"Not a bad party, eh, ma?" Delia asked. 

"It was rather pleasant," the woman smiled. "It could be like this all the time, if you could keep to one plane of existence, you know."

"True," Delia admitted, "but then, that's not how I'm built."

She pulled a rather dark flower from behind her ear and held it out to her. 

"Bella donna?"

The woman chuckled and took it. 

"It always was one of your favorite flowers, wasn't it?"

~~

Well, I guess it's curtains for this festival. We might just have to keep this one around! Although the Mansion will be closed for, um, Spring Cleaning, keep a weather eye out: It looks like we might be setting sail on another away adventure on June 16th!  

Hugs and poisoned kisses,

D. Death

"Yes please, thank you, you're too kind!" she blundered, taking it appreciatively. She was not normally one to like candy, but Molly's reminded her of happy memories, so she was more than happy to take it off her hands.

After saying her goodbyes, she ran off to find her sister, who was loitering near the entrance. 

"Look what Molly gave me!" she exclaimed, then stopped short. "Is that mamai's book?"

"I don't think it's exactly the same edition, but it's close," Maeve admitted. "Shall we read some of it tonight?"

"Do I have to translate it?"

"Translation-free."

Kaelin pulled two lollypops out of the bag and offered one to her sister. 

"Deal."

They strolled out of the square, enjoying their sweets and listening to the soft sounds of pipes. It had been a good day, after all.

There had been no sign of that pesky squirrel all day, which on one hand had been a relief.  On the other hand, she had almost missed the creature.  Funny how that was!

Well, it was time to load up the boxes and cart them away, back to the shop on Main Street.  Looked like she'd have to do more ordering right away.

"Hey, Kaelin, thanks so much for helping me today," she said to her faithful satellite.  "Would you care to have a bag of leftover candy?--you'd better promise to brush your teeth, though.  Good-bye!  See you all soon," she called, and waved to the other departing festival goers.  "Who knows? Maybe we'll be having another adventure before very long."

"Yewwo, Mowa. Weddy ta lef?"

"I can't understand a word you're saying."

"I said, hello, are you ready to leave?" he repeated after setting the green item on the ground carefully.

"No, but I suppose we have to anyhow since the festival is closing down. What's that?" she said, eyeing the object on the ground.

"It's a boat - I won it!" he said proudly. "There was an one-eyed man - he had a chicken painted on his stall, though I can't think why because he didn't have any chickens - whose treasure was buried in a box of sand. He didn't think I could recover any of it, but I did, and then he had to let me have it."

"You're sure this was his treasure - a toy? And he just let you carry it off?" Moira asked dubiously.

"Yes," he replied indignantly. "Though, of course, I'm too old to play with it. And, now that I think about it, that stall was unusual - he didn't ask for any payment, like a regular festival game. Perhaps he was a player promoting something? Though he did a poor job of it, if so."

"Perhaps. Are you going to carry the boat all the way back in your mouth?"

"Not if you carry it in your pocket - please?" the Bull added, catching the start of a glare, and quickly carried on. "What did you do anyhow? And what's that delicious smell?" He nudged the paper package she was holding.

"It's an apple handpie - mine, so keep your nose out of it," she said, batting away the offending object before bending down to pick up the toy boat. She wrinkled her nose at the slobber it was covered in and rubbed it in the grass before putting it in her pocket. "I bought with with the 'voucher' I received for filling out my 'bingo card'."

"What's that?"

"Don't interrupt," Moira said, starting to walk towards the road, the Bull following. "I can explain after I finish answering your first question - I mostly wandered around the festival, looking at stalls and talking with people. There were so many things to see! One booth was full of flowers for wreaths; I made one for Mel - you remember her from the holiday festival, the dog?"

The pair continued down the road, Moira regaling the Bull with everything she had seen and the Bull at least occasionally listening.

---

Editorial note: Despite her earlier statement to the contrary, Moira did indeed share the handpie on the journey back. And, while he would have denied it, Moira was sure that she later saw the Bull nosing the boat around the water trough on multiple occasions.

Sorry I didn't get to interact more, but thanks for a fun time, everyone! {ym}:grin:

What, the festival closing just like that? Heed my warning, writers, when the bell tolls three, the festival shall depart to whence it came!!

...or we'll pack up our stuff around May 10th, so if you have story lines you wish to finish, I suggest you begin wrapping them up.

Poisoned kisses,

D. Death

"Sure, we can head that way now, if you're wanting to take a break from playing," Maeve said. "I've been eying the mud pits. Sounds like loads of fun, but I'm pretty sure that's going to be an end-of-day activity for me."

Posted by: @wren

"So, I take it this is your first time here? Anything special bring you to Ditto Town?"

Ahelissa nodded. "Yup, it's my first time. I knew about some other festivals held here, but I missed them. I wanted to make sure I came to this one. And I'm glad I did! I love exploring, and I've always wanted to visit Ditto Town. It's such a nice place. "

Posted by: @Arin
"Can I interest you in, uh, searching for me buried treasure? Argh, not that I want to be discouraging me first potential visitor of the day, but I'm not sure exactly how much it would, er, appeal to a fine bull like yourself. But, if ye wants to take a stab at it, I'll be pleased to help however I can!"

"Treasure?" The Bull was intrigued by the idea and trotted into the booth. In the center of the booth, there was a large wooden box filled with sand; sticking out of the sand in various places were some small, bright objects. That's treasure? No gold or jewels or even a bag of apples? the Bull thought. Still, a challenge is a challenge, regardless of the prize.

"I think I can manage to dig something up," he said, and started to root around with his front hooves in the sand by a green object.