Splashing gave way to sloshing. Sloshing to air, boots and surface as Jo followed the pale jacketed form of Jay onto the fresh path. Although into might have been better, as the vegetation seemed to climb up on either side like lush pillars; leaves glistening in the lamplight like scale curtains. Followed by out of, as with a few more strides, the trees and thickets on the right were replaced by a welcome stretch of field; with intervals of benches for people to sit down and enjoy the view.

In the hours of the sun, the view would have been the ducks, coots or moorhens in the gentle, island-set river to his left. Plus whatever performance was taking place in the multi-stepped, multi-pillared and multi eaved pavilion on the same island. Quite what Suzé was looking at in this hour of the moon and stars was another matter.

"We've just passed the bridge if you want to go over," he said, joining her near the railings.

"Said that already," Jay replied from a bench. "Thank Beeswick we don't."

"Are you sure that you want to go in there afterwards?" Jo said, glancing in the direction of the twinkling lights and closer beats.

"Oh, I can manage a few steps," Jay yawned. "Just sat down to get something out of a shoe. But then, didn't want to get back up."

"The water," said Suzé, making Jo's heart almost stand-jump into his mouth. "Can you see it?"Swallowing, Jo turned back to the railings and the bank, island and liquid in between. Pools of light from the pavilion rippled in the water. Not a gentle flow, but a determined course; as if driven from a source further up.

"It seems higher than the last time that I was here," he began. "Might be the fountain."

"At least it's not on the path," said Jay. "My shoes aren't fond of sediment."

"Within the water," Suzé continued. "Tune it up, but gent-"

"Alright hopsters, it's that time in the evening."

Jo almost went over the railings as Suzé turned in the direction of the rumbling speaker.

"What in-," Jay said, standing up.

"They'll hear that in Loft Street," Jo said, stepping away from a close-splash.

"That's right. Get yourself some space; twirl those sticks: Fantastican are on the staaagggeee!"Stage-extended was accompanied by peals of thunder and flashes of light from the bank of trees ahead, beyond which lay the source of the lights and sand.

"They'll be getting a storm alright," Suzé growled amidst the rubble. "A storm of complaints."

"Fantastica?" said Jay. "At the Tropira House? No way!"

"More than thunder," Jo replied as he closed his eyes to focus on the weave of synth blue that flowed in with the beat. "It's that track."

"...No..." Suzé said, staring.

"Yes," Jay almost squeaked, tapping a foot, followed by hips. "Listen."

Hips, feet and legs were all moving of their own accord with Jo; eyes still closed as starlight was replaced by light azure. A vast, half-amphitheatre with a view across a turquoise sea to distant emerald and jet islands. As he, Jay, Suzé and Montarion were weaving, stepping and flowing in the late afternoon sun to the same track that was making his very being move in the lamplight:

"Is this not, Ernetselles..." the voice rose;
"Tra-la-la-la-la," Jay and voice added.

"Is this not Ernetselles?" Jo and voice asked;
"Tra-la-la-la-la," Jay and voice continued;

"Is this not Ernetselles?" Suzé and voice asked;
"Tra-la-la-la-la," Jay, Jo and voice added;

"Is this not Ernetselles?" Suzé and voice asked again;
"Tra-la-la-la-la," Jay, Jo and voice added again;

"I looked across the sea," Jo and voice sang. "I looked across the sea;
and cried."
"Oh!" Suzé and voice rose.

"I looked across the sea," Jay, Jo and voice sang. "I looked across the sea;
and cried."
"Oh!" All four of them sang.

All four and a burst of blue and white light from the Tropira house.

All four, as Joe opened his eyes, put a hand in the air and saw that Suzé and Jay had done the same with in sync unison. All four as a spray of fluorescent green and yellow light burst from a tree to their right; with multiple higher-than-aerial squirrel chirps and seemed to twinkle like stardust arrows.

"It's them!" Jay yelled. "Them!"

"No!" Jo yelled amidst the din as all the trees in that stretch burst to life with more arrow-shaped and half-chakram wing lights with the piercing shrieks. Burst, rose then swept across field, path and themselves before they could even run. Beaks bright like rubies. Feathers emerald with an inner fluorescent light.

"Run for it!" Jay continued to yell; with snail's pace as the air became a storm of shrieking star-banishing parakeets; brighter than the sticks Jo loved to use when the beats made him want to jump onto a catwalk. Louder than an avenue of upright xylophone's, triangles and celestial clef wind chimes.

Setting hands to ears, Joe turned or tried to turn, even as Jay slug-strode past him. Even as the illuminate birds continued to swarm. Too many to count; too close for comfort. Each able to put the largest ducks on the lake in the shade. Just like last time.

He had run then; every inch of him was trying to now. But it was as if the air had flowed into invisible treacle. "What's going on," he gasped amongst the din. "I'm crawling."

"They're everywhere," Jay cried, two steps ahead and bending down, as a parakeet cut through the air his head would have been in. "I should be on the field by now."

"I know you would," Suzé said from the direction of the fountain; palms raised as if she held both time and space.

"Oh, you can't - be doing - this," Jo groaned.

"They want our heads," Jay added.

"Look where they are going," Suzé answered, taking a step forward as the treacle became a translucent wall. Putting his hands in front of him, Jo saw the parakeets were no longer around about; but in a fluorescent flock headed for the outline of a giant tree at the fountain-end of the island. Leaving his vision with after sparkles.

"I... don't understand," he said, "there were so many."

"Like when you saw the flame fox out on the field," said Suzé, lowering both hands as Jo stepped back. "The noctor's too high. Turn it down."

"I thought I had with all the lanterns being on," Jo said, kneeling down. "I can see ants on the path."

"I'd be on Ullista Road by now," said Jay.

"Just like the last time," said Suzé. "When you and Jones couldn't get out of here fast enough."

In fact, Joe couldn't remember how Suzé had got ahead of them when he and Jay had run across the field the last time. So much ahead that she had been stood under the streetlight on the carriage park long before he and Jay had cluttered onto it. Standing almost as she was now. Only her face wasn't like that of thunder; nor had it been haloed by a gentle peach lantern...

"That wasn't here the last time," he whispered.

"Oh, they were," said Suzé. "Only not so many."

"There's another one," said Jay, pointing at a second, almost tranlusce, bell or lantern; billowing at person-height above a field-adjacent bench.

"A stranger making its way home," said Suzé. "What's the problem." Then stepped back, as Jo did, from at the third lantern between them. A luscent bell with an inner sphere of peach, edged with pink and orange frills and teal and silver streamers underneath that.

"...Who lives...in here..." Jay gasped, stepping back.

"I don't know," Jo heard a whine. "Floating lanterns."

"With rainbow streamers and spots? They're weretoadstools!"

As if in reply more of the aerial, white-spotted fungi appeared; some to the left, some to the right. More behind Suzé like silent bells, that could only mean that there others behind him and Jay.

"Their not agarlic lanterns or levitating chestnuts," Suzé snapped. "Their moving like jellyfish."

"J-j-jellyfish?" Jo repeated, then stepped sideways as one ethereal sailed by with a flap from the edges of its not so solid mushroom surface. "It's got streamers."

"This isn't right," said Jay, going into a head in hands crouch. "Glow baton parrots and now this."

"It's a bloom," Suzé said, moving out of the way of another spotted and translucse being. "A pretty one, mind."

"They should be off the coast of Promrusey," said Jo. "A beach near Purtuna if they want to wash up on land. Not 'swimming' in a park in the middle of the night!"

"Why don't you ask them," said Suzé. "I'm sure they would love the conversation."

"Like Larnsey, I'm asking it," said Jo. "They could have strings."

"Which is why I'm down here," said Jay, hands on bandana.

"You might as well get up," Suzé replied. "They're climbing."

Jo could only frown. Not a single member of the 'bloom' was at waist, or shoulder, height. With calm pulses, they were floating up like, like aerial jellyfish. Some lune peach. Others mint green. Another streamer purple. No, the streamers at the back of its furrowed shell were purple; The rest of it was lilac; save for the magenta fins that may as well have been a pair of wings.

"...That's not a jellyfish..." he said, stepping back as the creature banked over the trees.

"Not with the shell and fins..." Suzé whispered as the parakeets exploded from the tree they had been in.

"It's a monster," said Jay, on his feet but stepping away. "The size of a cowpony. Run for it!"

. . .

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