Chapter 9: The Night Is But A Child! Let's Party

The figure was walking in the dark of the lightless pathway that connected the main village to the slave quarter, wich was like a village of it's own but with tents and huts instead of houses made of wood and stone and roofs with clay tiles, think like a stereotipical tribal settlement.

The figure was using a cloak that was normally used around to protect from the cold and rain, it wasn't suspicious at all to the people of this world to use one of these, but what was supecious was how the figure was trying to not be seen, being aware of all and any sound or light. The cloaked figure was not alone it seemed for as he walked ahead he would do signals with his hand to advance ahead. The other people were carrying barrels and sacks that looked like they were from the storage of the village.

The figure saw the big bonfire that was in the center of the slave village and signaled to the others behind him to hurry, the figure that seemed to be cloaked in darkness aproached the light of the bonfire. The slaves that were praying to the Blood Moon heard the sounds of the figures.

The Blood Moon was almost a universal deity or mark to basically all the cultures of people, elves, dwarves and even goblins. The Blood Moon was way bigger then the white moon that appeared in the sky every night and it shined way brighter too, but different cultures of different places had different interpretations of this Moon, some feared it, others prayed for mercy, and others used the Moon to remember those who had died that year.

The slaves weren't from any group in specific, they weren't made anly from people of one single group or ethnicity, they barely had anything in common most of the time, they didn't always spoke the same leguage or worshiped the same gods, they hadn't a similar skin or hair color, they didn't used the same style of clothes either, but there was but a single thing that at least most of them had in common, they were from a group that had lost a war or were the family or descendants of those that had lost a war and/or conflict. Although slave revolts were rare, most of the people at least in this area had the idea that if you are defeated then it's natural that you will punished in some way. The type of slavery in this part of the continent weren't like the colonial one on Alex's previous world though.

The people who were enslaved weren't separated from their family, there weren't harsh punishment like beatings to the death for no reason, depending on the owner the food was given regurarly in good portions, the didn't have to all live crammed in one single house were they would piss, poop, and even give birth, Although they weren't given a house of their own they were allowed to cut some trees and hunt some wild game to make tents and huts to their own, if they had any belongings when they died they had the right to have a will and to inherit. What I'm trying to say is that they were still treated like people. Slaves that worked in palaces of nobles, royality and other high ranks of power could even grow in social class, doing government jobs, and have political power and influence, obviously they could be stoped by their owner as there has been cases of slaves with more politcal power then their owners.

Of course there existed people who were "illegally" been enslaved, those people were most of the time peope who were raided by bandits and other types of outlaws, had their belongings stolen, some had their family murdered and women raped, but to enslave the subjects of one lord and sell them in the same territory other ally one was most of the time illegal or at least frowned upon, and in such cases most people don't buy those who seemed to be from such territories, as such it wasn't profitable as such there wasn't much motive to do it. And when it is illegal in the territory the punishment was harsh, from being tortured to the brink of insanity in the worst of cases, to plain old execution in public.

But those who were with a owner for some time learned how to speak his language, after all it would be difficult to the owner to order them around, so they were taught by slaves that were there longer.

One man got out of his hut, that was made with walls of mud and a straw roof, the man was big and with some muscles, he had a beard that was tied by string, his head was shaved in two parts of their head leaving only hair on the sides and a long line of hair in the center that made a rope like ponytail, his hair was a dark black and skin color was a olive with a tan from working under the sun, it was similar to the skin color of the local beastman, although their skin was that darker tan olive color normally and Achilles for example had a even darker tone because of his tan, the man had only heard the sounds of the grass outside and asked to the dark.

-Who'z there?

The accent the man had made the "S" make a "Z" like sound, it was clear to all locals that he was an outsider. The man squinted his eyes to try to see better the dark road, he watched for some time but as he hadn's seen anything went back to his hut to continue to pray.

-It muzt've been da wind"

As he said that classical phrase the cloaked figures that were sneaking around were having a problem, the sack of grain had fallen from one of the figures hand and had opened spreading the valuble grain at this time of winter around the floor, the shady characters hurried trying to cllect the grain in the dark.

-Damn Atlas, why did you let it fall? We have to get this food to them, they must be starving! It is time to celebrate we also want to drink, eat, sing and dance. So hurry up!

The man named Atlas was not only big but huge but that was basically the only thing you could see about him as the cloak hided any other characteristic, he seemed tofeel guilty somehow, it might be because of the stealing of food or because he had wasted good grain letting the sack fall, but he didn't say anything, accepting the guilt internally.

After the group had thought they collected all that they could they continued to walk, as they got even closer to the slave quarters another group that was waiting for them signaled and approached, this other group wasn't using any cloak that hided the face, in fact their clothes were in a pretty bad state,there were clearly hole in the cloak that were sewn with a different cloth or material, they were pretty dirty but they seemed friendly to the shady characters.

-Youl goht it? Gud, here let uz help youl with the sackiz and barrellz.

The ragged group they helped to carry some of the food, they continued in the direction of the slave quarters, normally it would only take about 15 minutes to get there from the main plazza of the village, but the sacks and barrels were really heavy and there were more barrels and sacks then shady figures, so it is understandable that they seemed to have taken almost a hour to get it there.

The ragged group were about 18 and the suspicious characters 7 so some of the ragged group individuals had nothing to carry and went ahead to scout if the might be someone around.

The ragged scouts then entered the slave quarters and called some of them. when the one who were carrying the sacks and barrels arrived and the slave village the shady character that was the smallest and the slowest came out and took out his hood.

It was an old man, he had a pale and wrinkled skin a long grey beard and short hair, it was Urion, even though he was just some time ago celebrating with the feudal lord and his family, he was celebrating with free men and women he decided to come to bring food to slaves, slaves that weren't from the people of Tamar, slaves that didn't belive in the stars and The Sun Astro, he was in a way a religious figure, he should have acted as such and be around those who were part of his people, so why would he steal for slaves and forsake his own?

-Greetings! I am Urion, The Druid! I come with food and drinks to pray with you, in the name of your gods and mine! So let's celebrate shall we?!

The thing about the religion of the beastman, is that it is a unorganized religion and is politheist. What does that mean? You may ask, it means that tecnically Urion is not a religious figure as there is no organization of the beastman religion. He may be The Druid but it actually only means that he is wise in the history of the beastman and has stories passed from generation through generation by oral tradition, he is not like a representant of god or someone to punish those who sinned like a priest from the church or anything like that.

The Druid title is but a title of respect, to signify his wisdom and that he is someone with good adviced and such. The agreement of that Urion proposed to Achilles in return to teach Alex is to protect shrines, chapels and other religious buildings from looters as there is great art and gems and oferings that are not to be desecrated and as such anger the gods and stars.

And of course to ask for sacrifices in goats, pigs and such. The sacrifices do not need to be done in a special shrine or anything like that, Urion would simply remind Achilles to pay tribute to the gods and stars in the name not of Baduk but the whole beastman people friend and foe, ally or enemy. After all the whole base in which this religions is formed is to receive the blessing of The Sun, Astro again, it's basically a warning to Achilles to say " Don't forget that even if you are a noble now you are still a beastman, and you are not to forget this"

In anyway of what were the motives of Urion the other motive is that the beastman religion is politheistic and since they worship the stars and their lord The Sun there is no problem to incorporate parts of other religion, and that was the way since centures ago so the gods and stories of neighboring people was merged, they could say that the god of the other religion is the representant of that star on land depending on the legends of the other culture, you get what I mean.

But it is not to misunderstand that they are not assimilating the other religion and replacing with the mix of the two, just like how the romans said that the god that guides the sun Apollo was the same of the egiptian sun god Amon Ra or that the god of thunder Jupiter (which is basically Zeus but they didn't want to admit it) was the same as the nordic thunder god Thor, you get the idea.

As Urion said to celebrate the men woke the women or interupted their prayer and said to use the cook the food and then they called everybody that wanted.

When the food was cooking the people were singing in their mother language each people in turn to not disrupt the rhythm, they beat the drums they made with the hide of a boar that attacked the village once, and played the flute they made from wood and shook the rattle that was made with thick staw and some seeds inside that, in one part of the festival they took an instrument called a berimbau, it was an instrument made from a long bow handle shaped piece of wood and with a metal wire tied on the ends of the wood and a ball shaped fruit that was hard like wood cutted in the base and tied in the lower end of the bow and then is used a stone and a stick to make the wire make a sound and the fruit makes the sound of the wire being beaten by the stick louder. And the dance was like a martial art mixed with a dance, with jumbs and kicks made in a slow motion following the lead of the rhythm of the berimbau.

Surprisingly it looked like the people from this world independently created capoera, well I guess the fact that they created similar archteture, social sistem and tools is even more impressive now that I think about it.

And when the food was ready some of the people ate and went back to sleep as it was the middle of the night and they were tired, most of them stayed and told stories to each other over the porridge made from the grains and vegetables, the alcohol wasn't stong enough to make most of the people drunk but either because they drank a lot before eating or they just have low tolerance some 5 people got drunk and slept right there in the cold ground in this frigid winter and of course the people who were still sober decided to make some pranks that would cause misanderstanding when the sun rise, but after all the drinking and most of the people went back to their hut or tent some 50 people of the hundreds that were partying stayed awake and discussing.

-Zo mizter Urion why did you bring all thiz food to uz? There muzt be zome reazon.

The big slave that was looking for anything suspicious before asked.

-Hoho, lad sometimes you need to just accept kindness like this, but in this case yes I do have reasons, the stories that everyone told before were very interesting too but that was just the fun part, I do need to ask some questions to you. So how bad it was?

The slaves that were listening to Urion hesitated a bit, it was clear that most of them had lost someone during the winter, or maybe even before that.

One of the slaves opened his mouth, he was using a warm coat in comparison to others, he wasn't particularly big or small but he had some muscle, he had long blond hair and a complete beard, although a short one. He wasn't shivering in the cold so either he had temperature type magic or he was just really used to the cold. Urion could tell that his features were particular to the people in the north were it is said that this years winter in like a normal one to them, so it was problably the latter.

-Wie ztarted with abaut 500 headz sinze lazt Demoni Luna, Du would call it Blood Moon, at die arrivell of vida on land Wie hab 22 lesser headz, sickness plagued die warm seazon of sumner Wie hab lozt 27 headz to die neo plague und die fury of Sol und at die fall of leaves Wie hab lesser 36 headz to die rot in stock dat was given to Wie. Und this White Death Wie hab lesser 98 headz. None fell from starvacion but die rot food hab weaken Them. Wie still hab many who can not work, there is still many sick und weak from rot.

The man was very wise to keep track of everyone who had died this year, that also proved that he knew who to count and although he didn't seemed to know the language very well he could pass the message if you paused to think for a bit but to so many have died just in winter, and the sickness that killed so many of them could be the one that Artemis had caught, this year was quite the disaster, but if you were to compare to other places while it was bad the loss was pretty mild, although if we are to compare in percentage it is really bad. But of course the reasons that the man had told were not the only reasons to death, some died in child birth, others died from old age, some died while hunting or working in the fields and having an accident, there are multiple possible causes to death and at this tecnological level of medicine, biology and other nescessaries fild

While the man spoke all of their loss a lot of people seemed to want to cry or were already crying, some were smiling before but now they felt depressed, some prayed for mercy this year to at least less people die since it would be nothing but a miracle if no one died.

-It has been that bad, huh? I guess that means... Alright then, I will be going now it would be weird if I were no where to be seen after the prayer there should still be some time till the sun rise. The others have already gone back too, may your god be with you.

As he bowed his head lightly he went back, after all he basically stole all of those grains and alcohol and such, although it was more of a corruption scheme, since he asked for the Baduks to give him some more sacks of grain and barrels of alcohol, but he didn't use it for the prayer but he hold it for his own personal use in a way at least, can you consider throwing a party to other people as personal use? I will say it can.

When Urion went back to the main village there were still some people dancing and singing as if there was no cold at all. He went in direction to the noble house, as he entered Carol was still awake seemingly drinking alone, she was almost drunk and not even reacted to Urion entering the house. Urion sighed when he saw the almost empty barrel of wine by her side and no plate of food nearby.

He went to the guest room where he was sleeping and sleep he did, it had been some tiresome days preparing for the prayer and organizing the party. Right now sleeping was simply justice.

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Sometime after the beggining of the party in the main village everyone was partying and drinking and all of it, Alex could only look above since that was basically the only direction he could look at since he was wrapped in thick cloth and fur and the way that his mother was holding him didn't gave him a very good perspective of the surroundings. He could only watch the red moon above and the ceilling with it's wonderful but frightening art, he looked at the moon who looked like was pulsating light as if it was a heart beating, it was hipnotizing Alex could not look away he almost forgot to blink sometimes. He was so captivated by the moon that was way bigger then the white moon that appeared every night and that stone in the ceiling that shined in rainbow colors.

While Alex was so captivated that he lost the concept of time everybody was drinking, the 4 years old Artemis was drinking with the adults and the 8 year old Perseus was gulping it down like he was drinking soda, there was no age restriction to drinking alcohol actually most people would encourage a 3 year old to try alcohol, the only thing that age was restricted was duties as subject like taxes or serving in the army. And Artemis was starting to get sleepy so she aproached her mother rubbing her eyes.

-Mom, I'm getting sleepy, can I go to bed?

Helena knowing that she would have to leave to bring Helena home sighed.

-Alright, let's go home but I can't tell you a bed time story today.

Artemis was clearly displeased but nodded in agreement anyway since the will to sleep was strong.

When they arrived home after passing through the plazza and other streets that were empty and dark they encountered Carol alone with a horncup and a barrel of 70 liters by her side, Helena not did not try to ask what she was doing and just gave her a warm fur blanket is case she fall asleep while drinking.

Helena put Artemis in bed and Alex in his crib and went back to the chapel where the party was happening.

The moment Helena went out of the house Carol started to cry while drinking, she was just spouting words that didn't make sense and sounds that sounded like words but it was distorced by the crying or she didn't finish the word.

In Alex's there was a baby with red hair and black stripes in the ends, and he was very awake, he could hear all the crying that was happening in the dining room, he couldn't understand a word that she was saying but he could understand that she was crying. He wondered why but he got lost in thought and fell asleep.

And during this night dyed red from the light of the moon there were people singing and dancing and having fun and in this whole village there was but one crying alone. That was how the first new year of Alex's life happened and there will be many more to come.