31

ELARIAN

Blair led me over to one of the long benches in the park, where she stopped in front of a funny-looking man dressed in flashy clothes. He had all sorts of paintings on his face, along with some other men present or walking around the park.

“Hey Blair, who do you have here?” he asked with a cheerful smile. He had dark hair and eyes that held such depth to them that you could find yourself staring into them for a long time.

“Are you interested in joining the carnival?” He looked up at me with a twinkle in his eyes, and I raised a brow in response.

“Carnival?”

“Yeah…look around you; there’s a carnival going on at the moment.” He stopped talking and stared at me for a while. “Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around here before. Are you by any chance new to the area?”

“Yes, she is. I just found her over there,” Blair turned around to point at the spot where we had met, “and she seemed to be in need of a place to crash for a few days.”

“Well…she’s in luck. I ne