On the backstreets of the city, where the people moved a little slower than most in the Wharf, a young boy tugged the shirt sleeve of his older brother.

“C’mon!  The others ran ahead of us already!”

“Yawn, cut me some slack.  I didn’t get any sleep due to your snoring.”

“I-I don’t snore!”  The younger one stamped his feet at the older’s teasing, and began tugging again.

“Hm?  I think that’s them over there.”  He pointed his younger brother to a crowd of kids wandering between the festival stands.  Among them was an unusually tall Abyssian.  “Hard to miss Fareal, haha~”

“Ah!  Guys!”  The young boy ran to his friends with a smile plastered on his face; but before reaching them, he stopped to look back at his brother.

“I’ll join you guys in a minute Mackie, just let me talk to Fareal for a bit.”  The boy nodded his head and ran to his friends while the older brother broke off from the pack.  In the festival path were all sorts of the young and old, but mostly young.  They’d eat warm berry treats melting from the sticks they were served on, and play silly games for cheap prizes.  Chief among these was Mackie, who’d been waiting all year for the next festival; as for kids his age, the games are free.

Him and his friends basked in the glow of lamps, protecting them from the icy chill that permeated the Wharf around this time of year.

“Ah, Mackie!  Where’s Candor?”

“Him and Fareal went to talk.”  Mackie slipped behind his slimy friend and pushed him towards the next game stand, where the players swiftly cleared out at the sight of a Frog, “Hah~ that never gets old.”

“Hehe… yeah.”  His friend seemed mixed about their reaction, but Mackie hadn’t noticed.  His eyes were fixed upon the many prizes of this stall, prizes he had a free opportunity to win.  With six knives and twelve wooden targets, one could win plastic clubs or cinqs, leather balls packed with gravel, woven and wooden dolls and figurines; and the grand prize that stood above them all, a strange toy made of poles and three wheels with a tricorn seat on top.  He had no clue what it was, he only knew he needed it.

Mackie went up to the festival stand, his head barely rising past the table at the front.  The Canis at the stand looked at the two kids, and eyed Mackie’s friend closely.

“That one can’t play this game.”

“I-I know that, sir.  I’m only here to watch.”  

“Hmph!  Six throws then?  That’ll be a guin–”

“A guin?! I thought it was free!”

“Was free, kid.  That was last year.”  The Canis man picked behind his ear with a single claw and opened his other hand awaiting payment, “This year we actually plan to make a profit.”  Mackie sorted through his pockets for anything he could trade.  In one he found a brass cufflink, the design of which was a black-trimmed square that had a furry ear engraved at the center.  He’d found it when playing with the kids at Trash, and was reluctant to let it go.  Yet the prospect of winning big at this stand was too tantalizing for the young boy, and inevitably overpowered his desire to keep it.

“W-would this work?”  Mackie stretched out his hand and opened it to reveal the cufflink at the center of his palm.  In a flash the Canis man plucked it from his palm, then sat it next to the knives on the table.

“I’ll give… hmm… four throws, and we call it even.  Sound good?  I’ll even bring out a box for you to throw from.” 

“Uhm…”  Mackie pretended to think over the deal for a moment, not at all sure if it was a fair one, “Okay–”

“Hold up, Mackie!”  Candor came from behind and pulled Mackie close to him with a smile, “You weren’t gonna play without me, were you?”

“Eh~”  Mackie broke free from his brother, crouching under Candor’s arm and throwing it away from him, “I can handle this much!”  He stood atop the box which the Canis had brought out, and picked up one of the knives, “I paid for it and everything without you!  Hmph!”  He turned to throw his first knife before Candor grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Paid?  What do you mean you paid?”

“Er– yeah, the man said it was a guin to play so I–”

“Hey, mutt!  The games are free for kids!”  Candor walked to the counter, leaning against it while wearing the worst scowl he could muster, “What did you give him, Mackie?”

“I-I gave him my cufflink…”  Mackie retreated further from the game stand.

“Give it back.”  Candor held out his hand expectantly, but the man brushed him off,  appearing unamused with Candor’s provocations.

“Like I told the kid, the games aren't free anymore–”

 

Candor lifted up his shirt collar and pulled his arm out through it, showing a tattoo on his bicep to the Canis.  This time, the Canis switched to a more concerned tone.

“See that?  I’ve got friends, mutt.  You can either give him his cufflink now, or we’ll be back for it later.”  The Canis spotted Candor’s cinq on his waist; the pommel of which was wrapped in a yellowish cloth that was also fastened around the handle.  Fareal was behind him, and also had a cinq proudly protruding from its scabbard, just as he proudly towered above the rest of their group.

“Tsk, here!”  The man threw the cufflink to the ground beside Candor’s feet, and Mackie raced to pick it up and stuffed it back into his pocket.

“Now Mackie, take up the knives and use your throws.”

“But–”  The Canis was cut-off by a savage snarl released by Fareal, an imposing presence that Abyssian’s aren’t often known for.  

Mackie gleefully walked on the box, and nodded to his brother standing next to him with gratitude.  Before him were twelve targets in two rows, with eight in the bottom row and four in the top row.  Each wooden target had a face painted on it.  One was a greedy Abyssian with an eyepatch coveting his treasure, while another looked to be a sultry Cuni inviting one to mess around.  There was a Frog covered in warts and with a few too many legs, painted to be spitting bile at the knife thrower.  And a target of an Ovis on the top row had been given an armory of weapons which he carried on his back, armoured head-to-toe with solid metal plating leaving only his gritted teeth and scarred face exposed.

All the targets were placed further back the more inwards they were, with the top-middle target being the furthest and also being the target Mackie would have to hit to win the grand prize.  

“Don’t miss!”

“I won’t!  Watch me!”  Mackie lifted his first knife by its handle, and threw it like he was chucking a rock; naturally, it missed without ever grazing a target.

“Pfft!”  Candor laughed at his first throw, but Mackie felt like he had just gotten the hang of it.  With his second throw, Mackie tried to arch the blade more, and this time he added a wobbly spin.  The knife bounced off one of the top row targets, then fell to the ground with a plop.

“I got this one!  Just watch!”  Mackie puffed up his cheeks and turned to Candor who was all smiles.

“Let’s see it then.”  On his third knife, Mackie tried to toss it with the blade facing outward.  It was another big miss, and the knife hit the wall at the back of the stand.  “You need someone to show you how to do it?”

“I don't need your help, I can do it myself!”  With his fourth knife, Mackie reeled back and threw it as hard as he could, narrowly missing the Canis that wasn’t anywhere near the targets.

“Hey!  Watch where you’re throwing it!”

“Here, let me show you–”

“I don’t need help!”  Mackie threw off his brother’s reaching hands and grabbed the fifth knife preparing to throw it.  Candor, on the other hand, was no longer asking to help.  He stood back with his arms crossed and waited for Mackie to miss again, before grabbing the sixth knife.  “Give it!”

“No.  Now watch.”  Tears began welling in Mackie’s eyes as his face went red teetering on a tantrum, but before he could, Candor flicked him in his ear and swiftly held the knife in front of Mackie’s face.  “Grab it by the tip.”  Mackie begrudgingly did, and wobbled the knife around while holding it at the tip, forgetting his tantrum altogether as he focused on the blade.  “Feel that weight?  That’s the part you’re slinging.  Slinging.  Not throwing.”  He pulled Mackie’s arm up in the position he should sling the knife, “Give it some room to move between your fingers, and cant it ever so slightly.  Look at what you want to hit, judge the distance; then, sling and release.”

Doing as he said, Mackie faced the targets and raised up the knife by its tip.  He felt its weight at the end, and shifted it a bit before judging the arch of his throw.  After a moment of thought, he pulled back his hand and slung the knife.  It spun in the air, and stuck squarely into a wooden target with the painted portrait of an armourclad Canis.

“I… I hit it!  Candor, I hit it!”

“Haha~ you did!  Good throw!”  Mackie was rife with excitement after hitting a target; although, the target he hit was the easiest out of all of them.

“Finally… here’s your prize, kid.”  The Canis reached behind his counter and pulled out a selection of plastic toys.

“Aww~ these are terrible…”

“What do you mean ‘terrible’?  Some of these toys are great!  I would have loved to have these when I was your age!”  Candor sifted through them and started pulling out toys that looked interesting.  “Look!  It’s a… what is this?”  He looked at a small disc in his hand that had in it a bead which could be maneuvered around the maze encased within.  “Hey this one’s pretty cool, Mackie.” 

“Meh.”  Mackie gazed past the maze toy and back into the treasure trove of cheap prizes while Candor continued to roll the bead around the maze.

 

A whistle shaped like a beak caught his eye, but the sound it made was nauseating.  Another was a fake egg, but when he split it open he found that there was nothing inside.

“How long are you two gonna be?”  Candor glared at him and reached his hand back into the toys, removing a simplistic purple key.

“Oh~ this one’s really nice.”

“A… plastic key?”

“Gasp, you don’t know what this is?”  Mackie tilted his head in confusion, “This here is the key to Venus.”

“Haha~ Shut up!”  The two giggled between themselves at the notion.  The door that stood at the center of Starlight being opened by a worthless plastic key.  It amused them to no end.

“I’m serious!  Ah, we better take this.  We wouldn’t want just anyone to have it.”

“Can I see it?”

“You?  Hold the key?  Don’t make me laugh.”

“Why not?!”

“Don’t you understand how important this key is?  Not just anyone can hold it, let alone even look at it.”  Candor turned around with the key in hand and began walking away from the game stand, leading Mackie away from it.

“Hey c’mon!  I wanna see it!”

“Hmm~ maybe if you win a few more games, I might think you’re worthy.”

“I have to win some games to see a stupid plastic key?”

“Well if it’s so stupid, I guess you don’t need to see it.”  Fareal and the others pulled away from their own games and followed the two through the festival stands as they went.

“Okay, I’ll win some games to see the stupid key.”

“The key to Venus, you mean–”

“Yes!  The key to Venus, haha~”  He ran ahead of Candor, and they went forth, back into the glow of lamps and into one of the few nights they could let go and have fun.