In the past, Shaula used to attend horror and cryptid festivals alone. Ajax had never even seen one with her. He just wasn’t a fan of festivals in general, more of a homebody. These new people though are more her speed, at least when it comes to the outdoors.

She is surprised that it took only a couple weeks to consider them friends. Ajax was the one who insisted on meeting them at that bar often enough. Shaula was normally dragged along, at least at first.

She never behaved this way with the people back at her school. Those were just a bunch of pricks, so much more two-faced than she could normally handle.

But, the funny thing is that Angelidis and her friends have a lot more to hide. Their lives are basically a series of illegal activities to let them make a little scratch. They’re just looking to survive as best they can. Yet, they’re so honest and surprisingly upbeat. Even when they’re depressed, their depression is on her wavelength.

Why did I befriend them so easily? Shaula wonders to herself. These people do have a lot to hide, too much even. Yet they remain honest and straightforward.

Maybe… they’ve suffered just like I have. Misery loves company, right? Why did they become friends with me and Ajax so easily?

Shaula supposes that her powers had a lot to do with making them drop their guards. Helping Angelidis out at that critical moment probably generated a lot of trust. Angelidis herself has a lot of trust with her friends, so they also trusted Ajax and Shaula.

Would Shaula have been so willing to jump into the fray if she wasn’t certain she wouldn’t get hurt? To be fair though, if she didn’t have her powers on Omicron, she would have died in that forest long ago.

But, thanks to her powers, she lived, and she used her strength to help others.

It probably wouldn’t hurt to help people when they need it, if I want to make friends fast, Shaula thinks to herself.

Meanwhile, Ajax is interested in spending time with his new friends at this festival. He is less reserved about the idea of these new people being his friends than Shaula is. Shaula likes to keep people at a distance, even though others would like to approach her.

Ajax just isn’t an extroverted enough or popular enough person to have a lot of friends. Not that he wouldn’t mind changing that.

Right now, he treats Angelidis and her friends as true friends. On Earth, he only had Shaula as a friend. He just wasn’t in the right place or the right time to make friends with his highschool peers. Things never really clicked. After he started hanging around Shaula, his other peers became standoffish and envious.

He didn’t really care about what they thought. His most important people were (and are) his mother, his father, and Rita. He never felt the need to spend too much time on socializing as long as his family was there. But, having Shaula as a friend made him feel less lonely at school nonetheless.

So long as he spends time with these new friends, he feels less sad about being stranded in this world. He hasn’t noticed that he isn’t thinking about his family as often as he did the first few days on Omicron. This makes his mind more stable, but has the possibility of making him lose sight of his goal to return home.

Still, he needs to have some respite from the suffering of having lost his whole family. Nobody would blame him for making the best of a bad situation.

He wonders why he is here at this festival in the first place. Maybe his time could be spent on something more worthwhile, but honestly, he needs to relax more often. Every couple days, he does tear up thinking about his sister believing that he died. Dwelling on those kinds of thoughts can do a lot of harm…

Meanwhile, Angelidis has enjoyed how Ajax and Shaula have taken to the festival. It’s not an event for everyone, that’s for sure. Not just because it is a horror festival, but because some might find it boring. Not everyone likes to learn about the crawlers. But, she has always been interested in them.

As long as she is here, she doesn’t have to think about all the war talk. She doesn’t have to worry about what her brothers will do. She is currently still unsure of what her own position should be, concerning the war.

On one hand, Semjaza started the last war. Isn’t it the demons’ fault for all this strife in her country? Can she really say that the church is wrong to attempt to exterminate what the Federation has always viewed as an existential threat? Especially now that their protector, the evil god Semjaza, has perished?

Even if beastkin and draconids are part of the Empire, they’ve picked their side. Whatever happens to them isn’t really her business and she has no power to affect the outcome. She would still like it if her brothers didn’t participate in the slaughtering…

Well, that’s enough of that, today’s not about that, Angelidis thinks to herself as she shakes off her worries.

She looks over towards her friends. They’re all sitting down right now. Ajax and Shaula don’t seem to be affected by the cold like Dzan and Sigvor are.

Angelidis wonders about Shaula who is currently smiling widely. She’s amused by her joyous expression right now. When she had first met Shaula, she had seemed cold to her. Ajax was the amiable one between the two of them, and he’s pretty interesting too. She didn’t know why she wanted to trust them, but she did.

They wanted knowledge, context really, but didn’t berate her or her friends as humans normally would have. Angelidis knows too. Those two are strong. The way they walk, the way they act, even the way they drink. It’s without fear. But, not worry. They seem to have a lot of worries that she doesn’t know anything about.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

They have a lot of secrets, she knows that much. But still, she isn’t afraid of them.

Ajax’s stories are very interesting, Angelidis was surprised he had read so much intriguing literature. Shaula had always tried to remain quiet, but over the past several days she slowly started talking more. She knows a lot about a lot of things. Almost too much for a country bumpkin. But, Angelidis isn’t one to pry.

Oddly enough, Ajax and Shaula seem to know nothing about magic, at least when they first met. Their understanding was almost too little for someone their age. Everyone Angelidis knows has already learned about mana and magic in school.

Hearing Shaula speak made her intrigued. She has such a way with words, even though she’s so reserved most of the time. Seeing her now at this festival is even more interesting. This side of her would have remained hidden, a gem of an experience.

Peeling back her personality to find such interesting details makes the festival already worthwhile this year. Now all Angelidis has to do is wait for the burning of Gwasila.

Angelidis smiles thinking about how she’s glad to have met these two. It’s not often she meets people like them. It’s never too late to find out more about others, to make friends. Everyone has a world within themselves.

While Angelidis contemplates her current friendships, Dzan takes a little swig from his flask. He keeps an eye out across Maz square. There are a few families walking around, some children playing together. He can see the Gwasila effigy in the middle of the square.

The effigy itself is being guarded by festival volunteers, making sure that nobody gets too close. It can only be destroyed through a ceremonial burning, not before then.

Dzan continues watching everyone in the crowd until he notices some people who look… nervous. There are three of them who are having an argument. Maybe one of them is sharing some bad news with their friends.

“Hey, do you guys see those people over there? Be nonchalant when you look, ok?”

Angelidis and Shaula turn in the direction that Dzan is looking while Ajax and Sigvor keep looking forward.

“Ha, wouldn’t you hate to be so pissy at today’s festival? Why even come here if you’re going to be like that?” Angelidis sneers.

“What’s with them, Jelli?” Sigvor asks while staring at her fingernails.

“There’s two men and a woman, all beastkin, who… look kinda annoyed, I guess? Oh, one of the guys looks a bit scared for some reason.”

Shaula stares at the group carefully and her eyes narrow. Ajax notices her odd level of focus.

[What’s wrong, Shaula?] Ajax whispers.

[Listen in on them with me, Ajax. Something doesn’t feel right…]

Ajax carefully looks over at the group and tries to isolate their conversation from the rest of the square. He realizes that they aren’t speaking the Federation standard language that everyone else is. Most people including demihumans stick to standard. It looks like they’re being cautious. Ajax and Shaula have no trouble understanding them.

“...Where do you think Enezies is?” One of the men asks.

“I don’t know if he’s going to show up for this, Sito.” The woman says.

“Why not? He’s the deacon!” The other man asks in surprise and slight annoyance.

“He has a family, guys. He can’t bring his kids around here, it’d be too dangerous for them.” The woman sighs.

“What about Selunte then? If he’s taking care of their kids tonight, she can still make it, right?” Sito wonders.

“She’s dealing with something else apparently. Don’t overburden them, they’re more committed than any of us. This whole thing was pretty last minute too, we didn’t even notice anything wrong until today…” The woman grimaces.

“It’s still a bit discouraging…” Sito frowns.

Dangerous? Why would it be dangerous to bring kids here? It’s just a cryptid festival… What exactly do they think is happening today that’s making them so worried?

Ajax wonders what the three of them are talking about. He and Shaula keep listening. Sigvor, Angelidis and Dzan lose interest and start talking amongst themselves.

“Fuck… Why today? Just for the festival? Just to crash it?” The other man asks with indignation.

“There are a lot of beastkin here, way more than humans… It probably has something to do with the war.” Sito posits.

War? Shaula raises her head and Angelidis notices her odd expression.

“Shaula, what’s–”

“Shhh…” Shaula holds up her finger to keep Angelidis quiet as she listens to something. Angelidis looks over to Ajax and he’s also listening. His expression looks somewhat tense as well. Although, whatever they’re hearing, Angelidis can’t hear it.

“What do you think they’re going to build, Cel?” Sito asks.

“Who cares about that… probably something ugly and bigoted. No, what we should be worried about is how they’re going to fuck the festival up. You know, I used to go to this thing a couple years ago? It was a fun time, my little brother liked it so much! What’s the matter with them…” Cel, the other man, replies with indignation.

“What do people normally do here, anyways?” The woman asks.

“You don’t know, Prisca? It’s about Gwasila. His artifacts, his image, that incident in the blue forest a few decades back?” Sito explains.

“Oh yeah, that.” The woman, Prisca, remembers that myth, rather, that urban legend. A crawler usurper around the Mega forest. Ridiculous. Those hikers described its features but couldn’t confirm its size when they made their claim. They were probably drunk or high, hallucinating something like that.

Who knows why the urban legend took off like that… Sito changes the subject back to what the three of them are here at the festival for.

“Where do you think they are right now?” He asks.

“I don’t know… Our people are watching the four roads for any sign of them. They’ll probably come from that one.” Cel point to the road where Ajax and Shaula had walked around and looked at the crawler paintings of Gwasila.

“Do you think any of their people are in the crowd here?” Prisca asks with slight paranoia.

“Why would they need to do that? That’s not at all their style. No, they’ll come through here with force and weapons. They’ll be protected by the cops every step of the way. Those pussies…”

Cel really seems to hate whoever the group is collectively talking about. Suddenly, Ajax and Shaula notices that the atmosphere around Sito, Cel and Prisca darken.

“How many people do you think will be killed today?”

“I’d like to say no one… but, you know how these things end up when statue marchers show up. Those human supremacists only come around here looking to start something and they don’t stop until… No, let’s just keep looking around, no more wasting time.”

The three of them split up and walk through the festival in different directions. Ajax and Shaula turn back to Angelidis, Sigvor and Dzan. They are wearing stern faces.

“Jelli…” Shaula asks, carefully, trying to remain calm.

“What is it… whoa, what’s wrong? You two alright?” Ajax grasps Shaula’s shoulder to try and calm her anger down.

“We’re fine, Jelli. Don’t worry about us, we just wanted to ask you. Who exactly are the ‘statue marchers’?”