Oli's father, Sampo Porter and mother Maga Porter were hugging their daughter and patting her head. Her father saw me walking slowly, he waved his hands and asked me to run up to him faster. He was like a father to me, especially since that day. He always helped me whenever he could after my parent's death.
"You got all the talents of both your parents. They would be proud" he said as he hugged me.
"Even your facial features are becoming best of both. Your affinity display was so dazzling that we nearly forgot to breathe. I mean who has that many affinities. And whatever profession you choose be sure to know that your parents would be proud of it and so will be we."
That nearly broke the dam I build but held it together. Maga let go of her daughter and leaned in and hugged me. She kissed me on my forehead.
"God has blessed you with great talents. Don't ever shy away from showing it to anyone. Always do your best and work your best. Don't worry about what others think or do. Just be your best. And eat a lot of food. God! Look at you. Did you eat the food I send over? You always save it. You saved yesterday's food also, didn't you?" she looked at me glaring lightly.
"No" I lied shaking my head. Although I had some meat last night, I saved most of it for another time.
"Don't try and lie to me, even though I didn't give birth to you I have fed you more than enough times to know that you are lying. How are you going to grow up if you don't eat properly? You should eat a lot at this age. You are one of the best hunters I know and who are you saving for. She?" she pointed at Oli who blushed a little "She can hunt alongside you so both of you need not worry about saving now. And I don't expect to see a grandchild soon, do I?"
""NO"" me and Oli shouted together. Oli's father was laughing loud.
"Even if you bring one it doesn't matter." Maga chuckled a little before saying "So since you don't have to save for anyone, eat. Only if you have a strong body, your mind will work properly. Only when you have a strong mind can you make your life better. And you living your life better is what your parents would want. So, eat better and eat a lot. I will send food to you in the evening. And promise me you will finish both yesterday's and today's today itself"
I smiled awkwardly at her lecture. She didn't leave me until I promised. Oli's brothers were also there. The elder one is Damu and the younger one is Siman. They also congratulated us. Damu was helping Maga to make pots, which is their ancestral profession, while Siman was still in school. Damu was a great swordsman but he didn't like fights so he didn't go to university or journey of Lovitus. He stayed behind and started helping his mom in her business. Siman is also a swordsman. I heard he was a very good one.
"You kids enjoy the carnival. Go around for sightseeing. We will be leaving home soon. Be safe & don't separate from each other. Okay," Oli's mother advised us.
"We are not kids' mom. We know this ground like the back of our hands." Oli retorted back half whining.
"To us, you are still kids" Her mother replied and her father agrees with a heavy head bob.
Both of us went to Muni's family. His family could be said as a government department because most of their elders were working for the empire either as scholars or soldiers. His family was very big. He was 3rd of his father's 5, while his father was 2nd among 7 of his grandfather's. So, for every decision, anyone in his family takes there are always a lot of opinions from other members. So, there was a lot of pressure on every child while making a decision even for Muni. Most succumb to the pressure, no, all of them succumb to pressure. Muni's father, Sadhu Savant saw us coming.
He gave both me and Oli a hug and said "Both of you, congrats. You got great potential. Your parents would surely be proud. And remember to be careful while making a decision about your future. Time will not stand by you, always remember that. A decision once made cannot be changed."
Muni's mother, Daya was a sweet and plumb lady. She hugged both of us while Muni's father was giving us advice. She gave both of us a kiss on our forehead and stuffed a laddu onto our mouth.
"Eat a sweet. On every good occasion, you should eat something sweet." She said.
Anyone can guess the reason why she is a plumb lady. But nobody cares about that because she is the sweetest and kindest lady you would find in our village. Also, she is the only mother I've seen who never scolds us. NEVER, not even once. Also, she supports us unconditionally.
"Okay, okay. Are you guys going to laze around the carnival ground?" Sadhu asked for which we bobbed our heads in confirmation. He frowned and said "Always say your answer out loud. That is the polite way of doing things. Saying the answer out is how you say you respect the other person. Bobbing alone is not polite, if you accompanied an answer with bobbing it may be acceptable. Do you understand?"
"YES," all of us said in unison.
"Good" he was satisfied with our reply. He gave each of us 5 bronze each. I was stunned for a moment. This was not a big amount for the Savant family but for me, this was almost a week's expense amount. They were employed under the empire as bookkeepers or something like that. Sadhu earned around 6 gold per month.
After joining Muni, we moved our way into the Sinnon family meeting. There also we were advised by Jani's parents just like Muni's. But the difference was that we didn't get any money instead each of us got a box of sweets, for the same reason.
We started walking around the carnival ground with each of us holding a box and eating a sweet. We were sightseeing, mainly watching what are the reactions around the carnival ground. We could see several types of people, those that are engaged in boasting activities, those that were planning their future. One that I heard was thinking about riding a dragon or griffin, whatever that is.
"Hey, do you guys know what a dragon or griffin is?" I asked the other 3. All I got was a strong head shake.
"Maybe they are some kinds of exotic beasts from other empires" Muni added.
"Maybe" I left it at that.
There were others that were planning steps for the next god know how many years. One girl I heard was saying something about a job at 23, marriage at 25, children by 27 blah blah blah. Some were intimidating others by showing off their powers while some others hung their head moping over the fact of lack of capacity or elemental or force affinity. We walked leisurely as we watched these groups and eating our sweets. On the side of one shop, we saw Purushu. He was boasting and fantasizing about how powerful he will become to some guy. He was occasionally looking at a girl who was standing in front of the shop she seems to be buying something. He was like a male Rainbowcock spreading its 7 coloured tail in front of its female to mate.
We laughed at them as we walked past that scene. You could see similar show-offs around a variety of spots at the carnival, there was no difference between males and females. I and Muni looked at each other, then at the girls who were in their own world talking about something, then back at each other again. We shrugged and smiled, we put our hands around each other's shoulders and continued walking.
"I should cut your legs," I said to Muni.
"WHY," he asked with a confused look.
"You are growing way taller than me, making it harder and harder for me to put hands on your shoulder and walk properly," I said calmly with a smile on my face.
"Haha, very funny, go fill in the blanks yourself" he scolded me.
"Go what yourself now?" I asked feigning innocence.
"You know what, you idiot"
"What are you talking about?" Oli suddenly turned and asked.
"I was trying to expand his vocabulary," I said as I walked forward and put my hands on her shoulders and started to explain "You know, he has a very weak vocabulary. Such a brilliant and hardworking young man with a weak vocabulary. Can you imagine? He has an illustrious and fabulous life ahead of him. He should at the bare minimum increase his vocabulary. Don't you think?" I turned to Jani and asked, "What do you think Jani."
Muni was trying his hardest to hold his life. Jani smiled and said to me
"I think Oli will kill you today"
I turned around to see Oli searching the ground for pebbles. I ran without waiting, Muni along with me. She got some pebbles and started shouting at us
"Stop running you cowards" she threw 2 pebbles with an accuracy that only a god could beat. Both the pebbles hit their mark with both me and Muni getting each. But we didn't stop running for a while. After we reached a distance, we stopped and let her get near us. She came charging at us and hit both our arms, I feigned like my entire arm was broken because of that punch while Muni acted as if that hurt like hell. All of us laughed and continued our rounds.
We sat down on a nearby bench. It was near a Vata tree, these were medicinal plants that grew various flowers on their hanging branches. But actually, they are not branches but roots. So, these are plants that have roots hanging from branches that have flowers on them. Sometimes there are also certain orchids that cling to them. This tree was about 100 years old.