~ The Norland Fox-Dragon Festival, the annual end of summer festival celebrating the pact forged by a former fox knight from Eris of the Yggdrasil Clan and the hunted Dragons of the northern lands, of the old Kingdom of Eris, gaining their kinship in the revolution against the old crown and segmenting the fall of the old kingdom into new territories to which the Yggdrasil's Norland was one of the outcomes, with the dragons gaining possession of their mountaintops in the newly bonded Country. It is said that the Yggdrasil Knight proved his worth to the dragons here in what would become the Eios Valley, demonstrating an old connection of his clan to these lands the dragons were "protecting" with a sword that was given to his ancestors and fulfilling the commitment they made long ago by his ancestors with the dragons before the rise of the old kingdom or so the Legend goes. Ion being a descendant of that knight went with his family every year to the festival grounds, a place just outside the city walls were extremely late Sakuras bloomed in this one specific small grove, it was said here was the place where that knight forged the pact or at least that was what Ion was always told though he had some miscomings about the story, the fact that it was told to him that knight was his grandfather but the pact was forged almost two hundred years ago just didn't add up to the average fox lifespan, unless there was something more to this story. His dad was known as the second Overseer so maybe there was some truth to that but besides being a baby at the time, Ion had never met his grandfather and anything even from around the time Ion was born about him was never really talked about, there was no grave either in the crypt for him so that part of the story to Ion still remained an intriguing mystery. But this year for the festival was a bit different, while hospitalized for a broken arm, he befriended another young fox of the same age by the name of Zephyr and another by the name of Flint, Zephyr was in his first year here in the valley, coming from some lands beyond the mountain range and would be attending his first Fox-Dragon Festival with his family but Flint who lived with the tribal fennecs in the valley all his life, had never been to the festival, despite a lot of tribals attending throughout the years Ion had come. Seeing this, Ion invited his new friend to join him and his family at this year's festival, Ion's mom likening the idea so much that she went and made traditional outfits for them to wear together but Ion's father had a bit of an extra idea to go along. He decided to let them go alone, seeing how much the two bonded over their time hospitalized together, usually they would have to go to the festival early and then bring Ion back even before the fireworks started as he and Ionia always had to attend a gathering at the Grand Maze, the central tower of Eios for more of a political dinner that always ran alongside the festival, being the Overseer and all. This way Ion and Flint could experience all of what the festival would offer without anything getting cut short, at first Ion's mother was against the idea but Ion's father Ivan had another trick up his sleeve, he would be giving Ion the family sword just for this one night, knowing what it was Ionia's objections subsided as she took Flint to help get him changed into his outfit for the evening as Ivan took Ion aside for an important task, making him vow to "protect" his new found friendship as he held out the sword to him. Ion stated "I will protect!" profoundly as he grabbed a hold of the sword from his father, feeling a strange sensation as he did, sliding it into the ties around his arms as Flint returned from getting changed into his outfit that Ion's mom had made for them for this night, as the two of them set off into the "dangers" of the night cityscape, to the festival that Flint was so excited to experience for this first time with Ion's heart a flutter not just with the sensation of want to "protect" his new friendship, but from a feeling he could not quite put a finger on, as his body trembled a bit from grasping Flint's hand with face slightly blushing, he would protect him, protect him at any cost ~
