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Velmun slowly regained consciousness as the light of dawn shown directly on his face through his bed side window. He groaned as he slowly and painfully pulled himself up off his soiled bed. He sleepily tried to rub his eyes but let out a small “Gahk!” and cringed when he accidentally rubbed dirt into his eye. Swearing lightly Velmun got out of bed and grabbed the jug of water he kept by his bedside, he dabbed a spare cloth in the jug and gently got the dirt out of his eye. Now that he was fully awake he could finally take in his surroundings. His bed was completely trashed, the sheets were stained and covered in a thick coating of grit and sand. The door he had left open last night swayed gently in the breeze and a squirrel was munching greedily on some of the food he had stored in his pantry. “AH Come on! Get!” He yelled as he launched himself up and out of bed, he stomped out of his bedroom, through his living room, and into the kitchen. He snatched up the broom he kept just

As another day at the fair began, the group found themselves with another party member. Fortunately for Aither, Quilla was just as bubbly and excited to be here as he was, while Absynth was the dark, somewhat broody outcast from the group. They walked along together, the tyrian and chaser jabbering non-stop, while Absynth looked around, trying to spot something fun to do. After a few minutes of searching and walking, he pointed with a dark paw wordlessly, causing both Quilla and Aither to look over. “Oh! Some kinda guessing game,” Quilla said, eyes brightening. “That sounds like fun! Good eye, Absynth, let’s go check it out!” She led the way, with Aither bouncing and Absynth simply following behind. When they arrived at the tent, they were greeted by another vayron explaining the game to the previous group. Apparently, one of the objects on the table was an imp, and if you guessed it correctly, you got a prize. It seemed easy enough, but the other group left empty handed and pawed

As the trio of Aither, Freude, and Absynth continued to wander around the fairgrounds something shiny happened to catch Absynth’s keen eye. The dark runner wandered over to the object alone, his companions not noticing his absence in the bustle and crowd of the street. What he spotted was a large golden coin wedged between a stalls storage crate and a pile of sand bags. Curiously he used one of his claws to pry it free, glancing around at the other two; Freude and Aither still had not noticed where he’d gone. When he was certain he was alone, he marveled at the intricate detail of the tail side of the coin. The tail side depicted a magnificent tyrian on the crest of a cliff, the reosean was posed in an odd S shape and a stylized flame was detailed coming from its mouth. Around the lovely picture was a string of words wrapping around the edge of the coin. On the obverse side of the coin there was a humanoid face with pointy ears and a very distinct hair style. The obverse was nowhere

Velmun tugged at the straps of his bag as he nervously triple checked his supplies. A small first aid kit, some food, and an emergency air flask were neatly arranged in the small bag strapped to his waist. Velmun grimaced as he double checked the cork of the air flask making sure the highly concentrated air supply was still properly sealed. He prayed silently that he wouldn't need it but it was always best to be prepared just in case. With the final preparations completed he closed the flap of his bag and turned his attention back to the massive rippling dome wall in front of him. He’d been standing in front of the dome wall for at least an hour now, hesitating to take the next step. He wasn’t afraid of the dome wall, after all he made regular trips out into the depths of the Posian Trench often. Today he wasn’t swimming down, today was finally the day he made the journey to the surface. He shifted his weight from one leg to the other and his tail twitched nervously behind him.

Aither led the group through yet another bend in the winding city streets until they finally reached the outskirts. The fair encompassed the entire city and spread out a good way into the flat plains and glittering crystalline mountains of Vitalus beyond. On the outskirts of the city the larger more space intensive attractions were erected. There were more fishing tanks like the one in the city center dotting the landscape, long strings of fair food stalls created a winding maze, and large circus tents covered the horizon. Aither, Freude and Absynth were out here on the outskirts of the city trying to find the animal shows and petting zoo that they had heard about while browsing the shops near the city center. Apparently it was massive and had a wide variety of animals you probably had never seen before and the trio had been eager to investigate these claims. Freude kept a close eye on both of her wandering companions as they tried to find their way through the massive fairgrounds.

Aither bounced excitedly as he led his companions through the bustling, lively crowd of the annual world fair. “Come on guys! It’s right up here, you need to check this out!” He hollered over his shoulder not bothering to actually wait for his two friends. Trailing behind the excitable purple chaser was a dark black and blue runner named Absynth and trudging even further behind him was a beautiful purple runner named Freude. Absynths eyes were the size of a full moon as he stared in awe at all the fantastical things around them while Freude tried her best to just keep track of the rapidly disappearing purple chaser. The trio was smack-dab in the middle of the fair being held in the capital of Vitalus and the fantasy theme of the continent had been cranked all the way up to eleven for the event. Fair goers wore fantastical costumes and face paint, bright glowing crystals decorated stalls, streetlamps glowed in unnatural vibrant colors, and floating magical illusions of flowers and

Velmun picked up the first tree and roughly yanked off the smallest branches and snapped the more brittle limbs off. Once the tree was stripped bare he was left with a large Y shaped log. Satisfied with the result, he repeated this process with the other two trees and in the end he was left with three Y shaped logs. Careful to not accidentally smack the rope attached to the top of the column, Velmun ducked under the rope and dragged the logs into position. In three evenly spaced locations from the base of the column Velmun dug out a small hole and drove the logs into the ground. He stood the logs up so that the opening of the Y shape pointed up so that the former branches could catch the column as it fell. Once all three logs were in position, he double checked that they were as secure as possible before grabbing hold of the rope and freeing it from the rock once more. He wrapped the end of the rope around his wrist tightly and kicked the rock out of the way now that its purpose

Shaking off the discomfort from that experience Velmun sighed deeply as he made it back to his house. He didn’t bother getting dressed again or taking a break, the trip to the ruin wasn’t a hard one even though there wasn’t a path to it. Out in front of his house across his farm field was a large storage shed where Velmun kept his sheds and other various equipment. He made his way over to it along his well worn walkways until he reached the large heavy wooden double doors. He pushed the doors open and walked inside, it was musty and light filtered in from a window in the far wall. Off to the side of the shed’s interior a massive wooden sled sat alone. The other sleds were already occupied with other materials so he decided to use this one, even though it was older and he wasn’t entirely sure it could withstand the load. After double checking the sled's stability he attached a set of reins to its front and started dragging it out. He paused once he had fully pulled the sled out and

Velmun dropped the ropes he was holding and turned around to look back at the large sled he had been dragging. A massive stone pillar was strapped down to the sled and Velmun smiled happily to himself as he surveyed his haul. Over the last couple weeks Velmun had been traveling around the outskirts of the dome and collecting various materials and hauling them back to his house. He had amassed quite the collection of marble pillars, large stone bricks, sections of walls, some crumbling statues, and even some antiques. Sure he might have desecrated a few ruins and ancient temples here or there in order to collect all this but what the elders didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. After all, if you didn’t know there was supposed to be a collapsed marble column in the middle of a ruin, how would you possibly miss it? Along with his impressive array of stone materials he had also taken the time to collect various forms of aquatic plant life from other more biodiverse regions outside the dome.