Trudging through the crowds with Leo didn't change a thing, in fact, I believe it raised my chances of being caught. Even after sifting through the thickening crowds, I still felt as though Leo never truly broke eye contact with me, at least not for long. His frisking gaze was nothing short of uncomfortable, like someone searching for some sort of facial deformity. Ditch or slap the kid, or both in either order, his inability to blink suggest some-sort of impairments or ill intent. You are no babysitter. You were but a child mere moments ago.
“Uh, something on my face little Leo?” I tried asking discreetly.
His voice only grew vacant as he nodded his head. Leo appeared to be confused of my suspicion. Is the boy so scared he can’t look into the crowd?
“You little scamp! What are you playing at!?” I whispered angrily, grabbing his little shirt,
"(*cough) Little Leo, aren't you looking for your parents?" I asked Leo, slowly loosening my grip.
These little outbursts are getting out of hand, for a moment...Was I really about to shove a little boy...What's wrong with me? Why...
"Uh-huh. A-are you mad!? Please don't be mad!" Stuttered Leo.
"No… pardon me, I was simply reminded of something bad ya know. Nothing that is your fault." I said with an uncomfortable grimace.
Leo only nodded his head in fear. After a couple of seconds, Leo warmed up to my smile. Difficult as it may be, he was still only a little boy. Staring or not, I was out of line.
"Sorry about that kiddo. Forgive me?" I asked with a gentle nudge.
My voice dripping with guilt. Everyone around me seemed too pre-occupied to see my weird outbursts, luckily even Leo appears to have forgotten about it.
"Maybe you should help me look in the crowd? Your parents could be anywhere." I asked, weary of Leo.
"I’m looking mister! I am! See?" Said Leo nonchalant, his fixed gazed temporarily scanning the crowd.
This boy is playing you harder than a drunk stumbling dice, stupid boy. Shut up! SHUT UP ... I hate to admit it, but I’m hoping that Leo somehow let’s go of my hand and gets swallowed by the thick crowds, not only because of my leaning suspicions but this bickering Evan presents is really shredding my ability to think straight. I am afraid that the moment I turn around, this so-called Leo will turn into some kind of lemur-frog monster and devour me in an alley.
After walking for several more stretches of sidewalk, Leo’s eyes would occasionally drift into mine. Albeit he was a bit a more careful this time around, but I could see his swiveling eyes in my peripheral. It's almost like Leo now knew that I was in some sort of a really bad situation where I had to keep things under wraps. Things began to just feel creepy.
"Hey, uhm... I think I see my Ma's house! Yeah, it's the uh... eggnorples statue! We are close!" Shouted Leo very excitedly.
"This is the Parade Plaza? I suppose walking in a general direction did get us pretty far huh?" I thought out loud.
It seems that Parade Plaza is some sort of a big clearing. The plaza was a little void of skyscrapers and more populated w/ large buildings and run down shops. Parade plaza was littered with old tattered balls, broken benches, and what appeared to be tiny make-shift sporting courts. The crowds here were also noticeably thinner too, as most of the vendors here appeared to be selling to locally known clients and their friends. It was only moments of walking into Parade Plaza when I began hearing two people being denied service because of there lack of “integrity”. I couldn’t get the whole jist of what the vendor was trying to say but it appeared that his “clocks” were not the standard appropriate for these civilians. Even the civilians appeared just as confused as I was when they were told the news. What do they mean integrity? Vendors across the stall are selling what appeared to be rare meats, but just like those people before, they declined many people for the same strange reason. The food’s “integrity cannot be comprised of those who do not understand.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"Racist bastard..." Mumbled one of the guest
"C'moooooon guys, how much!? Why can't we just take my money?" moaned a drunken man at the vendors.
Everything here had a suspicious secrecy to it, like an exclusive club shoved involuntarily into the public. Why? Even the lighting here in Parade Plaza was different than the rest. The lights appeared to be a combination of gears and a lamp, like a rotating metal Chinese lantern, I suppose. Each of the many lights illuminated tiny patches of confetti and streamer's that rained from nearly every inch from the sky above. Parade Plaza was a dangerous circus in one corner, and an Ignorpa sales stand in the next. Even Leo held my hand a little bit tighter as we walked past the seemingly overly aggressive Ignorpa salesman, his Ignorpa with an attitude to match. I didn't think it was possible but the food here also smelled particularly greater. As I walked deeper into the crowds, the smells consistently bounced from sweet roasted nuts to slowly simmered steak and everything in between. The plaza was always smelling of meat and sweets, despite some individual's who smelled quite uhm...interesting otherwise. I was always surrounded by a consistent barrage of hypnotic aromatic foods and yet...sometimes I would get blasted with random foul scent's, sometimes so weird I reeled back into deeper into the food stands. These smells appeared to be coming from the larger people, some of them in hoodies, others in masks, all of them over 10 feet tall. I found them to be in the minority of people, as most people I walked next to reeked of oil, meat, alcohol, and sweat. I don't know if everyone here is poor or if they partied too long, all I do know is that I have a baby to heal so for my best interest I best not question them.
Out from behind a skyscraper grew a shadow that slowly loomed over my head and far beyond it. It was enormous! I couldn’t believe my eyes! Above me hovered a circular object, with a Giant sitting peacefully on it! More Poam?! Another Borboohas?! Perhaps there is another of Granas’ kind on it, another Xi-Fu!
The giant hovered gracefully over everyone's head on a familiar yet slowly spinning platform. I couldn't help but feel hypnotized by the platform's beautiful spiral patterns. The Borboohas before me is not any less beautiful than the one I was on before. This one had a more abstract design yet every rotation made each spiral pattern feel more and more alive, like a painting that came to life the more it moved.
"That's a...that's a... big person right Leo?" I said trying to compose myself.
"Oh yeah, really big." Said Leo nonchalant, shrugging off my comment.
"So why aren't we moving mister." Continued Leo eager to move past the Ignorpa statue.
The Giant above my head was clearly nothing new to this child. It's difficult not to lock my head upwards but I’m doing everything in my power not to fixate myself onto the Giant as he continued to weave through the Cherubim and the crowd below. The giant sat upright and crisscrossed on the platform while smiling and waving into the crowd. Every now-and-then the giant would toss confetti, streamers, and other decorations while people roared and cheered him on from below.
"Shall we move...!" I said forcefully while my eyes remained glued to the giant.
When I realized that people weren't afraid of the burly giant, I began to relax. One deep breath turned into two, and soon enough I began to smile again. I don't know what or where New Dwarden is, but it was nothing short of amazing, and the giant was no exception. I took a good look at the giant's cheery face, and to my surprise, he appeared to be an older middle-aged male. He wore a scraggly white beard, seemingly had mechanized body part's, and has numerous scuffs of dirt and soot around his body. The giant had large mechanical arm's riddled with gears and orange pipes that spewed steam. He was so large, it appeared as though he had mini Cherubim for arms! Needless to say, the giant was at least a towering fifty foot tall. Lucky for him, the giant still seemed to have both his legs. He wore patched up dress pants held up by suspenders and a ripped a white shirt with weird subtle designs imprinted in it. He also appeared to be very fit as well. This could only be described as some topsy-turvy Santa Claus back home.
"Look what I got!" Yelled Leo.
Leo broke my attention with the giant with a handful of confetti. He cracked open his hand and blew it towards my face. Despite almost sneezing my brains out, even the confetti he blew into my face was also nothing short of amazing. It was like pieces of fuzzy paper that would break into colorful glowing fireflies went you touch them. They were like the Fire-Musca Granas described, only these were not as bright and would disappear upwards into the night sky fairly quickly. Were they alive?
"While you were thinking and talking by yourself, I was uh... grabbing these." Said Leo with a smug smile.
As the Giant began to drift away and back behind the Cherubim once more, I was once again refocused into the mysteries of New Dwarden. I couldn’t help it, like the Borboohas, my mind began to drift at the thought of what I may encounter in this strange new cities. This...this wasn't time though, it was time to move.
"C'mon Leo, let's get going. We are almost past the Ignorpa statue, your parents shouldn't be too far from here." I sighed.