Since being in Liall, he had gotten the impression that people here lived fairly normal lives. The world outside of this city was a nightmare, but inside here, some sense of normalcy could be had.

The general temperament of these people was also seemingly normal but on a day like today, they were far happier and cheerful than usual. This joy and happiness spread like wildfire making even him feel excited for a full day of fun to celebrate the holiday shared by everyone.

Even in a lone city such as this one that possessed some of the last remnants of humanity, a large portion of the people here were still willing to make the time to enjoy each other’s company, celebrate, and share moments and memories that would last throughout their lives.

The holiday being celebrated today was not to behold any one person or frivolous thing either, it was to uphold humanity and their spirit to persevere against a cold harsh, and uncaring world.

Kiran felt pleased to get the chance to celebrate with the people of Liall for the first time and see what would be in store for the various events being held.

A day like this was not spared of the cold weather, however. Light snow fell over the entirety of Liall. It wasn’t enough to immediately cover the parts that had snow shoveled away earlier in the morning. If it kept up at this pace, those spots would turn into a smooth sheet of snow before long.

He stood by Della, who much like him, wore warm clothing from head to toe. She chose to wear the nice red scarf he had bought her which hid the star necklace that she wore every day. He almost felt jealous of not having bought a scarf for himself since he could use one right now.

For the moment, they waited and he wondered why both Juna and Lar were taking forever to meet them. They had chosen to arrive late which was not ideal for first impressions. Come on, get here already you two. I don’t want to make Della wait all day.

Despite their tardiness, Della was not at all finding it to be much of a big deal. She was just happy that they were able to spend more time together before their schedules continued to the point where they couldn’t see each other as much. Even on a day like today, the coalition took a break from a lot of their operations.

“Finally, there they are,” he said.

The moment Juna noticed him standing at the street corner, she gave them a big wave. Lar walked beside them in their human form.

“You must be Della,” Juna said as she crossed the street. “It’s so good to finally get to meet you!”

“And you must be Juna.”

She enthusiastically nodded her head.

“He’s told me so much about you.”

“He has, has he?” Juna squinted her eyes just a little towards him. “He better not have been slandering me.”

“I would never think to speak ill about you ever,” he said with a grin.

Before he and Juna kept showcasing their familial antics towards one another, Della quickly shifted things away from that.

“And who is this?” Della asked staring at the white-haired woman.

“That’s my dearest companion Lar,” he said.

“Oh, right. We’ve met before already, although you were quite a bit more furry before.”

“Can we go inside someplace already?” Lar asked genuinely changing the topic.

“We’re planning on being outside quite a bit today actually,” he said.

“It’s too cold to be outside. Can’t we stay indoors where it’s nice and warm and where we can sip on a nice hot beverage?” Lar was proving to be a bit averse to the outdoors. They weren’t wrong about it being cold but he didn’t want to miss out on the festivities occurring outside just because of that.

“Come on Lar. You’d have us miss all the fun things to do today if we were to stay inside,” Juna said.

“Some things are worth missing out on if it means staying warm.”

“You should’ve just worn more layers silly.”

His eyes began to glaze over as Lar and Juna went on arguing over this matter. When will it ever end? Is there such a thing as an end to this circumstance? Or am I to forever wander through life hearing these two voices speaking endlessly over this banal topic?

As he pondered such questions of import, he realized he had the three of them staring at him.

“Um, did we lose you for a minute?” Juna asked.

“Only for a brief moment. Can we run along now or are we going to be stuck here bickering over whether to stay outside or not?”

“The answer is obvious of course,” Della stated firmly with a finger pointed up to the sky, “we must carry onward together and if necessary lend Lar all of our scarves to help keep them warm.”

They had a good laugh at Lar’s expense. His companion merely furrowed their brows and pushed away Juna’s attempt to throw her scarf over their neck. In time, Lar acquiesced and accepted Juna’s scarf to help make the outside more tolerable for them.

However much joy they were all having right at the start, Kiran felt a sense of unease. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw someone or something observing them. Was it a thing of his imagination, or a part of him that for whatever reason could tell something existed out there with the intent of keeping an eye on them? He wasn’t quite sure, only that he felt like this might be a possibility.

No matter where he looked, he could not find the presence that he thought he could for a brief moment ago sense. Everyone nearby was minding themselves and carrying out their own desires for the day. Kids held onto the hands of their parents. People bought neat things from the vendors all eager to sell their wares. And amidst it all, that feeling that someone was watching withered away as his mind calmed down and thought of it as nothing more than his instincts wrongfully reacting to nothing.

Della grabbed his wrist bringing him back to reality and urged him forward with Juna and Lar who were up ahead leaving them behind. The last remaining worries went completely away as his focus returned more to the lovely company he had.

As they turned a corner and entered a more open market of sorts, numerous vendors were out with their wares to sell. One vendor in particular he immediately recognized.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The younger merchant appeared to even recognize him as they walked by. “Don’t I owe you a purchase or two?”

“I wondered if you had remembered sir,” the young merchant said. “I have all sorts of new and interesting things. Be sure to take a good long look!”

He had numerous festival-related items and trinkets to peruse from this time around unlike his other wares he had browsed previously months ago. What to pick? There’s so much to choose from. There were handcrafted rings, bracelets, and neat-looking handwoven hats made just for the cold weather.

He looked towards Della. “Is there anything in particular you would like?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. I kind of like this.” She picked up one of the handwoven hats and tried it on. It was white and a bit of a large with wide brims and a big poof in the back. It strangely fit her however despite how large it was.

“How much for it?”

“For you mister, half of the price written there.”

Kiran dug a hand through one of his many pockets. He had so many nowadays it was any wonder he could ever find anything anymore. He managed to find a few coins jostling around and hand them over to the young merchant. They gladly accepted the payment and now Della had a neat hat to keep her head nice and warm.

As they walked away, Juna gave him a sad pout. “Not going to buy little ol’ me anything are ya?”

“Nope.”

One simple declarative word broke her heart. She would manage to live with it however, He knew she would.

The crowds got denser as they made their way towards the center of the city. The pillar was noticeable on the horizon as it reached far up into the sky. Every now and then kids would bump into his leg as they ran through the streets with the rest of their friends. People were cooking all kinds of meats with aromas that made his mouth water. There was much to see and much to do, but that food was becoming the only thing that he wanted at this point. Smoked meat like this has no right to smell as good as it does. Much like how the smell of those baked goods he smelled the other day with Della, these meats would have him hand over all of his money to end up dirt poor thereafter.

Rather than spend all of his money, he simply chose to buy a big sausage and avoid buying all the other meats the cooked meat vendors sold. The sausage tasted quite good. It had the right amount of spices that didn’t overwhelm him or underwhelm him. Some of the juices exploded in his mouth as he took a big bite. I can’t get enough of this.

“Why how strange to find you here,” a voice said to them.

Everyone looked at the one who spoke to them as he ate the sausage. It was Laphy announcing himself and Aini who stood by him.

“Della this is Laphy over here,” Kiran said, “and his wife Aini.”

“Nice to meet you two.”

Laphy crossed their arms and due to their height, looked down towards Della. “So, you must be the one who has our friend distracted all the time.”

“That’d be me,” she said with a chuckle. “Say, are you two, uh, you know…”

Aini nodded her head. She wore her round spectacles that she wore in her human form or her elephant form.

“You wouldn’t know by looking at you,” Della continued to say.

“And that’s how we like it,” Laphy said.

If familiars hadn’t been able to appear as humans, it didn’t seem likely they would survive for all that long. In a city like this with a big enough population that didn’t particularly like them, it went a long way to allow them the chance to survive and go unnoticed.

“What’re you all planning to do today?” Aini asked.

“What else are we to do but have fun with today’s festivities?” Della said.

“Do you mind if we join you?”

“You’d be silly not to,” Juna said with a laugh. “The more the merrier with the way I see it!”

Laphy appeared almost as if they had different plans but since Aini was eager to join with them, he quickly accepted her intentions. He eyed Kiran looking down at him due to his height. “You’ve never attended one of these festivals have you?”

“It’s a first time for me,” Kiran said.

“I warn you now because by nightfall, you may be unable to even move after eating all of the good food here.”

“I’m not at all worried about that. My stomach’s more than capable of withstanding whatever may come.”

He did need to at least take his warning somewhat seriously as he still could end up buying it all up even though he knew better than to do that. There was just so much good-looking food going around that it would be easy to spend all of his money. He could eat all the grilled and smoked meat being made right on the spot and still have all of the sweets and salty treats being handed out. If he thought to dare try it all, he’d be broke for years to come.

They reached a less crowded part of the area. Tons of snow covered the ground and atop the slanted rooftops.

“Heya Kiran!”

“What—”

Something cold and fluffy slammed into his face. He brushed the snow off his face only to see Juna and Della laughing at him.

“So that’s how it is, eh?” They only began to laugh even harder. If Juna kept it up she’d pass out he figured. “Alright then. It’s only fair if I throw one at you.”

He grabbed a handful of snow and packed it up into a ball. A mere second later he threw it directly at Juna managing to get a direct hit.

She had been laughing.

She didn’t laugh anymore.

A standoff occurred with two sides staring at each other. Laphy and Aini stood by him while Juna and Della were carefully thinking about what their next moves were.

He quickly realized that Lar was missing. Where is that mischievous familiar companion of mine?

A burst of evil laughter erupted around them and before he could find the source of it, snowballs rapidly hit up against him. Lar tossed snowball after snowball at him causing him to brace against the impacts with his arms outstretched over his head. He wasn’t the only one getting hit by them either. Laphy and Aini ended up caught in the assault led by his devious companion.

Pretty soon Juna and Della joined by tossing snowballs at them. They had utilized the surprised attack well but he wasn’t about to go down on one knee and give up. He had no choice but to unleash his wrath.

He dashed away avoiding the continuous snowball assault from his companion. He grabbed some snow, packed it in his palm, and sent it flying towards Lar hitting them directly in the face. Laphy began throwing snowballs at Della and Juna forcing them to take cover along the backside of an alley.

While they enjoyed a fun snowball fight, some of the locals took notice of the occurrence. No one thought to join in. They merely spectated and thought it humorous at best.

After a while, they all stopped and caught their breaths. He walked up to Juna with a hand full of snow behind his back. Before she could react he pressed it against her face and could tell the life from her body slipped out realizing he had sneakily attacked her.

She wiped the snow off and furrowed her brows towards him. “That’s not fair, I thought we were done fighting.”

“It’s only fair, you sneakily attacked me first or have you already forgotten?”

“He’s not wrong,” Lar said with her arms crossed.

“Hmm, I guess so. Still, it’s totally not right of you to have done that!”

Sometimes people needed to have their own medicine divvied out to them. Laphy had a good laugh remarking on Juna’s expressions. “I haven’t had this much fun in a while. Who would’ve thought a snowball fight would please me so.”

The simple things in life often pleased the most. He came to understand that fact the more he gained new experiences with his new life of his.