Clove & Moose 20: The Flower Festival

Clove and Moose is a serial fiction story. If you want to get caught up on what came before, click one of the buttons below.

Previously, on Clove & Moose: After the mysterious Cataclysm dried up the earth and its magic, Clove and her cat Moose travelled to find and repair pools of corrupted magic left behind. Along the way, she's picked up three travelling companions: Marissa, Jasper, and his trusty horse Miss Delilah. They've recently arrived at Bone Gorge, where skeletons of ancient giants were discovered after the Cataclysm, and Jasper's old friend Nickel has started a cult.

“Alright, lift, up up up, and there we go!”

Clove set down her side of the barrel with a groan. “How can such a light drink be so heavy?”

Jen laughed and clapped her on the back. “You’re a funny one, Clove. I like you. Come on, one more barrel and then we’re done.”

Clove suppressed another groan as she followed her employer. After a couple months of regularly guarding the camp down river, Jen and Jon had offered her some extra work helping them set up a booth and serve drinks at tonight’s Flower Festival. They’d finally let her in on their big secret: they had a cider press and made drinks out of the apples that grew on the cliff at the far side of camp.

She wasn’t convinced that was their only secret, but it was comforting to know that their main concern was illicit apples and not murder or worse.

Although the lifting and carrying and dealing with people was less appealing than Clove’s usual quiet days on guard duty, she didn’t mind picking up a couple extra hours of work, since she’d been promised her pay in the form of apple pie. She was also hoping that the festival would give her an opportunity to listen for rumours about what the cult was doing. 

Jasper was still dropping in on his buddy Nickel with some regularity, but he still hadn’t made any progress gaining access to their inner workings. He had heard, however, that they were working up to something big, something that would be happening soon. Clove wondered if it might be happening at the Festival tonight.

Before long she and her employers had the booth set up and Clove was slinging ciders as festival-goers started to arrive. She filled stein after stein, until her hands and hair and clothes were sticky with cider and sweat. The smell of apples had penetrated every inch of her being, to the point where she wasn’t sure if she was still going to want that apple pie after this was over.

She turned to pass her latest draught to the next customer when her eyes snagged on a familiar face. 

“Moosey boy!” 

“Wow, thanks,” Marissa deadpanned. “What am I, chopped liver?”

“It’s good to see you too,” Clove said, and it was. She hadn’t gotten to spend much time with Marissa lately, since the other woman had been so focused on trying to find her family. She and Jasper had spent three days trying to convince her to come to the festival tonight, and had only done so by mentioning that most of the valley would be there and it might be the perfect opportunity to find them. Clove was glad to see she’d gotten into the spirit and was dressed for the occasion. “I like your flower crown.”

“Thanks. I made one for Moose too, but it was too big.” 

Clove realized that Moose had a matching string of flowers draped around his neck. “He looks very handsome.”

“Hey, can I get my cider please?” a man behind Marissa jostled forward. “I don’t have all night.”

“It’s a festival, dude,” Marissa said. “You got somewhere important to be?”

“Yes, actually.” He glanced at his watch and muttered to himself, “It’s almost time.”

Clove and Marissa exchanged a glance, then Clove passed him the cider she’d poured for Marissa. “Sorry for the wait.”

He grumbled his thanks and hurried off. Clove wished she could follow him. What was he up to? Was he part of the cult?

“Super weird,” Marissa said as Clove poured her a fresh cider. “I should let you get back to work. And I should get back to my search.”

“Of course. Make sure you have some fun tonight!” 

“It’s always fun hanging out with Moose,” Marissa said, nuzzling her face into his fur.

The evening passed in a blur of cider and steins and customers. Night fell, bringing welcome relief from the heat. When a fiddle and a drum started playing, there was a brief lull at the cider stand, but the demand only increased once they had worked up a thirst from dancing.

Amongst it all, Clove kept her ears open for any mention of the cult or the bones or secret plans, but nothing happened. Something was definitely going on, though. Every now and then, someone asked, “Is it time yet?” “When is it happening?” “Is it time?”

It was close to midnight when Jon said, “Hey Clove, can you handle things on your own for a few minutes? I just need to go check on something.”

“Of course.”

Well, that was suspicious. But Clove was too dutiful to go off and leave the cider booth unattended to watch what he was doing. She stayed and slung ciders until a huge boom from near the river made her heart leap out of her chest.

She took a few instinctive steps in that direction when a flash of light lit up the sky. Clove brought an arm up to shield her eyes before she heard a crackle and an “oooh!” from the crowd. She looked up just in time to see the last green sparks fall from the sky. Green?

Another boom, and a burst of blue in the sky. Then red, and pink, and yellow. 

Fireworks. Someone had let off fireworks.

No one wanted cider during the fireworks, so Clove was free to watch with the rest of the crowd. A wave of nostalgia passed over her as she watched the sky light up. She could almost imagine this was pre-Cataclysm. Watching fireworks from the mall parking lot with her family. Setting off home fireworks at her friend’s house as a teenager. Watching fireworks over the harbour with Arthur the summer they first met. She wondered if the rest of the crowd was replaying similar memories.

Clove was so caught up in the show she didn’t even notice that Jon had returned until he said, “Pretty special, huh? We found the stash in a house on the way here and have been saving them for a special occasion.”

“Definitely special,” Clove agreed. “Thank you.”

“Why don’t you take off for the night? Crowd’ll be thinning out after this. You deserve to enjoy the festival too.”

“You’re sure?” Clove hesitated, not wanting to skip out early on her shift.

“Of course. We’ll have your pie ready at the campsite tomorrow.”

Clove took off her borrowed apron and left the booth, mingling with the crowd as the fireworks ended. The music started up again, and Clove remained on the edges, looking around for her friends. She found Jasper first, and he joined her to watch the dancing.

“Not Nickel’s cult after all,” he said.

“Nope. I guess we’ll have to keep waiting to find out what they’re up to.”

“Yup.” Jasper said. “You seen Marissa?”

“Briefly, early on. You?”

“Caught a few glimpses, but haven’t been able to talk to her.”

“Maybe that’s a good sign?” Clove said.

“Maybe,” Jasper replied, though Clove knew neither of them had much hope for her finding her family at this point.

They stood in silence until the little band started up a new song, a waltz that wheeled and tilted up the scale.

“Dance?” Jasper asked, holding out one callused hand.

“Oh, no,” Clove said. “You go ahead.” 

“Come on. One song.”

“I’m all sweaty. And I smell like an apple cart.”

“I like apple carts.”

He said it with a straight face, and Clove couldn’t help but laugh. “Fine, but it’s your own fault if I trample you.”

They joined the crowd where he took her hands and led her through a dance. Clove was pretty sure what they were doing was not a waltz, but it didn’t matter. They made up some steps as they went, and whirling there amongst the crowd she was almost able to pretend that this was normal. That her life had always been travelling in a wagon and sleeping on a cot and taking odd jobs and not having magic at her fingertips. Not knowing what was going to happen from one day to the next or having anyone to rely on.

But that wasn’t true. Because here was Jasper, stone-faced but twinkle-eyed, pulling her through the steps of a ridiculous dance that she half-suspected he had made up just to make her smile.

For now, at least. Someday soon, he was going to want to leave here. Someday soon, they were going to have to part ways.

She didn’t want to think about that. So she smiled at Jasper and threw herself into the dance until the music came to an end with a flourish and didn’t start again. The crowd slowly started to disperse. 

“Last song, I guess,” Clove said, dropping Jasper’s hands. 

“Time to head home?”

“Yeah. We should find Marissa.”

“Hey.” They turned, and Marissa was behind them. “I’m here.”

She looked as wilted as her flower crown: dirt on the hem of her dress, dark circles under her eyes, her dark hair lying flat and bedraggled around her face. Moose was tucked in the carrier bag on her back.

“You alright?” Clove asked.

Marissa shook her head and swallowed hard. “They’re not here, are they?”

Clove and Jasper exchanged a quick look.

“I don’t think so,” Clove said, gently. “I’m so sorry.”

Marissa nodded and broke into tears. “I don’t know what to do.”

Clove put her arms around the younger woman as she sobbed. “We’ll figure it out. For now let’s go home. You can snuggle Moose and get some sleep, and tomorrow we’ll have apple pie. Then we’ll figure out a plan.”

Marissa sniffled and let herself be led back to camp, Clove and Jasper on either side of her, and Moose nestled against her back.

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Katie Conrad is a speculative fiction writer living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. You can find her on bluesky and instagram.