Entry #4

Date: 5th Sun of the 3rd Astral Moon

The Festival of the Hunt, today was the day to prove that my training in the elementals was not a complete waste. For such an event, I needed to be ready and on the top of my game. It was quite the shame that I didn't feel like getting out of my bed this morning.

After the rain from yesterday had come and passed, the heat and the blazing sun returned with a vengeance. I lazily pulled myself out of bed and wandered over to the mirror which had my robes hanging off of it.

How was I going to be at optimal condition if it was too damn hot to wear my enchanted robes...

Suddenly there was a knock on my door.

"Good morning Torma!" Nan'to gleefully cheered as I lazily opened the door.

"Morning" I replied, with a little less enthusiasm then I wanted. Nan'to immediately detected that something was wrong

"Hey Torma, you don't look so good... are you alright?" She questioned as I retreated back into my dark room.

"I have a bit of a problem... I want to do my best in the Festival today, To do that I need to wear all of my enchanted equipment, but I'm afraid I would die of heat exhaustion first" I motioned my head over to my robes.

It seemed that Nan'to had anticipated something like this.

"I got a surprise for you then" She stated, her smile growing wide. She dug into her satchel that hung loosely on her waist. It seemed she had a lot of things to dig though to get what she wanted. Suddenly she basically threw out a bright red flask and held it out triumphantly like I should be amazed at what it was. To be honest I had no clue what it was.

"What's that? Some kind of potion?" I innocently asked.

Nan'to placed the bottle into my hand and gave a slight nod, grinning from ear to ear "This, my friend, is the cure for what ails you!" She chuckled "A high quality Fire Ward Potion, straight from the Alchemist guild itself! Go ahead, take a sip." She urged me to give it a try.

I figured there was no harm in it. I popped the cork off and took a quick swig. Strangely enough, the concoction actually tasted pretty good. To me it tasted like rolanberries which was one of my favorite wild berries to eat. I felt a strange sensation run up from my feet all the way to the top of my head, it felt like a slightly numbing feeling but it only lasted a few seconds. Then the effect started to kick in. Much to my surprise, it felt almost as if I was cooling down.

"So, you like it? Will this help you out?"

"This is amazing! Thank you so much Nan'to, how can I repay you for this?" Slowly but surely my body felt as if I were back in Limsa temperatures.

Nan'to just laughed "Don't worry about it, that one is on the house" She turned to leave "All I want in return for that, is for you to take down as many monsters as you can" Nan'to looked over her shoulder as she opened the door, she threw up a thumbs up. "You are representing your guild, make them proud. I look forward to seeing you in action"

On that note Nan'to left me to my lonesome. I simply stared at the miraculous crimson liquid. Why hadn't I known about this before? Time to put this to the test, I threw on my conjurer robes, fetched my elm cane and left into town to find something to eat.

Despite Nan'to mentioning that everywhere was closed today, I had no trouble finding food and novelty vendors dotted all around town. Ul'dah was packed full of people today. I'm sure there would be people from Gridania, Limsa and maybe even Ishgard, all here to enjoy the festival in one way or another. That made me wonder if Eldin was going to be here. I wondered on the possibility of bumping into him here. Probably not though, he would have let me know if he was coming.

I had purchased a simple bun with butter and decided to go check out some of the areas they were setting up for the main event. If I were to guess, I would say that about half to three quarters of the whole city were blocked off for the event. You could barely walk for a minute in one direction.

I had happened to wander to the great Ul'dah coliseum that was right in the middle of town and it was no surprise that it too was going to be used in the event. I found a seat and started to eat my bread. I watched as many of the heavily armored workers set up cages in the arena. I wondered why the monsters inside were not making any noises... perhaps they were put to sleep for now...?

"It's quite the sight to see huh? I can't wait for it to start..."

I looked over and realized that over to my right, a small Miqo'te girl, no older then seven years old was sitting next to me. She had her hands propping up her head and she playfully dangled her small legs from where she was sitting. She was so short that her legs couldn't touch the ground from where she was sitting. She looked at me and giggled

"I'm just too excited. I can't wait!"

I smiled "Yeah it must be fun to watch so many brave heroes fight off all those monsters. I can only imagine how it is to actually be down there."

The girl leaned her head, as if thinking about something "Yeah... well my sister is going to be participating, she says that she is going to have lots of fun." The girl threw down her arms "It's just not fair that we have to wait until we are older to have fun too..."

She turned to me "So are you going to watch the whole festival? I know most people don't stay for the whole thing but it gets really good right at the end!"

I chuckled "I'm not watching, I'm actually participating"

The girl wore a dumbfounded look on her face "What!? How are you participating? Only grownups can take part in the festival... your lying..."

Did she think I was a kid? "Excuse me? I'm twenty years old, I am a grownup."

The girl's face shifted to shock, then confusion, then finally the realization hit her. Her face turned beet red.

"O-Oh... a-are you a Lalafell...?" She stuttered "I'm so sorry sir, I didn't mean it. You look a lot like my Hyur classmates."

"Oh? How so?" I questioned.

"W-Well, your eyes... all the Lalafells I see all have glassy pupil-less eyes. Your eyes are like a regular Hyur's..."

I gave a playful laugh, I supposed it was a common mistake to confuse Hyur children with Plainsfolk Lalafells.

"Well you see..." I began explaining "I am a Plainsfolk Lalafell, that means that I don't live in deserts like these Dunesfolk do. I'm from Limsa, where it is much, much cooler."

The girl scratched her head, I wondered if she was processing what I said.

"So... not all Lalafells have those unique eyes?" She questioned.

I took another bite of my bread before answering "Well... the reason Dunesfolk have unique eyes is because they had adapted to the desert environment after so many generations of living in the same place. The reason their eyes look the way they do is because evolution had created a protective lens that shields their eyes from bright sunlight... a lot like a pair of sunglasses" I took another quick bite "Underneath the blurriness you see on the surface, their eyes are just the same as mine..."

"Oh, okay..." the girl paused for a second "So what about the gemstone on the forehead? Do Dunesfolk only wear those as well?"

It took me a few seconds to know what she was referring to "Oh those... yeah, the Dunesfolk have a shared belief that wearing a gemstone with markings of their zodiac symbol will grant them good luck, good fortune, and favor with the gods." I paused to take a bite of my bread. "I don't do that stuff though, I haven't seen many besides the Dunesfolk that do something like that." I shrugged "I think it would be uncomfortable to have a gem attached to my head"

The girl giggled a little bit "Oh... I get it now... I didn't know that." She glanced back to the arena "Thank you for teaching me something new today Mr... umm... Mr..."

Oh yeah, I hadn't given her my name. "My name is Torma" I said.

The girl looked up and smiled "Oh... well... thank you Mr. Torma"

I chuckled, the girl was being formal with me of all people "No need to give me any sort of title, just call me Torma"

The girl held out her hand for a handshake "My name is Isabelle Weathvane, pleased to meet you Torma!"

I threw the last little bit of bread into my mouth and brushed off my hands. I shook Isabelle's hand.

"Pleased to meet 'cha" I stood up and brushed off my robe "I have to get going, so I wish your sister good luck. Enjoy the show!"

"Bye Torma, good luck out there" Isabelle waved as I turned to leave.

I smiled. I was feeling great today, that potion was working wonders for me. I could use my magic to my maximum capacity, maybe now I may stand on my own competing against trained mercenaries and warriors. I might be able to actually take down enough monsters to get a half decent prize at the end of the day.

I laughed at myself. Here I am thinking like a black mage, I was supposed to be a healer in training but here I am training offensive magic against monsters. It was a part of my training though, before I can properly protect others, I first have to learn how to defend myself.

The sun was almost all the way up in the sky, noon is approaching, the festival is about to begin. I headed over to where my starting gate was, it was over near marketplace.

I wondered where Nan'to would be watching from, I was doing this partially because she was so excited about getting me to take part.

I arrived at the gate, but there was still time before it all begins. I relaxed, wrote this entry and mentally prepared myself for what is to come.