377 Festival
"Woah!" Alex thought as everything he had been thinking until now vanished. The sight of the beautiful city line from this high up was a sight that one didn't see every day.
He walked up to the glass and looked down.
"Woah, we are so far up," Alex said.
Emily got curious and walked to the front to see as well. "Aaahh!" she shouted immediately grabbing onto Alex's left hand and didn't let go. People looked at her curiously and laughed it off to go back to their own thing.
She buried her face on his shoulders due to the fear of height and the embarrassment she was facing.
"Hey, it's okay. Look, we can't see anything anymore," Alex said.
Emily slowly opened her eyes and only saw the skyline. She was fine with that. Alex let her keep holding onto his hands and walked around the room, looking at the different things far away.
The buildings were great and all, but the people from the city didn't seem to like it very much. So, when Emily saw that the skyline changed to the trees from the forest that lead to the void, she got excited.
"Look, Alex, it's the trees. I wonder what the void looks like," she said excitedly as she looked at the horizon.
The trees were taller than the buildings before them and continued for forever. As they went further, the visibility got hazy, and at some point, you could no longer see anything.
"Isn't that exciting?" she asked Alex.
Alex smiled and said, "Yes. Very." He didn't have the heart to tell her that he saw the trees on a daily basis since his farm was right next to the forest. Although he didn't see it from above, he still had seen the forest regularly.
Still, this was a new perspective, so he enjoyed it for a bit. He looked around and suddenly saw something before the trees, but behind the buildings.
'I was right,' he thought and smiled. He couldn't wait for tonight.
"Huh? What's that?" Emily asked in a curious manner.
"Hm… what?" Alex asked as he stopped looking at what he was looking at and turned to Emily.
"I… I think I saw…the haze go away for a second there," she said.
"What?" Alex said with a questioning voice. He looked back towards the forest, but it was the same. There was nothing to be seen beyond the haze.
"There's nothing there though," Alex said.
"I… I could've sworn I saw the haze clear up for just a split second. Maybe I saw wrong?" Emily said.
"What did you see beyond the haze?" Alex asked.
"Um… More trees, I think?" she said.
Alex shook his head. "Let's go check the other things," he said and took her around the entire room.
The viewing place was cylindrical in shape, so one could see the whole cityscape from the tower. After 15 or so minutes of viewing, the teachers herded the students back to the elevator and got them back on the double-decker bus.
Then, they went back to the hotel. It was around 11 am when they returned, so the teachers took the students to the dining area for lunch.
After lunch, the students rested in the lounge area. Some got on their phone, some chatted, some played the games from yesterday.
Once all of the students were rested, the teachers took all of them to see a 3-hour long theater show. Alex didn't think the theater show could be fun at all at first, but once he saw it, he was surprised at how good it was.
"Look, Alex, it says that this was one of the stories they recovered from the old texts," Emily said as she showed Ning the pamphlet they were given when they entered the theater.
It included information about the cast, a synopsis of the story, and its origin.
"R-Romeo and Juliet, huh? Those old people really knew how to write stories. I wonder how many good stories were lost during the supposed catastrophe 600 years ago," Alex said.
"I really wish I could see what those times were like," Emily said.
Alex didn't say anything. They came out of the theater at around 4 in the afternoon. The teachers took them back to the hotel to have some snacks.
After they finished their snacks, the teacher spoke once again.
"From 5 till 8, you have free time once again today. I suggest you go to the festival taking place near the forest," the teacher said.
Alex smiled. He already knew this. He had seen part of the festival setup from the tower's viewing spot today.
"Miss Emily," the teacher called her.
"Yes?" she said a little surprised. She didn't know why a teacher would call her directly.
"Remember the thing you won yesterday? Be sure to use it in the festival today," the teacher said with a smile.
"Oh, ok," she said. She then leaned next to Alex and whispered, "How do I use points in a festival? I've never been to one."
Alex chuckled a little and said, "You'll see."
Once it was 5, Alex took Emily and walked out of the hotel. The other students were going to the festival too, so everyone just followed each other and went there.
The festival was about 10 minutes away from where the hotel was, so it was really close. The closer they walked to the edge of the city, the smaller the buildings got.
Finally, they came upon a vast open space that was almost untouched by humanity. That would perhaps be considered true if there wasn't a massive festival set up in this open space.
"Woah," Emily said when she saw the colorful lights strung all around the gate and inside of the festival. "They even have a Ferris wheel. This looks more like an amusement park honestly,"
"Uh… you'll see how they are different once you enter inside," Alex said. "Shall we?"
Emily grabbed the hand Alex put forth with a smile on her face and said, "Yes."
