“This feels weird,” Eve muttered as they approached town.

“What’s wrong?” Jacob asked as he looked back at her.

“Well since my ‘shoes’ are part of my body, I can still feel everything under my feet. So it feels like I’m not wearing shoes, but it looks like I’m wearing shoes. Feels weird,” she explained.

“Yeah, I guess that would feel weird,” he agreed.

“Yeah, it’s making it hard not to think about the fact I’m technically naked,” she said nonchalantly. “Or maybe it doesn’t count since it looks like I’m wearing clothes?”

“Let’s not think about it,” he said quickly before the conversation kept going in that direction. Fortunately for him, the trees around them began to thin before giving way to civilization. “Oh, we’re here.”

The two of them emerged from the forest into the streets of Oakwood.

Or at least, something which looked like Oakwood. All of the dusty roads and buildings were there. But the people?

Neither of them could see nor hear anyone.

“Where is everyone?” Jacob asked as he glanced at a shrugging Eve.

“I think I hear something in the distance. It sounds like music,” she pointed down a road toward the center of town. As Jacob strained to see off in the distance, he could just make out a few bright lights.

“Well… let’s go find out what it is,” he told her as the pair made their way downtown.

As they walked down the road, they spotted a few people on the way. Jacob raised an eyebrow at the fact everyone was walking in the same direction. And the further they got the better he could make out the music in the distance. He spotted several younger kids walking along with their parents, huge smiles on all of their faces.

Whatever it was they were walking to, the people of Oakwood had been looking forward to it.

“Whoa,” Eve whispered as they reached the source of the lights and sounds.

In the very center of town, there had been a decently-sized park made up mostly of a large, green field. He’d only ever seen it once before, on the day his parents had driven around town. He had noted the big, empty field and forgotten about it completely.

Well, now the ‘empty’ field was filled to the brim with people. Lines of fair stalls ran down the length of the field, selling food and offering games. Close to the edge were a few rides, a Ferris wheel and a giant slide being the biggest and easiest to see. Near the very edge of the field was a raised platform where a band was playing a pop song he’d heard a few times before.

“What is this?” Jacob asked with lights in his eyes. He and Eve were on the other side of the street from the field, and they were already feeling overwhelmed.

“Surprise!”

They both jumped at the sudden yell from behind them.

“Ellie?” Jacob asked as he spun around to see her and Ryan standing right behind them. She had a massive smile on her face, while he looked fine with just having a simple grin.

“You scared me,” Jacob steadied his breathing as Eve threw her hands behind her back. Ellie just laughed before apologizing.

“Sorry,” she said once her laughter died down a bit. “But you two were just so distracted I had to.” She gave Eve a careful, but friendly glare. “And just who are you?”

“She’s an old friend from North Palm, she’s visiting for a day or two,” Jacob said, thinking on his feet. “Eve, this is Ryan and Ellie, the two I told you about. You remember them, right?” he said, hoping she’d play along.

“Yeah, he told me a lot. It’s nice to meet you,” she changed her claws back into hands before anyone noticed she still had them behind her back. “He talked about you a bit while I was on the way over to visit him before school starts.”

“Well, you made the right choice to visit when you did,” Ellie walked up next to Jacob and held her arm out toward the fair. “Welcome to the Oakwood end of summer fair.”

“Why didn’t either of you tell me about this?” He asked as he and Eve turned toward the fairgrounds.

“Well, I was going to,” Ryan started as he walked up next to Ellie. “But then Ellie said she was going to make it a surprise. You really didn’t notice everyone setting up the fair the last few days? I heard it was a pretty rough time.”

“What happened?” Eve asked as she swung her normal human arms out from behind her back.

“Not really sure,” Ryan admitted. “Just heard there were a few problems and the fair almost wasn’t ready on time.”

“Which would have been the worst,” Ellie added as she looked at the others. “Well, what are you all waiting for?” she demanded. “Come on, let’s go.”

She ran forwards as Jacob, Ryan, and Eve followed her. She came to a stop at the front entrance of the fair where a familiar face was manning the entrance booth.

“Hey there, Mr. Miller,” she greeted the reason why Jacob was in Oakwood and handed him some money.

“Oh, hey, kids,” Nick started rummaging around for something in his booth. “Alright, Ellie, these are for you. Jacob, your dad already bought you some tickets, said to pass them to you once you got here,” he explained as he gave the pair two small bundles of tickets.

“Oh, thanks, Nick,” he said as the older man handed the tickets over with a sigh.

“I’m never going to get rid of that nickname your dad gave me, am I?” he asked with a tired chuckle.

Jacob was about to tell him ‘not in this lifetime’ when he thought about it. If Nick had never gotten his dad the job here, would he have ever met Eve? Probably not.

“You know what, I think I’ll just forget about it,” he told the man as he allowed them through. “See you around, Mr. Miller,” he called out right before they were out of earshot.

“Alright, so what do you guys want to do first?” Ellie asked as the other three looked around.

“I kind of want to get something to eat first,” held her stomach and gave a nervous laugh. Now that Jacob thought about it, she hadn’t eaten anything since she came out of the cocoon.

Ellie bowed dramatically before Eve. “As you wish,” she said before leading them to a stall selling giant corndogs with fries. A quick change of tickets later, and Eve was salivating at the corndog in her hand. The thing was big enough to reach from the tips of her fingers to her elbow. Jacob laughed off to the side as he held his basket of fries.

The two watched in horrid fascination as the tiny girl devoured the corndog in a few seconds. By the time she was done, the only thing left was a clean wooden stick in her hand.

“Wow, I was hungry,” she threw the stick into the closest trashcan. “Now what?”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Now you wait for me to finish these fries,” Jacob told her before grabbing another of the little golden things. “I haven’t eaten all day either.”

“Well, you guys do that, I’m going to try my luck at some of the games,” Ellie told the pair as she dragged Ryan away.

“Come on, let’s at least follow after them,” she followed, also dragging Jacob with her. The boy simply shrugged and accepted it, calmly eating his fries as Eve took full advantage of her enhanced strength.

They found her a few moments later holding a dart and carefully aiming at a wall of balloons, a wall full of prizes to her left. Her eyes were narrowed as she took careful aim. Jacob munched on another fry as he saw the board behind the booth.

Try to hit the balloons with the darts.

5 tickets for 3 darts.

1 balloons- consolation prize

2 balloons- small prize

3 balloons- large prize!

3 balloons of all the same color- grand prize only 1!!!

He looked up and quickly counted six colors among the wall of balloons.

“How is she doing?” he whispered to Ryan.

“She got a blue one already,” The boy explained. “She’s aiming for the grand prize.”

Wordlessly, Ellie let her second dart loose as it flew through the air… and hit a white balloon.

“Ouch,” Eve said as Ellie let out a roar of frustration.

“You do realize you’re already doing better than half of the people who’ve already tried, right?” The guy handling the stall pointed out.

“What’s the point if I can’t get the grand prize?” She asked as she turned away dramatically and threw her last dart.

Despite what were probably her intentions, she did manage to hit a third balloon, a blue one to be exact. She turned back around at the sound of the pop, her jaw hanging open.

“And we have a winner,” the man behind the booth walked over to the wall of prizes. “Pick anything you want from below the top row.”

Ellie took a quick glance at a game console on the top shelf and sighed before forcing her eyes downwards.

“I guess I’ll take that game right there,” she pointed to one of the board games on the second to highest row. He recognized it from his dad’s collection. It was a pretty good game from what he remembered, even if he was garbage at it.

“Here you go,” the man passed the box to Ellie.

“Let’s keep going. Next game,” she said as Jacob finished off his fries. He glanced over at the wall of balloons and wondered if he wanted a go. He glanced down at his tickets and decided to pass for now. Now if Eve wanted a go, that was different.

“Eve, do you want to…?” he started asking only to notice another game catching her eye. She was slowly walking toward it, and Jacob followed close behind.

It was a punching bag hooked up to a machine. There was a small platform on the ground in front of the bag for people to step on. Above the whole thing was a sign reading ‘test your strength’.

“I want to do this one,” she pointed to it, slightly swishing her hips from side to side. Somehow, Jacob had a feeling her tails would be wagging if she had them out.

“Alright, go for it,” he tore off the tickets she would need and handed them over.

“You ready to give this thing a smack, kid?” the woman behind the booth took the tickets from the wildly nodding Eve.

She walked up to the stage, stretching her arm around to get nice and loose. Once she was good and ready, she reached her arm back and made a fist. She took a deep breath and got ready to punch this thing with everything she had.

Which, as she thought mid-swing, probably meant enough strength to break the machine.

Her eyes widened in panic as she slowed her arm right before she hit the bag, lightly tapping it. The machine the bag was connected to flashed for a bit before giving what Eve and Jacob assumed was a low score.

“Ouch, sorry kid. You’re going to have to punch a little harder than that if you want to win a prize,” the lady behind the booth told her with a sympathetic tone. The pity in her eyes sparked something in Eve which left her wanting to punch a hole thought the bag, and the wall behind it.

“Want to try again?” Jacob asked as he started separating the tickets Eve would need for a second shot.

“Why don’t you let me try?” a voice familiar to both of them said. The two of them turned around and saw Agent Kennedy, standing there with a smile on his face and his sunglasses tucked into his pocket.

“Agent Kennedy, what are you doing here?” Jacob asked the suit-wearing man who didn’t exactly… match his current surroundings.

“I have my reasons,” he explained as he smiled at the punching bag. “Now why don’t you two kids let an adult give this thing a try?”

Jacob glanced at Eve, who looked calm enough. He steadied himself. If she could be calm while interacting with someone whose job it was to catch her, then so could he.

“Go for it, Kennedy,” he told him as he passed the needed tickets to the woman at the booth who gave all three of them an amused smile.

Agent Kennedy walked up to the platform and took a deep breath. Instead of rearing his arm back, he stretched his fingers out flat and placed the tips of them up against the bag. With a quick exhale, he collapsed his hand into a fist and punched the bag with an impact all of them could hear over the music and crowd. Eve was even sure she saw some smoke come from the impact sight once he took his hand away.

Both of them quickly noticed the score on the machine going higher than before.

Much higher.

“How was that?” he asked the booth lady with a satisfied grin. Said lady was alternating between staring at Agent Kennedy’s hand, and then the score on the machine.

“Well, you won the best prize we have,” the woman admitted like she was trying to convince herself more than anyone else.

“Just as planned,” he turned toward the two kids. “So what did you two want to win?”

“Actually,” Eve started confessing. “I just wanted to win a prize for punching something.”

“Oh,” Agent Kennedy said, the wind is his sails somewhat lessened. “Well, do you want anything anyway?”

“You can have it, Eve,” Jacob said as the girl in question walked up to the prizes and took a careful look. Her eyes lit up as she pointed at one object in particular.

“Well, wasn’t expecting anyone to grab one of these this early on,” the woman got up and unhooked one of the small backpacks from the hooks and handed it to Eve.

“Nice, I really needed a bag for some stuff,” she put the bag onto her back. She turned around and showed it to Jacob. “What do you think? Cool?”

“Yeah, I would say cool,” he said, and not just for the sake of agreeing with her. The bag was mostly a dark forest green with bronze lining. On the center was a bronze circle with little green vines all over it.

“Thanks, mister,” she told the agent hunting for her as she raised her hand for a high five.

“Don’t worry about it,” he told the kids as he gave Eve the high five she wanted. “I have to hang around here anyway in case the escaped animal shows up.”

“You think it’ll show up here?” Jacob asked as he glanced at Eve, who had the ugliest smirk on her face.

“There’s a chance the animal will be attracted to scent of all the food. And since almost everyone in town is out here, the mayor wanted us keeping an eye on things.”

“I guess that makes sense,” he remembered the jumbo corndog Eve had slightly traumatized Ellie and Ryan with.

“Yeah, but our scientist on staff is pretty sure the escaped animal won’t risk exposure by coming out here, so you’re pretty safe.”

“So what, you basically have the night off?” Eve asked.

“Well, not really. I still have to patrol for the animal in the unlikely case it does show up,” he glanced at the watch on his wrist. “Speaking of, I should get back on patrol. It was nice talking to you Jacob and… Eve, right?”

“Yeah, that’s my name,” the girl said, wearing the same smirk as the agent wished them goodbye and walked on.

“I feel kind of bad for him,” she glanced down at her hands. She walked a bit closer to Jacob, keeping her eyes on her hands, and whispered just loudly enough for only him to hear. “He was literally talking to the thing he was looking for, and he had no idea.”

“Let’s keep it that way,” he whispered back before looking around and speaking at a normal volume again. “Now where did Ellie and Ryan go?”

“No clue,” she tried to scan the crowd around them. “She did say she wanted to play more games. Maybe that’s where she is.”

“Better than nothing I guess,” he said as they started walking down the games, looking for the pair.

It took them a while, but they did find them eventually. Ryan was standing in front of a ring toss with a ring in each hand while Ellie glared at the smiling man who was working the booth.

“Get those rings around those pins, Ryan,” she hissed while keeping her glare right on the smiling man.

“What’s going on,” Jacob asked as the two of them waked up to her.

“Ryan is winning this game for me so I can shove it in this man’s face!” She yelled the last part while still glaring at the man who just kept smiling at her. He even gave Jacob and Eve a little wave.

“Why don’t you kids step right up and take a shot after this young man finishes up?” the man said in a high pitched and overly friendly voice which rubbed Jacob the rub wrong way for reasons he could not understand. “Don’t worry, I can guarantee you two won’t be the worst I’ve seen tonight.”

“Shut up, ring man,” Ellie yelled as Ryan tossed one of the rings. They all watched as it flew over the first pin, and then bounced off the second.

His eyes narrowed as he put the other ring into his throwing hand. Once again he threw, and this time the ring went around the bowling pin.

“Looks like we have a winner,” the man said while Ellie jumped in place and let out a cheer.

“In your face,” she said as Eve and Jacob just looked at each other and laughed.

“Want to head over to watch the concert?” Ryan asked as he walked over to Ellie, holding up a stuffed banana plush.

“Sure, why not,” she said as the four walked to the front of the fair. “It’ll make for a good break before we hit the rides.”

They arrived just as the band was finishing a short break. The four quickly found a place to sit and watch as the music started up again. They even managed to meet up with the other kids Jacob met on his first day Jack, Carrie, and Max.

The music was good, the food had been good, and everything felt right with the world.