While talking to Kasia and Tobias during a break, she suddenly perked up.

“We need to get together this Friday.”

“What the festival?”

“Of course, what else. This year though I think we should all wear masks okay, Emil?”

“Yes, I know. I thought it wouldn’t look out of place and that a lot of others wouldn’t do it either.” Tobias laughed at the memory.

“That was the most hilarious thing I’ve ever seen. Just you all alone, surrounded by a massive crowd, all in masks and most in robes. I’m pretty sure I could write a film script about that. Of course your role would be played by a young child when he gets lost in a fantasy world after escaping his abusive parents.”

“Whoa, get a grip man. You’re scaring poor Emil.”

“Oh come on Kasia, you can’t tell me that you weren’t thinking about some fantastic plot about it as well. If I know you well enough, you most likely already posted a short story about it somewhere online.” Hearing that Kasia broke eye contact and slightly blushed. Emil gave her a look of disbelief.

“I won’t admit to anything. This is nothing but slander. I will not have my good name tarnished in this way.” Both of the boys sighed loudly. After staring each other for a couple of seconds they all burst out laughing.

“But seriously Emil. This year we all wear our masks, okay? If you can’t get one, we can go and look for one together.”

“I get it guys,” Emil replied, and then smiled when an idea struck him. “Actually I have already gone and got myself a mask. It’s really nice quality. I’m sure it will fit right in.”

“That’s surprising. You were really not into it last year. I suppose I shouldn’t really say this, but maybe I can say this now that we’ve all spent so much time together. Since the last festival was not long after we first started hanging out, I got really annoyed at you for not playing along with the whole thing. I thought that you were stuck up and looked down upon us.”

“Wait, that wasn’t,” Emil responded. Kasia simply silenced him by raising her hand.

“I realized that along the way. You were just as awkward as I was, but I think that you’ve learned your lesson, which was hilarious in my opinion. I think that you’ve changed in the last year, for the better.”

“Thank you, Kasia.”

“Hey, who’s scaring poor Emil now?” Tobias jumped in on the awkward scene.

“Yes well, what can I say? Moving on, I think we could meet up at my place at around six and then go to the festival.”

“Yeah, works for me. Emil?”

“Sure, Kasia’s place at six.”

“I can’t wait to show off my outfit this year. I’ve gone all out.”

“Oh yeah?”

“By all out I’m of course talking about a major sale at the outlet store. Nice large black trench coat at a meagre cost.”

“And the skull mask again I imagine.”

“Of course.”

“If we’re all masked up this year, we can even all join in the actual dance this time.”

The Dance of the Dead was a local festival celebrating the summer solstice. It was associated with the beginning of the death of the day and was believed to be the time when spirits return from the afterlife if they have unfinished business in the world.

After the lectures were over Emil made his way to the shop. He tried finding all of the items by himself, but after a while he gave up and asked the clerk to help him.

“This is very nice of you, buying all this for your girlfriend.”

“Oh … yes, it’s a bit of a surprise for her.”

“She must be a very lucky girl.”

He concluded his business as quickly as possible and made his way home.

“I feel like I have already filled my quota of talking to strangers for a whole week. I just feel like running away and hiding for a couple of days. Why was that so awkward?” He was walking quickly, almost running to escape from the anxiety. He only felt relief after reaching home. He fed the cats. Ruta and Mira began playfully pouncing on Eon, who shook them off with a hiss. This didn’t dissuade the two from trying again and after a while Eon just let them do what they wanted and even made the slightest effort to play along. Emil was watching them while tuning the violin. Once again he made the effort of using his old violin and found that playing it was simply more difficult than the one he had got from Veles’ glade. This time however he decided to remain persistent and stick with his old violin. It took him a long time to even get properly warmed up and his lack of vision of the right eye kept interfering with his coordination. In the end he decided to get himself a tuner and slowly check the intonation of every note he played. It was a painfully lengthy process and he knew that if a classically trained violinist were to see him she would lose her mind. Despite all that after the toil of playing through a single etude, he felt much better and more confident. He played the same piece slowly and with a metronome, that he steadily increased by a single beat per minute at a time. By the time he finished with the piece, the Sun had already begun to set.

He put away the violin and prepared food for the cats and put the rest into the backpack. He left for the forest. The evening Sun painted the clouds and the sky in hues of orange and scarlet, which faded into blue in the west. The clouds above on the other hand still had scarlet lining even as he looked right up above him and to the west. As he was walking through the park and reached the first trees of the forest he realized he began feeling more at peace. It felt almost as if he was returning home. As he approached the area of the fox den, he started sneaking, taking care to make as little noise as possible. He observed the entrance to the den from a bush and after waiting for what seemed a lot longer than it actually was, he saw the kit. Not coming or going from the hole, but coming from a bush and going away from the den. Confirming that the cub was indeed alive made him feel immense relief, but also a strange sense of duty to see this cub grow up. As usual he threw the meat inside the den entrance as far as he could in the narrow winding corridor.

When he arrived back home it was already dark. He sighed at his prospects as he left again in search for the mysterious unlucky man. He did so again the next two days. In neither case was he any closer to uncovering anything at all. He didn’t get the feeling of being watched any more, but wandering aimlessly was frustrating in its own way.

“Is my pursuer truly gone or just am I just less observant than I was before? Can I even be sure that the whole thing wasn’t just my imagination in the first place?” In the city centre the stalls for the upcoming festival were slowly emerging. Every night there were more. Even some ornaments had begun hanging from the street lamps and the sides of buildings by Wednesday night. The bronze statue of the old poet, which overlooked the city centre atop a stone pedestal, was removed from the middle of the public square and was replaced by a large fire pit. It was still empty, but surrounded by caution tape.

By this point the spying mission became nothing more than a late night walk that he could use to clear his head. He rarely got suspicious of other people at all, even ones walking around alone. He was just about to give up and return home early, when he heard a noise coming from one of the side alleys. He furtively sneaked to the corner and peered around it. Someone was standing in front of the door of an old derelict house. With the back to Emil, he was not able to make out the person, who much like Emil also wore dark concealing clothes and a hood. As the hooded silhouette bent over, face close to the lock, Emil realized that he was most likely witnessing someone breaking into a house.

“But the house seems abandoned or at the very least poor. Why would someone try to break in?” Emil thought to himself, but was roused by an audible click. The door opened with a slight creak and the veiled figure looked around to see if anyone had witnessed the crime. Emil was able to silently pull back around the corner, but was able to see just a hint of a mask as the person was turning around. He felt his heart sink. It was a mask portraying the face of a mouse. He was certain it was the same as the one that he had seen in Veles’ glade. As he took another peek around the corner the mouse was already gone, but the door to the house was left just slightly ajar. He sneaked towards the door and opened it very slowly and just enough for him to get through. Even that took him more than a minute. As he entered the building he heard the creaking of the floorboards coming from the second floor and looked up. He saw a staircase in the left part of the house. He slowly crept forward, keeping an eye on the top of the stairs. There were still sounds of somebody walking around coming from above. As he sneaked forward he kicked over a glass bottle. It rolled over and hit the wall. Suddenly the noise from above ceased. Emil stood motionlessly. A second later he could hear the banging on the floorboards as the stranger took flight. He lunged towards the stairs, gripping the railing as he turned the corner and sprung up the stairs. As he reached the top he could hear a crash outside. He ran on and saw that a window was open and a silhouette of a person running away. He looked down and saw a rubbish bin below the window. He took a deep breath and climbed through the window, hung on the edge and dropped himself on the bin. He ran after the mysterious burglar, who had already gained a hefty head start on him. He followed the shadow along the winding streets, but eventually lost sight after taking a wrong turn where the street split into two parts. He spent some more time skulking about the streets, but couldn’t find the burglar. He returned to the house, made sure no one saw him and looked around. It was only a mess, some made that night and other that had been there for many years before. It was getting close to dawn so he left the house and returned home. As per usual he didn’t go straight home, but took a longer way around and even through the park in order to see whether someone had been following him. The bizarre experience had left him drained of energy and he knew he would spend the following night in the forest with Veles and Yarilo. That’s when it hit him.

“If that mask wasn’t just my imagination, I should be able to see the guy in the glade.” With a sense of satisfaction that fluctuated into slight horror he returned home. He prepared the food for Eon and his other furry wards.

“Hey Eon,” Emil called to the cat.

“Yes, Emil?”

“So tonight I was searching around again around the city.”

“I know I basically told you to do it, but I don’t actually expect you to find anything this way. You don’t have to do this. In fact I feel like I’m close to a breakthrough myself. I believe I could be done as fast as the end of the week.”

“Oh wow. But actually I was going to say that I’ve uncovered something tonight.”

“Really? I can hardly believe that. What was it?”

“I actually saw someone tonight breaking into an abandoned house.”

“That’s hardly what we’re looking for.”

“Yes, but listen to this. That person had a mask that I’m pretty sure I’ve seen while I was at Veles’ glade. And I think someone was following me earlier this week and it could’ve been the same person.” This made Eon frown which was a gesture that Emil found somewhat adorable on the cat’s small face.

“This is very interesting, but unfortunately the man we’re after is not one of the nav. He is still alive sadly. An error that will be fixed soon enough.” Eon concluded with a meaningful look from its lone eye to Emil’s.

“Then who was that?”

“No idea, one of the nav if you are correct. I’m not surprised that there are more than just you in this city. You shouldn’t get involved with them. They have their own worries to take care of. I would tell you not to go out looking for more trouble tonight, but I can see already that you will go to the forest anyway. So I will say don’t disturb others in the glade. That area is peaceful and nobody wants to bring their trouble there.”