The Summer Solstice Festival was the highlight of Aldric’s summer. Usually a traveling Carnival would set up half an hour’s walk outside Palewood right between the three other villages in the area; Ashgrove, Briarhollow, and Oakstead, and this year was no different. The Carnival had outdone itself; they had games of all sorts, performers, and all kinds of vendors, unique items, magical as well as mundane, often useful things that were difficult to purchase in the near area, but often overpriced, Aldric’s father usually said.

But Aldric preferred the performers, comedies, tragedies, magic shows, all of it. But most of all the dances, where they showed ancient ritual dances. He had seen the same one every time it came by the area. The Four Elementals, it was called. But the performances weren’t until later.

“Hi Victor, is that you? How is it going?” said a tall unfamiliar human male to Aldric's father, the man was wearing a chainmail and carrying a mace and small shield. It all looked like it had seen action. A lot of action. He had an unsettling grim grin, almost like he was trying to smile while angry.

Aldric’s father frost in place, visibly uncomfortable. “Aldric, please take Claire and go play some games over there. Here’s 10 silver. I’ll come in a second.” Then he turned and walked towards the tall man. “ Oh? Hi Clyde, what brings you to…”

Aldric was again surprised by his father’s unusual behavior,but did as his father had said, mostly because he recognized some people in the crowd, his two friends Stefan and Lilian. They were standing by a small pool, with a fishing rod each, trying to catch as many animated toy fish as possible. Stefan was doing well, he had caught 5 copper colored, 2 silver and just caught a golden as Aldric went up next to them with Claire next to him.

“Hi, good job there, Stef! But leave some for the rest of us.” Aldric laughed, trying to shake off the scary looking man and his father’s odd behavior.

“Oh hi Aldric! And Claire! I was wondering if we would get to see the two of you today.” Lilian said, smiling, stepping out from behind Stefan, holding his catch of the day and her own fishing rod with a copper colored toy fish at the end of the line. Her curly brown hair framing her olive shaped face.

“Eh? Oh hold on, I… almost… have… ahh! I missed it!” Stefan growled as he failed to catch the Platinum colored toy fish with his fishing rod. “This game is rigged!” he said, pushing out his lower lip.

“Yes, the game is rigged from the guy who caught more than anyone else.” Lilian rounded her eyes to Claire, who could help, but giggle at the tall broad shoulder forester pouting over not catching the biggest price.

Stefan was big for his age, but as big as he was, he was also a gentle guy, from Aldric's experience. But he was a handsome boy, ash blonde hair and light blue eyes. Lilian on the other hand only went up to Aldric’s shoulder, being a halfling she had done all of her growing. But she was a cute girl, her light grey eyes could look like silver in the right light. Aldric had always found these two amazing, Stefan was so strong and had a heart of gold, and Lilian was so smart and caring, she even learned a couple of spells. The three of them had been neighbors since they were older enough to run around and now they spend their free time together.

“Hi, it sounds like the performances are about to start. Let’s go see them!” Claire squealed in excitement, starting to pull Aldric by the arm.

“Alright, alright. I’m coming!” ALdric laughed. “Are you two going to join us?”

Both Stefan and Lilian nodded their heads, walking behind the siblings. They soon came to the stage that had been set up at the end of the carnival.

It looked amazing, the stage was wide, and they had set up two sets of curtains, one at the back of the stage, leaving room for the performers to access the stage, and one at the front of the stage, currency hiding the stage from view while the stage hands worked on setting up the scene.

“Wow! This is fantastic!” exclaimed both Lilian and Claire, and Aldric had to agree. They have really outdone themself, way more impressive than last year!

On the stage stood a gnome in a red and white striped suit with a matching top hat. The outfit looked good on him, but he also looked a bit like a hard candy. He stood on a small podium at the edge of the stage on the left side, making him a bit more visible to the now growing crowd.

“Welcome, welcome! Ladies and gentlemen! Tonight we will take you on a journey across Vastinia, throughout the many archipelagoes. Into the past! Into the future!” The Gnome’s voice was far deeper than Aldric remembered from the year before, and a bit louder.

“Tonight we start in the past, with a tale so sad. So haunting. A maid lost in the woods during the winter solstice.” The Gnome started and the curtains were pulled to the side showing, the stage changing in colors, from the warm colors of the summer to the cold of the winter and a girl Aldric’s age stepped on the stage. The first performance started.

And so it went on, the gnome would appear on his podium, introduce the next play or performance and Aldric was taken on a journey. He loved it all. Finally, came the performance he had been waiting for. The four elementals.

“Long long ago, when Vastinia was a young world and all the inner planes were connected, before the time of Dwarf, Elf and man. The elementals would walk freely from one plane to another, as easy as taking a step.”

On stage four dancers in different colors, red, green, blue and white appeared from the back. They performed a dance together until a fifth dancer wearing black entered the stage. The four dancers stopped and looked at the new dancer.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

“But with this freedom came chaos, volcanoes erupted, the ground quake, the Oceans rose and the weather was stormy.”

A more fast paced dance started, with a lot of jumps and confusion. I love this part. Aldric thought to himself, smiling.

The four elementals form a circle “All of the elementals called forth their four guardians to control the chaos. First came the guardian of Air, swift and agile.” First a dancer dressed in a white bird custom with four wings.

“Second the guardian of Fire, fiery and warmhearted.” Second, a dancer dressed as a red snake.

“Third the guardian of Water, calm and graceful,” Third, a dancer wears a blue octopus custom.

“And lastly the guardian of Earth, strong and steadfast.” and lastly a dancer in a green tortoise with six legs custom.

“The four guardians fought the chaos for many years. But slowly they managed to create order and slowly the chaos lost.”

On the stage, the four guardians and their respective colors performed a fighting dance each in turn.

The guardian of Air’s dance was swift and agile, the guardian of Fire’s dance was fiery and flashy, the guardian of Water’s dance was calm and controlled and the guardian of Earth’s dance was strong and resilient.

There was something in the dance of the water guardian that spoke to Aldric. The flowing movement, the calm controlling way the dancers moved. Aldric had learned the movements long ago, but he never felt the same as when he saw the dancer perform the dance. What am I lacking?

In the big finale, they did their dances side by side and drove the chaos away.

“But while the chaos is beaten for now, it might return and bring Vastinia to its brim.”

“Wow, it was so beautiful!” Lilian and Claire both called. Aldric was so taken back, that he forgot to clap. They had all seen this performance several times, but somehow this time it felt different to Aldric. It spoke to him.

“Hi guys, wait here for a second.” Aldric said distractedly, getting to his feet and jogged to the stage. His head was buzzing with excitement, as he went around the stage to see if he could find one of the dancers. He was met with chaos, pure chaos, as performers were running around, putting on makeup and getting dresses. He could hear the next performance starting.

“And next in the program, we have…” the gnome bellowed from the front of the stage.

Aldric caught a glimmer of one of the elemental dancers on the other side of the stage, on the other side of the crowd. He had never been a big fan of crowds, growing up in a small village, they didn’t happen too often, usually only on the big holidays. Aldric steeled himself and started forward.

Aldric’s excitement carried him from the crowd. He was never the type to just do things like this. But something in him just told him that he had to ask how to perform the dance correctly. He flowed through the crowd of performers in various stages of getting ready.

The group of elemental dancers were underdressing their customs, Aldric noticed for the first time they all had the subtle elemental features of the genasis. Not full genasis, but their skin tone and their hair color showed they have an otherworldly glow to their character. Aldric stopped for a moment, admiring the subtle beauty of one particular dancer. She was holding the custom of the octopus, her skin was fair, but blended over in a blacker blue, her hair did the same going from pale blond into a black blue and had a humid glare to it, her eyes a deep purple. Like mine.

“Can I help you with something?” A elderly gentleman with red-ish shine to his hair and a smell of smoke around him. Not the one from tobacco, but more like a fire.

“Uhm. Yes, I was wondering if I could ask about your performance.” Aldric stammed, his cheeks turning the same color as the elderly gentleman's hair.

“Yes, of course. It is always great when young people take an interest in the arts!” the man said with a smile. “What do you want to know?”

“Can you teach me the water dance?” Aldric blurted. Great, very tactful Aldric!

“I can not, unfortunately. We do not usually teach outside the troop, young man.” the man replied, still smiling. “But if you want to try your luck, you can ask Lasia if you can join.” pointing to an elderly lady with light blue skin sitting on a folding chair chatting with the beautiful water dancer.

“No, no!” Aldric replied a bit too quickly, “I don’t want to join, the dance doesn’t feel right to me, when I perform it on my own. I only wish to learn what I am doing wrong?”

“You learned the dance? That’s quite impressive.” the man smiled again.

“I did, I have seen your performance many times.” Aldric nodded, “but it still doesn’t feel right. Like it is missing something.”

“Hm, we are not leaving until tomorrow, why not stop before and we can take a look at what you can do?” the man replied with a satisfied smile.

“Thank you again, sir!” Aldric smiled from ear to ear. “I would like that!”

“Great, we will see you then.” the man nodded back. “Uh, remember to bring a practice sword. It makes the dance come to life.” the man waved as he turned to the rest of the troop.

Practice sword? How would that work? Never even hold one. Aldric wondered as he made his way back to his friends and his sister.

He found his friends easily, Stefan was after all half a head taller than almost everyone around him. What does he eat? Maybe he’s half giant or something like it.

“Hi you two, where is Claire? Please don’t tell me she ran away.” Aldric asked when he realised she wasn’t with the two.

“Hi Al, no don’t worry.” Stefan replied in a calm tone. “Your father came looking for you, took her with him home.”

“By the gods, that’s good news.” Aldric signed. “Did he say why? The carnival is far from over.”

“Nope, only that you should head home as soon as you hear this.” Stefan shrubbed.

“Oh Bane, he can be so frustrating.” Aldric complained. “No, I am practically a grown man. I can stay out a bit without my father watching over me.”

“Are you sure about this, Aldric?” a concerned voice sounded from Lilian. “He sounded very concerned, maybe he has a good reason for wanting you to go home?”

“Maybe, but today I have something I need your opinions on.” Aldric said a bit sheepish. “Two things actually. But we can’t talk about them here.”

“We can go to Palewood?” Stefan suggested “And we can discuss on the way?”

“Yes, but let’s go to that clearing we found a couple of weeks ago?” Aldric added. The two nodded their agreement.

The three of them left the carnival and went towards their home village, with a slight detour to the Palewood forest.