The morning came in what felt like a few hours. Yawning Lenris arose and stretched, he was very sore all over. He wasn’t used to walking as much as he had the day before. Only a couple of people were awake and dawn had already broke. “These people get plenty of sleep.” Lenris thought to himself. It wasn’t long before others were around going here and there sorting tools or throwing logs on fires. Breakfast was a little different than Lenris was used to but he enjoyed most of it and pretended to enjoy the things he didn’t. Cyrphila Introduced Lenris to some of her friends, all of which put off an air he couldn’t quite place. They almost seemed as if their ever slightly too calm demeanor was making up for an unstable state just under the surface. Sometimes as they did things as simple as taking a bite their eyes would flash with a look Lenris would have otherwise connected with ripping out someone’s throat. It made him uncomfortable but he was sure they would be perfectly decent individuals if he got to know them.
Cyrphila took Lenris to an elder who showed him the work that he was to do. The day then became much like a typical one at his own village, people set off to trap and hunt and tend fields while a few males and females stayed behind to mind the villages’ children. Though the repairs were simple the highest damage was only accessible when Lenris reared up on his hind legs which was inconvenient. This meant he had to use one hand to steady himself and the other to work but it would only slow things down a bit. Things dragged on without any notable occurrence.
As dusk set in fires sprang up around the main hall, very large fires blazing and sending small black chunks of ash skyward. Lenris padded back to where people were gathering in mass numbers and though he was still far from the fires the world’s temperature around him seemed to be increasing. The whole village was standing about the biggest fire immediately in front of the main hall. The Regjorians kept a considerable distance from the ash smeared pit yet even still the light cast illuminated their entire faces and chests.
The air hung, weighed down and heavy. While the people of Regjoral seemed mostly normal on a casual day they seethed excitement in a beastial sense now. one section of the ring split and the roars of the crowd dropped to whispers, it was almost as if the fires themselves were quieted. A male easily out weighing any of the largest, most successful elders from Lenris’ home village, he was heavily scarred even compared to the rest of this village, purple wound across his shoulders and hips in intersecting streaks which were ever so slightly faded with age. Suddenly in a booming voice the male barked an aggressive chant of repetitious syllables, smallish people about Lenris’ size approached the fire. Each of these bore a dark wicker bundle shaped to be some sort of tall, thin creature with appendages akin to a monkey but lacking any sort of tail. The people then threw them into the hottest blazing flames. Red liquid seeped from the bundles, a tiny drop of which rolled from one and fell, at the drips contact with the ground the raging fire exploded into the air high enough to rival a tree. The heat pained Lenris’ eyes, Lenris flinched away and blocked his face from the heat with an arm. When he looked back the flame was just as high but in the image of a huge face, the circle of people screamed in wild cheering. The face’s posture was twisted in what could only be judged consuming hatred or uncompromising fury. The visage roared back with a force that knocked the entire assembly from their feet.
