The festivities down below echoed with joyous laughter and random instruments.
Fireflies flit around the air in tune with the various strums and strokes of the performing troop.
A loud and boisterous voice sang some indecipherable story with the charisma of a dictator.
With the feast in full swing, the group of amphibians made their way down the shoot and waded into the energetic crowd.
Ah. Our savior and his compatriots are finally here. Everyone, can I get a cheer for the hero, Egosum?” The old elf raised a mug of unknown liquid to the air which was quickly followed by every mug around the forest floor.
The attention made him feel awkward in the moment, but the appreciation would not go without thanks. Many of the elves surrounded him and his friends with questions of varying levels of intimacy ranging from how he could speak Elvish to how old he was.
He answered some questions dutifully while others were dodged with the finesse of a charging bull.
The smell of alcohol and sweets was rampant among all of the people present.
Despite the rowdy nature of the party, no one dared to step on the diminutive guests by accident. The care they gave was somewhat endearing and Cinera was even bold enough to get a drink of alcohol herself.
The mug they presented her with was filled to the brim and impossible for her to drink out of. It apparently presented her with no issue as she merely stuck her foot inside to absorb the alcohol from her skin.
Egosum denied the drink offered to him and watched the salamander go from completely sober to belligerent in minutes. She dragged the pair along to the various groups of people to introduce them to people she had met working on the preparations the day before.
He found himself enjoying his time more than he would have expected and allowed the mood to absorb him deeper into the festivities.
Playful and rambunctious members of the party spit lewd jokes while the more respectable members of society merely chuckled in response.
It was the first personally enjoyable time he had since leaving the pools and the disaster behind.
He even caught himself getting lost in the moment unlike ever before.
Minutes turned into hours as everyone present but the musicians, children, and two amphibians became too drunk to do much but stagger around in delirium.
A particularly rowdy group of elves had surrounded Egosum and Coyotl to ask him questions when a story from one of the orators stole his attention away.
“This is the story of the assault on Bogwood. One filled with danger and death. Every corner had a devilish fiend ready to end all it had seen. Frogs and bogs, toad and loam, salamanders and sacrilege.”
They spoke in common this time, something only a few of the elves present could understand at the best of times and something none could understand with the quantity of drink in their blood.
The music turned more ominous and quieter. All of the elves present ignored the man spouting the tale and the troop of musicians behind them. The partygoers all seemed oddly clumsy and devoid of care that Egosum found it odder and odder the longer it went on.
He was nearly crushed underfoot several times, only for the offending party to swerve out of the way just in time. He glanced around in confusion, unsure if it was the alcohol effecting them so strongly or something else.
“The heroes and knights fought tooth and nail against these slimy beasts with all they had. They sought to bring mighty truths and tails back from the front lines the monsters used to feast. With the power of dwarven technology and human imbuement, they launched mighty boulders to bake the lands.”
A large number of the elves around him stumbled to the ground, failing to right themselves like many of the other party goers.
The words the orator spoke sounded closer and closer to a whisper as he listened in with abject horror dawning on him.
“It took one day for the fiends to perish under the combined brawn from the moment of dawn to the end of dusk. The dust settled and the holders of the land became no more as each creature dried thanks to their gluttonous blunder.”
As if on cue, the clear skies above them crackle with thunder as the air stilled around the partying elves.
Egosum felt a hand touch him from behind as Coyotl read the strange mood that hung ominously in the air.
Cinera was nowhere to be found, having been swept up in the lively crowd early on in the party.
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‘I don’t like this. Those fucks have to be singing about my civilization and who gave it that stupid name anyway.’
His mind raced from one thought to the next when the man singing his story spoke again.
“Even with the hoard gone, for now, the two races feared retaliation. They search all around for the next threats to their nation. The mutual trust was unbreakable between the group leaving all other outsiders prime to shoot.”
He waded through the stumbling crowd with newfound vigor to confront the man.
“Covert operators and roaming biters spread out in various forms. Some were warlords with hidden ties, others were dancers with beautiful lies. War was rampant and the fights began. Even the remote places would be ground to sand.
Egosum leapt over the unconscious body of a smaller elf and finally saw the troop of traveling musicians the old elf had spoken of.
“That brings us nearer to the conclusion as races fight and others fear collusion. I was your narrator tonight and for your final time as you all fail this test, and the drink takes you to the brink of rest. Thank you. We were the traveling troop of Danse Macabre. Welcome to your eternal sleep.”
The group before him was composed of both sexes and two races. Musicians of humans and dwarves flanked a lanky man with an artsy robe flowing around him. He bowed to the crowd and watched with unconcealed glee as more and more elves fell to the packed ground.
His blood ran cold as the performers set their instruments and artistic eccentricities to the floor and unsheathed various weapons from blades to warpicks.
‘Holy shit, it’s a trap!’
He turned to look for any standing elves. Not a single one was still upright. The kids had gone upstairs to fall into bed many hours ago, leaving the drinking adults and his crew of amphibians.
The enemies dropped from the stage and started towards the unconscious elves a dozen feet away without a hint of their bloodlust hidden.
‘Do I play the hero one more time?’
He looked to the side where his speechless friend stared at him with clear intent behind his eyes.
‘I guess that answers that.’
He took small hops forward without a hint of fear in his body.
‘Now isn’t the time to be scared of death when my journey has only barely started. Fortune favors the bold or something like that.’
The troop paused in their advance as he made himself known.
“Is that a fuckin frog? How did it wander in here and why is it so damn big?” A short human on the left side was the first to speak.
“Doesn’t matter, just do the job and then we can get back to traveling.” The man who orated the story of his civilization end was the only one to answer as they started to walk forward again only to immediately freeze once the next voice filled the forest.
“Was what you said true? In the song I mean.” Egosum stared the tall man down, waiting for a response as all people present spun to look at the talking toad.
An awkward silence reigned over the clearing while they all struggled to find words to speak.
“Am I losing it? Did that thing just talk?” A dwarf on his right was the first to say something/
“Are you all deaf? I asked you a question.” His patience started to wear thin as the seconds ticked by. The amount of anger bubbling up inside of himself astonished him.
“It definitely just spoke in perfect common. Better common than you, Bethurnd.” One of the Humans poked fun at a chubby dwarf to the side.
“I will only ask one more time. Was that song true?” The finality in his voice managed to cause some of the more serious members of the troop to tense their weapon-gripping hands while others chuckled to themselves.
“I bet we could sell it for a good price if he brought it back to the empire. Let’s try not to kill the thing before then.” The lanky man near the front looked at another human and nodded his head toward Egosum.
“Ugh, fine. I better get the higher percent on the sale for it if I have to deal with it.” The human gripped his mace and walked toward the toad before him without a care in the world.
The crowd of onlookers watched the man raise the mace over his head as he got closer and swung it down for a light tap to concuss the creature before him.
They all had varying levels of confusion when the mace ineffectually bounced off the creature's head like a hammer on an anvil.
The man who let the blow fly appeared the most confused as the heavy weapon did nothing to the small toad.
“What the fuck?” The swear was met with derision from his partners as they pointed and laughed at his failure.
“Can’t even club a stationary frog. How would you plan to fight bandits if they popped up or an elf that didn't get drugged?” One of the members chided the man.
“Shut it. I definitely hit him.” He felt a twisting pit of concern build in his stomach, leaving the toad before him staring up into his eyes.
“I think this will help calm me down.” The onlookers watched in horror as the creature leapt with blinding speed straight toward their member.
The open mouth was the last thing the person saw as it clamped down on the poor soul’s face.
A loud crunch signaled the end of the brief fight as the man fell forward with the toad hanging from his face. The suddenly dead man laid on the ground splayed with his mace still grasped in his tensed hand.
His legs twitched in their final moments of life, signaling the fleeting nature of the human's life.
Egosum opened his mouth and spat the blood that began to pool from his nose and eyes onto the ground before him.
“I never thought I would get to know how different nose and eye blood tastes. Filthy shit.”
The troop members stood around in shock as the animal hopped onto their member's back in triumph.
“Now, are you willing to talk now that I have shown I am serious? Deadly Serious. Heehehe” The toad chuckled to himself with glee and watched the lead human’s reaction.
“Monster formation! Tighten around! Watch for unknown abilities!” Like trained professionals, they burst into a flurry of motion.
The group of nearly a dozen men surrounded him, maintaining a solid distance from him like he was the plague.
The vision of their friend's death seemed to play in their minds with each second that passed. Some seemed ready to fight while others held back in the formation, content to watch the first real clash of arms.
The stalemate lasted for what felt like eons when one of the men near his rear stabbed forward with a glinting metal sword.