Garoo, still in the middle of the stage, was playing his flute while everyone under the stage kept dancing. Right now he was playing a really simple melody; it felt like he was preserving the strength for something else.
As he kept playing his flute, multiple bubbles came out of his body. More and more people were attracted by these, which were of many different colors. These bubbles directly went into the sky; the moment they reached enough height, the bubbles exploded in a beautiful explosion of colors.
Garoo stopped playing his instrument and took a few steps forward to be directly on the edge of the stage, right in front of all the crowd, who turned silent just to watch and listen to him.
"ARE YOU ALL HAVING FUN, EVERYONEE??" shouted Garoo. All the people in the square immediately clapped their hands as fast as they could.
"I'm so glad to see many people here. I'm extremely grateful to everyone who is currently listening to my music. I love you, everyone!!"
Many people in the crowd started to scream and clap their hands once again.
"Your music makes us so happy!!" shouted a man from the crowd.
"We want to hear another songg!!!" shouted a woman. After hearing that, everyone immediately shouted, "YESS!!"
"Ok, ok, let's calm down first… I will play you all a beautiful song, right, SO I WANT EVERYONE NEARBYYY!!" shouted Garoo. As he put the flute to his mouth, he played only two notes, the note TI.
This note let Garoo create an invisible bubble that could emit a sound the moment it crashed. Garoo could choose in his mind the sound. As the bubble wandered around, waiting to smash against something, Garoo walked back, returning to the middle of the stage.
The moment the two bubbles touched the wall together, Garoo's voice could be almost heard from every part of the town. "ARE YOU READDYYYYY?? EVERYONE GET CLOSERR!!"
The moment the voice was heard, Garoo immediately opened his hands and started to jump on the platform.
"Let's go, he's about to do something great, I can feel it!" said Lily as she immediately ran toward the stage. Multiple people had already started dancing, while Garoo had begun to play his instrument.
"Oh oh, finally Garoo will give us a good show," said Naluri as she walked slower than everyone else. Darian remained next to her, walking at her speed.
"Why? Wasn't it already beautiful?" asked Darian.
Naluri didn't even have time to answer that when, from Garoo, multiple red bubbles came out of his body, then orange bubbles, and they kept going. They were yellow, then blue, and lastly purple.
As the bubbles reached the top of Garoo's head, they immediately exploded, and the visuals were stunning. Darian was left with his mouth open; he didn't know what to say. It felt like a true concert.
Garoo created four other bubbles, each of them directly toward the corners of the stage. With another of his powers, the note TI, he could create an invisible bubble that, once it touched something, pushed it 15 feet in the direction it hit.
Garoo created four other invisible bubbles that pushed the colored ones directly onto the crowd. The moment the bubbles arrived above the crowd, they exploded, leaving many beautiful colors behind them.
"Eh eh, I've told you, and this is almost nothing."
"It really feels like a concert during my time…" whispered Darian.
Garoo kept creating multiple colored bubbles that, the moment they were high enough, exploded, while some of them went near Garoo's feet and exploded nearby him, leaving a beautiful trace of colors all around him.
"But if that is his magic, why isn't his soul getting cracked?" pointed out Darian.
"Garoo told us that these spells barely consume his soul. There are other bubbles that consume it more," answered Naluri as she looked over Lily, who was dancing with Tatsy, Liro, and Vane. The four of them were having a lot of fun, so she wondered why Darian wasn't going to them.
"Aren't you going to have fun too?" asked Naluri to Darian, who was remaining next to her.
"Nah… first because I have Snowy and I don't know how he might react, and second I don't like leaving old people alone…" said Darian as he slowly looked down, really sad.
"Once I left Earth, the person I was missing the most was my grandmother. She literally raised me as her child because my parents were always busy with work. She was the one who gave me the passion for plants," said Darian as he slowly remembered the good old times with his grandparents. That is the reason why, after he listened to Naluri's story, he remained a bit closer to her.
Naluri noticed a tear flowing down Darian's cheek and immediately hit his back with her stick. "If you want to give me company, it is alright, but this is a party. Don't be sad."
Darian flinched the moment Naluri hit him, and hearing what she told him made a smile appear again on his face.
"You're right…" said Darian. Snowy, next to him, started to move his head to the rhythm of the song played by Garoo.
"Eheh, you're enjoying it too, Snowy?" asked Darian as he slowly grabbed the small pet in his hands, removing him from his shoulder. With that, Naluri, Darian, and Snowy remained in the back, looking at everyone directly under the stage.
"Hey, I just noticed that I've finished the skewers. Would you mind keeping an eye on my stall?" From behind Naluri and Darian, Archie appeared, asking if they could cover him for a moment.
"Yes, don't worry, Archie," said Naluri with her soft voice.
"I promise I'll be back soon," said Archie as he felt guilty. With that, he left the main square and returned toward his home to grab other skewers.
Garoo was too distracted to notice that Archie walked away. He was too lost in his music and was forgetting about everything around him.
Garoo used many of his spells to create other beautiful bubbles. 'I'm at the center of the stage, everyone is watching me!!' thought Garoo as he created four bubbles with a beautiful palette of colors. People knew what they were; it was the time when Garoo would hypnotize them.
Everyone accepted it and decided to watch the bubbles. Garoo slowly opened his eyes and waited for everyone to fall under the hypnosis.
"Hey, but isn't that the spell that hypnotizes everyone?" asked Vane, confused.
"Don't worry, just watch it and you'll receive a surprise in the end," said Tatsy as she danced next to Vane, who accepted watching the bubbles.
The moment everyone in the square was hypnotized, the square became quiet. Garoo stopped for a moment.
"Let's do this…" he whispered. Everyone was locked into the hypnotic bubble. They weren't able to move anymore or see what was happening around them. Even if Garoo ate something in the middle of the concert, no one would notice it.
The moment the hypnosis bubble exploded, everyone returned to normal. Garoo was standing in the middle.
"NOW!!" His voice wasn't coming from his mouth, but from the invisible bubble he had created while everyone was hypnotized.
The people didn't even have time to realize what was happening, because the moment Garoo's voice was heard, above each person's head there was a bubble of a specific color. They exploded, leaving beautiful traces of color all over everyone. The bubbles were even near people's feet.
Everyone immediately screamed and clapped their hands really hard. Garoo raised his arm with the flute, pointing it toward the sky and breathing heavily.
The clapping didn't stop; everyone was still applauding Garoo, feeling extremely happy in that moment.
"Hey, what happened?" asked Darian, confused.
"The moment we were locked into the sight of the bubble, Garoo created multiple other bubbles while we were hypnotized, and none of us could notice that," answered Naluri, clapping her hands.
"With this…" said Garoo, breathing heavily. He could barely speak. Suddenly, someone else arrived on the stage: the mayor.
"Hello, my people!!" said the mayor. Everyone, surprised to see him already there, clapped their hands.
"I'll leave the word to him," said Garoo as he slowly went down the stage. As he stepped down, everyone clapped their hands for him.
"Darian, have you seen it??" asked Liro, almost shouting. It was beautiful, and he couldn't believe it.
The moment the mayor reached the stage, some clouds covered the sky. No one noticed it, but the clouds weren't natural. They arrived almost immediately and were too dark.
"Woah, I didn't expect anything like that," said Vane in surprise. He had danced and screamed so much that he was losing balance.
"Now it's the mayor's role. After the music, he always comes to tell everyone the important things that will happen in the city, and especially what the voice told him!" said Tatsy as she immediately reached the crowd again, waiting for the mayor to speak.
Naluri noticed that Lily wasn't going, which was strange. She always went there the moment the mayor talked about the voice.
"Lily, is everything alright? Why aren't you going?" asked Naluri.
"Oh, don't worry, Naluri. I just want to stay near you," said Lily, making an excuse. She knew that the AI had stopped working, so it was almost useless to hear what the mayor would say.
"My people, as you might know, around eight years ago the voice told us to change the years of a mayor from ten to twenty, and I was finally able to understand why this happened," said the mayor. Everyone gasped in surprise and started whispering among themselves.
"But let's go easy first…" said the mayor, leaving everyone in suspense.
"First, the voice congratulated everyone. Thanks to US, the city has been growing in a beautiful way," said the mayor. When he pronounced the word US, he raised his voice to symbolize the help of every person in the town.
"The voice told me many other things. For example, that this year the monster under our city will be happier. This festival has been extremely fun, don't you think?" asked the mayor. The crowd nodded in agreement.
"That is why the voice predicted that everything will be alright for our city… but not for him," said the mayor as he slowly lowered his voice, almost sounding sad.
"As I was about to tell you before, the voice told me to modify the years of the mayor from ten to twenty because it knew what would happen!" shouted the mayor. Everyone, still confused, let him speak.
"I don't know how to tell you… but the voice has stopped working. Two nights ago I went there, and it wasn't working anymore, no matter how hard I tried… I-I just couldn't make it work," said the mayor as he slowly became sad. Everyone gasped in shock.
"The voice? Has it stopped working?"
"No, no, it can't be true…"
"Who will guide us from now on…?"
"Everyone, please calm down. I haven't told you everything," said the mayor as he wiped the tears from his face. His voice almost had a malicious grin, impossible to see because of the mask.
"You see, eight years ago the voice told me these exact words: 'In eight years, someone really bad will arrive in the city… that is why I want to change the years of mayoralty from ten to twenty. I trust that you will be able to understand the problems.' The voice told me these exact words. At first I was confused. Every time I asked the voice for an explanation, it simply told me that I had to do it by myself. Until three days ago, I wasn't able to find an answer… but now I've found it! I was able to discover who destroyed our voice… or I should say, the ones."
Everyone gasped in fear and looked around, wondering who it might be. Suddenly, a voice from the crowd whispered something that too many people heard.
"The outsiders…"
With that, the word outsiders spread through the crowd. Multiple people turned toward them, next to Lily and Naluri, with disgust in their eyes.
"You're right… IT WAS THE OUTSIDERS!!" shouted the mayor as he pointed directly at them. Every person in the square turned toward the outsiders