“For she’s a jolly good fella, for she’s a jolly good fella!” I was almost in tears, giggling as everyone sang around me, a birthday cake with bright pink frosting in front of me.
From Mom and Dad, to Uncle Arnie, and Aunt Grega, and Uncle Mickelson, and Aunt Clarice and Uncle Fred, and…and…everyone was here and I was almost overwhelmed by everything.
The light of the 18 candles of my birthday cake, the only source of light in the tent they’d put up for my party, shined beautiful little globs of light and shadow across their faces.
“And nobody can deny, And nobody can deny!”
Everyone clapped and cheered as they finished singing, Dad resting a hand on my back, “Blow out your candles, Jam Pie, and make a wish.”
I blinked tears out of my vision and nodded, taking a deep breath that puffed up my chest, before blowing out the candles in one swift and decisive exhale.
My mind was an iron trap, focused on one wish above all else.
‘I wish I could run the most fantastic amusement park, a place where my family could work and run forever.’
As the light was snuffed out, I opened my eyes to see a new light flaring within the tent as magical bulbs of purple and pink light lit up.
“Wow.” I looked around, my whole family watching me, and reached out to touch one of the floating lights, my fingertips brushing into the ethereal ball of light before it floated away.
Aunt Grega, the carnival teacher and magician, giggled, “You got a little something on your face, Jamboree.”
“Hu-?” I looked towards her, but found nothing but a pie suddenly thrust into my face, my entire world subsumed by coconut cream.
“Happy birthday, Jam Pie!” Mom hugged me as I licked my lips, hugging her back.
I giggled, “Coconut cream! My favorite! Aw, Mom, you shouldn’t have!”
She poked me in the stomach, looking mischievous, “Don’t tell your father, but this is my secret plan to convince you to stay without directly asking you.”
“Interesting plan,” Dad nodded, “He’ll probably never notice.”
I gave them both a hug, “Why do you have to make today so amazing? I’m really not going to want to leave, you know!”
“If you don’t leave,” Uncle Mickelson, a man even larger than my father, said, “I’ll win a bet with ole’ Clarice.”
Aunt Clarice, a very short woman, huffed, “I never made that bet, you brute.”
Cleaning my face from the pie, Mom giggled, “You best leave some room for the cake, my little Jamboree. Want to eat cake first or get your presents?”
“Presents!” I loved cake, but I loved cake even more with cool presents to enjoy!
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A bunch of gifts later and I was totally loaded with new games and puzzles for the rest of the year. A knock-knock joke book from Aunt Grega, an awesome joybuzzer I could put on my hand for a laugh from Uncle Fred, and a whole bunch more!
“Alright, alright,” Dad tore Mom away from one of my presents, a new cyan bike with awesome pink wheels and a big honking horn on the handlebars, “We got one more gift for ya, Jam Pie.”
At this point I was very ready for cake, but the gift from my parents had been coming for a long time, “Is it…?”
“Uh, yep!” Mom refocused back onto me, “Show her, show her!”
Dad took out a small black box from behind me, “Now, you know your mother and I aren’t exactly professional Duelists, but there was a time when my family wasn’t in the circus business.”
Opening it up, he unveiled a solid emerald that shimmered with duel energy, an aura of viridian green that I could almost taste this close up.
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“Your grandfather always kept this on him, just in case he had to teach someone a lesson.” He took the emerald out of the box, the aura leaning into my father’s grasp, before he handed it over to me, “Echelon is a dangerous place at the best of times, so I hope this keeps you safe, Jam Pie.”
Looking at the high-tier Duelist Skill, in its physical form like it would be behind the glass window of a skill store, I gently took it from him, “Wow, it's…really mine? Just like that.”
“No.” Dad took it back.
I blinked, staring at my empty hands and back up at him.
My father suddenly broke out into a big smile and put the stone back into my hand, “Yes, Jam Pie, it’s yours. Go out there and put a smile on everyone’s face, got it?”
I nodded, giggling, “Got it.”
With that, I crushed the Duelist Skill in my hands, feeling the green aura flush through my system, the duel energy becoming one with me.
New Duelist Skill Gained
The Fool’s Rebuke [Rank 2]: Once per duel, the Duelist can negate the activation of a spell card and deal damage equal to the Rune cost of the card to any target.
“It’s so strong,” I was almost a little worried about having such a strong Duelist Skill on me. People killed for these things…but, I was happy to get such an amazing gift!
Mom giggled, “You’ll have to work on getting your Level high enough to use more than just The Show Goes On, huh?”
I pouted. My Destined Skill was really cool and when I was younger I’d had a lot of fun getting to use a skill regardless of my level, but now I realized the trouble of it all.
I couldn’t decide to not use it in a duel! Wasn’t there gonna be times that I didn’t need it? And it was taking up all of my Duelist Points right now!
“She should have trained more with the carnival Duelists,” Aunt Clarice said, “Would’ve raised her Level faster than us small-fry.”
“Hambden wasn’t interested and you know how those performing Duelists are,” Dad shrugged, “Besides, Jam Pie is going to Echelon. There’ll be plenty of places to train, like your Aunt’s card shop.”
I still couldn’t get over that I was going to be living in a card shop! It was going to be so cool getting to be around so many card!
“Speaking of cards!” Mom came back with another box, “Didja really think our gift was just gonna be some skill you couldn’t even use yet?”
And she handed over a brightly wrapped package that I quickly tore through, revealing 10 packs of the Big Top Heroes card set.
“Wowsers!” I looked up at my parents, feeling my eyes water again, “You…You…Thank you, Mom, Dad.”
Mom gave me a kiss on the forehead, “Thank me after you pull a rare, sweetpie.”
“I call dibs on trading rights.” Uncle Fred called from the back.
And then my beloved carnival family started bickering over cards I hadn’t even opened yet.
Echelon was gonna have to try real hard to be better than this.
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So, Echelon didn’t get the memo.
The subway was kind of stinky, although it didn't smell worse than elephant poop, and the buildings were big, way too big, and when I asked around for directions, no one really knew how to answer me? There were just so many districts in Echelon! There was Eiser Hall District, John Jack District, the City Center District, the Auraminte District...
I mean, I didn’t really know where I was going! I didn’t even know the name of my Aunt’s shop! How was I supposed to know what district it was in? What district was I even in right now!?
She was supposed to pick me up from the train! And now I was here with, like, my 4 suitcases filled to the brim with my supplies and costumes and I wasn’t really sure where to go.
It sucked. Everything sucked. And you know what made things better when things sucked?
A good little self-joke.
“Knock knock,” I said, sitting on my suitcase and watching the sky, “Who’s there?”
I smiled, my own audience, “Boo!”
Giggling now and picking up my suitcases, I mock-confusedly asked myself, “Boo who?”
“Well, you don’t have to cry about it, kid.” Another voice stepped into my bit, pulling me from my little self-amusement.
I looked over, seeing a sleep-deprived woman with a cup of coffee that was steaming. She wore horribly drab, gray baggy clothing that wore loose over her small form. She had a big satchel bag decorated with Runesoul apparel.
After a moment of taking her in, I smiled hopefully, “Auntie?”
“Well, unless there’s some other clown niece I’m supposed to be picking up, then yeah, it’s me,” She shrugged, “Why’d you leave the subway?”
“I was looking for you.” I pouted, “I thought I’d see you around!”
“I got tied up with some kid who thought he could beat me in a duel for some free cards,” She turned around, “Now come on.”
Everything was fine now! Great! My aunt was here and now everything was going to go great! I’d make some money working at the shop, get some more money somehow, get better at dueling, and then I’d get my amusement park!
I took my first step to keep up with my aunt and then the whole world went dark.