"And this place is?.." Jacob asked, holding back a playful smirk as he turned back and forth to the circus tent in front of him and the girl standing next to him. Asya had her arms crossed and was doing her best to give the impression of being shamelessly dignified but Jacob wasn't convinced, not when she had red ears and a neck that was glowing slightly pink, he elbowed her lightly on the arm, "you know, you can say that you enjoy circuses," he said to her, "it's not that weird for you to like this sort of thing,"

"Shut up." Asya replied while opening one eye to stare at him, she ribbed him with her index finger, "I- just feel nostalgic."

"Really?" Jacob retorted, walking forward, he had his eyes glued to one of the popcorn stands placed in front of the tent's massive entrance, it was next to a booth that painted the faces of children and to the right of that is a stall that sold tiny keychains, at the back of all three, facing them rightward is a carnival game where the player is made to shoot arrows to a pointed target to earn tiny stuff animals. Jacob stared at the last one for a few seconds in shock before saying, "Huh,"

"What?" Asya asked, following his gaze, "Oh, wanna play that?" She had a smirk on her face that made Jacob wary as she stared at the game house but he deliberately ignored it in favor of nodding in agreement because Asya looked like she would enjoy herself with what she was about to do (to him). Not that he'd mind losing to her to begin with of course, "okay- that's great!" The noble clapped her hands before running ahead of him, her blonde hair waved back and forth with each step but Jacob wasn't focusing on that because he was too busy watching in concern as his date ran with heels.

He followed after her, muttering, "Why the hell did I just notice those?"

When he caught up to her, Asya was already standing in front of the targets, bow in hand. She was smiling mischievously at him as he paid the guy for three arrows- which fucking cost 10 silver for a pair by the way. Why is it so expensive? - before moving right next to her with a sour expression at the price, "What's with the expression?" Asya mocked, expression bubbly and face bright with mischievous enthusiasm, "I haven't even beaten you yet!"

Her smirk only grew as she readied her bow and Jacob cursed carnivals and the price of their vanity as he imitated Asya's actions, his hands followed hers as she primed an arrow, then knocked it out- two arrows were shot, but only one made it to the target, while the other didn't even fly a single foot before falling down to the ground. Guess who's arrow hit the target?

Jac- Asya's, it was Asya that hit the target.

"You can't get that kid," Jacob stopped his hand halfway through and glared at the man who sold him the arrows and mumbled something about capitalistic tendencies showing in fantasy under his breath as the man shrugged, "That's what the sign says, read it."

And Jacob did- Any arrow that's past the distance limit is not allowed to be picked up, - which he instantly regretted.

Two more shots went out, and Asya was smiling even if she missed the target, Jacob felt a bit of magic from the bow every time Asya released the string but if she was happy, then why the hell would he bother complaining about it? He simply chose to ignore it and enjoy the game that she and him played.

In the end, none of them managed to land a hit but Asya bought another arrow from the owner and with a serious expression, fired it from her bow and successfully struck the dead center of the target. She puffed her chest proudly when Jacob raised his eyebrow at her, "You should've done that from the start." he pointed out.

She giggled, "it was only fair," she replied with a shrug, taking the stuffed Bastillion plushie from the hands of the owner, "40 Silver should be the proper price for something like this,"

"Really?" Jacob asked, that's a bit too expensive for a plush. "I thought it'd be cheaper,"

"You do know that horse mane is pretty expensive right?" She said, rubbing the silken locks of her newly gotten stuffed toy, "those get their weight in gold."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Why?" He asked, "I was riding a horse yesterday, the Duke gave it to me,"

She gave him the stink eye, "Well, sorry then Mr. Geistman, I didn't know that horses were cheap enough to be given."

Jacob snorted, "Who's that guy-" he stopped as the plushie Asya held softly hit his chest, "okay- okay-" he said defensively as Asya hit him with the stuffed Bastillion over and over again, "I- I get it- jesus chri-"

"Jesus?" She asked, stopping her flurry of attacks while looking confused. "Who's that?"

"Eh, just some saint back in my old world that people thought was the son of G- a God, you know, typical stuff." Seriously though, what was up with that entire situation?

"Weird," Asya said.

"You bet," Jacob replied. "So, where to next?" Jacob asked, eyeing the circus tent. Something loud was exploding from inside, a man riding a cannon, maybe.

"Hmm..." Humming, Asya looked away from the tent and Jacob quickly followed. So she didn't want to go here because of the circus? 'Well that should've been obvious from the start,' he said as he watched his date look around the various pieces showcased within the carnival right next to the tent. Jacob watched as her head turned from side to side, trying to spot anything that might catch her interest, it stopped moving eventually and Jacob faced the direction she was looking at to see a... is that a dwarf or a half-ling?

"What's the difference between a dwarf and a half-ling?" Jacob suddenly asked, not wanting to offend the short person standing in front of a wooden booth complete with a wooden counter. There was nothing on the narrow space behind it so Jacob assumed that the game was on said counter, just not visible. Or maybe it's hidden?

"If you look at a half-ling, you see a child, but if you see a dwarf, then you're looking at a man." Said Asya in a sing-song voice, cutting his train of thought.

"Huh," Jacob replied, amused, "Is that why I wanted to underestimate the first half-ling I met?"

"Pretty much." Asya confirmed, "It's said that they're cousins with the dwarves but nothing more than that." She shrugged, "from the stories though, they're described as two different Kingdoms of people that made a deal with a Trickster and Earth Fae respectively, and then things happened such as the war and their people started to hide underground despite their power, yadda- yadda- yadda, cue the ironic punishment of the Fae and now the Dwarves and the Half-lings are living inside the mountain and hill mounds they hid on."

"So there's an entire myth behind them?" Now his curiosity was actually piqued.

"There's a myth for everyone," Asya said and tapped him on the top of his arm to indicate that they were now getting near the Dwarf and his booth, "humans with their weird little ritual about cleansing miserably failing, elves and their curse of immortality, Sauranids and the part where they were so greedy for knowledge, they ate something that made them stupid, stuff like that."

"Neat," Jacob replied, genuinely fascinated about why those stories existed when Gods like Horos are out there, doubly so when he considers that these people know that the Gods created and designed them.

Or did they?

Eh, they probably did. Being gods and all.

"So every other race had their moment where they were at the top huh?" Jacob mused idly as they stopped in front of the booth, the Dwarf to their side eyed them with a perpetually angry expression and Jacob supposed that this was one way to tell them apart from half-lings, besides the obvious muscles, Dwarves were just angry short men that can break a man like a twig while Half-lings were cutesy little fellas that can probably murder you in your sleep and no one will suspect a thing.

"What's this game?" Jacob asked as he eyed the puzzle like thing, several gears and clockwork machinery were placed around a thin line that ran across the length of the counter, and obstacles, such as a small wall, were placed strategically in some points of the path and from what Jacob could gather, all he needed to do in order to go through the obstacles is mess around with the levers and buttons on their edge of the booth, "is it a maze?"

He heard a snort of amusement, "Yes." The Dwarf's said with a baritone voice, much like everyone else in this city, though for some reason it fit the Dwarf reasonably well, "thought you'd just gawk at me for bein a dwarf,"

Asya giggled, "Oh, no we won't! We won't!" She started waving her arms around, "Sorry if we offended you,"

"None taken," the man replied, "now, you and your man here wanna play?"

"Eh, sure, I'll try it." Jacob replied, he recognized the layout somewhat, he had a game like this when he was young, though not... really, that one just needed the kid to let gravity do the work as they tossed the square shaped game board around, it also certainly didn't have any obstacles either. Well, it did have pitfalls but those were basic and nothing compared to the ravines placed at some points of the path.

"15 Silver." The Dwarf said and Jacob paid.

The game started after the Dwarf pulled a lever somewhere inside the booth and Jacob was told that all he needed to do in order to move the ball was to control the stick-shift right next to the line. He did and the ball moved alongside the stick, "huh, a magnet?"

The Dwarf nodded and said nothing else, "Get on with it. We don't got all day."

"Fair enough," Jacob replied as he started to play.