An unbelievable gathering

As day fades into night, you stay just warm enough to keep the sleep away. His dry, crackled skin helps wick away some of the moisture seeped into your flesh. You don't know how any creature could have cracked skin in the middle of the rain, but you don't press the issue.

"Humne, we will soon arrive. Others will question why I bring you, just find the moss and let me answer it." he slips under a tree to avoid it scraping across you. "Do nothing hostile against this wood, and it will do nothing to harm you."

True to his word, under pitch blackness, you crest an incline and look down on a large bonfire. smoke billows overhead, and when you enter, a ominous thick fog encases the entire area, as he strides around the lip, you swear you see the trees sway in intelligent patterns, balls of light dance with a purpose.

You stare in wonder, the fire raging, you see creatures dance among it, jumping and twirling through it's rippling red and yellow flames, embracing the drifting embers. "This is the Ash Bonfire, Humne, it has been four entain generations since you're people have attended."

He stops to admire the burning fire, allowing you to sit higher on his shoulder, "All of those who seek to nourish the wood, to protect it's bounty, come here. They come to say goodbye to life that was, to turn it to cinder, to be spread as nutrient rich ash and help to create life anew." You feel the warmth from here, and the feeling of it radiating you through enhances the scene.

"We are late. The burning is finished, this is the final dance of the dead, soon will be the ceremony of renewal." He grins tuskily, as he turns to look at you. "Soon, this will move into the willing females offering themselves to capture the spirits in the embers and grant them rebirth."

He begins to walk again, and when he reaches the bottom he helps you to the ground. You feel awkward on your own feet for a moment, before you hear a cry of outrage. "Why do you bring this hairless monkey to such a sacred place."

You see a barrel-chested beast walk towards you, it's size a few-inches taller, it's short legs causing surprisingly little hindrance on it's locomotion. He carries a finely-crafted spear, wrapped in wood and in-lay with leaf. "Mahan, explain yourself! This is one who causes that which we morn this night!"

"She has done nothing. She is humne, but is here so we don't need to burn one more in waste." He rages, "Ash is the best a wet monkey could ever hope to be!" He speaks to the one named Mahan as if he wasn't twice his size with a tree over his shoulder. "It is this, leader of Algahi, that threatens us most of all."

As the focus of ire moves away from you, you find a large patch of dry moss and allow yourself to lay on it. You enjoy it's soft quality and savor the heat of the bonfire. But the feeling of the eyes of everything looking at you, prevent comfort.

Perhaps you would be better served, trying to break the ice?