Shades of War

The preparations had taken days. Little paper lanterns in a myriad of colors perched delicately on porch rails and swung from thin strings that stretched across paved streets, giving the city's center a bright, colorful wash. Vendors had closed down for days just to prepare enough stock for the onslaught of distant travelers and illustrious scents poured without ceasing from bakeries, confection shops and small restaurants even though the sun was down and the hour was late, for the city was still very much alive. Dogs, pets and strays alike, roamed the streets looking for affection from children or scraps of well-prepared meat from overstuffed patrons who sat outside at metal tables along the road.

For Hadian Torzinei, this was an overwhelming affair. He had never seen such a display of color in his life, at least, not in as many shades as he was seeing, then. He remembered when he was younger seeing flags and banners and lights hung around the capital of his home nation, Ja'ael, to celebrate the coming of summer and the end of the harvest season. But in Ja'ael, it was all a wash of dusty indigo and white. He'd never seen so much red, orange, green, yellow, purple and pink in one place. He liked listening to the different languages spoken around him, though one, which he knew some of, seemed to be common amongst everyone. And the food! He didn't have very much money--just a few coins--but he found that people were more than willing to share their leftovers with a scruffy, grinning boy. By the time the sun set, his stomach was full and his fingers sticky with peach jelly and cinnamon sugar. No one cursed at him or chased him out of shops but instead were relatively receptive and friendly to him. In fact, when he wasn't entertaining onlookers at the city's capital building (which he heard referred to as 'town hall'; he guessed it was something like a capital building anyway) by walking across the patterned red-brick square in front on his hands with his feet in the air (sometimes people would offer him small coins, which he'd take between his airborne toes for added entertainment value), Hadian canvased bustling hotel buildings and cafes to listen in on stories and gossip from far off travelers. Hadian wondered to himself why he hadn't come here before.

The merriment had a purpose, one which the young Ja'aelan was interested to see. Every year at the first signs of summer, the three nations that shared the landmass sent people to the capital city of the Rhylean nation--a rather central location--for a political ritual Hadian wasn't sure he fully understood. He asked a woman seated at one of the cafes once why there was such a gathering; though his ability to follow the common language was rusty at best, he surmised that tomorrow's ceremony was a holiday celebrating the end of the wars and the beginning of peace between the neighboring nations. Perhaps that's what he didn't understand; he knew the wars were over, but he also knew peace was still a distant target, at least in his experience.

But as strange as it all seemed to him, Hadian didn't trouble himself with it much. There was good food to eat, sights to see, and stories to hear, and all night to do it. In the morning, he'd find out what this ceremony was all about, but for now he was content to roam the color-splashed streets, enjoying the warmth of the bricks against his liberated feet as he took in the majesty of the city around him.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/MabA3Ei5z-M/viewtopic.php

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