The Warning

A fun little apocalypse origin story

The only vocal messenger
To violent war at hand
Stumbles on the castle keep
and finds a drunken man
Sitting alone at watchman's post
his bottle scarcely hidden
With no spare time the fisherman cries
"Wake up, be fit to listen!
These fish are poisonous, you see?
they'll set the city ablaze!"
The drunken guard attempts to see
enough through booze-filled haze

He understands enough to rise
And go alert the king
Such a thing has not been seen
Since copper bells would ring.
The guard then trips upon the steps
and starts to cough and choke
on the sudden taste of fish on his lips,
And the searing smell of smoke.