“What is that?”
Itaviir inspected the large ice sculpture in front of him, unsure wha to make of it.
“Ice!”
That answer came from a tiny voice by Itaviir’s feet.
“Well, yes, I noticed, but that is… a lot of ice.”
“It is!”
Another voice piped up next to the tiny voice. Tahvra and Talok were running around Itaviir’s legs. Itaviir was a little unwilling to move, since they were so tiny and he didn’t want to risk hurting them.
“Why though?”
“For fun!”
“What sort of fun?”
A third voice popped up. It belonged to someone nearly as small as the two Vohra.
“Kiddy fun!” Helkas beamed as he floated around Itaviir. “Arkay decided that you haven’t gotten to be a kid, like most of us here, so the theme of this… uh… thing is being kids! A kids’ party!”
“I mean, that is true, I had no real childhood, but what does that have to do with this weird ice tower thing that Arkay and Akah are clearly building?”
“Oh!” Helkas grinned. “We are building the ice slide fun castle to end all ice slide fun castles! In large size because you are so big.”
“We are tall… So Arkay decided that we are just having a children’s party? You do realise I am getting married in less than 48 hours, yes?”
Helkas nodded. “That’s what Arkay chose!”
Suddenly, a puff of smoke appeared next to Itaviir, more at head level but also floating in the air.
“Admittedly there are multiple reasons I chose this!” Arkay was also smiling but he was also soaking wet for some reason. “The first is that, yes, we’re all lacking childhoods. The second reason is that all the female adults were stolen for Vikalos’s Singles’ Party and all the male adults were stolen for Galyn’s Singles’ Party.”
“How comes?”
Arkay shrugged. “All the ladies just immediately decided they wanted to do stuff with Vikalos, and all the Beh’ens are being oddly manly right now because the short armoured guys are giving them funny thoughts. But that means we get to have proper innocent fun. And Akah and I got to build this thing for us all to play on. Akah is actually pretty proud of what he’s built.”
“Come on now, mister Itaviir, come down the super ice slide with us!” Helkas grinned as he grabbed Itaviir’s hand and dragged him to the ice castle. “Koh and Tah made a secret hide out underneath the slide and Tanos made ice cream!”
Itaviir shrugged, then relented. “Sure. Sounds like fun.”
…
Vikalos’s eyes were closed. He was very happy currently. Calm and relaxed. All around him were people also being calm and relaxed. Gentle meditation music was playing, water was trickling, scented candles and incense were burning and the ladies were busy treating Vikalos to a full spa day. When Vikalos had been told that Litvir was organising everything, he had been concerned, because Litvir was known to be rather chaotic. But instead, Litvir had set up a tent and created a small paradise.
Admittedly, Life Goddess Phovos had done a lot of the work, but Elkay-En had helped. As had Nyssi, Kayel, Lissandra and, oddly, Elkay. Apparently Elkay wanted a break from all the Teekays. They were looking at him funny. Well, most of them were. Two of them were a little distracted elsewhere. A few other folks had also joined in, and the ladies were giving them massages too.
First thing they had done was wash Vikalos’s fur in a specially made floral soap with nice, warm water, then rinsed him down with milk mixed with rose petals. After drying Vikalos off with a gentle breeze, the girls were now all brushing Vikalos’s fur while Elkay massaged his shoulders.
Litvir though, he was doing something else. After setting everything up, and while Vikalos was being washed, Litvir had looked up how to plait fur. And he was now twisting and twirling the longer fur on Vikalos’s tail into a braid.
“Are you enjoying yourself, Vikalos?” Nyssi asked as they worked.
“I am…”
“You feeling less stressed?” Phovos asked.
“Definitely!” Vikalos smiled.
“Good…”
…
Galyn was concerned. He was sitting on a specially made throne. A throne that had also been hastily made. A throne that was hanging over a hole that had been dug in the sand and filled with cold water.
“Welcome, one and all!” a voice boomed. Walking around in front of Galyn and his throne was Retvik, who had organized this Singles’ Party. “Welcome to one last moment of innocence!”
“What?” Galyn muttered.
“Soon, Galyn will be happily married and no longer pure and innocent!” Retvik explained.
“I am not-”
“Shush. Today, before Galyn is married off to his two beautiful partners, we have scheduled a small event of silliness!”
Retvik waltzed to one side and, with a snap of his finger, burned off a sheet that was hiding something. He unveiled a large, colourful wheel with various panels on it.
“Uh, what is this?” Lightblade asked.
Soulblade and Thyel both glanced at each other, as did the other Beh’ens present. Oddly, every single Beh’en apart from Itaviir was here.
“This, my friends, is the wheel of fortune!” Retvik ignored the interruption and the odd looks, because he was already explaining things. “You all have three darts each. You will take it in turns to throw a dart at the wheel of fortune. Whatever you land on is what you shall receive.”
“What is on the wheel?” Voidblade asked.
“We will find out!” Retvik smiled. “Now, a few rules. You are not to cheat and use any sort of telekinesis, you can only go one at a time and you can only claim each prize on the wheel once. I will draw a name from this bag, and whoever’s name I pull will go first.”
“What is on the wheel?” Galyn found himself asking the same question Voidblade had. But Retvik didn’t answer and instead drew a name.
“Thyel, my friend, you are first, somehow!” Retvik smirked as he handed the lanky Beh’en a dart, then span the wheel, as hard as he could. “Please, stand behind this line, then throw.”
Thyel shrugged, took the dart and threw it at the spinning wheel. The dart hit and the wheel came to a stop. Retvik waltzed over, lifted up a flap and read off Thyel’s reward.
“You have won… one kiss on Galyn’s cheek!” Retvik smiled.
“Neat!” Thyel laughed. “Are they all like that? And does Galyn have a choice?”
“No, and no!” Retvik’s smile turned into a smirk. “Claim your prize, and we shall move on to the next person!”
Galyn eyed Retvik, then sighed. “And I thought I was going to get the least chaotic Singles’ Party!”
“You will have fun, do not worry!” Retvik grinned reassuringly. “There are some good prizes in there…”