Annan followed his officials to the bustling Theater Square.
Onstage, an Orc wearing a contestant number stomped, pounded his body, and roared out a war song.
Annan could not understand it, but he felt its raw ferocity head-on. He agreed with the Judge's "Disqualified" signs.
"Why?!" the Orc roared in protest.
"This is Everyone's Singer. Do you call that a song?"
"Why wouldn't a war song count as a song?"
There was no need to ask. He had to be a Free City Orc. Orcs from elsewhere would not argue back.
Annan scanned the front of the stage and, sure enough, spotted the chieftain of the Gray Bear Tribe.
When Freedom Knocks had made Chris and his son famous overnight. The Orcs envied their fame and popularity.
Who would not want to earn, just by acting in front of humans each day, what it would otherwise take hauling dozens of tons of cargo to make?
The Orc left the stage to scattered applause. In his place came an old man with a colorful parrot perched on his shoulder, a wooden peg leg, and a battered captain's hat.
He hobbled onstage, leaving Annan wondering when pirates had started coming to Free City.
But people in the crowd called him "Fishmonger Jack."
"Contestant 564, what will you perform?"
"I'm not the one singing. He is." Fishmonger Jack pointed to the colorful Long-Tailed Parrot on his shoulder.
The Long-Tailed Parrot spread his wings on cue and let out a piercing shriek. "Listen up, all of you!"
"Stinking fish and rotten shrimp! Stinking fish and rotten shrimp!
Tavern poets, go cry for your mums!
Your rhymes stare like dead fish eyes,
Next to mine, they're a disgrace!"
Whoa—
The crowd was stunned. They had never heard a "song" like this before. A few people