Medio: There's always time to celebrate! ~ Present

Since the world started to end, Herm had seen a lot of things. People usually don’t take that kind of news lightly, and every passing day the end of everything gets closer, the behavior of people becomes more erratic than the last. All within expectation of course, imminent death has that kind of magic over people.

Considering that, the last thing he expected to see was a full on city wide festival once the morning struck.

Herm, Razona and the kid whose name was Yke, as they discovered during the trip as stowaways, were exploring the city with several objectives in mind. First, Herm had hurt himself when jumping out of the crashing caravan, so they needed to find any medical supplies they could get their hands on. But most importantly, they needed to find a way to open the chains that bound the prisoners together, as they had failed to open them the past night.

They had taken the corpses of the guards to search for the key in them, but they found nothing. Or none of the guards had it, or it had gotten lost during the scuffle. The end result was that the twelve prisoners were bound to each other, making themselves an extremely easy target for the guards who now patrolled the city center searching for them. As they could not go out in the open or they would be instantly recognized, the three of them were the only option they had.

At some point of the day, a giant man made of straw had been brought to the center of the main plaza. It was as big as a building, which made Raz wonder how they managed to build it when the city is on a mountain and there are no fields nearby. Silly questions apart, there were lots of people dancing, drinking and celebrating in every street he could see. It was as if they had arrived just in time for a festival.

But who celebrates a festival when the world is ending? Can’t they see the water getting closer each day?

They would not find anything as things were, so they had no option but to simply ask around for guidance. Unsure of going near the building where they were taking the kidnapped, they moved to a smaller plaza further away from the city center.

“Eh? What do you mean a lockpicker? Who cares about something like that.”

The man who Herm asked turned around and grabbed a big jug of beer before pushing it into his hands.

“You can worry about things like that when the festival ends, this is precisely a time to celebrate!”

The man then saw another group of people and ran towards them, joining their conversation.

“This is getting nowhere. And what now?” Asked Herm, still holding the jug of beer with both hands.

Yke looked at him, with pleading eyes.

“I’m thirsty, can I have a sip?” He asked, saying the truth about his thirst, but feeling curiosity about the beer more than anything else.

“Absolutely not. This is ridiculous.” Said Raz, separating the kid from the jug before he could even touch it.

Raz took the jug and left it on a table, it didn’t take more than a minute before someone else had taken it away to drink it themselves. Someone in the center of the plaza had brought several enormous barrels and was gifting the drinks for anyone who wanted them.

“Hey, I did want that!” He shouted to the person who took it, but he had already moved away and couldn’t hear him.

“Herm, can you concentrate on this for once?”

“Fine, fine. But think about it. As things are, chances are that even if we find a lock picker that could help us, they are probably gonna be blackout drunk by the time we find them.” Concluded Herm, watching a man face plant into the ground with an empty mug in his hand.

“That doesn’t leave us many options. Maybe a pickaxe or something like that could work?” Said Raz, looking around the plaza in search of some tools, but there were so many people roaming around that she couldn’t find anything.

“Did you see how big those chains are? We might have a better chance breaking all their feet and forcing them out of it”

“Of course, that way when the guards find them we will have made them the favor of making sure they can’t run”

“It's not like they can run with those chains on. Do you remember that mess last night? I had to make us march like little kids to make them stop stumbling with each other.” Said Herm, mimicking the silly march they had to do.

“This is going nowhere.”

“How about we get some food and drinks for them and call it a day? We will have a better chance to find something once the festival is over. Besides, we have to wait for Ases, so we have to stay here anyways.”

“Does that mean we can go to the festival?” Asked Yke, tired from the new variant of the same old discussion they had ever since the morning started.

“Yeah, that might be a good idea. Once Ases arrives and discovers what happens to us, he will get so worried he will never let us hear the end of it.” said Herm, already starting to fear the conversation they would have.

“To be honest he would be right. We did have encounters with the beasts before but he left us for a couple of days and we ended up as stowaways in the prisoner cart of a crazy cult. If we tell him what happened he will never leave us alone again.” Raz agreed.

“Even then, we don’t have any way to open the chains, so maybe the simplest solution would be to wait for him to just snap them with his hands. But that’s for later, for now, let’s see what this festival is about.” finished Herm, happy that he managed to steer them back into going to the festival.

With the discussion finally settled, the three of them mixed in with the crowd. None of them wanted to say it, but the constant stress of the end of the world summed to the mess that had been the last week left them fatigued and with the need of venting out some steam. It may be strange, but now that the festival was here, the guards were not looking for them as they could not identify them, and Ases would still take a couple of days to arrive. What better chance would they ever have to rest?

Herm got closer to the man giving away the beer and managed to get himself an enormous jug of it. Close to it, there were several long tables full of food that was being constantly replenished by servants who made sure there was always something available for everyone. Maybe he could get some of it to the escapees?

While he thought of that he took a big gulp of the beer, but found it to have a strange aftertaste. Not only that, certainly it was alcoholic, but it was also definitely not beer.

“What the hell is this?” He asked out loud, not really to anyone.

“What do you mean? Is kykeon!”

“Oh, that’s even better!”

Herm had once been part of an Eleusinian mystery, an annual religious celebration that celebrates the Goddesses of nature, and in it, kykeon was the main drink. The experience had been absolutely magical, he can’t prove it, but he is sure that even a couple of Gods descended to take part of the festivities and have a drink of it. With this being the last year of life he would have, this could be the last chance he would ever have to drink it.

Needless to say, he started downing the jug with bliss, ignoring the servants that brought another couple of barrels of it to the center of the small plaza using an enormous piece or resistant cloth tied with several ropes to pull it. Afterwards, they used their contraption in a pulley to put the barrels in their place, they opened them with a crowbar and called everyone so they could drink the fresh batch that had just came out. After their announcement, they took away the plates and empty barrels before returning from whence they came.

Herm was too busy to notice it, but the servants walked back to the main plaza and from it entered the biggest building in it. The same place that he was about to enter with the prisoners the night before, the lord of the land’s mansion.

Raz walked around the plaza with Yke, trying to decide what food they would take, but she suddenly lost balance. She thought it was a random bout of nausea, but soon realized that was not the case. A short earthquake moved the land for ten seconds, until it stopped just as quickly as it came.

Everyone kept dancing, everyone kept celebrating, unaware of the dark omen that had now reached their beloved city.