Because of the cold weather, the citizens of Crull had taken more to indoor activities. It was a different kind of business.
For this was Jarenkul's major social season. In the winter months the city became a place that was more about the social scene rather than outdoor activity.
Not that there was no outdoor activity. There was a lot of playing in the snow and competitions were in full swing. All hunting though had ceased, as though they could still hunt their society didn't d hunting during the winter months -allowing the wildlife to have a reprieve until midway into spring when the hunting season reopened.
But life in the palace had become very busy as Queen Serendiah started hosting more parties and gatherings.
This meant Heron saw more of the Queen during this time as he was required to show up to most of these events. Well, he had seen her every day but now it was more than just at meal times.
Serendiah, unlike her ward, seemed to enjoy these sort of things. She often seemed perfectly happy to flit from conversation to conversation. It was quite a stark contrast to Kur who hovered near people he knew for as long as they'd let him. Which if Tira was there, was always. Heron was willing to keep him company as well, but Kur actually pushed him to go enjoy himself. If there was dancing, the wizard pushed him to go dance with Elswyth.
He was honestly confused on this, but honestly Heron preferred keeping a familiar person as his partner so he didn't mind.
He did once though, answer to his fellow wizard that he should dance as well. It took about five minutes to convince him but he did agree in the end but only with Tira as he felt comfortable with her.
Heron noticed though that he actually seemed a bit happy, and seemed to like the opportunity to dance with the girl he liked.
However it wore the poor man out very quickly, as it was too much for him to be in the midst of so many people all at once. So Heron didn't push it again.
By the end of a month Heron was tired of these social gatherings that happened at least once a week. He skipped going to as many as he could reasonably get by with. But being a visiting prince from another country, his presence was actually highly demanded.
Serendiah did allow him to skip a few though. When telling him of them, she would usually tell him whether or not he had to go, or if he could get by with not with little questions asked.
He did go to some of the unnecessary ones as well, when he felt up to it. But he really did skip quite a few of them.
But something happened during this season that really surprised him. Elswyth had, without his permission, signed him up for one of the contests. It was a contest testing agility, with sprinting, an obstacle course, and knife throwing.
He was not sure why Elswyth had signed him up for it, nor would she tell him. She just had him train for it. He didn't push the issue. He had just been surprised. It wasn't that he particularly minded it. Just it would have been nice if she had asked first.
The contest itself came during the second month of winter. Heron was incredibly nervous about it. It would span three days. One for each part.
The first day was sprinting, and Heron did this with flying colors. This somewhat was surprising to him. He'd always been fast but his stamina had improved. And he began to suspect why Elswyth had signed him up for this.
She wanted to show him how he's improved. She didn't expect him to win or anything. She just wanted him to see his own strength. It was rather sweet of her really.
The obstacle course he did alright in. Not particularly fast but he didn't get penalized. He had had to slow down though a lot. But he made it through. Also, he had learned that Jarenkul obstacle courses were not exactly safe. They had actual traps. He was very glad he had slowed down and not risked it.
The knife throwing he did better in. Not as well as he had done with the sprinting. But he had a fairly high score, with even one perfect throw. He had done well enough to place in the top twenty, which was a pretty good feat considering he was going against some knife experts.
Overall in the contest he had not won anything. His obstacle course dragged down his score immensely, so even though he had placed first in the sprint, he was below the top thirty overall. But he felt pleased with how he had done. And was somewhat glad Elswyth had shoved him into this.