It was a beautiful sunny day. The streets were busy of people out and about doing their errands. Sweaty, muscled men carried baskets of goods had barely moved through the sea of people shouting and making deals with several vendors and running children along the way.

Thalia has been walking down the path of Garden –her hometown– her clothes stained with red from the wine she bought for her mistress, when a sudden change of weather caught her attention.

She shivered. The wind was cold. Colder than it had been when it rained for days on June. It was a very unusual cold, she thought her teeth might have chattered.

She tried to tear her way through the crowds, almost not making a progress with every step, when a cry of an old woman silenced the crowd.

"Oh Great gods!" The old woman shrieked.

The hairs on Thalia's nape rose.

Thalia looked back where the shout had came from. She could barely make an image of the woman who shrieked from how strong the wind has drastically become. She put her hand on her forehead and squinted through the crowd and saw that the woman was pointing her hand in the sky.

She looked up like the rest of the people.

There was a stirring in the sky, a whorl of clouds forming an angry swirl of air and thunder. She was ready to faint, ready to cry for help, ready to drop the wine and run for her life. But she did none. She stayed rooted to the ground, shocked to even move a muscle.

The crowd went wild. The shouting from selling and buying from a while ago turned into chaos. People were bumping on her making her sit on the ground, wine sitting on her lap.

"Get out of the way, you moron!"

A man shouted at her after he bumped on her, both hands holding, probably, his children. Thalia stared in shock. She was shaking.

"Thalia!" A hand held his elbow.

"Thalia, good gods, come on."

Two hazel eyes set on her dark obsidian eyes and shook her out of her wit.

"Rhys..." She uttered. "Wh- what's happening?"

Rhys helped her up, dusted her knees, carried the jar of wine and lead her through the crowd, running.

"It's the shamans. The stirring." He gasped for air. "No time to explain. Come on."

Thalia made no comment after that. She held tightly unto Rhys' free hand and ran as fast as Rhys.

Rhys lead Thalia to her house, Thalia's mother, Rosa, was waiting by the window. At the sight of Thalia, she immediately opened the door and hugged her tightly.

"Oh, Thalia." She cooed and kissed her forehead motioning her to sit down. "Thank you, Rhys. Are you alright?"

Rhys looked at Thalia first and replied, "Yes. I saw Thalia in the market as people fled from the stirring. She was shocked when I came to her. Glad I came that way."

"Oh. What a relief. Such a terrible timing for the stirring to happen when you were out, Thalia, dear. This has never happened for many years. I wonder why it's happening now." Rosa looked worried, despite her words.

"It has happened before?" Thalia asked, feeling feverish.

Rosa looked at Thalia for a moment, her face set like a stone, and just a blink away, her face softened.

"Yes, it has Thalia, dear. The stirring is caused by shamans of the Garden Kiosk. There might be a problem as they are sending us a signal now." Rosa looked outside, the weather slowly returning to normal. "The stirring doesn't actually hurt people, dear. The people hurt other people, like what happened to you and what might have happened to you if not for Rhys. The stirring causes confusion, dear, sending people to panic. That's why it causes stampede, when it's actually just a signal. A message from the Kiosk."

Before Thalia could ask, Rhys has already blurted out the question.

"What message?"

"Usually it comes AFTER the stirring. When it's all calm and peaceful. That way the shamans could get everyone's attention." Rosa said, pouring hot water to an old looking cup to give to Thalia.

Thalia received the cup from her mother and took a sip from it.

"We should check outside. The stirring has stopped."

The three of them stepped outside the humble house – a house that has been passed on from generation to the next, an old structure, ready to collapse any minute.

Rosa looked up the sky. Rhys and Thalia followed. The clouds were moving away now, revealing the bright sunshine that was present before the strirring had begun. But before the clouds could totally dissipate, clear writings was formed on the clouds, like they were paper written on. Before she could make out the writings, Rosa fainted.

"Mother!" Thalia dropped to the ground and held her mother in her arms.

"Thalia." Rhys croaked.

Thalia looked up to Rhys who was still looking up the sky. The writings were all clear now and upon reading, even already on the ground, Thalia's knees wobbled.

"The Sickness has re-emerged."