Aim For The Heart

The Spice Rack found themselves in Wind Valley once more. Wind Valley had become a sort of secondary event hosting place, and it was quite evident what this celebration was supposed to be about once the crew had arrived. Paprika, classically, was smoldering and dark looking in face and posture as he made his way through the numerous red and pink stalls that lined a shooting gallery a few hundred yards away from the most traveled entrance to the Wind Valley.

This time, Clover had not been the one to beg to go to this event - perhaps learning from the summer event (that had not actually happened to them) - but Opal, who had asked approximately seven hundred times if it was okay that they all went to the Wind Valley to see his friend. It had gotten to the point where even the Crabbots were participating in the sort of mental torture that human parents had endured when multiple children wanted the same thing.

Eventually, Paprika relented, and it would have been disingenuous to say that the rest of the Spice Rack wasn’t at least a little excited to go along as well. They only really went to gatherings as a group when Paprika felt like it, though it would have been easier in the long run to just go separately and leave Paprika to his own devices.

As soon as they had arrived, though, they scattered. Opal went to find his friend and had promised to be back before nightfall. Habanero had wandered off to find some festive drinks, and maybe a source of food. Clover and Paprika stayed together, though Paprika had insisted that Clover went and had fun. Took a picture.

There was a promise to get back together sometime later, and as soon as Clover was out of earshot, Paprika felt a few fingers poke him in his sides. He whirled around, ready to rip and tear, but there were only a pair of bejeweled arms. The knuckles were opal cabochons and the fingers bore a similar look. The arms were a dark gray color with a stripe of gold at the seams.

“As alone as ever I see!” came a cloyingly sweet sounding voice. It was clearly mocking, but in a subtle way.

Paprika frowned. An unfortunate visitor seemed to have tagged along. Though to describe Za’iriel’s efforts as “tagging along” was a bit misleading. Za’iriel loved to poke fun at people and encourage them to be their most authentic selves.

“I thought you hated schmaltzy things like this,” Za’iriel explained, finally coming into view. His floating arms returned to him, and his head rotated slowly, threatening to upend his pink wig.

“Don’t you have something better to do?” Paprika replied, staring each of Za’iriel’s floating eyes in contempt. “I don’t care if you wax poetically outside my manor, but now is not the time.”

“Oh, trying to visit someone special?” Za’iriel asked. “A secret love affair during the valentine’s season. Odd, considering we don’t even have the history to enjoy this lovely holiday, you know. Mind if I come along?”

“Sure,” Paprika replied. “I would love for you to witness my ‘secret love affair’.”

“Well you didn’t  really have a choice. I was just trying to be courteous.”

“The pleasure is all mine.”

The pleasure was, in fact, not Paprika’s at all. Za’iriel was an odd Scarfox even considering how backwards everything seemed to work in the Scarfox Realm. This was a world where gods and mortals could experience each other, and the seasons rarely ever made much sense. Celebrations of the strangest things. Pincer beasts that could change reality. Dream worlds.

Paprika had decided that if he was going to be at a festival of love, “or maybe lust” according to Za’iriel, he would do the most violent thing he could while he was there. He’d seen heart shaped objects being shot out of the sky and wanted to see what that was all about. Za’iriel seemed interested as well though Paprika didn’t doubt that it was for nefarious purposes. The fox was just like that sometimes.

It was an archery field.

Guests could shoot chocolate boxes out of the air and if they managed to get them, then they won coveted and rare chocolates. Paprika liked coveted and rare things and it would be a nice gift to give to Clover, who loved fancy stuff despite pretending that he didn’t. Though it was a badly kept secret that Paprika wanted nothing more than for his brother to be well taken care of.

“This fits your vibe,” Za’iriel said as he and Paprika were given a bow and three arrows each. “Though I was expecting something a little more inline with your current image if I’m being honest.”

“You talk just like Opal,” Paprika said. “About all sorts of things that don’t make sense.”

Paprika fired an arrow to punctuate that. It pierced right through the first chocolate box and he took a deep breath, feeling some tension leave him.

“Opal is a nice kid. I love me a good tortured soul,” Za’iriel said. “They do some interesting things.”

When Za’iriel fired his arrow, it barely clipped the box.

“Probably not going to get a good one for that, ha.” He smiled wide, his teeth numerous and sharp. “Better off finding another target. A bigger one.”

Paprika drew a second arrow and fired it at another box. It pierced true and Paprika let out another breath, more tension leaving him. Za’iriel snorted.

“You’re just showing off.”

“Am I not allowed to have a skill?”

“I bet you never fired an arrow before,” Za’iriel said. His next arrow missed completely, though he wasn’t really paying that much attention. “You would much rather hit something else. Admit it.”

Paprika drew the final arrow, though when Za’iriel fired his final arrow (and missed), Paprika found himself considering being bad. Though he missed his third arrow entirely as well.

“Stop distracting me,” Paprika said.

“I’m just being a friend,” Za’iriel said. “You don’t have many of those. A civic duty is a civic duty, after all. You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?”

Paprika rolled his eyes as he received his chocolate prize. He shoved one in Za’iriel’s hands and tucked the other one away. “Okay, you’ve made your cryptic point. Wander off somewhere else now. I’ll see you again later, I’m sure.”

“It’s a date!”

Za’iriel slipped off before Paprika could respond.