Carnival Games [Part 1]

Apoli, armed with a cotton candy stick, marched through this carnival. Fae had similar carnivals on occasion but this one just seemed so...grand. Shining lights, loud noises and even music that seemed to pump the soul for rides and games. The fairy hadn’t quite had as much enjoyment out of the rides as a normal person would. Being able to fly he could match the movements of any of these so called roller coasters with ease. So next it only made sense to try out some of them games. Now THESE he enjoyed. Tests of skill, luck and perception, they lit a kind of fire in Apoli’s soul that he hadn’t experienced in any other way except from treasure hunting. Taking a rather large bite out of his cotton treat, he looked for any tougher games than he had already played. “Hmm… I think there's a gun skill test over by that jump house, Apoli. Couldn’t be bad to check out.”
Alters voice, only heard by the Fairy, spoke true and there did seem to be some kind of target course.

He floated over to the game and landed lightly, tossing his now candy-less stick over to a trashcan and looked up at the entrance to the game. It was not a large door, but still seemed somewhat imposing. A brightly lit sign read “SHOOTERS DELIGHT” above the entrance, with an arrow pointing down towards the door. Smiling with confidence, the Dark Haired Fae pushed the door open, entering the brightly lit room. Farther on was another entrance, probably to the course, and guarded by that was a fat man with a rather pointed moustache. He was a bit taller than Apoli and had greedy eyes that immediately latched onto the fairy. “Ooooooh Whooo do we have heeeeree? A little fairy wants to play my game?”
Apoli couldn’t help but cringe. The man's voice was similar to the squeal of air coming out of a balloon and it seriously hurt the boys ears. Collecting himself he nodded to the man. “I am pretty good at..guns. So I thought I’d try it out!”
Inside his mind, Alter was looking quite ashamed of how Apoli described their skill, but at least the man would very likely underestimate him now.

The mans smile seemed to grow larger then his face, his teeth seeming almost pointed as he leered down at the fairy. “Goooood you saaaay? Well then little Faaairy. I’ll let you have the first time for free! Graaaaab a weapon from my stand and awaaay you gooo! Remember! No flight!”
The man was definitely not telling him something, both Apoli and Alter could tell that much. Shrugging the feeling off for now, the fairy grabbed a weapon from the stand located behind the carnival man and gave it a bit of inspection. It was brightly colored in a rainbow sort of theme, and had a clip of several darts. Something about its weight felt off to Apoli, and all of his instincts told him to make sure to have Alter inspect the weapon before he started the game. The man continued to smile at the Fairy as he moved to the door to the game, taking a breath. “Goood luck Fairy booooy”
Was the last thing he heard as he took a step into the course.

There was some kind of gate with a timer above it, saying 20 seconds but not yet counting down. The Fairy assumed that was the challenge start and this would be his moment to prepare. There was no visual cue as Apoli switched places with Alter, though his other soul did seem a little more capable as soon as he began re-looking over the carnival gun. The weight was off due to several weights made to make the gun unwieldy, but only barely so. The sight was tampered with as well, being off just enough to make a challenger miss by just an inch or so if they were skilled. Good thing for Alter, he was more than just skilled. Inwardly, he spoke to his other self, “Apoli let me do this one. Some of the others were unfair but this one seems much more stacked against you.”
Apoli grinned at Alter, “You just want to show off how cool you are. I see.”
Alter sighed at Apoli’s ease, but he had the permission he needed. He took a runner's position in front of the gate, already zeroing in on the first target. He’d have to compensate the weapons tampering with instinct and skill, both of which Alter considered himself to have in droves. Launching forward, the timer began ticking down.

20

The first target he hit dead center in the head, not bothering to use the sight at all. The straightforward shot was likely meant to fill the challenger with confidence anyway. Next was a hard turn into the real course, where 4 targets could be seen ahead of them. Two were almost stuck together, a perfect shot would have to be made on each almost instantly one after the other to avoid wasting too much time. The next target was mostly covered by a wall rising from the ground. The only part visible was the head, just enough to hit dead center or miss completely. The last target upside down on the ceiling, a wall on some kind of mechanism occasionally would fully cover the target before moving again. Somewhat challenging but nowhere at of his league Alter continued his run. As described before, Alter would have to make 2 perfect shots on the first two targets, doing so with practiced ease. He was already becoming much more used to the weapon from just holding it, having more than enough familiarity to hit the covered target with another perfect headshot. He was making perfect time, waiting until the last moment to once again perfectly hit the next target as he sped into the next hall and turn to the next set of targets.

15

The next set of targets ramped the difficulty up much more. Another set of four but this time they all seemed to move in odd ways. The first one was on a track with a wall, The wall and target moving apart and then together with some speed. The two after that were behind a horizontal wall, only their heads popping up for a few short moments before disappearing again. The last target was the true test. Only a thin line of the target ever showed, two vertical walls covering that small window up every few moments. Still in a dead sprint, his shots would have to continue to be perfect to complete with the time left. As the wall left the first target, he didn’t have too much difficulty shooting the target dead center right before the wall covered it again. The next two were slightly more challenging, Alter using the sight for the first time. Even if it was off, he adjusted the pistol the make up for it and fired twice, one shot after the other. Even with the sight he barely made the shots, perfect as they were. The last target he had no choice but to stop, and aim. Timing it was nearly impossible, but he knew he could manage it. Taking a deep breath, he squeezed the trigger. The shot flew through the air, barely avoiding being bounced off the wall and hit the target perfectly. Smiling once again, he took off in a full sprint. He had almost no time left, and would have to make the next several shots on pure instinct.

5
The first target was all he focused on as he rushed towards the door. Its head flitted up, but the actual center of it only appeared in a small rectangular hole in a wall. He had no time to stop, making the shot and praying to the god of luck that he would make it. To his joy, he hit dead center, moving to the next target.
4
The next target would be easy to score a body shot on but that wasn’t enough for Alter, he was going perfect or nothing on this challenge. Above the targets head was a circular block with several small rectangles. One would have to shoot through those as the circle moved to hit the targets head. Once again firing on instinct and faith, he barely managed to  hit the target dead center, the dart vibrating slightly as it had been slightly hit by the moving block.
3
The last two were similar to the final target in the last room. A wall was set up with small slits designed so you could barely make out the targets, the targets themselves behind the walls were moving out of the range of the slits with unfairly timed speed. If he channeled magic...he would be able to hit both targets with ease but something inside the fairy forbade this. It would be like stooping to the level of this unfairly designed game and he just couldn’t do it. He focused and aimed, he would have to be absolutely perfect on this.
2
Two shots, both fired with such speed to almost have seemed to have been fired at the same time came from his weapon. The satisfying dual thunk of both being hit filled Alter’s ears as he just barely slid past the finish gate, falling and rolling directly into a wall from being unable to stop himself. Looking at the gate, he sighed in disbelief. The amount of time he had left had been exactly
1
One second. One second off and he would have failed. He stood and brushed his coat off, striding out back into the lobby where the carnival man stood in absolute disbelief. “F-Fairy H-How did...That was impossible!”


Alter said nothing, a cocky smirk on his face as he held out his hand for his prize. The fat man sighed in defeat, rummaging behind his desk for the prize for not only the course, but also for achieving the top score. Apart from that, he handed Alter a strange golden ticket. “Hmm? Whats this?”


The man stopped searching for the rest of the prize for a moment and explained. “Weeeelllllll… there are many carnivals our company hosts across the world. There is alwaaaays a game that takes such skill that a specialty ticket is given if the top score is...achieved. Collect all of them and i heeaaaar theres some kind of treasure.”
Apoli was almost drooling within Alters mind. “Treasure?! He said Treasure right? Let's find the rest!”
Alter smiled as his other self began to babble a bit, accepting a sack containing the rest of his prize and pocketed the ticket. “Thanks for the info, i’ll definitely be collecting the rest.”
With that, the Fairy made his way out of the Carnival, eager to find his way to whatever challenge awaited him at the next game.



[TASK COMPLETE]
[1,827 Words]