I traveled west for a while, having decided to put as much distance between me and the dark fog as I could. Something about it unsettled me, and still does. So with my direction set, traveling across the rolling hills was simple.
The hills, after a day, began to transform into bulging plains, and a day more the plains slowly flattened into expansive fields. My body didn’t seem to tire, and I didn’t hunger or thirst. Some part of me thought that those feelings should be normal, that I should be craving something, but few things looked appetizing to my effectively newborn eyes. I didn’t know enough about the world to understand what I should or shouldn’t eat, and since it didn’t seem pressing I ignored my instinct that I should eat something.
I could sense trouble before I saw the first hint of it. Almost like a compass pointing me towards danger and violence was within me, I began to feel pulled towards a direction. I unconsciously began to follow it, not certain what this new feeling was or what it would lead to. Yet as they had before, without fail, I was led to a new scene of oncoming carnage. One on a larger scale than I had seen before.
A small town, or maybe a large retinue’s campsite, had cleared out an area among the fields. The place seemed new, and I could see its entirety from my place on one of the few remaining hills. Hidden in the flowing grass I watched the place, and it was actually full with people! Living and moving people!
To say I was overjoyed would be a vast overstatement, but there was some part of me that was eager to get closer. I had almost missed the brief company of the people running through the cavern, as short as I knew them. Some feeling echoed from deep within me, and it wanted to talk and interact with them. A strange feeling to be sure, but one I wasn’t against satisfying. I saw no potential danger, but then my greater instincts reacted.
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A sort of jolt bringing my attention towards the distance that was opposite of me, on the farther side of the campsite-town. Then, as my attention focused on the unremarkable distance, a plume of smoke and a spreading fire came from the tall grass and sporadically placed trees. The inferno began its slow march to devour whatever was in its path, and the people below seemed to notice as well. They scrambled to gather supplies to put out the blaze, most of the people rushing in its direction in a remarkably cohesive strategy. Yet that played into the hands of the arsonists.
As the bulk of the people below organized to deal with the fire, I saw a lumbering group of mutated flesh and twisted bodies approach. Multicolored skin and strange forms creeped out of the tall grass and sparse tree cover. Some creatures held weapons, others held fire and claw. The creatures then descended with screams and yells onto the distracted people.
A brutal fight ensued, one so close to my hiding place I began to worry about the untamed blaze of fire. I began to wonder if my decision to head west was the correct one. Then, as I watched in unfazed curiosity, I heard a cry. My senses were drawn to the cry, that ancient panic from deep within pulled my entire focus towards it. In the camp I saw the monstrous creatures fighting the people gathered to an almost stalemate, but their warriors were obviously trapped between the monsters and the blaze, while their kin were in the campsite-town proper. As I watched in a growing anger, a monstrous crimson-skinned man-like creature with great black wings pulled a writhing heap of rags onto the blood and filth stained ground. The yelling was coming from that creature, that person, that child.
The monster stained-red flapped its large wings in triumph, and as it held the child’s arm taught and dangled the wretch inches above the ground, another cry came from the tent the child was retrieved from. A figure charged out, thin and small compared to the ones that had charged to meet the blazing fire, and a single swipe from the red monster’s free hand sent the thin figure flying. Hitting the ground hard, and unmoving after its collision. The wails from the child pierced the sound of pitched battle and blazing inferno, and it called to me. And a red haze overtook me.