Ashes
or how the world lost its colours

Prologue:

The nature had always targeted humanity, no matter in which form. This thematic could be found in every single religion, in nearly every myth. No matter if it was in the form of a gigantic lion as in Hercules or a sea monster as in the myths of the sailors or in form of a storm, an earthquake or anything else. During humanity's history one of the most extreme forms was any kind of catastrophe but especially the threat of a volcanic eruption. Back in ancient times when the Vesuv next to Pompeji erupted, nobody was aware of the consequences such an eruption could inflict. The fire, the lava, the dust, the explosions were terrible enough and brought chaos and death to the people of this rich roman city.

Now, in 2017, we know a lot more about nature. We have done hundreds of researches on the fields of geography, geology, biology, chemistry, physics, medicine and so on and so on. We know how to detect an earthquake before it hits us, we know how to calculate the height of the gigantic waves of a tsunami, we can measure the heat of volcanos, we can predict the weather and how the climatic change can influence the mean sea level. But still, we can't stop anything from happening. And we are still human, we are imperfect and our calculations are more often wrong then they are right.

Now, in 2017, we have found out that there is more than just one super volcano in Europe. We have found out that the Phlegraean Fields are a lot more active than they should be. Much more active than they should be – but surely nothing to worry about. As researchers, we must be quiet to not worry the public to much. The public is fragile and tends to panic at even small volcanic eruptions like back in 2010 when the Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland burst. Let me get this straight – todays situation is much more serious. Especially since we found 'the sleeping bear' in Norway's Kjᴓlen, up in the north. The sleeping bear was quiet until now, it didn't seem like it would erupt anytime soon. And though the temperature and activity of the Phlegraean Fields became a lot more intense, we only changed our predicted date for the eruption from a thousand to a hundred years. The biggest fault of ours was to think that it would be safe to say that no one must be afraid. The biggest fault was to not calculate the risk and to think we would have another hundred years we would surely be able to prevent an eruption. We can't fight nature. We can't fight volcanos, we can't fight the earth, we can't fight the sea. I know now that we have not much time left. Maybe two years but more likely one. One year. If we start now, in December 2017, we may be able to save the people in the surrounding areas and can evacuate.

One year.
One year that turned out to be only 5 months.
The first eruption shook the south of Europe on the 8th of May 2018,
Today is the 11th and the sleeping bear is waking up.