In the heart of Sularia, there was joy. Sounds of music, laughter, and singing flowed throughout the city while the sent of delicious foods crossed every nose. Snow covered the castle district, causing many locals to gaze at it in wonder. In every eye was a twinkle of happiness and every heart was filled to the brim. It was difficult to believe that they once were heavy with the weight of a war and the disasters that had plagued them. The ones who had fallen were not forgotten. Someone had used one of the benches as an alter for their loved ones. The bench was covered in gifts, paintings, candles, and many other items. It appeared as though the idea was catching on and others were using the same place as an alter to give respects to the dead. 

All this festival magic is what lured Attie over to the celebration. She was never one to turn down fun but it was her curiosity about the festival that really brought her in. Her desire to learn made her want to ask everybody questions. What was this festival? What was it for? Who made it? Did everybody celebrate it or was it just celebrated in Sularia? Thousands of these questions burned through her head but it was difficult to figure out who to ask. It was times like these that she wished that she had a guide or a friend to explain things to her. 

Attie was standing towards the edge of the celebration, thinking about how to move forwards. Her hand cupped her chin as she tried to figure out a plan. She wasn't dressed up for the event, as she had planned to be inspecting the festival instead of participating. However, it appeared that in order to truly understand it, one had to participate in it. With a small shrug, she walked towards the party. There was a large group of people happily dancing on the dance floor and a couple of people were chatting near the banquet. Children ran about, chasing each other or getting into some sort of mischief. A bright smile appeared on Attie's face and grew when she saw the food. 

The banquet had all sorts of cuisine and drinks to give out to guests. There were fried potato pancakes called latkes, honey glazed ham, red chili pork tamales, homemade cannolis, a large cake made to look like a log, sweet hot cocoa, cranberry punch, bright red pomegranates, pumpkin pie straight from the oven, green bean casserole, eggnog, a large stuffed roasted goose, decorated gingerbread cookies, fried jelly filled doughnuts, mince pies, salted cod fish, sweet honey soaked cookies, roasted pigs, a big pot of lentils, a large rice cake with layers of pork, and much much more. It was almost as if there was an army cooking and baking for every person in the world.

The first thing that caught Attie's eye was the ham. Her stomach growled with hunger and her teeth began to morph into sharper bear-like teeth. She snatched the entire ham and tore into it with her teeth. The taste of the slightly sweet meat was heavenly. In a matter of moments the ham was gone and Attie's hunger was satisfied for the moment. Her teeth changed bag to the regular human form. She looked around the festival, looking to see if she could spot a friend. Festivals were fun but they were far more enjoyable when a friend was with her. 

Her last attempt at finding a date in Nisshoki had flopped, but when she received an invitation her spirits lifted. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and one Nui absolutely didn't want to pass up! With so many people coming from all over the world it was the perfect chance to meet new people–and potential candidates. Dressing up in her newly purchased Adelunian frock, the fox girl tucked some ribbons beside her ears and combed her fur. She gave Gramps one last goodbye before leaving the village for the great city of Sularia. Hearing about Arri from Sapphire, Nui assumed it'd pretty warm. So when she stepped off the airship to be greeted by a blast of cold, fresh powder she was left staring in shock. Rereading her letter, she saw she failed to notice the mention of snow…artificial but still just as chilly. Her ears flattened. Now she was standing in a spring green sundress with snow up to her ankles. Her tails unhid themselves as she let out a sigh.

It was too early for drinks and Nui never liked them anyway. But her nose caught the scent of light syrupy sweetness that could only be one thing–pudding! Juggling finding a date and sampling the buffet table, the smell of cake won as Nui helped herself to a small pile of desserts. Custard egg tarts! Jelly roll cakes! Almond cookies! Castella! She wanted them all! Nabbing a cup of hot chocolate, immediately the fox girl began downing the contents of her plate cleansing her palate with the bittersweet cocoa. She quite pleased with herself, all nine tails puffed up like clouds and waving slightly. After her second mug of cocoa she wasn't cold anymore. Eyeing a dish of hand-crafted chocolates, she leaned over to sink her fork into a cocoa-dusted truffle. Shoving it into her mouth, her next target was a milk chocolate hazelnut praline. 

In the midst of the revelers, one could notice someone spending a little too much time around the buffet tables, specifically the desserts. As in they were only eating the desserts and attempting to eat their money's worth like an all-you-can-eat dim sum tea special for two hours. Nui had completely forgotten her initial plan for finding a suitable boyfriend and was lost in cream puff heaven. She was even putting them onto skewers and coating them in the chocolate fountain…

Attie spotted a girl near the dessert table who was focusing entirely on the sweets. Curiosity ran through Attie's mind as she watched the stranger devouring and piling up the desserts. Perhaps this girl was some sort of food taster or a professional baker? If that was the case, then there was one treat that the girl HAD to try. Strawberry rhubarb crisp. Attie had learned the recipe while travelling through parts of Parvpora. However, it might not exist at the table. Attie began to look through the sweets and was lucky enough to find it. 

"Heya. You should try the strawberry rhubarb crisp." Attie said to Nui, "Its got sweet fresh strawberries and rhubarb combined to make a perfect flavor. Its never too sweet nor is it too sour. It's right in that middle area. The dessert also has a crumbly layer on top made up of oatmeal and brown sugar. That's why it is called a crisp! Anyway my name is Attie. What's your name?"

Attie wasn't the best at introductions. Most of her intros relied on her saying something weird or talking about a fact before she told the other person her name. But she didn't care too much about that. It was more important to speak first and question her words later…in most cases. Attie looked around at the dessert table but after eating an entire ham, she didn't have an appetite. Perhaps she ought to do some laps around the city or start with a hundred push ups to work up a new appetite. Wasn't that how it worked? People exercised so they could eat more? 

"I wonder why there is snow…" Attie said absentmindedly "I'm sure its magic of sort. But what kind of magic? Hmm…maybe I can ask later?" 

Her mind never stayed in one place it seemed….

She had been busy stuffing her face that she didn't notice someone approach her. A girl with black hair who looked about her age spoke up just as Nui shoved another cream puff into her mouth. At the sound of this new dessert, the girl's fox ears stood up while she swallowed her mouthful. "Ooh strawberries! Anything with strawberries has to be good! Is it that one?" She pointed her fork in the direction of a dish that looked like what the girl told her. "Thanks, I'll definitely try that next!" Ah, this was the best thing about parties with lots of food–you could taste all sorts of different things you might not be able to find on your own! "Hi Attie, I'm Nui! It's colder than I thought it'd be, but that's my own fault for not reading the invitation letter carefully." Spooning a generous helping of the strawberry rhubarb crisp onto her empty plate, Nui commented on Attie's question between bites. "It's probably magic, I mean–it's normally hot and sunny here right? The weather doesn't just change randomly because if feels like it. So whoever did this must be pretty powerful to make it happen." 

It was the first time Nui was talking to somebody who wasn't from her hometown, so she had to admit she was a little nervous. Attie probably would have never noticed since Nui stuffed spoonfuls of crisp into her mouth to cover her anxiety. It was the only way to distract herself from giving her feelings away. If she didn't, then her tails would be all over the place and things would get awkward. "Maybe–they called in a snow spirit to stay for a while? Back home they'd say sudden changes in weather were due to spirits acting up. I dunno if it's the same everywhere else." After a long pause, she worked up the courage to ask: "So…where are you from? I'm from Nisshoki–well, outside the city really. It's pretty close by but quiet enough that the streets aren't busy at night." There was no reason to be nervous, after all didn't she practice those conversation openers and topics in small talk in front of the mirror? She needed to stop thinking too much, yeah that was it.

"Meeting a snow spirit would be neat." Attie commented.

The girl kept eating more food and Attie couldn't help but wonder how hungry this girl was. Did she not eat properly? Or perhaps she had missed a meal? Whatever the reason, Attie was glad that there was a large banquet available. She wasn't sure that the world could handle Nui's hunger otherwise.  There was a long pause between them. Attie wracked her brain for some sort of thing to say but couldn't come up with anything. Luckily, Nui spoke up instead, asking about where Attie was from. That wasn't a hard question to answer.

"I'm from Virens forest." Attie explained, "But I like to travel often. That's how I learned about the rhubarb crisp. I like to travel and learn new things. For me, information is far more valuable than any jewel or coin." 

Her eyes lit up with passion at the mention of knowledge. She could never explain it but there was an ever burning curiosity inside her head that itched for new information. It didn't matter what kind of information or how it was learned. All that mattered was that she explored it. But this was hard to explain to others so instead, she just said that knowledge was valuable to her. 

"Nisshoki sounds like a nice place. I might have to visit sometime." Attie commented, "Oh, you are cold, aren't you?" 

Attie reached into her satchel and pulled out a simple brown cloak. The cloak was warm and practically, though it wasn't the most decorated of all clothing items. She never cared much for clothes unless it was important to a ritual, event, or learning something. Otherwise, clothes were just clothes. Even her outfit at the moment was mostly a tunic, pants, and boots. There was little actual dress up. 

"I'm curious, what brought you here?" Attie asked, "Events like this are fun but most people always have a second reason to go to events." 

"Oh, a forest? I've never heard of that one before, but it must be big if it has a name." She'd ask her friends back home about it later, for now she was focused on chatting with her newfound friend. Attie was a pretty nice person, as she lent her a cloak. Nui was a bit embarrassed that she'd made such a silly mistake, but now it seemed it wasn't too bad. "Thanks, I'd shift forms to stay warm but then I wouldn't be able to finish what I'm eating." Paws weren't good for holding forks or spoons. It was Attie's turn to ask about her, to which the fox girl gave it to her straight. "Well other than the invitation, I was thinking that maybe I'd be able to… Don't laugh when I tell you–but I was thinking of finding a boyfriend. I mean, there's tons of people from all over in a single place so that'd raise my chances of meeting someone! After all I don't really have any options looking back home. Not after a certain someone ruined one of my best chances in the city…" She grumbled. Oh right, that was why she was here. She'd completely forgotten about it when she heard the siren call of chocolate truffles and exotic delicacies.

Reminding herself brought back some unpleasant memories which soured the sweetness of the crisp. Taking a steaming cup of hot cocoa, Nui downed it before slamming the cup down, then wiped her mouth. Ah the bittersweet taste of a young girl's failed attempts at finding love… Which all happened to end before the relationship even started. In all seriousness, with her current track record would she even be able to find a suitable potential husband here too? Maybe she was being too cynical, after all she only had two failed attempts. Genjiro had failed more than thirty and he still managed to impress Enya. But then again all of those failures were Genjiro's fault and not because the person on the other side of the table was disagreeable or knocked unconscious by a religiously devout lunatic. "…Um, if you want to visit Nisshoki–almost any time of the year is good. Just be careful during Ignius, there's serious flooding around the city during the rainy season. The cherry blossoms are almost gone now so it's a little too late for viewing. There's plenty of street food to try though! And in Glaciem you get to try hotpot!" If there was one thing Nui loved, it was good food. 

"I will definitely try out the hotpot." Attie agreed, "I'm always up for new experiences when it comes to food."

Attie quietly listened to Nui as she discussed her lack of a love life. It seemed that she was looking for a mate but was having a rough time finding one. Apparently somebody ruined her chances in her city. It was clear that whatever happened was extremely unpleasant for her since the second she began talking, she started stuffing her mouth with food. Attie had heard about people using food as a way to ignore whatever emotional, situational, or physical issues that they were having but this was the first time that she had seen it in person. 

"I see… so you must be in mating season then?" Attie questioned, "I betcha there is other men out there. Maybe you should start travelling to find them, since it seems that your chances for finding a mate in your hometown is a bust." 

Being raised by a bear meant that she saw things a little differently than most people. She understood the term girlfriend and boyfriend but she always interpreted that as mate. And mating season was just a term for either the season that people find mates, typically spring but not always, or as a term for people looking for mates. Either way, it was clear that she was looking for a guy. 

"So you came here looking for a guy then?" She said, "Is there any way I can help? I could try to be a wing." 

She meant the term wing-woman but she hadn't quite figured out the full term. Attie had only heard it one or two times. The meaning of the word was clear to her. A wing-woman was in charge of getting two people together to talk. Whether they got into a relationship was up to them but it was the introduction that was most important. Or at least that is what her fashionista friend back in Adeluna explained. Attie didn't really know that much about love herself or how it worked. 

Nui's face turned bright red when Attie mentioned 'mating season'. Looking off to the side she churned her fork in the remainder of her dessert plate as she stuttered. "N-no! Not exactly… Um, well I was just thinking that I'd better start early to improve my chances. So far I haven't had the best of luck." Eventually Attie and Nui came to an understanding on the gist of what the fox was looking for, more or less. "Basically, yes I'm looking for a guy. But not just anyone–you can't just pick the first person you see at random and think it'll work out. And even if you think you've picked someone suitable things don't always turn out the way you think." She started fretting again. "You see, I have standards. And that's very important when you're finding someone you want to spend the rest of your life with. If I knew that a little sooner I would've avoided a lot of failures in the first few dates…" The way Nui was explaining love was like some sort of complicated guessing game on finding a shoe that matched another perfectly in a pile of many other shoes. And now that Attie got her started on the topic, Nui started to vent while angrily clearing away the rest of her dessert. 

"The first date I went on was sort of blind, I only met him once and we happened to bump into each other. He needed help carrying some things and accidentally ran into me, and he seemed like a really nice boy. So we agreed to meet up at a restaurant and started ordering food. Things were going pretty well–I dressed up, I didn't say anything weird or rude, he was acting normal. Then he showed up." Pulling up a pair of chairs, she sat down as she began to tell Attie of the horrible fiasco that was her 'first' date. Weeks ahead she had gone into the city to window shop, buy snacks, and browse the market. It was a normal day until some weird person who was an exorcist in training saw her buying taiyaki from a stand. "I dunno what his problem was, but here I was buying snacks like usual when he starts screaming at me. This guy comes up and accuses me of being something evil, saying I was trying to 'bewitch an innocent individual with my wiles'. All I was doing was buying food! Obviously the food vendor wasn't buying it, I mean he knows me. I buy stuff from him every week. But this guy wasn't letting me go. I tried to ignore him but the more I did the crazier his accusations were getting. I tried to reason with him but that did nothing. And so do you know what I did next?" 

Nui's tails were all puffed up and her ears were near vertical, showing how annoyed she still was about it. After a pause to let Attie guess, she answered herself. "I called the guards and told them he was a stalker." The fox girl crossed her arms and stared off into the distance. "I explained what happened and he was given a stern warning while I got away as fast as I could. There are a lot of weirdos in the city, and you never know when they'll jump on you like fleas in the grass. Anyway, I thought that'd be the last time I'd see him. Unfortunately I was wrong…" She then continued going back to the date at the restaurant with the guard in training. What could have been a rather nice date was promptly ruined before it could take off–as said exorcist burst into the restaurant and tried to attack her. The exorcist missed, but poor Shuichi was caught in the crossfire. He was knocked out cold, not even knowing what hit him. It was a mad scramble for help as she was trying to escape the crazy stalker, then an actual evil spirit showed up. While those two were distracted, she called for the guards again and the man was taken into custody…after almost trying to go after her again. The ghost that showed up out of the blue then drained the life out of the exorcist, and then people from that exorcist's sect came to take him back. It was an absolute disaster, and the restaurant was trashed in the fight.

After what happened Nui had been too embarrassed to ask Shuichi out again. She felt bad that he had gotten hurt because of her and felt that maybe it would be better if they didn't see each other again. Maybe this was why they said that relationships between humans and non-humans weren't meant to be. "So I after that I thought I'd try my chances with somebody of my own species. Shuichi was really nice, but our lifespans would be too different. Besides, maybe he'd find another nice girl from a normal family."    

As Attie listened, she began to realize that Nui was looking for a permanent mate. Some people only wanted temporary mates while others were looking for eternal ones. It was clear that Nui wanted somebody who would be there for her for the rest of her life. Then Nui began to tell the tale of how one of her dates was destroyed by a random man who appeared determined to mess things up. Attie's expression held a look of surprise, as most weird people didn't go through all the effort of following one to their date then knocking that date out. Attie was curious to hear the story from the random man's point of view, if only to understand why he had done that. However, she felt that would be a bad idea as she didn't want to get attacked by a weird person.

"Perhaps you should also look among the many non-humans?" Attie suggested, "There are elves, dwarves, rosen- no wait they mostly have female. There are also were-wolves, vae-wolves, vampires, fey, centaurs, and I'm sure many others who I'm forgetting. Generally speaking, they all have long lives so I don't think you'd have to worry about their lifespan."

She wondered what exactly Nui was looking for in a potential partner. Male was obviously the first thing she desired. And it seemed that she was looking for somebody who was nice and had a long life-span. Those short lists of items ruled out only a few people and still left a large selection. She probably wanted somebody who was around her age and had a pleasant appearance, or at least took care of himself. That probably ruled out some other people as well but it still left a large group of people who would be able to fill that role. It really mattered on what exactly Nui wanted in a potential partner.

"So that was the first date right?" She asked, "Did you go on any others or did you come straight here?"

Attie wanted to find some way to help, but she needed information before she could figure anything out. She was not a great matchmaker nor was she experienced in love. However, she was good with plans and understood the basics of a good relationship, romantic or not. It was her desire to help and to learn more that was pushing her to help this stranger. 

"Well there was the second date…which went worse than the first one, believe it or not." Nui sighed, ears and tails flattening. "And that's what I had in mind when I agreed to go to a blind date in Kujishoku. If it's longevity that you're looking for any of the options you listed will do, but there are other problems with picking one of the more 'long-lived' races." The fox girl grimaced as she retold the event to Attie's eager ears. After the first date ended badly, she had holed up in her house for days feeling depressed. She had told Gramps about it, and he mostly asked for the details of who the disruptive exorcist in training was. She swore that she was done with dating forever, but that was just the embarrassment talking. Eventually she talked about it with the mother of one of her childhood friends while helping out at the restaurant. The nice lady offered to give her a referral to a well-known matchmaker in the Ethereal City. Of course, not knowing anything about the process she met up with the woman who arranged a blind date for her. The place and time were set and a brief summary of who she'd be meeting was given. Even though this wasn't her first blind date, Nui was still on edge after that previous disaster. And so, about a month after she had 'broken up' with Shuichi she met with another fox like herself. 

This time were was no need to hide her ears and tails, but she took extra care with some help from that friend's mother to look her very best for the big day. She arrived early, made sure she didn't eat anything that would give her bad breath beforehand, and borrowed a few squirts of perfume to rub on her neck. "I still remember what I wore that day. It took me forever to decide what accessories I wanted to use because my first failure shook me up. I eventually picked the pink coral beads and cherry blossom hairpins and matched it with a nice plum-patterned kimono. That date lasted longer than my first one, but it went downhill just as fast. I went in and waited for my date to show up and I have butterflies in my stomach. I was so tense that I thought my throat was going to cramp up. I asked for a few pointers on etiquette from Mrs. Yukari since I was afraid I'd look like a country bumpkin. City folk in Kujishoku are a lot different than the ones who live outside the Spirit Realm. My date came in on time, and for a few seconds I thought I had a chance. It was also my first time meeting another fox, especially with the same tail count. It's supposed to be a big deal among foxes, but it's all just an excuse to put people down. Sort of like how nobles think they're better than others."

Nui's date was a male nine-tailed fox. He had gold eyes and black hair and was dressed in fine silk and embroidery. Her lessons in etiquette were a lifesaver as it helped smooth the conversation over. They introduced themselves to each other and began asking about each other's interests, you know–the typical routine for blind dates. It must have been something she said, as when Nui began sharing her personal interests the man had this amused look on his face. At first she was worried she had done something dumb or embarrassing, but pressed on doing her best to maintain her composure. Freaking out would ruin it all, she had to stay calm. And then it happened.

"It's quite adorable how your interests are so leisurely. I suppose that childish naivety has its own unique charm." 

It took a few seconds for that comment to register, and when it did–that was the last straw. In that moment, Nui snapped–standing up and flipping the entire table onto him in a fit of anger. For the past half hour she had been putting up with his snide sarcasm and stealth insults about her and her friends for the sake of making small talk. The tea and snacks went everywhere and she dropped her smiling facade, giving that smug fox a piece of her mind. "THAT'S IT! I'M DONE! Do you think I came here, dressed up, and put on perfume to have you insult my personal interests? Well guess what–I quit! Just because you have the face of a twenty-something year old male after three centuries doesn't mean you can treat me like a kid! YOU CAN TAKE YOUR FANCY FOLDING FAN AND SHOVE IT–YOU DIRTY OLD MAN!!"

"…And so I stormed out of the place, vowing to never date anybody who was more than three years older than me ever again. I've also made it a rule not to date anybody younger than me either. The older non-humans are the wiser they're supposed to be right? Well turns out they're a bunch of self-centered pricks! Just because they've got a few hundred years of seniority doesn't mean they can act all high and mighty!" Nui fumed, angrily wringing a cloth napkin until she calmed down. "Anyway, that's one of the problems you get when you try dating somebody who's a lot older than you I guess. That was my last date before I came here." It was no surprise that anyone would be less than enthusiastic about dating if they had been in her shoes, and it explained the hesitation Nui had when she admitted what she was here for earlier. "So that's why I'm not giving myself high hopes for finding somebody today. Unless we hit it off really, really well–I wouldn't count on it."