“Let's go eat breakfast first, I know the best place.” Mwana excitedly pulled Kia through the streets of Milele in search of something to eat. Although it had been a while since he was here, the town had not changed much.

“Just look through the menu first.”

Within a medium sized restaurant, Mwana and Kia were seated opposite each other near the window. Looking at the menu, there were all types of food from baked ones to fried, roasted, smoked, and boiled foods. However, Mwana’s eyes were permanently glued on the meat section where the picture of an impressive tower of meat was shown. This picture even rippled and simmered as if it was a video of the real thing. From this, it was clear that magic penmanship had been utilized in drawing the restaurant’s menu.

The meat dish Mwana was salivating over was a Meat Castle also referred to as a Meat Pyramid: a dish made by layering different types of meat on top of each other. Each layer was separated by assorted herbs and toppings. Further, each of the different layers of meat were also cooked uniquely.

“Aah, I want this Meat Castle so bad. Too bad its only available in the afternoon.”

“You want to eat something like that in the morning?” Looking at the picture on the menu, Kia could not understand the appeal of such a meal.

“Yeah, it is a top grade dish. The meat is soft, tender, and easy to slice. You can even cut it without ruining the castle.”

Further down on the Menu, there was a dish of simmering Frost Beef. This was a type of meat whose source was the Northern Cape Hosts in the North Ice Capes. The Frost Beef had an icy hot feeling which made it extremely delicious as the hot and cold mixed together in the mouth. Just looking at it, Mwana and Kia could not help but salivate. However, just like the Meat Castle, the Frost Beef was not available till later in the day.

The Frost Beef was usually served with Lightning Demonic Blazing Hell Pepper - an ingredient that was said to be the hottest to ever exist. Even gods would weep from a taste of this pepper.

While the two dishes Mwana wanted were not available, there was still an assortment of different foods on the menu.

“Aaah, I am so hungry, how about we get chicken?” Kia could not help but comment seeing all the different types of chicken.

“Steamed or fried, honey-layered. God, they have everything here.”

“Maybe garlic chicken.”

“or roasted…ooooh, chili deep heat chicken.” The two children just started shooting off the different kinds of chicken they wanted. Although, the menu was meant to make things easier, it made it harder as the two were spoilt for choice. However, after some back and forth, they finally ordered their breakfast.

After a hefty meal to start their day, one of the servers at the restaurant came to ask them if they would get any refreshments before leaving.

“You should get the Axum Orange. It's amazing.” Immediately, Mwana jumped to suggest the orange drink.

Server: “What will you get?”

“Strawberry flavor.” Kia answered without hesitating.

Turning to Mwana, the boy had a betrayed look on his face which made Kia let out a soft laugh “Now you know my favorite.” With a smile, Kia continued, “Eastern Jin may be chaotic compared to Toro, but the whole country is not some big village. We have whatever brands of drinks you can think of too".

Hearing her explanation Mwana felt a bit dumb and apologized for his ignorance. At least through this he had learned of Kia’s favorite drink.

The Axum Brand was a company located in the Land of Axum that produced all manner of natural drinks from fruit drinks to tea, coffee, and even alcohol. There were many different flavors and versions including Axum Orange, Axum Strawberry, Axum Prime, Axum Fresh, Axum Gold [Old is Gold], Axum Deepwater, etcetera.

After Mwana and Kia finished their breakfast, they walked around Milele looking for activities to do. The two watched a fire-festival at the center of the town where people played with fire. This was even more impressive as none of the people were using fire manipulation techniques or fire magic to perform the tricks due to the power dampening formation set in Milele town. Apart from the performers, there were also small fire fairies that swam in the air around the performers and the audience. Not only did these fairies dissipate the morning cold making everyone feel warm and invigorated, their fire could not harm humans so even children could touch and play with them.

By the time the fire festival ended, it was almost midday. Mwana pulled Kia along the streets to a stall that had a water trough in front of it.

“What are we doing here? Is there a game here or something?” Seeing people huddled around the trough outside the stall, Kia could guess what they were here for.

The stall in question had a Mini-Canoe Racing game where people could compete with each other using miniature boats or canoes.

“There are many small small prizes if you win.” After picking some canoes from the stall owner, Mwana and Kia entered a competition with the other people at the stall. Usually, this game was all about calculation and luck as no one could use magical powers to cheat. The game held a special place in Mwana’s heart as he had once come here with his father when the latter was still alive.

At the end of the day, neither Mwana nor Kia won anything as there were some experienced locals who took the lead every time. As expected, even a horse could not beat a donkey in its own vocation.

As the middle of the day approached, the two children got a midday snack before visiting an archery shooting range. Not only did they watch many talented archers practice their shooting, the two also dusted their hands and practiced with the bow too. Although it was just practice, there were still a few people at the archery range competing with each other for fun. Two of the competing people that stood out to Mwana and Kia, were a boy and a girl a little bit older than them. The two stood out due to their clothing which showed they were probably not from Milele or even the province that Milele town and Jua village were in.

Seeing these two, Kia remembered all the younger children she saw all over Milele this time. Most of these children seemed to come from outside Milele. However, this was not the strange part as Milele was a trading town with caravans coming and leaving daily. The strange part was the age of most of the arrivals. Usually, mostly adults would be on these caravans but this time it seemed as if even more children had visited the town.

“It’s like a flock. Why are there so many?”

Although Kia did not directly mention it, Mwana knew that she was talking about the influx of kids, “It is that competition I told you about.”

“I thought it wasn’t a big deal.”

“It isn’t but maybe things have changed. It is a small competition that Milele holds every few years: kids competing over some sweets.”

“Sweets? Who could travel kilometers for sweets.” Kia was a bit befuddled hearing Mwana’s explanation. Sure a competition made sense but shouldn’t the prize match the task.

“Ha ha, of course it isn’t just ordinary sweets. The subject of the competition is set around magic so naturally the prize also involves magic, Magic Candy! Magic Candy is what we are talking about. Last time I was too young and weak to participate but this time maybe I can. You should try too.” As they walked out of the archery field and restocked on their snacks, Mwana continued explaining the magic competition as he understood it.

Author's Note: I could not help but throw in that Kardashian Orange-Strawberry order joke. The sheer betrayal when someone picks something else after you suggested something. Gives me a chuckle every time.