It was Spring, and most people were in the mood for it.
“Welcome to Snoutfair!” the vixen exclaimed light-heartedly, raising her tankard. “Yeow! Yeow! Yeeow…” She disappeared back into the crowd, which had been building since the morning and was now heaving. It was a warm sunny day and more people than usual were shirtless. The shrines were decked out in flowers and offerings and the air was filled with incense smoke and joyful, frisky yips, cries, barks, and calls.
A huge, shaggy beast stalked silently by on stilts surrounded by chanting monks in hoods. A minute later came a sheep carrying a bell tree followed by bare-chested deer and big cats on drums. The crowd called out in various languages. More beasts on stilts. Soon after, a long, dancing dragon and clashing cymbals. People clapped. Rabbits in colourful, scanty clothing and masks danced past with maracas and castanets. Others on the street were playing fiddles and whistles and trumpets and drums.
People watched from the windows and roofs overlooking the street, some of them randomly pouring flower petals and buckets of gleaming water down on the cheering people below. A few had set up make-shift waterfalls with bamboo pipes from somewhere, and the water poured ceaselessly in the sunlight.
Then came the floats.
Tortoise was completely lost. They’d been swept up into the crowd, and he’d managed to keep up until he’d stopped to stare for a moment. When he looked up the others were gone. He moved and stood against the wall, letting the the wet, petalled crowd stream past. He’d never seen so many different kinds of people.
“It’s your first time at Snoutfair, isn’t it?”
Tortoise turned. The woman was nonchalantly leaning against the wall a short distance away. She was dressed in trousers and eating an apple.
“Um… yes. How did you know?”
“People have a certain look about them.”
“And I have it.”
“And you have it,” she agreed. “So what do you think of it?”
“Snoutfair? Umm… it’s a lot to take in. It kind of makes me want to go back to bed, to be honest.”
She laughed. “Can I buy you a drink? That always helps me relax.”
“Umm… no, thank you. I’m not a drinker. Of alcohol, I mean. Thank you though.”
“Alright, well, enjoy your day. I’m on a mission.”
Tortoise wasn’t sure what she meant. “Good luck,” he offered.
She winked. “See you.”
Tortoise wandered for a couple of hours. At first he’d tried finding the others, but he’d soon realised it was a hopeless task. There were simply too many people. The crowd and the sounds and smells were overwhelming, so he leant against a wall and waited to feel better. The warmth of the sun cheered him up, and after a while he bought a straw hat from a passing boy, put it on, and began slowly weaving his way through the throng.
At some point he turned down an alleyway, went down some stairs, and crossed a bridge, and ended up in a quieter part of town. The street was littered with the remains of a parade, or the parade—he wasn’t sure if there were many or one. Tortoise bought a bean bun, found a perch on a stone rail by the canal, and slowly ate the bun. Seagulls gathered around him.
When he finished, he decided to walk back towards Jethro’s shop. The Rock made the general direction easy enough to work out. He wondered if the others had found out any news about the Pegasus—he half-expected to learn that the Pegasus was docked in Sündalǚ. It seemed like a place the Pegasus would visit. He hoped Gary was alright.
The streets got busier again, music returned.
Tortoise stopped suddenly outside a strange shop. Although, when he tried to work out why it was strange, it was hard to say what exactly was strange about it. It wasn’t really that strange, he supposed, but it was definitely mysterious. The windows were shuttered. The door was plain. Grey wood, banded in iron. Smooth, cool to the touch. It was just a door. But somehow it… loomed large. Maybe it was the sign?
The door of the shop loomed large.
Tortoise heard a girl crying. The little mouse was standing by herself further up the street holding potato-on-a-stick. Everyone was just walking around her. What was wrong with them?
Tortoise found himself walking over and carefully kneeling down beside the girl.
“What’s the matter?” he asked gently.
“Nāga niǚ mámá,” she sobbed, shaking as she tried to breathe.
“Do you want to go find her?” Tortoise asked. “Let’s go find her.”
A man with a garland of flowers was boosted up onto the statue plinth by some laughing friends. He turned to the crowd and raised a drunken fist.
“I say, Death! Death to Lord and Lady Mayhem!”
Everyone cheered, and the crowd surged towards Festival Square.
Next episode: The Red Tower