left. Seira made a mental note of the difference and turned back to Makar once more, not wanting to be rude.

She heard the strange giggle again, and this time it was followed by the sensation of a small weight on her shoulder and a gentle tug on her hair. Her hand twitched, but Seira quickly stilled its movement, not wanting to show how startled she was. Instead, she waited to see if Makar wanted to open his final gift, or if he wanted to get to know the puppies better first. But when she felt the gentle tugging again, she couldn't help but try to see what was causing it. To her surprise, she saw a tiny winged girl with long silvery hair sitting on her shoulder. Seira blinked, but when she opened her eyes, the fairy was still there. Her mind whirled. Fairies were...real? They had to be if what Seira was seeing was real, and somehow she knew that it was. And really, fairies would fit in perfectly, given the beautiful daffodil cups and leaf plates.

"Um...hi." she began as she stared at the pretty fairy.

"My name is Seira Shiryu." she added a few trills later.

The fairy just giggled again, amused by her reaction.

[Winston]

!	Message from: Winston
	HELLO! Really sorry for the long wait. I have spoken to Maker and they have told me that they will not be returning to this PC for the foreseeable future and (with their appologies) we can continue on without them. As such, I have posted and you are very welcome to continue this thread with myself and our NPCs or close it off and I will review. Just DM me or post, as you see fit.

While Maker went about the opening and finishing up of his snacks

, the tiny fairy on Seira's shoulder tugged at the petals that make up it's tiny skirt and bent their legs in a little curtsey.

"Hello, Seira... Oh! Sorry, Mr Shiryu..."

They suddenly looked distracted, as if someone had tugged their attention away for a moment before they returned their attention to Seira again.

"Mrs! Mrs Shiryu..? My name is Picklio and I like to dance."

She said, a little like she was executing a prepared statement, the likes of which you might rehearse before meeting a dignitary of some kind. They giggled again, placing their hand over their mouth bashfully.

It was a little difficult to tell if it was female or male, if there were such things for fairies. They were wearing what appeared to be a dress, but there were no other obvious physical signs of femininehood.

"We have made a game! It's called 'Flippady-do'! Do you want to play?"

Without really waiting for the answer they continued, lifting off the woman's shoulder slightly as they got existed and began to flutter their wings in anticipation.

"We have Flippadyed five things in the room and you have to spot them."

they giggled again, clearly quite sure it was goign to be fun.

!

Message from: Winston

So, this is a game of spot the difference. Your goal is to simply make up 5 creative difference in the room, each more subtle or outrageous then the last. When you guess wrong, a feature of your body will become cat-like (for the duration of this thread only :-p). If you get none at all right, then you'll become a cat! It's up to you! Sort of affecting Marker, who is no longer involved in this thread, please feel free to apply entertaining and/or inconsequential changes/affects to anything you like! Change their colour, shape, orientation, make them float, speak, whatever. Fairies do crazy things and for the duration of this thread, the inexplicable is the mundane. For this, feel free to control a few fairies (if you wish) and even apply a few fairy food magics. They can appear and be seen by you, should you wish. Have a little transient fun while you continue your chat. Play a prank on one another or yourself! As before, please assume things you would enjoy to eat and drink are there for you to have. Anything up to Tier 10 but not extraordinarily rare is up for grabs. Though Winston is more likely to have cooked an inexpensive dish from your fondest memory as a super-expensive dish packed with expensive ingredients. Whatever it is, it would be immaculately well prepared however. Please consider marking up 3 (or more) knowledges in your next post. The fairies around the room are equally as likely to interfere as they are to wait and watch with bated breath. Please feel free to include some inconsequential encounters should you wish to. Rules? As already noted, this is a modded thread so please play/post with that in mind. Winston himself is not here to feature greatly in the thread (this is YOUR thread, not mine) but please feel free to interact freely with him, of course. I will, as a mod, be running this thread beside operating Winston. There is no PC posting order. Feel free to post in whatever order between yourselves and change that as you see fit. Please don't double-post. Post once, then wait for me to reply, then you may post again. ALWAYS feel free to DM me if you want something to happen outside these rules or the thread's current direction. The buffet is tailored for you! Unless otherwise stated, please feel free to assume you find things your character likes and so describe them! Have fun! Posting cycle: This is not hard timeline for posting. I will monitor progress and reply to posts as and when replies are completed.

[Seira Shiryu]

Seira smiled at the fairy as she...or he...curtsied at her. She realized that she couldn't quite tell if the fairy was a girl or a boy. They were wearing a dress, so Seira's first thought had been that the fairy was a girl, but a closer look showed no other signs that she was in fact a she, so she realized that her first impression could well be wrong.

When Picklio, as the fairy had addressed themself, called her first Mr., and then Mrs. Shiryu, Seira resisted the urge to laugh because she didn't want to take the risk of offending Picklio. She wasn't sure if the fairy would think it rude or not because she knew so little about them. But she did know that it was rude to laugh at someone who was making a mistake. Instead she smiled again.

"It would be Miss or Ms. Shiryu since I am a woman, and I am not married. But please call me Seira." she requested.

"I like to dance too. Maybe we can dance together?" she suggested.

The thought was quickly forgotten when Picklio suggested a game called Flippady-do. Seira had no idea what Flippady-do meant, but she quickly got the gist of it as Picklio explained how to play the game.

"Sure. It sounds like fun." Seira said with a smile.

She began looking around the room to see what had changed. The first thing she noticed was that Makar's hair was now a bright neon green. Seira pointed this out to Picklio before going back to examining the room to see what else had changed. It wasn't something new, but Seira thought she saw a type of fruit juice that she and Seri had tried once when they were children. They had earned more than they usually did at one of their street performances, so they had bought a single cup to share between them. It had been sweet with just a hint of tartness, and had tasted like berries. More importantly, it was a precious memory of one of the better trials that she and Seri had had before they met their mother. Seira couldn't resist the urge to see if this fruit juice was the same kind that had been a rare treat so many arcs back. To her delight it was, and Seira thanked Winston once more for providing them with such wonderful food. Once she finished the juice, it was time to go back to the game.

The next thing she found was that a slice of lemon on one of the plates that contained a fish dish was trembling like a leaf in a breeze. Soon after she pointed this difference out to Picklio Seira found another one. This time it was one of the daffodil cups that seemed to be singing. Seira stared at the cup for several trills listening to the pretty song before she pointed this out to Picklio as well.

It took several bits before she found the next difference. One of the puppies that she had given to Makar was playing next to him. It took her some time to realize that the paws of the frolicking pup never quite touched the ground as it played; it was floating a few inches off the ground as it chased shadows.

The final difference was a subtle one, and Seira couldn't find it until she happened to be staring at the daffodil cup in question. It was a slightly different shade of color than the ones next to it. Seira might have thought nothing of it except for the fact that she saw what appeared almost to be a flicker of movement. When it was gone, the cup was a slightly different shade than it had been mere trills before.

"Did I get them all?" Seira asked when she pointed this difference out to Picklio.