VII

Dust to Dust

In a remote clearing sheltered by dense forest, off to the near southwest edge of the Land District, sits a once harmonious city, split in two. Clearbrooke, the district's hotspot for fauna and medicine, found itself violently torn into the shreds of war.

The city was split primarily into the culturally protective west, and the forward-thinking east.

Brittan Ràon-Da was born and raised in the former, spending her youth learning from the fae and forest spirits, becoming a druid renowned by most everyone in her city- even to the east. As she came of age, she lamented that the cruelty of war should take its toll on her homeland for so long. She wept for the suffering of both the forest and its inhabitants; who lost themselves in a conflict that had gone on long enough to become less about forcing a solution, and more about the war itself as a status quo. 

Perhaps that's why, instead of throwing herself to the front lines to be slaughtered by an easterner- as many of her brothers and sisters had before her- she would enlist as an Ambassador, and try to fix her city from the outside. The process was difficult, to be sure. She had no natural mind for politics, and wasn't prepared to consider the wants and needs of not just one city, but three whole nations. However, as the years went on, she found her stride, and bit by bit, she felt she was coming closer to finding the peace she had worked so long to achieve.

Brittan sat on a floor mat in her mother's tree house, drinking a homemade tea recipe she had been practically drowned in growing up. Her mother had been running around the house from the moment Brittan walked in, doing everything she could to make sure there wasn't a speck out of place while her daughter took her unbearably rare visit home. Brittan found her neurotic, perfectionist episodes cute- if not a little annoying. Especially when she started making sure her daughter wasn't a speck out of place, either.

"When are you going to get back into sports?" Her mother asked, finally slowing down enough to have a real conversation. "Your nephew's been breaking his back so he can keep up when you start playing tailnet again."

"Aw, Ramir's practicing for himself mom, it's got nothing to do with me. Besides," Brittan shrugged, "He's probably left me in the dust by now. I've given my youth to focus on those damned meetings, Makillir spare me."

"Nonsense!" Her mother scolded. "You're every bit the ranger you left as. Look at you! It looks like you've kept in shape by meditating in a pit of vipers."

"Tch, yeah." Brittan smirked, feeling the numerous tiny scars she'd collected since starting her exciting new career. "I guess I have been getting in enough fights to keep me active."

"It's terrible, what you do." Her mother said. "I let you join those lowlives to get you out of harm's way, not throw you back in it."

"You did not let me do anything, Mom, I left." Brittan corrected her.

"Oh, just let me have this." Her mother joked. "I already miss when you needed me to do everything for you."

"Already!? That was fifteen years ago, you fucking Elf!" Brittan laughed. "...Ah, the cuts'll be worth it soon, though. We're making a lot of progress."

"I've heard as much. The Sky's boys have been mingling with us while they set up down south. The way those birds were flirting with me, I thought I'd broke a bag of seed over my head."

"You should consider moving to the colony, Mom."

"disculpe?"

"I mean it. Tell Uncle Rufus to come with you, too. I think it's a great opportunity to get Ramir away from all… this."

"Your new friends have poisoned my poor daughter's mind." Her mother wailed. "You want me to move our family into the palm of the country trying to take our culture away? ¡Espía del este!"

"No, Mom, listen." Brittan pleaded. "The colony needs westerners. You know it's gonna be full of folks from the east, but this is a chance for us to show that we're ready to stop all the fighting and coexist!"

"No. We're not coexisting on the bird's terms." Her mother asserted. "Using my own daughter against me- Lo juro. That man will do anything to make us give in."

"You're about as stubborn as he is." Brittan said, rolling her eyes. "He has your safety in mind, you know. I don't love him either, but-"

Their argument was interrupted by a scream from outside. Brittan jumped to her feet, as her mother froze up from the sudden sound.

"What the hell is that?" Brittan shouted, as more and more screams broke out below.

"Banshees coming through the woods?" Her mother offered.

"No- no, there's too many." Brittan picked up her staff and headed towards the doorway. "I'll be back. Stay here!"

"Stay safe!" Her mother pleaded, as Brittan lept from the treehouse to the ground below.

Brittan looked around, to find her home consumed in chaos, panicked villagers running in and out of their homes in every direction, shouting and crying unintelligable prayers. It only took her a moment more to find out why.

Not far off to the east, still within the confines of the forest, a massive red blaze lit up the sky as if the sun itself had crashed into the earth. The wildfire looked almost like a wall, slowly but deliberately spreading west as it consumed tree after tree.

Brittan grabbed the arm of the nearest panicked Elf, forcing him to stop and look her in the eye.

"What happened!?" She shouted.

"Dragon!" He screamed. "The Red Dragon it's coming! Get out!"

The Elf pushed Brittan off of him, and continued running. Brittan ran to the center of town, hoping to get her people's attention.

"Everyone, listen to me!" She cried, but no one was listening. "Evacuate the forest! Get to Broker's Hold and tell a monk what happened! A temple will let you in if you-"

Brittan was nearly swept off her feet as a fireball came from the sky- seemingly out of nowhere, crashing into a hut and sending it crumbling to the ground. Brittan held her arms up to her face as the wave of heat washed over her. Once she had her bearings, she clutched her staff, transformed into an elk, and rushed towards the hut.

She leapt over rising flames, using her antlers to toss piles of wood and rubble out of the way, trying to see if anyone was stuck inside the building. From out of her line of sight, a young girl grabbed her antlers, climbed onto her back, and pointed at another spot in the hut- where Brittan could see a pair of Elves struggling beneath wooden beams that had fallen on their backs.

With the girl still on her back, she leapt over, wedged the burning beam beneath her antlers, and struggled to lift it off of the Elves. Her neck shook so violently she feared it might snap off- but slowly, she lifted the heavy beam up- just enough for the couple to crawl out from under it.

Brittan rushed out of the burning building, and bucked the girl off of her back, onto the dirt. Once she saw the girl's parents running out of the building too, she turned back into herself, and continued looking around.

Her heart skipped when she heard the near deafening sound of wings flapping just above her. She looked to the sky, and confirmed her fears- Agria the Red hovered over the forest village, his wicked roar shaking the earth beneath him.

Brittan watched as, from seemingly every road, building, and tree, an Aarakocra soldier visiting the city took flight and fearlessly charged towards Agria. And Brittan watched as, like flies, they were swatted away by his wings, claws, and tail, the sound of their snapping bones ringing in her ears as they crashed against the trees and disappeared into the inferno.

Agria burnt an Aarakocra alive with his breath of flame before snapping his jaw shut over the soldier's falling body, discarding him from his mouth just after. Brittan, powerless to do anything to stop this massacre, screamed up to the monster, her one solitary word hopelessly drowned out beneath the burning.

“Why!?”

Another building crashed down from a stray fireball, sending Brittan scurrying away in fear. 

But that can't be right- she thought. She just had her eyes on the dragon. Where did that fireball come from?

Brittan got back up to her feet, and began pushing her way through the crowd, desperately trying not to get trampled as she forced herself not to look at the terrifying threat hovering just above her head.

For minutes, she continued searching, unable to hear her own thoughts in the carnage. As more buildings fell- as Agria melted groups of Elves and Aarakocra alike- as terrified civilians violently pushed through her time and time again- Brittan began to realize she may never make sense of anything in this chaos. But just as she was about to cut her losses and evacuate, she ran into someone while pushing through the masses. 

And this one made her pause. She noticed something strange about him, though at first she couldn't put together what. A moment later, she recognized that it was the way he was dressed. His outfit didn't match that of Clearbrooke's people. It didn't look anything like what she'd seen at all today.

"Wait, you're-" Brittan began, but before she could get another word out, the man readied a fire bolt, and blasted it point blank into Brittan's face, sending her and a few other civilians flying off onto their backs, dragging and scraping against the dirt.

Brittan clutched her face and thrashed in pain, the only distraction from her burning face being the kicks of the stampede trampling over her to get out of the bloodshed.

Brittan forced her eyes open, to find that Agria had turned to face her general direction. She tried to force herself off her back, but an Elf stepped on her chest and slammed her back down, and she felt her strength fail her completely. She reached one bloody, shaking arm towards the sky, as the flame inside Agria's chest built up, climbed through his throat, and burst through the air, flooding the ground below, scorching all that its searing claws could reach.