Before we even got to Solar city, I could feel the upbeat energy it was giving off. Looking down I could see all the colorful flowers that had decided to bloom today.
When we got to the Old Rise city bouro, I heard little kids running and chasing each other, and a couple of men talking about the Grand Display that was to happen later on.
“What’s ‘the Grand Display’ ?” Fog whispered to me.
I smiled at him. “You’ll see. Let’s head for the animal fields first, they're not that far from here.”
We see a few kids walk by yelling and laughing with food trays in their hands. Fog leaned over and looked over the trays trying to understand exactly what the kids were carrying. I didn’t blame him. They weren’t exactly holding food.
“They’re carrying Talora’s, which are just anything you used true creativity to make. Young children make Talora’s for Bright Day, which is kind of a celebration of creativity.” I explained to Fog, then I had a peek at what the kids had made too. The girl on the left had made a picture of a dragon out of dyed rice. The girl on the right had glued a collection of rainbowed-colored items on her tray. Beads, buttons, crayons, the lot. The little boy in the middle had nothing but blue pieces of cardboard paper taped to his tray.
“Only blue huh?” I asked him.
He nodded.
“I swear that’s the color of his soul.” one old man who sat across the street blurted. That boy only has blue toys.” he smiled.
I returned a smile and tried to head along.
“I’ve never seen you before.” The young boy said. I turned to see he was staring up at Fog, who smiled and looked at me with nervous eyes.
“Come to think of it, neither have I.” said the old man. “What brings you here, young man?”
“Uh, the Bright Day festival.” Fog said nervously.
“He’s a friend from a farmland on the other side of the country.” I lied for him. “He’s only in town for a little while for Bright Day and the Bright Day after-party.”
“Oh.” the old man relaxed in his chair. “Well, have fun you two!”
The kids walked off.
We finally got to a huge arched wooden sign that read ‘Animal Fields’ and under that in smaller words ‘TREAD WITH CAUTION’. I metally sighed. I had spent a chunk of my childhood talking with the animals inside.
As soon as we were out of earshot from anyone close, Fog asked, “Why are you so good at lying? It’s like it comes natural to you.”
“It does.” I said easily. “I’ve been lying for a long time.”
“Why?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, guess I’m just a natural or something.” I said, maybe or maybe not fibbing.
He then focused on where we were walking.
I couldn’t bring myself to lie to him.
“...because I’ve been doing it for a long time.” I answered truthfully. “I lie to look cool and get out of trouble. As long as I don’t lie about anything big, I don’t feel guilty and it does no harm.” Just saying that made me feel weird and exposed, but Fog saved my life. To lie to him would just be… wrong.
“Bull.” Fog told me.
“I’m telling you, that’s the honest truth why I-” I started.
“No, BULL!” Fog yelled, pointing to a huge bull that was coming straight for us.
I swear my heart rate went up. Joshua the bull was coming at full speed. I pushed Fog out the way and jumped to the left myself. I fell in a face-full of tall grass, but I’d rather be poked with glass blades than the tip of a bull horn.
“I’ll KILL YOU ANDERSON!” it bellowed, as the huge black bull raced across the field.
“NO CHANCE, JOSHUA!” Anderson thundered back. They ran into each other, horns clashing, with no sign of them breaking up.
“MIST! MIST YOU ALRIGHT!?” Fog yelled like a mad man.
So much for keeping a low profile.
“Yes.” I said from the other side of the bull fight. “Stay calm, if we stay out of their little fighting ring, they won’t hurt us. It’s each other they want. They’re fighting over the ladies in the herd in this field.” I pointed farther out in the field to where the cattle sat, munching grass and being chill.
I snapped at Joshua and Anderson until they looked up at me.
“What gives?” I yelled at them.
“STAY OUT OF OUR WAY YOUNG LADY, WE’RE FIGHTING!” yelled Joshua.
I turned to see Fog address me with a weird look. “Where...were you talking with the cows?” he asked me as if that were the strangest thing he’s ever seen.
“Yes. Wouldn’t you tell a bull off if they almost took your life?”
“Yeah, but you can’t really tell a bull anything. It’s not like we speak there lan- oh, you do. I forgot Sun people can speak with animals. How do you guys do that exactly?”
“Learning other specie’s languages is taught in school to my people at a young age as to become fluent with at least three by the time kids are my age. It’s practiced mainly to ensure harmony between humans and the animals we live amongst.”
“Is it easy? Learning to speak animal?
“Whoa-whoa-whoa, First off, each animal species has their own distinct language, so you can't just clump it all up into one big category. Second off, learning an animal language is about as easy as learning a second language, some easier and some harder. Like, speaking Dog is easy, being mainly whining and barking and howling, but speaking Bee is a little more diffucult, mastering which dance move meant what. I never really got the hang of speaking Bee, though my sister is quite fluent at it.”
Fog stared at me in awe. “You're pretty talented.”
Though, my completion would never show it, I like I was blushing on the inside. Fog was so awesome. I kept thinking about how speaking in bull must have looked like to Fog. I must’ve sounded like a madwoman, speaking bull out of nowhere. It sounded normal to me, but he must’ve heard a whole lot of bellowing. No wonder if I spoke in bull too long my voice grew horse.
I sat down in the grass. Fog followed suit. I looked out at the cows. Except for Joshua and Anderson, the cows seemed so peaceful.
Jua the cow turned to me. “Would you look who it is!? Mist is here!” she lowed from her posse of cows not too far out into the field. Like most cows who spoke Moo, she had a drawl in her voice that prolonged not only her vowels, but her words themselves. I bet Fog only heard the sound I used to hear before I learned to speak Moo.
eeeeeeeeooooooommoooooooo.
“Hi Jua.” I answered. It was good to see her again.
“I see you're not alone. That the boy you’re bringin’ to the Bright Day after-party?” Jua lowed between munching.
“Fog!? No!” I felt myself go sweaty.
Fog immediately turned to me. “What did she say!?”