Chapter 238

238 Summer Games: Water Art And Tourists

As Skye and Shasta stood just outside of the announcement tent, they realized that a bunch of people had gathered before they’d stopped moving. The two could even see Lawrence, Tidas, and the twins standing a few booths away. The two brothers were chatting while the children quickly finished their pieces pie.

Seeing them made Skye and Shasta laugh before Skye suddenly crouched down with a grunt. When Shasta asked if she was happened, Skye chuckled with a strained tone and replied; “Ima fine! Ima fine, I got this! It’s just a wee bit more water than I was anticipating.. Ima definitely gonna need to eat again after this..”

As Skye trailed off, her power surged again as she shifted more magic into her Water trait. It was surprising to Tidas to feel and see his wife’s magic first-hand in a long time. She’d requested that he steer clear of Zazzy’s Place while she was training with Shasta, so he had.

Her control and magical capacities had skyrocketed in such a short time! But when Tidas thought about his wife’s schedule, it made more sense to him.. Not complete sense, but enough to keep his uneasiness at bay.

The twins couldn’t see their Aunt Skye, but they could make out Shasta’s figure in the short distance. They handed their empty plates to their father, then started waving at Shasta. Right as she waved back, the ground shook as a wave of power went out in every direction from Skye; covering the entire fairgrounds...

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Skye felt her magic reaching far and wide. She used her Earth magic to push all of the water up to the top while simultaneously using her Water trait to gather the water into giant floating bubbles. It was similar to how she’d handled the water against the Nomads; minus the killing.

On top of all that, Skye was also applying her magic to people’s shoes and clothes, to clean them up. Lawrence was particularly grateful for it, causing him to literally yell his appreciation. Which prompted others to start to scream their thanks as well.

Feeling good about maintaining her magical output, Skye decided to give everyone a little show. She thought it’d be a nice way to start off the games, which was about to start. She heard several dignitaries complaining about wanting to enter the fairgrounds.. ‘Might as well give them a wee show while they wait for me..’

.....

As Skye slowly stood up, she gradually lifted her hands. Thousands of watermelon-sized bubbles began to lift into the sky. The orbs went up far enough for the bright sunlight to hit them. As the rays shined through the water, Skye shifted the bubbles to cast brilliant rainbows all over the fairgrounds.

As people were left in awe at the spectacle, Skye took it one step further. She broke up the thousands of large drops into millions of tiny rippling droplets of rainbows. She monitored the heat of the drops and got them as close to the people as she could while still catching the sunlight.

Millions of tiny rainbows swirled around above the fairgrounds, causing children to scream with excitement and astonishment. As she swirled them around above everyone, they began combining. Stretching and flattening out the water as much as she could, Skye made it look more like glass than water.

She swirled it around; twisting it into a tiny current that folded back in on itself over and over again in waves. Crashing against itself, and spraying high up into the air. Suddenly the crashing stops as it dramatically parts down the middle, then crashes against itself a final time. Exploding and expanding high into the air like fireworks.

A thin mist that reflects one final, massive rainbow over the entire fairgrounds covers every direction of the sky before being carried away by a gentle breeze..

Silence covers the dry fairgrounds for a split second before it erupts in cheers and applause. Even the people several miles outside of the Summer Games watched the majority of the beautiful spectacle. As Skye brushed her hands together to knock off a bit of dirt from touching the ground, she was swarmed by people.

It took quite a few shouts on Tidas’ part to finally reach his wife, who looked a bit overwhelmed. Skye didn’t do things for attention, she did them to see people smile. A nod and a simple ‘thank you’ were more than enough, but everyone within eyeshot of her was crowding her. It took Tidas’ angry voice to get everyone to finally back off.

As soon as she was free, Skye got bombarded by her niece and nephew, which she didn’t mind at all. Strangers trying to touch her was Very different from her family trying to hug her. Even after being in the spotlight for over eight months, Skye still wasn’t used to it, and wondered if she’d ever be.

After bidding farewell to everyone, Skye headed back to the main entrance to the fairgrounds. She was meant to meet Karena and the diplomats there over fifteen minutes ago, but she HAD to stop and get something to eat. As she walked passed a food stall, a sweet, deep-fried doughy smell caught her attention.

The lady running the stall thanked her for taking care of her dress for her, and gave Skye an ‘Elephant Ear’ for free. It was basically an enormous flattened out cinnamon roll that was deep-fried and covered in powdered sugar. Skye made a mental note of the stall’s placement, and ate it quickly as she nearly jogged to the entrance.

As Skye neared the entrance, she quickly wiped her mouth of any remaining powdered sugar, and calmly and gracefully walked towards an impatient-looking Karena. She’d changed into a deep purple colored dress that was very similar in style to Skye’s dress. She would’ve smiled at the fact that even Karena’s dressmaker was being influenced by Skye’s style, except that Karena opened her mouth.

The Crowned Princess scoffed with an arrogant smile as she said; “I expect you to be late to most things, but to be late meeting with the diplomats? Tsk, tsk, Skye.. Magnus will not be pleased.”

Every part of Skye was itching to slap her, but that would’ve been the worst choice ever. Karena would have her executed on the spot. So Skye did what she’d been doing a lot lately: outsmarted her..

While smiling politely on the outside, Skye inwardly grinned like the devil as she retorted in a loud voice; “Forgive my lateness. I was cleaning up a rather large mess. I do hope you will all forgive me.”

Karena was about to make another snarky comment, but the representative from Sai stepped forward and asked in a shaky voice; “So the water in the sky before, the dancing rainbows.. That was you?”

All Skye did was nod in the positive, and the large group of gathered people began to question her. Yelling over each in an effort to be the one heard. As Skye started to feel overwhelmed, she looked to Karena for help, but all she got were dagger eyes. ‘Figures.’

As people started to try to reach out and touch her, Skye instinctively started to build her magic. Right as panic started to sink in, Tidas appeared out of no where. He cut through the crowds, and pulled his wife to him. As soon as he had her in his arms, Tidas spoke in the loudest, calmest voice he could muster; “While we thank you for your praise, Please Reframe from touching My Wife.”

As the people apologized and backed up to give them breathing room, Karena continued to stare daggers at her in-laws. ‘Of course Tidas would show up right when things were getting interesting.. So Skye doesn’t like being cramped or crowded? I’ll have to remember that.. But why is Tidas here? Isn’t he supposed to be getting the events ready?’

Right as the thought passed through Karena’s mind, Tidas spoke to Skye; “I can’t stay.. Will you be alright? Where’s Karena?”

When the two locked eyes, Karena smirked evilly at Tidas. As if she were saying: “She’ll get no help form me, this is too entertaining.” He glared at her, but other than that there really wasn’t anything he could do.

After giving Skye a private pep talk and a few pointers on how to handle crowds, Tidas turned back to the gathered diplomats and dignitaries. He apologized for delaying them, and that Skye and Karena would start their tour. After a quick kiss and a promise of dinner together, Tidas took off..

With a goofy smile and flushed cheeks, a chipper Skye and salty Karena commenced their tour of the Summer Games fairgrounds. The ground itself was completely dry, and the dirt looked almost compacted. As some made comments about how wonderful of a job the ‘young princess’ had done, Karena sulked.

Skye named off the foods and games as they passed the stalls and booths. She event told the gathered VIPs a bit of history about each one. As they stopped and tried various foods and games, Prince Abdul and Richard Yaris watched Skye like birds of prey..

Richard leaned towards the Fire Nation Prince as he said; “Did you see how she controlled the water earlier? Can you imagine how much magical power it must’ve taken to extract the water from the dirt? And look at the ground! It looks like it was packed down! She’s much more powerful than I thought.. It will make things difficult later-”

Abdul shushed Richard before he spoke; “Watch how loudly you speak. Alcon is known for having a large amount of Tank Mages..One could easily hear you and think the worst.”

Richard swallowed hard when he saw the death glare that the prince was shooting his way. His countenance did not match his voice or the rest of his demeanor, and was highly unnerving. As the tour continued, the two hardly spoke again. Waiting for when they returned to privacy to discuss antything nefarious...

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Aside from it’s late start, the tour had no other issues. The diplomats and dignitaries said Skye was a delight. Full of interesting facts about the history and importance of the Summer Games. Ancient cultures from every corner of the world had celebrations and traditions.

As the tour progressed, Skye made it a point to show and stress the significance of how inherently connected everyone is. Even in Alcon, a bit of everything could be found. Food, fashion, art, entertainment; all of the beautiful things that make us alike, Skye stressed.

By the end of the tour; diplomats that hardly participated in anything like the Sai and Fire Nation representatives, were getting involved in the discussions. They compared their foods and clothing to the things Skye had mentioned, and talked over their cultural similarities. When their differences came up, instead of hearing any arguments, Skye heard them laughing and and swapping stories and experiences.

While she knew that all of this was by no means a political solution to anything, Skye had hope that the diplomats and dignitaries would begin to build new relationships with each other. Ones based on what makes us all the same, rather than the unique differences. That was how she always thought politics Should work: celebrate the similarities, and share the differences..

By the time the tour reached the competition area, everyone was smiling and happily chatting away. As the King of Alcon looked over the gathering crowds, he couldn’t help but notice everyone was in a great mood. Everyone except Karena..

As she and Skye broke away from the diplomats to come and join their husbands, Magnus saw the death glare Karena flashed at Skye before resuming her fake courtier’s expression. He wondered what it was about, but pushed the thought aside for the time being. The first round of events was about to begin....