Spring Festivities
Four days of celebration begin on the first new moon of spring. Yelps, clangs, bangs, and trumpets all swell within the capital of Sárkánytava. Traditionally, this was Sárkánytava's new year before the adoption of the residing kingdoms' calendar. Feast, drink, and dance, and be filled with the past to help guide you through the year. It would also display the dwindling dragon population, as Ábel's relative circle grew less and less. Most dragons nowadays were either dead or steered far away from humans.
Ábel has been draped in a sheep-wool wrap and attire embroidered with green, pink and white. His servants would braid his hair in intricate knots, intertwining dried lilies and tulips from last spring. All eyes were on him on the first day, as dragon shaped gourds were passed to him to sip, then to each citizen after. Their lips touched, indirectly kissing a dragon. Good luck in health for the coming year.
The second day they lit fires as big as god. Children ran with handmade puppets of past rulers, cheering, their mouths filled with crisp, sweet pepper. He enjoyed this day the most, as he got to watch the generations grow and change.
Ábel would fish for the people on the third day. The dragon would catch the festival's feast. This task was much simpler when Sárkánytava was just a small village. But he would never disappoint his people. They would follow him to several rivers, watching the beast plunge his claws, effortlessly dragging carp and catfish into the sky, for celebrators to catch in padded baskets.
Nobles from other lands would appear the most on the fourth day. The king must dance all day, for a dragon never tires, and everyone shall be allowed to grasp his hand. He never quite liked that phrase. Of course, a dragon will tire, and the amount of eyes on him since the first day is already exhausting enough. Tired physically, no. But tired mentally, as if he could hibernate for the winter right now. It was the conversations with foreign nobles that made it the worst day. Questions of alliances, trade, and marriages, selfish to gain something for their own land, not being entirely present in celebrating his own.
With the celebrations over, the year shall burn brightly.