Chapter 3: Festival

Kovac started working with the contractors weeks before the Bloom Festival of Origins was to start. The grounds have been cleaned, grass cut and the barriers erected so that the people at the festival could have some sort of privacy during this very special time of the year for their people.

“Good. It looks great this year Adam.” Kovac said as their prep work wound down.

When Kovac got home, she moved to Helen who was cooking dinner and moved to give her a kiss. When he slipped a tongue into her mouth, both of them wrinkled their noses at the other. Neither tasted good to the other. “Ew.” they both said, moving apart.

“Festival starts next week, honey. I see that once again we are not compatible.” Kovac said, wishing that his mate tasted better this time of the year. It happens every year. They are great every day of the year. Both taste good to the other, except when the festival starts. Then their bodies react differently to each other, just as it is now.

“What we are seeing is the natural change in Kovac and Helen ladies and gentlemen. Where we mate and bond for life, finding them compatible year round, these people are different, reacting to the natural change that occurs so close to their mating season. As far as we can tell, their relationship is solid even though they are not compatible during this time of the year. We will continue to follow them as the Bloom Festival of Origins arrives.” Dr Grimling said as Kovac and Helen worked together to get dinner on the table.

Helen’s work as a midwife is over for the year since all of the babies in this year’s class are born, she has returned to being a stay at home mom and wife.

The day of the festival arrives for the community. Kovac’s mom and Helen’s mom both arrive at their house to look after the kids while Kovac and Helen are at festival, so Kovac and Helen leave with Kara, being there for her as she enters her very first festival season.

Kara had felt restless all week, the festival’s approach stirring something deep within her. That same edginess simmered in Kovac and Helen too—a restless, yearning pull in their souls that seemed to sharpen with each passing day. The need to breed, to mate was becoming too much to ignore and all three were so glad when the start of the festival arrived. All three of them showered, shaved and made themselves as attractive as they could before leaving for the festival grounds.

‘Welcome to the Bloom Festival of Origins!’ read the sign welcoming the whole community as they arrived at the festival grounds. They signed in with an older man who was recording all of the attendees this year. “Kovac! Helen!” he exclaimed, greeting them.

“Mister Crutch, good festival season to you as well.” Kovac said, still feeling a little bit edgy, but trying to be polite.

“Who do you have with you?”

Helen stepped forward, “Our daughter Kara is celebrating her 16th spring.” she said with pride.

“Welcome Kara and happy birth anniversary to you.” Mr. Crutch said. All three signed in and left Mr Crutch to his duties recording all of the festival participants.

Helen took Kara to the ladies changing room where they removed all of their clothing then left the changing room to enter the festival grounds.

“Ladies and gentlemen, what they are seeing is the grounds all set up for breeding season. Kovac and his team have worked for the past week to assemble all of the breeding chairs, roughly ten thousand of them and then erect the temporary walls around this three acre space. In the middle of the grounds are the chairs, around the outside of the space are the food, water, resting cots and their waste disposal booths that they all will use over the course of their mating season. As you can see, the older men who are no longer of breeding age are the assistance during this time. They will help the attendees with food, water, helping them to a cot to rest, even helping them to use the waste closets. At least this is what we are assuming since this is our first mating season for this people group.” Dr Grimling said as a large number of cameras were cycled through showing all of the grounds.

“As for food, we have found out that it is called ‘Runza’ and is made up of an animal protein mixed with spices, onion and cabbage, formed into a ball, then wrapped in a sweet bread then fried. Boiled in hot oil. It is served warm and as far as we can tell, contains many of the nutrients and proteins for their good health while going through their season.” Dr Grimling said, changing the camera views to show the men and a few women, forming the runza balls, wrapping them in bread, then dumping them into an oil fryer. “We have not actually tried one of these runza balls, but it is on the list of things to eat while we film this fascinating event.”

The camera view changed to an overhead view of the chairs, then changed again to show the mating chairs in detail.

The view changed again to show the seats the men and women use during their mating time.

There were thousands of them, seemingly one for each man who was going to the festival this year. They were taken apart at the end of the festival, stored away in a warehouse, then assembled again at the start of the next season. Kovac and his contractors worked tirelessly to get them put together each year, then taken apart again.

“Now that the sky is bright enough to see, we see that the men and women have started to enter the mating grounds. By my whiskers, do you see that? None of them have outer clothes on. They are all nude for this. Fascinating.” Dr Grimling said, as he watched men and women enter the grounds all without a stitch of clothing on. The men would move to find a chair and sit down. As the women filtered in they looked around before moving to a waiting male and then bending over and tasting him, pressing her mouth to his letting their tongues touch each other getting a good taste of the other person. If they weren’t compatible, the female would move off and find another male and taste him. Dr Grimling’s team kept the cameras rolling as the pattern continued until one of the females found a compatible male and sat down on his lap.