Key of Liberation: Beyond the Savannah (A Key Keepers novel)

Episode 56: Light show, Dark Terror

The puppy licked her lips.

"That's one hungry puppy!" Maggie exclaimed.

"Go ahead and find a seat," the man in the red uniform said. "We'll have your hamburger steaks ready in a jiffy."

"No candy?" Maggie asked, chuckling before charging him.

"Candy?" Alastair's eyes lit up.

"We only have cake but a nearby stall has cotton candy."

Did he want some?

Alastair sat down on one of the stools lined along the outside of the stall.

Honey wagged her tail enthusiastically.

When it was done, the man in the red uniform brought their food over to them. "Enjoy!"

Alastair set the plate with the smaller hamburger steak on the ground in front of Honey.

'Yummy!'

Alastair smiled, watching Honey savor her dinner for a minute before digging into his own.

Just before Alastair could take his last bite, a voice cut through the chatter in the park.

"Hey, Mag!"

Sweat dripped down Alastair's back. That was Eiran!

"Surprised to see you here. Thought you'd be back in the village with your Blakey Boo."

When Alastair glanced in her direction, Maggie was grumbling, her face all red.

Eiran sure was noisy. En would not like him if he were here.

Star slowly stood up, and as soon as he felt he was safe, he bolted out of there. He felt bad about hurting Eiran, but would that guy even accept his apology? He wouldn't even take the time to listen the first time. Granted, he couldn't utter a single word at the time, but still.

"Hey, you're the boy from before!" Isa said.

Alastair went stiff.

"Leaving already?" she asked.

"Yeah. I'm gonna go look at some displays," he said before rushing off.

"Okay! I'll let Maggie know!"

Alastair ran and ran. Honey let out quiet barks whenever he came close to running into something. After a while, his legs began to hurt, so he had to sit on a brown bench.

After he caught his breath, Alastair got up to look at the display.

This first set had lots and lots of different people. There was a baker. His lights were a cream color. That must have been to make him the same color as dough. There was a person in a police uniform whose lights were blue. There was a red firefighter next to him. There was a teacher and her lights were green and brown like an old chalkboard. There was a dad who was blue with a blue little boy standing next to him. The mom was on the other side and holding a baby made with pink lights.

After Alastair got his fill of exploring every detail of that display, he went to look for another one. While he was doing that, he saw Matt talking to a mommy and her little boy. That could have been Alastair and his mommy when he was little... He wanted to go to talk to Matt but couldn't do it while he was talking to those people.

Alastair patted Honey's head when she nudged his leg with her nose.

The next display was pets or other animals people could own. The first one was a big, fluffy white kitty that probably drank milk from a little saucer and got treated like a princess by her owners. The next was a dog who looked a lot like a grown version of Honey that had golden brown lights. There was another of chickens that had yellow lights. There was a brown horse that looked like it might be fun to ride if it were real. There were pink piglets, too. They were plump and cute like they'd just been born.