The day of the festival came quicker than Sam would've liked. It just kinda, snuck up on her. Miles and Jamir were going to be escorting her there and Sam had a suspicion that they weren't going to leave her side the entire time. Picking out some simple black elephant pants and a tan button-up blouse. She put on her black flats and brushed her hair up into a high pony-tail.

"Ready," she said to herself and headed out the door.

     The first sun was still in the sky but it was heading down, rays of sunlight shone through the holes in the holes in the cave. The wheat swayed in the circling breeze of the cave, creating a soft sound. It was beautiful.

     It didn't take long for Miles and Jamir to walk up to her home. Both of them were in nice clothes and looking spiffy. Mile's face lit up when he saw Sam and Jamir's eyebrows shot up.

"You look beautiful Sam, are you ready?" Miles said with a cheerful voice.

Sam let out a smile, "I am! Really surprised that I was allowed to even come with you guys."

Jamir let out a huff. "It almost didn't happen. Guess you really made an impression on Marco's mother."

Sam tilted her head Didn't she want me to come?

     Miles spoke up, "Don't worry about it, she does have some hold on the  council but even they could see through her *Schwachsinn*."

     Sam tried to repeat that last word to ask for clarity and failed miserably. "He means Bullshit. He uses that word a lot." Jamir spoke up and continued and looked at Miles, "And a three to three isn't seeing through it, She got lucky someone switch their vote after an hour of discussion."

"How do you guys know what happened anyway," Sam asked.

"We were called in to speak on your behalf and report how you've been doing. Even Jamir here had nothing to say but good things," Miles responded with a smirk.

     Sam couldn't help but joke around and looked at Jamir, "Awwww you defended me?"

Jamir's face hardened and he looked off to the side not responding.

     Sam smiled and it suddenly clicked in her head that she wanted to ask something. "Have you guys seen Marco? I haven't seen him since last week and that's unusual for him."

     Jamir and Miles exchanged a look and Miles answered, "His parents wanted him to focus on his studies but you should see him at the festival."

Sam looked at them skeptically, "Well let's go then."

     Miles nodded and they all took off for the caves that led to the cliff face. It had been a while since Sam had been to the cliff face and it still blew Sam away with its beauty. Walking down through the tunnels there was an increasing amount of people who were all walking in the same direction.

     Almost everyone was wearing clothing that represented their culture. Sam couldn't tell what everything meant, but the colors and patterns were so different. They were all walking lower into the ravine and at the bottom, the river had a soft glow that came from one of the sides. Sam could hear the sounds of faint music being played from the glow and she could imagine that the festival was taking place there.

"What's it like down there?" She asked while walking.

     Miles had a sparkle in his eye and responded with "That would ruin the surprise."

     Jamir let out a chuckle and Sam let out a sigh. It took them about an hour to reach the bottom of the ravine and the cave that they were in spit them out by the river. The river was a lot bigger than Sam had expected, its waters raced downstream crashing into rocks and roaring with fury. The only thing that could compete with the noise of the river was the music coming from a cave a few meters away.

     The opening was very large, about 20ft, and a small steam from the river ran into the opening as well. Everyone was walking into the cave opening and Sam could feel the excitement in the air. As they neared the cave mouth she could see the sandstone ceiling was lit up with lanterns and tapestry of every color. The opening sloped down and as soon as Sam could see the floor of the cavern her jaw fell open, Holy...

     The floor was carpeted with lush greenery that grew small purple flowers. It was striking contrast against the red sandstone, and there were stalls set up everywhere. Sam was too stunned to even move and didn't even notice when Miles let out a laugh.

"Beautiful huh?" He stated with a smile.

"I've never seen anything like it," Sam said without taking her eyes off the sight.

     Jamir gave her a slight push to keep moving, as they reached the end of the slope everyone around them was taking off their shoes before they stepped on the plants. Sam followed suit and took a step on the greenery, careful not to step on a flower. The sand felt unusually firm under her feet, not hard like sandstone but her feet didn't immediately sink in either like she was used to. But the longer she stood in one spot water pooled around her feet slowly sunk into the sand while being entangled in the plants. Amazing.

     Following Jamir and Miles, they approached the stalls and saw each one offering something different. Some had artwork and jewelry from all different cultures. Some people huddled together to hear stories and lore. People were singing and dancing, Sam had never been around so much energy before and it was infectious.

"So what would you like to see first?" Jamir asked

     Sam thought about it for a moment "I want to learn about your guy's ancestry."

"Well, both of ours are very different. My family is connected to Germany, whereas Jamir here is from Africa." Miles said with a smile.

"Africa, is that where Firash is connected too?"

"Not quite," stated Jamir "His family is from Malaysia, which is part of Asia."

"Like Rui."

"Right. "

Sam let out a laugh, "This is too much for me to keep up with up, why don't we just make a circle and check them all out?"

"Sounds good to me," said Miles.

      They spent hours walking around, listening to people's stories that were passed down from generations. Surrounded by people who speak different languages and dialects. Looking at different styles of artwork, and seeing each of the council members in their culture.

Elizabeth; United States, North America

Luca; Italy, Europe

Firash; Malaysia, Asia

Masika; Egypt, Africa

Rui; Japan, Asia.

Each said their hellos to Sam and told her a little bit about the lifestyle of their home.

     The only one they hadn't seen yet was Rosa who was from Peru, South America and Sam still hadn't seen Marco yet either. People were handing out flower crowns and Sam got a couple whereas Miles and Jamir declined as they headed toward South America.

      Sam still feeling pretty energized but knew it was getting into the next morning. Ok Marco, please be around here. Keeping an out specifically for the boy, they enjoyed watching people dance and using instruments for music. Mr. and Mrs. Pacheco were up on a platform speaking in spanish and were very energetically telling a story. Many people were sitting around them and while Sam eyed each one, she didn't see Marco.

     Miles and Jamir were distracted by the energetic duo while a book stand caught Sam's attention. Walking over it she flipped through the books and realized she couldn't read any of them. Looking at the different covers she noticed a small child was sitting inside the stall with his head in a book.

"Marco?" She called out hesitantly

"Sam!" Marco's head shot up and he stood quickly.

He stood a fair distance away and stacked the book on top of others.

"Where have you been? I haven't seen you around." Sam asked with curiosity.

"Ummm, yeah, I've been staying home studying."

"So I heard... When can you start visiting me again?"

"I don't know..."

     Sam squinted her eyes to get a better look at him and something didn't look right about his left eye. It looked, off-colored.

"Marco, come here real quick." She asked softly.

     He kept his head down and walk up to Sam on the other side of the counter. Getting a closer look at his left eye it looked like it was covered in makeup that was just a shade too light. She reached her hand and brushed her thumb under his eye. He flinched and took a step back.

     It didn't take much for Sam to connect the dot but she needed to make sure she wasn't wrong.

"Marco," she started off as softly and quietly as she could. "What happened? Are you ok?"

     Tears sprung to his eyes and he hung his head. That was all she needed to hurry around the stall and knelt down to his level. Bringing him into a hug she squeezed the poor boy as guilt panged her heart. I should've trusted my feeling. I should've seen this. How can I make this better?

     Sam was trying to think about how she could get away with taking Marco away from his parents but didn't know if it was possible.

"How long have they been doing this?" She asked tentatively.

"Years." He responded quietly.

Sam felt her own tears welling up. "Have you told anyone?"

"No."