Lumi jumped off and landed near Jekkal. "Yes, Duchess?" Jekkal's paint had lasted for most of the summer, but Lumi noticed some flaking near Jekkal's abdomen, where the skin was no longer stretched from the clutch.

"I thought we had an agreement for tonight... We do NOT try to convert tourists. We only try to convert REFUGEES that intend to become SIZ citzens. Am I clear on this?" Jekkal glared at her.

Lumi bowed her head. "Yes, Duchess." She gave Jekkal the stash of pamplets she had in a fanny pack.

"AND the ones in your leotard... there's a few poking out from your cleavage..."

Lumi grumped and quickly began to pull the remaining pamphlets from her leotard, which gathered the attention of most male visitiors. Jekkal swiftly thanked Lumi for her cooperation.

Naraki walked over to Jekkal. "Are you sure she's not going to try any more of this?" Jekkal quickly stuffed the pamphlets into a small shoulder bag.

"All I'll say is if I find a Hylan with pamphlets stuffed into his cummerbund, It'll attract the notice of every human female here... possibly even some humanoids." Jekkal smirked at her comment, pointing to a dressily-clothed Myrror and Dark shadow in Tranzi with blue scales.

"True. Things have changed a lot over the past year... haven't they..." Naraki looked around. "I was working here as your mother's personal attendant last time, and now I barely recognize half of the faces. Same ship, but still..."

"Our little group of contacts has really taken quite a growth to it, hasn't it?" Jekkal looked around at the crowd, most of them people who she had very little contact with. "At least they're all voters. They'll be interested to find out who won."

"I hope so." Naraki walked off, leaving Jekkal to sort through the envelopes. Only a few people had any true idea as to what the results were, but they were mostly secret. Besides being a year for growth, this year also had an odd circumstance of Silvanon, who was a well-respected artist, to be absent this year on missionary work. It allowed people to pick from other agencies, but it also made trouble as certain catagories could not be filled for candidates— the Search/Roaming catagory, especially. That was the only catagory that everyone already knew who won, since there was only one agency to pick from.

Darkhorse appeared behind Jekkal, wearing a simple, white, sleeveless ankle-length dress. She had no jewelery on. "Jekkal... I think we need to get the ceremony going. Two party crashers just lit Keta's tail on fire." She whispered to Jekkal. "I quickly snuffed it out and kicked both of them, but still..."

"I understand. I'll start momentarily. You go find your seat..." Jekkal moved away from Darkhorse, making her way to the stage. She waved over to thr human in charge of special effects. "Cue the music so they know the ceremony's about to start." The human nodded, and quickly went to start the music.

The first piece of classical music played, and the crowd began to settle down. Luna quickly quieted the crowd dwon and began to speak. "Welcome to the 2nd Annual Star Island Zone Festival Awards. As a new country, the Star Islands Zone is glad to celebrate it's first year of-"

"If you SMELLLLALALALELL... what the ROCK... is cookin'!"

"By the Masters!" Jekkal ran behind the stage and quickly disconnected the player from the speakers, where a copy of WWF: The Music, Volume 4 was playing. Jekkal immediately glared at the technician. "What was this doing here?"

"I don't LIKE classical music." He explained. Jekkal looked out to the audience again, which was now stoked with adrenaline and waving signs in the air. Jekkal glared at the technician again, and then yelled for someone. "BOUNCER!"

Dark Shadow walked up to Jekkal, smirking. "Take him and make sure he gets hung by his ankles in the nude tommorow morning. Now, let's continue with the ceremony..."

Luna tried to keep talking, despite the fact it took quite a bit of energy before everyone just shut up and got back to business. "... and now, Our first catagory of the night is for the Best Leagus Pri~erd. The award goes to..."

"ME!!!" White Tiger King screamed, jumping up and down. "I'm de kuhlest! I'll win all of d AWARDZ!!" He quickly stopped jumping once both Lexington and DragonFlight grabbed him. "HEY! You can't do dat! I'm a vmpyre, I'm all powerful, I'll kick all of ur asses, you bitches..." he was still yelling at the top of his lungs as the two tossed him overboard, and did not turn around until they heard him scream "SHARKZ!!!!" and waited until they stopped hearing his thrashing.

Jekkal immediately turned pale. "Poor Newbie, he was an idiot and shall not be missed after this point. Please bow your heads for five seconds in reverance." Jekkal bowed her head, and then quickly brought it back up, returning to her normal color. "Okay. Moment over."

Luna started again. "The winner is... Night's Flame Pri~erd!" A set of Leagi came up to recieve the plaque, and quickly trodded off the stage, crushing a hapless visitor..

Jekkal sighed, beginning to get frustrated. How much worse could the night get? Neo-nazis trying to hold everyone hostage? Terrorists detonating a bomb onstage?

Luna tried to catch her breath. "The award for..." She wheezed, "Best Pah'llock Clan goes to... Deep Horizon!"

A few Mahnon Pah'llocks walked up timidly, careful not to be as headstrong as the Leagi were.Once the had left the stage, Luna grinned again. "Continuing with the best groups, the Best Paint Charity is..." Luna squinted at the card. "Ap'mir... af'mere..."

"Ath'mirith." Jekkal quickly whispered to Luna.

"ATH'MIRITH!" Luna shrieked, screaming into Jekkal's direction. Jekkal just watched as Myrror's paints walked up to accept the award, Myrror in a state of near-shock. Jekkal smirked at that, but wasn't smirking at the fact she was now going to be deaf in one ear slit for the rest of the night.

Jekkal heard Lund say something else, but she was unsure of what she'd said at first. Then, after she saw the Rakish come up to claim their prise, she grinned and realized. She had to look on the plaque to make sure she knew who won, though.

As soon as Jekkal thought she was able to hear with both ear slits again, she held up three award plaques. "As we're all very aware of, the next three catagories for awards are for the best Genetic, Dragon, and Equine Agencies respectively. However... I have my reasons for witholding the results of those events until later in the ceremony, simply because of the fact that quite a few of our Best Webmistress nominees had their sub-catagories here. So... I'm going to wait and just tell you who won the award for the best canine agency."

"So who won it?" Luna asked Jekkal.

"Grimmy, of course. Thoe Bryar Wolves really did a whirl." Jekkal grinned as she held out the award plaque, Grimmy carrying it in her beak all the way back to the seat.

Luna whispered something into Jekkal's ear. "Oh, and before I forget... LorlenMichelle and Adlana, you ran unopposed for the best Search Agency Catagory. Please come up and accept your award." Jekkal grinned to herself as she watched the two girl grab the award, remembering that same sort of exuberance... before she had a clutch to worry with, of course...

Jekkal regained her composure, holding up three new plaques. "Now, Like we did last year, the SIZ pet show is the only one out of all the catagories with three placings. I am happy to announce that 3rd place goes to Elae's Cylirah, 2nd place goes to JadeEye's Seahorse, and 1st place is..." Jekkal waited long enough for the crowd's eyeballs to stand on the edge of their sockets. "... Myrror's Mequis in Black!"

The crowd whooped itself into a frenzy as all three came up to recieve their plaques. Elae and JadeEye slinked back to their seats, while Myrror found herself being picked up by Jekkal. "Not just yet, Myr... I want to take you back into last year. A year that was drastically different, for that was the time when the SIZ festival was, uniquely, the only summertime bash... and those of you with festivals of your own had best to remember that... and, of course, Silvanon was still a well-revered and active artist. This year is drastically different."

"Really?" Myrror tried to squirm from Jekkal's grip.

"Quite. For one thing, you had been grossly underrepresented... you only had Leagi running last year, and eventually they were pulled out of the category. This year, the situation is different. This year, those Leagi won." Jekkal grinned. "Leagi win the Best Genetic catagory."

Myrror stammered out something. "I... I..."

"And that wasn't your only win, either. Your Silsharmyst dragons won for Best Dragon Agency, Your Tigons won for Best Feline Agency, and — oh, yes— your Wynds of Change won for best equine." Jekkal handed her the three other plaques. Myrror was virtually speachless. "And Myr, put your tounge back in your mouth. I'm not finished yet."

"WHAT?!"

"Last year was certainly the year of the Dark Horse, as most of this crowd probably remembers. Now, this time, I think in honor of the Chinese Zodiac and out of overwhelming support... this year, Myrror, is the Year of the Silver Dragon. The Best Webmistress title for the second festival awards ceremony goes to Jenna LeBeau!" Jekkal beemed, handing Myr a trophy to go along with her plaques.

The crowd erupted into applause as Myrror just stood there, grinning in a catatonic trance, as Jekkal looked up. The fireworks show was starting... good grief, what were they drawing in the sparks up there?!?!

She ran through the crowd, and towards the pyrotechnics. "STOP FIRING OFF THAT PHALLIC SYMBOL THIS INSTANT!!!"