As the contestants got in their positions to start the race, the crowd got quieter. At some point, only noises from other people on the street that were having fun at the festival could be heard, after all, not everyone is interested in watching people race.
The night is starting to fall and the lights that glow an orange color on the streets make it seem more and more like a dream.
And as a loud sound of a wistle could be heard, the contestants broke into a sprint.
Everyone started watching with excitement as the contestants raced. It was quite obvious that Max will be in the fastest three, right now maybe even first.
He ran as if his life depended on it, and Hayel could only admit that he would undoubtedly lose if he ever raced him.
Max overtook the runner in front of him, becoming the fastest person in the race.
However, not for long.
Another person overtook the guy that was in second place, fastly closing the distance between max and him.
Eventually, he overtook Max too.
The guy was incredibly fast, making Hayel wonder if the he had some sort of ability that was able to grant him such power. Not an ability that made him just fast, because an ability like that would have made him even faster, and the guy was obviously already giving it his all.
'Maybe an ability that augments his body in general?'
And unsurprisingly, the guy won first place, Max coming in second and another guy that Hayel didn't recognize was third.
Everyone was cheering and screaming at the winners, even Layla was jumping up and down shaking Hayel by grabbing his clothes and pointing towards Max.
The loud guy went to congratulate the winners that were right now looking quite tired. He seemed surprised when he saw Max, he also talked with him a bit longer than the other two.
Eventually someone brought them water and the loud guy led them towards the prizes.
"Okay everyone, let's congratulate the winners!" The loud guy yelled. Everyone started cheering even louder, almost making Hayel cover his ears.
The loud guy yelled again, "It was a pleasure to hold this competition! I hope everyone is looking forward to other competitions we have planned for the festival. I wish everyone a wonderful night!"
'How is he so loud?' Hayel couldn't help but wonder.
People started leaving while discussing the competition and what else they could do now.
Layla on the other hand, started dragging Hayel closer to the place where the winners are getting their prizes.
After squeezing through the crowd, Layla stops not too far away from Max who notices them and smiles.
After a few minutes, he starts walking over towards them with a small dark box in his hands.
"I'm sorry I couldn't win the first place," Max says with a smile, "however, I will still keep my promise and give you this pair of earrings."
Layla waves her hands, "No, no you don't have to apologize, you still won!"
'God, I think should leave. Why is this guy so formal? It's like a facade…' Hayel can't help but feel like he is third-wheeling.
"Thank you, really," She continues, smiling.
At this point, Hayel has already stepped away from them. He just finds it too weird to see Layla being so nice to someone, especially because she has been torturing him since they have known each other.
Feeling a bit awkward, he turns away from them and starts looking around the street. Children running around with candy in their hands, in general everyone seems very happy tonight. He also notices a few familiar faces in the crowd, some people from the village.
Hayel doesn't know their names, but he occasionally saw them when walking around the village. Of course, they are also wearing different clothes than they would normally wear.
Hayel suddenly feels a tap on his shoulder, it's Layla.
"Look, they are so beautiful," Layla says, showing him the earrings that are inside the small box.
They are silver, a bit longer earrings with beautiful details. At the ends, there is a small flower and around it is an outline of a diamond like shape.
The flower, which is silver, is so delicately done to the point if it was painted in some color, it would appear like an actual tiny flower.
"Are you going to put them on?" Hayel finally asks.
"I was thinking about doing it, but I'm afraid I will lose them," She answers, almost reluctantly.
"Well, you will maybe lose them in the village when you are working, but right now it's not like you are doing anything." Hayel looks away for a second. "But you will still have to be careful."
"You know what, yeah, you are right." She takes off her own cheap earrings and starts putting on the new ones. "But tell me if you notice any of them missing!"
"Yeah, yeah I will."
"Okay, how do I look?" Layla asks him while making some kind of a weird face.
"Beautiful , can we go do something else now? Why are you making that face?"
"Wow, you seriously need to work on your vocabulary. Let's go!" Layla quickly says and turns around to walk down the street.
"What do you mean?" He asks her confused while running after her.
"Nothing, just think about what you want to do now." She tells him and Hayel decides not to dwell on it.
"We can go play that game where you need to throw sticks…?"
"Sure, let's go do that!" She turns around and practically drags him towards the place where that game is.
Both of them played and won the same prize, which is a small candy that they could have bought for half the cost of playing the game.
They also mutually agreed that neither of them are good at throwing sticks.
Now that they don't have any money to spend, they chose to just walk around the city some more and after growing bored of it, they decided to finally go home.