[Settlement One, 2312 Hours]

Long shadows projected by moonlit trees loom over the shrubbery below. No sound is made. And all stayed deathly silent until a cold breeze came; causing leaves to shake as they clung onto the branches that swayed.

“Fucking wind. Fucking weather. Fucking cold. Fucking-”

And underneath all the greenery, one man in a team of four lets out quiet curses as the cold chill sinks into his bones.

“Jackie, shut up or I’ll be the one to fuck you up.” I cut him off before he could continue his tirade. And after hearing a quiet affirmative, I bring up my binoculars once more and return to observing the figures solemnly milling around Settlement One.

Our present company arrived not long after we did. Though we did have time to set up a makeshift concealed observation point – by which I mean a hole in the ground covered by some shrubbery.

“What must’ve it looked like to them?” Chappy asks from beside me, one eye looking through his scope and towards the somber natives in the remains of the settlement.

“Lots of things.” Romero replies, slightly surprising me as the man rarely speaks freely. “Desecration of their culture, destruction of their homes, the loss of their kin… Basically everything you would feel if, say, an enemy invades your neighborhood and did the same things that happened here.”

Silence follows – each member of the team mulling over the medic’s words; thinking about something like this happening back home as we continue to observe the Settlement.

I feel something wrench in my gut.

Sometimes, I’d really like to be just the common man who can say something like that happening is impossible or even just unlikely… but no; I’ve seen too much, done too much, and I’ve known too many things I’d rather forget.

“Heads up. I see a group heading out towards the East.” Chappy speaks up before I could continue my line of thought. Shifting my binoculars, I spot a group of at least twenty natives carrying a large cloth-covered frame. And, even from a distance, I could easily recognize the neatly arranged rows of bodies placed onto it.

Hobo gets up and tracks the group through his optics. “That’s their dead, right?” He asks.

“Yeah.” I reply. Research tasked CBRN to take some of the corpses, of course. Though they probably would’ve taken more were it not for the evac order placing them under a time limit.

“Hopefully finding their dead arranged when they got here didn’t compromise us.” The lieutenant voices out his concerns.

“Probably not…” Chappy replies before letting out a sigh. “At least they still have some to bury and didn’t have to see the mess beforehand.”

Hobo lets out a grunt. “Yeah.”

The natives kneel and bow as a uniquely dressed individual steps out of their ranks. I watch, making sure to see much of the spectacle as possible as the individual starts making arcane gestures as they speak – gently materializing motes of light starting to surround the bodies and the group before it condenses and raises upwards from the center – exploding and displacing hundreds of tiny balls of light that slowly dissipate... the bodies dissapearing along with the lightshow.

“Everyone got that on camera?” I turn and ask the team.

“Yeah, helmet cams are recording.” Chappy nods. The cameras were something mandated into our kits at resupply; command having decided that it would be best to have recordings of whatever happens. It adds a bit of weight onto the already heavy helmet, but it does make AARs a bit less of a hassle.

“Bravo one, this is Zeus. Come in. Over.” My earpiece suddenly comes to life, catching me by surprise.

“This is Bravo one, send it.” I shake off my surprise and transmit my response.

“Bravo one, Delta two has gone MIA,” The Major’s voice is calm, but I have no doubt that he’s feeling the same shock as I upon hearing that statement. “Their last transmission reported their success of the mission, but we’ve not heard from them since. How copy? Over.”

I fail to respond for a moment – the implication of one of our teams going MIA still settling unto me. What happened to Delta two? Are we under the same danger? Should we pull back?

I shake the thoughts off and transmit my response. “Solid copy. Break. Is there a change of our standing orders? Over.”

The Major’s reply takes only a brief moment. “Negative, Bravo one. You are to maintain your current objective but be on standby to move. Confirm. Over.”

“Confirmed. Bravo one is standing by. Over.” I reply, then wait for the Major to end the transmission before letting out a curse – catching the attention of my team.

“What’s up?” Jackie asks, wearing the serious expression he uses when he knows something’s about to go down.

I click my tongue before replying. “Delta two is MIA.”

“The fuck?”

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“Really?”

“What?”

“Shit…”

The team expresses their various state of shock at the news, and I give them a moment to digest it before speaking again.

“Our objective hasn’t changed, but pack up everything we aren’t using; we need to be ready to move out just in case.”

As I finish my statement, Jackie, Hobo and Romero waste no time in moving the rest of our things into our packs. Chappy and I stay where we are – holding observation of the settlement down below.

The group of natives responsible for the earlier lightshow have now returned to the settlement. They mingle with their already present brethren as they visit each structure; conducing a brief, yet no less fascinating ritual on each and every single one – holding my attention at their otherworldly, yet fascinating, handiwork.

“…What a beautiful people.” I catch Chappy whisper, leading me to spare a glance towards where he is; leaning against the berm and looking over the scope – unmasked admiration in his eyes.

I look back at the natives too, but my narrowed eyes are on their primitive arms. No matter if they fight with bows and swords, the power of their abilities is not something that should be discounted – Delta two’s MIA status and the memory of one of them levitating rocks and expelling them forward like a shotgun comes to mind.

Beautiful people indeed... I mentally agree. But just how dangerous are they?

[Meanwhile, inside Settlement One]

I stand some ways away and watch as my companion finishes the ritual with the Elder Tree – the green glow in her eye receding as she returns to the waking world. When she did, she immediately turns around – expression and mind likely dazed from gaining enlightenment from nature.

“…The Elder Tree tells the same story,” The witch starts airily. “Humans attacked this settlement; looting homes and butchering the people…”

“Iyone, please,” I sigh. “Spare me the details I already know; I still wish to be able to sleep at night.”

That snaps Iyone out of her daze and she winces. “My apologies, Etin… I- I just got lost in how surreal this all is…” Her eyes look towards me as I place a hand on her shoulders and nod – letting her know that I understand.

“Let’s gather the rest.” I tell her. “We’ve already done the rites for this village… now let’s make sure that no more will be dealt the same fate.”

The mournful atmosphere is tangible as my companion and I walk through the streets of the desolate Village; the sorrowful wails in the distance, the blank-eyed stared of some of the elves we’ve passed by; and the sheer wrongness in seeing an elven Village – one not too dissimilar from home – be void of life and bear scars that tell of wanton destruction.

My eyes scan the area – noting the tell-tale signs of struggle between mundane weapons, magic, and fire.

By nature’s grace, humans are mightily fond of fire.

I pause by a broken-down doorframe – causing Iyone to stop and look as I guide my hand across its frame and towards three peculiar holes embedded into it.

To a cursory glance, it wouldn’t look too out of place amongst the other battle-borne scars across the village; but with the insight gained from the burial ritual, the Elder tree and all the various tree-homes – we know that it is anything but.

I turn back towards Iyone, “Tell me about the ones who intervened.” I then prompt; and she nods before reiterating the information she’s gathered while we continue to walk – detailing three unknowns suddenly coming out of nowhere and starting to carve a path through the Human raiders, killing the leader and then driving most away from the village before dealing with few that remained.

Mage. I immediately think; for how could merely three mundane individuals drive out such overwhelming force? Now the question that is in the air are the whos, wheres and whys of these unknown mages – they’re certainly not one of ours; else they would’ve still been here, assisting the village.

The next words that Iyone speaks makes the answers to those questions much more pressing.

She describes how the residing elder, having absorbed the essence of sacrificial volunteers, went out to fight against the Human raiders – but was too late and attacked the unknowns instead. It was then that…

“Dragon!?” I barely keep myself from exclaiming. “What do you mean there was a dragon? They’ve all been gone for thousands of years!”

“It’s what the Elder Tree says, Etin…”

The shock leaves me silent, and neither one of us speaks until I sigh. “Nature preserve us all… humans and now dragons.” I shake my head – this information must be given to the higher-ups and kept away from everyone else; lest we want a panic to ensue. But being unable to do anything about it right now, I put my concerns to the side and give Iyone an assenting nod to continue.

She looks at me with concern. I wave it off and she nods, continuing her tale of how the Elder failed to defeat the dragon and was put down by the unknowns. I wince at that – Elder Itiara was someone I knew; A veteran of the devastation war, she shared stories of her experiences in the war even with some parts – now that I look back – being painful for her to return to. She was a powerful mage in her time; but now it aches to know that time has caused her abilities to fail.

“She wasn’t among the dead, Etin.” My companion brings me out of my daze, and I look at her questioningly.

She sighs. “She’s still alive… somewhere… out there.” A silence then descends between us both. And I could see that she’s taking her time to piece together something she’s going to say.

“…There is something you must know, Etin.” She finally speaks, and I nod to her assentingly to continue.

“The Elder tree, it…” She takes another moment, clearly struggling with her thoughts, before clearing it enough to continue. “…it showed me something, Etin. And I apologize for not telling you sooner but I needed a moment to figure it out.”

My brows furrow. And I start to feel slightly apprehensive at her words. “Iyone, speak. What is it?” I say to her. There was only silence in our walk until she replies:

“The unknowns, Etin… they’re humans.”

The dirt crunches beneath my heel as I stop in my tracks and turn towards her – Incredulity showing in my eyes as I ask: “What?”

She knows she need not repeat herself and only nods in confirmation – and so then my mind swirl at the implications of this new information.

The unknowns, Human? But… they’re fighting each other. Does this mean the humans are suffering a civil war? But why are elven lands being attacked? It would make more sense to keep that conflict contained. Am I thinking too large of a scale? Maybe it’s just that two opposing side’s chance upon one another? But what then-

“Etin!” Someone shaking my shoulders brings me back to reality and my eyes snap up to my companion’s concerned eyes. “You’re doing it again.” She says.

I blink. I then quickly realize what she meant and wince.

“Ah,” I say, shaking my head and clearing my thoughts. “My apologies.”

My companion could only sigh and pat my shoulders, “You’re too smart for your own good.” She resignedly says.

I chuckle a bit at that. “Then I owe you much for keeping my sanity.”

She weakly grins. “I’d say that’s a debt that can never be repaid, but what are friends for?”

"Indeed." I smile in appreciation of her efforts. Yet my mind still wanders back to what we've just uncovered. Well, at least the implications of this discovery's scale put it beyond my responsibility. I think to comfort myself.

"We should get back to gathering everyone now," I say, "We've had time to mourn and pay our respects. The commander needs to be informed of this discovery."

My companion demeanor becomes serious as she nods and salutes me with a fist to her chest. "As you say, Coven Master."