As I stepped out of the room and into the open air for the first time in four years, I immediately wanted to return. That reaction wasn’t the one I thought was going to happen. Everything was just so open. As I looked up into the sky, it almost felt like the whole world would come crashing down. I deeply inhaled the smell of pine needles mixed with sap to shake off the feeling and focus.

The time was advancing toward evening, yet the sun was still warm on my back. It was mid-summer, so I figured we had at least two hours of sunlight left. I wasn’t entirely sure since we were also surrounded by tall mountains, some of which still sported snow-capped peaks.

We exited the base in what looked like a sparsely populated forest that quickly became denser as I looked deeper. I turned around to see where we had emerged. All I could see was a slowly rising hill and a small cement shack.

“Where are we?” I asked, hoping I could get some indication of where in the world we were, but it was a pointless question.

“The mountains,” replied Jace. “Get in position. Wedge formation. Weapons, red. Alson, you’re on point.”

Jace’s cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, pulled two metal rods off their packs. Their names aren’t Crabbe and Goyle, but they might as well be for how they followed Jace’s every order. The metal rods they each grabbed started to melt and flow over their hands and down their arms.

“No armor,” Jace said. “We need to be quiet. Weapons only until we make contact.” In response to Jace’s order, the metal flowing up their arms stopped and began to form points. The speed at which the two manipulated metal was far faster than the other Welders I fought.

“What am I supposed to use for a weapon?” I asked.

“We’re in a forest, and you’re a Carpenter. Pick up a stick, idiot.”

In retrospect, my comment was a little stupid. After I said it, I did feel like an idiot, but he didn’t have to be such a jerk about it. I decided to keep my mouth shut about it due to my situation.

I walked to the closest tree and gathered some of the dead branches lying around its base. I started to manipulate it with my ability, but it took longer than I was used to. The pine tree wood was different from the ones in the Garden. The color was a slightly lighter shade of brown than what I usually worked with. Jace was impatient, so I didn’t have time to stand there and make a weapon.

I took point just as Jace ordered, and I continued to shape my pieces of wood into a rudimentary staff as I moved forward. I didn’t want to waste too much time making the staff perfect because using my power limited my vision. If we ran into the intruder, I wanted to see the woods around me.

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The pace continued to be slow even after I finished forming my staff. The good part was that Jace didn’t seem to care that I was going slow. We were all constantly looking around to scan the area for any sign of threat.

“Stop,” Jace whispered from behind. I immediately stopped and took a knee. I scanned the area and didn’t see anything. I turned back to Jace, and he pointed to his ears as I did. I turned back around to continue scanning the front.

I couldn’t hear anything.

Then I realized my inability to hear anything was the problem. I should have heard bugs or some types of small forest critters scurrying about, but it was dead quiet. I activated my power and scanned again. My vision went blurry with the vibrational colors of the world superimposed over everything. The dense forest caused my vision to be consumed by brown and greens.

Then I saw a discrepancy.

It only appeared for a split second, but it was clearly the mixed colors of a human. It was a sliver of a head as it peaked around a tree. I didn’t get a good enough view to determine if it was a regular human or if they had abilities, but I knew they were there. Tactically, it would be best if I struck first and hard, so I didn’t wait to tell Jace. I sprinted toward the tree.

I slammed my hands against the tree trunk and concentrated on what I wanted to happen. The tree branches that hung above the enemy swung down in a large arc. There was a loud smacking, and a body flew from behind the tree. The person landed loudly on the hard ground and rolled a few feet before stopping.

I ran forward to subdue the now heaping pile of flesh and cloth. I slid to a stop just as the need for caution started screaming at me. I wanted to make sure the enemy was actually unconscious and not pretending. As close as I was, I could see that it was, in fact, a “he.”

He was covered in a thick ragged brown cloak. It looked like it should have been discarded long ago. However, under the tattered cloak, I could see well-cared-for leather boots and the bottom of a set of durable pants tucked in just as I wore with my uniform.

I edged closer to the enemy scout, and I could see his skin was a cinnamon color. It was darker than mine, but it reminded me of my mother’s. I could only see a small portion of his face, so I couldn’t determine if he was unconscious, dead, or faking either state due to my attack.

I didn’t see any part of the tree strike him, but I heard it, and there was no faking the tumble on the ground. As I slowly stepped closer to him. I could see as he seemed to move and twitch slightly, so I paused. Suddenly, he flailed his arm wildly, then rested his hands on his head.

“Stay where you are,” I said.

At the sound of my voice, he jerked to a sitting position. He took a quick look around and then locked eyes with me. He had dark brown eyes the same hue as mine, but amazingly, they were also shaped similarly. The man squinted his eyes and turned his head slightly while looking at me. I took another cautious step forward and repeated my warning.

The scout jumped to his feet and rushed towards me. I put my hand up in defense of whatever attack he had planned. I was hit in the face with a large cloud of dirt. I closed my eyes and backed away, but I was too slow. My eyes started to burn as small pieces of debris began to irritate my eyes, and I began coughing as I inhaled a large portion of dust.

He bowled into me, and I grabbed onto him as we fell and hit the ground hard. He landed on me, and I tried to buck him off. As he flew forward, his hand brushed my head. A blinding light filled my vision before I slipped into unconsciousness.