265 Holi Wars: A Prelude (2)

I spent the night drinking and singing with the happy villagers. I shared their food and listened to their stories, to their hopes and dreams. The sight of the many-colored crow had lifted their spirits. They even welcomed me as the harbinger of a new era, a new beginning for the southern continent. 

"Mystical creatures have returned to our land. They are a sign of good fortune, that the gods have finally decided to spare us the decades of suffering we've endured," an old lady was telling the young ones. I was sitting in the back of the file, listening intently, when Sylens joined me. 

"They don't know what's waiting for them," he said in an undertone. 

"Do we?" I retorted. I looked at the children whose eyes twinkled as they listened to the village elder. "How is cutting their lives short fair? So much potential wasted for a delusional ghost..."