The rumbling stopped. Four knife-eared forest folk with short, brown hair curiously peeked their heads out the tree’s crown after a while and quietly maneuvered to the area of interest. The three were wearing wooden armor with leaves for under armor, and one of them was wearing a colorful flower crown. The one wearing it was in front, seemingly leading the group.
As they arrived at the spot where the rumbling erupted, they saw a village high up in the trees. This was a common site in the forest, especially in their own city, but they saw houses littering the understory, red painted everywhere. The one wearing the crown then motioned to two of the others to check out the houses still in the trees, and he and another went to check the fallen homes.
When the leader landed near the rubble and started searching for any information about the attack. He searched every house, checked every tree, and found nothing but dead bodies and buildings covered in blood. He wanted to throw up, seeing bodies crushed, guts spilled, and the dead's open eyes were just too much even for him, a person who had seen bodies repeatedly in his line of work. He looked over to his partner who was green in the face with her hand over her stomach; he asked her if she wanted to take a step behind a tree, she nodded and ran to the nearest cover, the leader then leaned on one the toppled houses and let his mind wander.
His wandering was put to a stop when he heard whispers from the house next to him. He slowly approached the house with his wooden dagger drawn and wits sharpened. He peaked inside the house and saw a small girl sitting crisscrossed on the ground muttering some words the leader could barely hear, so he got closer. "Elvia, please lay your grace upon me, let your light see your way to my fallen even though they weren’t aware of your holiness; I’ve failed you and I repent to you," is what the girl said when the leader got closer. She then fell silent with tears leaving her eyes.
The leader's face was overcome with pity and was about to put his dagger up when he accidentally stepped on a clay pot alerting the girl of his presence. She looked over and a wave of surprise and then dread overcame her after she saw the dagger in the large man’s hand. She tried to quickly stand up but was entangled in her own criss-cross-sitting manner. “No, Please,” she cried, “I mustn’t die before I can spread her words, I can’t fail her again!” The leader quickly tried to comfort her by sheathing the dagger and telling her that he was not there to hurt her, but the girl closed her eyes and wouldn’t stop crying, she was also mumbling under all those tears.
The commotion also led to the leader’s searching partner rushing to come and aid him, but all she could find was a balled-up girl covered in blood. She gave him a suspicious look and he started to explain the situation, the partner turned her attention to the girl. She slowly walked over and went in for a hug, the girl flinched and started repeatedly saying, “No, Please,” in a begging, pitiful voice. The partner engulfed the girl and started shushing her, saying, “It’s okay,” and, “We’re not there to hurt you, we’re here to help you.”
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The girl calms down and hugs the leader’s partner, tears still quietly flowing all the while. The partner asked what happened while ushering the leader to hand her some bandage wraps. “F-four l-legged monsters destroyed everything,” she said while sniffling, waterworks ramping up. The partner hushed her saying that she didn’t need to speak if she doesn’t want to while wrapping her wounds. She also noticed a wooden cast on one of her hands but didn’t call attention to it.
The others rushed in when they heard the screams, they stopped once they saw the girl. The leader lead them outside to explain, and once he was done, he asked them if they had found anything; they nodded their head and said they had discovered about three huge bodies of four-legged creatures. “The culprits,” he muttered under his breath and went to check it out. What he saw frightened him, they were at least two times the size of him, not to mention covered in thick, rough skin that his dagger wasn’t able to reach past. He’d seen them before but only by themselves, it was worrying seeing them work together to take down a small village on the outskirts of the forest
His partner then swooped in and asked them what they should do next as the girl was ready to go. The leader asked the upper group if they still wanted to explore, they shake their head and so he gave the order to wrap up. The group took a piece of the fallen beast and headed back over to the girl. They told her it was time to go, but she wanted to say her final prayers, they looked at her weirdly but allowed it and walked outside. This was the time when one of them finally acknowledged the girl's heterochromia, one purple eye, another green. The leader looked at him with a puzzled expression on his face, “I never really noticed.”
While she was saying her goodbyes, one of them asked about the issue of transportation. They finally noticed they were foolishly underprepared for such a scenario. They were swinging from tree to tree to get her, an action the girl could not execute in her state, so the leader sent the upper group to quickly fetch a Junii from the nearby ally village. They left and so sat the two partners, the mysterious girl, and the nearby bodies. They started to feel sick and went inside the downed house the girl was in and saw her sitting quietly with a slight smile on her face. They were confused about how the girl was finding peace in such a state, ragged, cut up, and bloody.
When the group finally arrived with the junii in tow, the girl was still sitting silently not moving an inch. As much as they didn’t want to, they had to interrupt her and said they had to go. The girl's smile faded and sheepishly obliged while her stomach was rumbling. The leader took pity and gave her a smoked nut and berry bar wrapped in a giant tree leaf from his pouch. She looked up in surprise and timidly accepted it and started nibbling away at it; her eyes widened and took bigger bites with the same slight smile from when she was sitting.
The girl finished and the leader’s partner picked her up and strapped her onto the junii because of how it jumps from tree to tree. She pats her on the head and said to prepare for the unfortunate headache to come. The partner went over to the leader and scolded him for giving her a ration bar when he knew how stomach-churning the ride would be, he said he didn’t even consider that but said it wouldn't come out of her. She shook her head in disappointment and turned her attention to the issue of who was going to ride with her; everyone, including her, raised their hands. The brief moment of silence was followed by arguments.