"Daddy, quickly. It's about to start."
"Hold on there. Don't run ahead without me. We don't want you getting lost, do we?"
"No..."
Taking hold of his father's hand, the duo headed in the same direction that everyone else was.
Crowds of people passed through the numerous streets to reach the main thoroughfare.
For today was a celebration. A celebration of peace.
Every year since the heroes risked their lives to bring peace to the land, a festival had taken place in every village, every town and every city.
It celebrated the heroes' actions, their deeds and the outcome that is the lasting peace that everyone was able to celebrate.
But in the city of Khalbren, this occasion was extra special.
As Khalbren was the capital city in the human kingdom that many of the heroes settled down in.
After their gruelling journeys, they returned and were lauded. Statues of themselves were erected in their hometowns. The hometowns also offered places of residence to the heroes, hoping to have the famous heroes as their guests and return to where they were born.
But Khalbren had won out.
It held a special place in their hearts, for it was the city where they had all met and come together to begin their journey in the world. They all met here, purchased their equipment here, and planned their journey here.
While they could have returned to their hometowns, Khalbren was the heroes' home.
Because of that, the celebration was grander than ever on this auspicious day, to show the whole world the love they held for the heroes.
Floats lined the thoroughfare for half the day, showing off the statues of the heroes, some of the monsters they fought, and even reenactments of their deeds.
Fireworks lined the side streets, all being powered by magic devices to ensure the timing went off without a hitch, as well as ensure there were enough fireworks for the whole festival.
Live music is playing at several points along the thoroughfare, all at the same time and in perfect sync.
Stalls littered the sides of the thoroughfare, selling their wares to the citizens as they watched and celebrated the day of peace. Their merchandise ranged from food on sticks to cuddly toys for the children to enjoy.
As the floats went by, interspersed between them were different groups, all performing in their own way. Some march to show their coordination, others dance, and some use magic to show off tricks and beautiful, choreographed displays. All of which was a sight to behold.
On a few of the floats, the Peacekeeper initiative the heroes set up use this celebration to promote their work to ensure peace around the world. They show off their prowess and skill through performances, while others in the initiative throw out flyers, hoping to entice others to join them.
The rest of the peacekeeping initiative is present along the thoroughfare, ensuring that no one gets hurt should someone decide to run out to get close to the floats. Mostly, a few kids have tried this before.
And one drunk half-naked guy a few years back.
The city guard is not present; they remain along the city wall, keeping watch over the surrounding land for any trouble, while also manning the gates to allow people in and out of the city. They guard the walls, keeping an eye out for any monsters, bandits or armies that would come to attack their great city.
Of which there have been none for five years, aside from the occasional beast that wanders towards the way on an act of bravery.
An act of bravery that gets rewarded with several magic blasts, killing it instantly.
Nobility watches the festival from afar through the use of magic, something similar to the far-sight spell. This keeps them safe and away from the riff raff that so many nobles feel are beneath them.
There are a few more layers of protection within the city that help ensure the city and the royal family are safe, but they would not deign to reveal themselves for something as simple as making sure a festival goes off without a hitch.
Then finally, there are the heroes.
Who find themselves in several different locations, all watching the festival…for the fifth time.
The fifth festival to celebrate the peace that they brought to the world.
"Look daddy, look."
"I know, it's so big, isn't it?"
The son looked up at the enormous float, showcasing one of the monsters that the heroes had thought.
For obvious reasons, the float version isn't as gruesome as how the creature looked in reality. With the number of teeth, tentacles and spikes it had, a realistic version would give all of the children nightmares.
"Look daddy, look. It winked at me."
"Of course. Of course."
Had the boy's father been paying more attention, though, he would have noticed that the float had actually winked at the boy.
A playful hint to show that something was about to happen.
Before long, the cheers of the crowd turned to stunned silence.
Which then very quickly turned to screams.
The floats, while still as statues before, suddenly started to come alive, with all of them moving to stand or turning to face other areas of the crowd.
It was a shock to see. Some thought the organisers of this festival might have managed to scale things up this year. Five years was almost an anniversary among anniversaries.
But, once the monsters started to reach out into the crowd, almost coming to touch them, they realised something was wrong.
Parents grabbed their kids and headed off down the streets to get away from the suddenly sentient floats, screaming as they did.
The floats depicting the heroes started to spar with one another, knocking them about till they nearly hit the buildings on either side of them.
The reenactments started to play out, with the fake bodies attacking each other as they would have, tearing the stuffing out of each other as they did.
As more and more people fled the scene, the band quickly stopped playing, putting away their instruments in order to high-tail it out like everyone else was.
The peacekeepers tried to do their job and calm everyone down. But when you are an ordinary civilian on what could be considered the front lines of a battle, listening to someone is a lot harder than just fleeing in terror.
As some tried to calm everyone down, the rest took up arms.
Standing firm, they took aim against the floats that were causing such chaos and began firing arrows and magic to take them down, keeping the magic as basic as possible to avoid hitting anyone in the crowd.
Alas, the arrows and spells did nothing to the beasts. They seemed to penetrate the floats, but not cause any real damage. It didn't cause any sort of reaction in the awakened float.
As this continued, the floats started to aim for the peacekeepers, swinging their limbs at them, possibly in retaliation for the attacks they had been firing at them. But, with their size, the swings were slow and easily dodged.
Screams could still be heard in the distance, as people continued to flee. But while this was the main sound that could be heard, there was still another that persisted.
The fireworks.
Having been set off and set up with magic, they would not stop until the festival was over. Or at least until one of the mages who set them up got to the fireworks to stop them.
But…with all the commotion and the civilian crowd heading away, they were not going to be heading towards the fight until it was over and they could get through.
And so, the fireworks continued to shoot into the air, illuminating the sky.
Most of them, at least.
All it took was for their stands to be toppled over by a little magic to add even more chaos to the scene, which very quickly led to three of the floats being set on fire in spectacular fashion.
Once it caught alight, the float stopped moving and slowly but surely burned from head to toe, illuminating the sky much better than the fireworks alone had done.
And if someone had taken the time to look up at the beautiful fire blazing along the thoroughfare, they would have seen a lone stranger standing atop one of the nearby buildings, looking over at the scene in delight.
The fire reflected in her eyes as she watched the chaos, all the while moving her arms and hands about in time with the movements of the floats.
The scene below was pure carnage. Fire blazed as the floats melted. The hero statues had chipped away at each other, removing limbs. Peacekeepers tried to fight back to no avail, while others tried to keep civilians in check, as they fled for their lives.
To many, it was a terrible sight.
But to the lone stranger.
To Oriana.
It was just the thing she needed to remove the feeling she had when she was in her village.
Just the thing she felt that the world needed.