Chapter 11 The Lantern Festival

At the end of that month, Elmire held its annual lantern festival. Every house hung brightly colored paper lanterns by the door, and people strolled the streets with sweets and hot drinks. The village head asked Hina to set up a stall selling maple cake in the town square.

Hina woke at four in the morning to bake thirty cakes. Torhart volunteered to carry the boxes to the square, and Rylen helped decorate the stall with golden lanterns so lovely that everyone who saw them stopped to look. Mochi and Toast were put in the same basket because they refused to be separated, and became the stars of the stall before it even opened.

As soon as the sun set, the thirty cakes were gone within an hour. The line wound all the way around the square. Children asked to see Toast one by one, and an old woman stood weeping softly after tasting the cake. She said the flavor was just like the sweets her mother used to bake for her when she was small.

At dusk everyone released hundreds of lanterns into the sky at once. Hina watched the golden lights float higher and higher, her heart swelling until it nearly filled her chest. She had never felt she belonged anywhere before, but tonight she felt clearly that she was one of this town’s own.

Rylen handed her a small lantern that hadn’t been released yet. “Write a wish on it.” Hina wrote for a long time before sending the lantern into the sky. No one saw her message, but Torhart, standing beside her, secretly noticed that lantern’s light was brighter than all the rest, and he chose not to say a word.