"I can't tell you exactly when this will happen as I'm not what I once was.." Divinus' eyes glazed over slightly as if he were lost in thought.  "I can tell you it happens within ten of your years here on Pandora."

Lynefra was about to retort but she felt the world around her shift again.  Once again, she found herself in a setting she hadn't seen before. The sun hung low in the sky, making what appeared to be an ocean sparkle with red light. She quickly realized she was floating in the air overlooking a small mountain range and tropical forest by the sea. Though there was no battle or carnage in front of her, when she realized Divinus was right next to her with a grim look on her face, she felt a sense of dread.

"There's a war currently waging in the south westerly continent," Divinus explained. "This is the key turning point that could lead to peace, a war, or possibly the destruction of all the major races on Pandora."

Lynefra bawked. "What? How am I supposed to prevent all that?"

"No clue," Divinus smirked, "I'm only a wisp of what I once was.  Truth be told, this last bit of energy I had preserved is already spent, I'm currently burning through your energy to even be here and show this to you. Now pay attention.

"The war is fueled by the usual motive, land. The Polar Giants don't have any natural enemies and they've burned through all the natural resources useful to them in the southern pole so they travelled north.  They're not a very sharing people and they're pretty powerful.  The natives of the Southern Plains and the Sioux kingdom chose to flee instead of try and fight against the giants.  A smart decision if you ask me. Following so far?"

Lynefra nodded.

"Good," Divinus continued, "The Sioux Kingdom and the residents of the southern plains are mortal men and beastkin. They're trying to flee north but because of their lifestyle, they aren't exactly welcome by the fey races and the lesser elves."

"Why?" Lynefra asked. To her knowledge, the fey races and the forest elves were a peaceful people.

"Because they live in the tropical forests across the equitorial zone.  They only take as much as they need as not to over-hunt and they've grown accustomed to living within the forests. The beastkin and the mortal men destroy the forests for their farms and cities.  They're peoples of excess and surplus.  For their civilizations to live, the habitat of the elves and the fey would be destroyed."

"Oh." Though mature for her age, Lynefra was still a child and didn't quite understand the ramifications of the destruction of the forests. "I don't get it."

 Divinus sighed.  "Let's say someone wanted to move to the Dulsan Empire...someone like the demon race and you didn't think they wanted to share. What would you do?"

"Fight."

"Right. That's what this is. Unfortunately, The mortals and the beastkin are running for their lives, if they can't live within the forests or even pass through, they'll die.  Giants to the rear and the unfriendly elves and fey to the front.  They don't have a lifeline.  A few of them might sail north but there aren't enough ships for the entire populace," Divinus explained.

"I see..." Lynefra nodded in understanding.  "So those people there are refugees?" Lynefra pointed to an enormous caravan of people travelling north along the coastline.

"Yes. These people are about to be ambushed by the Fey and elves who have formed an unofficial alliance that will be known as the 'Woodland Union.'"

As some winged beastkin were flying at low altitude with their young in tow, they came under a coordinated attack. The slower moving women were carrying their infant children were the first to receive the attack.

Some 100 fairies (flying fey) swooped down at high speed from high altitude with the sun at their backs. The victims never saw it coming.  A brief glint of metal was the only tell before the red rain started.  A beastkin woman shrieked as she fell from the air. She curled herself around her child instrictively. The two bodies hit the ground before her wings did. She wasn't the only casualty.  Out of the group of beastkin, only a dozen or so managed to stay airborne after the surprise attack.  After the faries completed their first dive bomb attack, the wood elves fired a veolley of arrows to take out the remaining dozen beastkin.

Stolen story; please report.

The woodland union had expected panic from the humans and the beastkin on the groupnd but the panic they were looking for didin't come. Though not as powerful as any of the other races on Pandora, the mortal humans were still reatives of the high humans. What they lacked in raw power, they made up for with ingenuity, training, and organization.

"Fire!" A mortal yelled.  He must have been a Sioux military officer of some kind judging from his attire. A flash of fire exited a metalic barrel and a loud boom sounded out. A wood elf some 300 meters away fell from his hiding place with a small hole in his chest, where the projectile entered his body.  His back was another story.  Due to the projectile from the small metal firestick, his back had all but disappeared.

"They call them boomsticks," Divinus explained as several more wood elves were blown apart, casualties of the human and beastkin boomsticks. "I've seen more advanced forms of this kind of weapon.  The killing potential of these things at the pinnacle is so great even the True Dragons your mother taught you about might fall victim."

Lynefra didn't respond, what Divinus had previously shown her paled in comparison to the cruelty currently being exhibited.

"Flying combatants, cover the airborn civilians!" the same mortal ordered. As 7 beastkin with leather armor leaped into the air, spreading their 20 meter wings, several more flashes of fire and boombs were seen and heard.  Almost every flash of fire found an elf of fey.

It didn't take long for the small skirmish to escalate into a full blown battle. The beastkin and humans couldn't retreat to their lands because of the giants and the members of the Woodland Union wouldn't let the refugees pass through their lands.  The more zealous elves and fey were screaming insults and calling the refugees things like "disease" and "plague" as they charged into the growing melee.

By the time night had completely fallen and the moon was high in the sky, the entire region was turned into an area of red mud with equally red tides.  As more pwople showed up on each side, the battle grew more intense. The light footed elves and fey couldn't find any footing on the ground made of corpses, nor were they as adept at melee combat as the humans and beastkin.  Their death toll was rapidly rising.

The humans, on the other hand, were in their element. With proximity issues, magic couldn't be used and the extensive hand to hand combat training the human fighters had gained the edge.  Some of them had even started channelling spiritual energy, giving them aditional combat prowess.  The beastkin relied on their natural abilities to fight.  On the ground, instead of fighting, it was more like they were wild animals hunting for food.  They would separate a small group of elves or fey and make quick work of them before regrouping and executing the same tactic again. The battle in the air had also turned into a massive dogfight.

While the winged fey were adept in the air, they had smalle and less powerful wings than the winged tribes of the beastkin.

The eagle tribe, with their large and powerful wings, had more surface area to catch the wind and maneuver than the winged fey. If it wasn't for the occasional limb or body plumetting to the surface, it would look like an intricate aerial dance. The flying beastkin also weren't as cruel as the flying fey. The eagle tribe would directly kill their opponent but the flying fey would constantly try to cut their opponent's wings off so they would have a few seconds to watch as they fell from the sky before dying.  It was exactly this cruelty that drew everything around these four particular races into into the battle.

Lynefra noticed a human-looking youth with Amber eyes was attempting to save an injured elf.  The elf's leg had been blasted off, courtesy of a boomstick.  The amber eyed girl was in the middle of the battlefield and while she didn't have any wounds from combat, she was still covered in blood.  Lynefra surmised that none of the blood was her own and the girl had been trying to save any and everyone she could, regardless of race.

"She's the wolf," Divinus said grimly.  "There's a couple of them currently waiting for you to wake up so I'll let them explain why she looks human." Divinus then gestured to the combatants that had wandered into the shallow waters while fighting.  "See that boy? The one with the glowing eyes?"

Lynefra followed Divinus gesture and saw a boy standing knee-deep in water, covered in blood.  He didn't look like a normal mortal boy, he didn't even look like a regular anything.  His eyes were glowing a dark red, and while he wasn't exactly smiling, his body language suggested he was having a good time as he slayed fey and elves left and right. 

"Meet Winter.  Previously, he was a god of war but it looks like he only has the power of an immortal right now.  To be honest, with the bloodlines of the demons and the true dragons, he's probably as powerful as he was at his peak when he's truly enraged."

The young man identified as winter waded through the water as if it didn't exist, posing no restistance to him.  Every time he moved, several fey and elves were blasted to peices or cut apart.  There was another man making his way to Winter.  Lynefra recognized the man to be the same mortal who had been in command at the beginning of the fight. 

"His father," Lynefra whispered to herself, noticing the similar features the two had.

Just as Lynefra made the connection, the man was pierced through with an arrow.