The air was cooler up here. Fresher. The slight chill it enveloped my lungs in as I inhaled felt good, especially now that my lungs were done trying to adapt to the fires.

Some of the rocks shifted as I reached over to grab another craggily extrusion. I used it to lift me up farther, and then another grab was all it took to reach the top. I clambered up over the edge of the cliff and sighed as I stood up on top of the vantage point.

Turning around, I scanned the wide world around me. The mountain I had just climbed was a rather thin one, but tall. I was far above the treetops, even the trees that were still lively and not smoldering cinders.

The world was an odd sight at the moment. One half of it was charred and blackened. The other side was a myriad of colors, ranging from a deep green to a similar burnt orange and brown as the other side.

Fall was here.

I took a deep breath of the fresh air once again as I scanned the world… searching for any signs at all.

There had been a some tracks not far from the burning bison village. Just a single set of feet, but they had stood out. Some of the burnt grass and ground had been… squished in an odd way. The type of way that told me that the fire had not burnt those sections after someone had walked there, but instead someone had walked there after the fires had finished.

Someone, a person with human styled feet, had walked through the field behind the bison’s home. After the initial waves of flames had done their worst.

The bison were rather human looking. The only non-human traits they had anymore were tiny little horns on the sides of their heads. They were small enough that just a little bit of grown-out hair could hide them. So I wasn’t too outright worried just yet over those footprints.

I was hoping they were just the bison’s footprints. So I was on the hunt for them.

They had led westward. I’d only been able to follow them for a few hours before losing them completely… but I was still heading in the direction they had been going. It was later in the day, and I was hoping that I’d…

I blinked as I found it. A strain of white smoke coming from a section of the nearby forest. About three or four miles away. Not too far from the next mountain range. It was a white plume of smoke not too unlike some of the strands still coming from the section of already burnt forest… but it was alone in a dense section of fresh and healthy trees. Far from any potential fires. In fact most of the burnt forest nearby was no longer on fire at all. Even the smoke and ash had settled, for the most part.

A campfire.

It of course could be anyone. Hunters. Humans on the road, escaping the flames. It could even be a small cabin. A small brush fire, even. But…

Glancing around for any other signs of people, of any form, I spent a good few minutes to make sure there were no other immediate signs. I saw no other obvious inclinations of any nearby people other than the campfire.

That smoke was indeed in the direction the footprints had been going…

Leaping off the sharp stones, I felt the cold air rush around me as I fell to the ground. The cliff wall I had just climbed blurred past me, and as I fell I felt the air grow warmer and warmer… and then I landed on hard rock and soil.

The impact was loud, and kicked up a huge puff of ashy dust, but I ignored it and ran forward. Running towards the direction I had seen the campfire smoke, I hurried with all my might.

It could be the bison family. We weren’t that far from their home, nor the fires… but their family wasn’t a big one. They might be traveling with small children… or livestock even. So they might be traveling slowly, carefully. Wisely.

Klamma was a cautious woman, so she would have them constantly on the move but also stopping to rest when needed…

Picking up my pace, I ran through a new form of forest. What before was one without shrubbery, and had been a rather flat area, was now a rolling hill forest with thick bushes and foliage. The perfect kind of underbrush for a forest fire.

It was strange that the fire hadn’t consumed this forest too. Though, maybe it would eventually once the winds changed.

Or well… it likely also wouldn’t. Up above, even above the dark smog, were clouds. Dark clouds were gathering from the north, heading downward with a heavy pressure.

It would soon storm. Harshly. It was a good thing. It’d not only put out the remaining fires, it’d clean the world of ash and soot. It’d allow the nutrient heavy ash to be soaked and absorbed, and would then give birth to even lusher forests and lands…

But those storms would just make it more difficult for me to track down the bison family. I had two or three days left at most. If this wasn’t them…

Nearing the campsite earlier than I expected, I slowed as I turned directions a little. I could smell whatever they were cooking upon a fire. It stunk; the stink pierced even the heavy and thick air of burnt forest. They were cooking some kind of fish. Likely a bottom feeder.

I had misjudged a little. I would have run right past them if I hadn’t smelled them. Not something I commonly did, maybe I was tired. I was usually very good at judging distances and locations…

I pondered my own body as I slowly approached them. I didn’t want to rush too quickly. They were cooking, so it wasn’t like they’d run off anytime soon. Even if they were the bison family they’d likely not notice my approach, but I wanted to be sure just in case.

Walking through the dense forest as I neared the campsite, my assumptions and hopes quickly dwindled as I both listened to the voices… and smelled the people.

They weren’t the bison family.

Not only did they stink of humans, terribly unwashed ones, they didn’t have the bison family’s accents. They spoke like the humans did around this region. This land of hills and steppes.

“Calm down now, else no dinner!” a woman yelled, and I smiled.

A mother scorning their child. No matter how long it’s been… A mother was always the same.

I sighed as I paused behind some thicker trees. I was close enough that I could now somewhat see them. I peered around one of the trees and confirmed what my ears and nose already knew.

It looked like a smaller family. Maybe half a dozen people. A couple kids. There were some donkeys, and near the edge of their camp was a small stack of crates and boxes. The goods and items the donkeys had been carrying.

Likely not traveling merchants. They looked far too poor, and the kids were telling.

These were survivors. Fleeing the fires.

Leaning away, I rested against the huge tree I was hiding behind.

What now…? I couldn’t track the family by using smells or sight. The air was a mess thanks to the fires. Even if in a few hours my lungs and nose would return to normal, it would not help much. And then once the storms hit tracking them would become even more difficult.

I could run to the next larger mountain range and climb up one again, to try and search for any hints or signs of them… but…

Such things were difficult. We were now talking many hundreds of square miles, most of it now thick forest. And the bison family weren’t humans. They did have a unique smell, that I’d catch once I drew close enough, but it wasn’t strong enough to linger and allow me to track them thanks to it.

“Wipe your hands off, look at you,” the mother continued to chastise the child, but I could hear the love and affection in her voice. She sounded exhausted as she cleaned off her child.

About to step away, as to leave the family alone, I hesitated as I thought of something.

It’d disturb them… but…

Taking a small breath, I stepped around the tree and slowly approached the campsite.

I made sure to walk as slowly, and as noisily as I could. I made sure to step on a few dried branches, and through some noisy bushes. One of the donkeys noticed my approach first, making a small huff at me. With my noisy approach and the donkey’s glare, the family noticed me too.

They were all sitting around a large campfire. One with a cauldron looking pot boiling above the fire. I counted a quick eight people, four adults and four children of varying ages.

There were two full grown men, who both quickly stood wearily at the sight of me.

Neither looked like warriors, but they were still stocky fellows. They were all dressed in leather, and looked dirty. A few even still had stains of ash upon their faces, which confirmed my suspicions. They had been fleeing the fires.

“Who goes there?” one of the men asked loudly as they all looked past me.

They expected more to step out from the forest. More than just me.

The two men were on guard. The two women, both of them sitting on a fallen log, had a haunted look on their faces. One was clinging to a young boy, shielding him from me, and she had a cloth in her hands. That was likely the one who had spoken earlier.

I smiled gently as I raised my hands. “I apologize for intruding during your dinner. I’m from a smaller village a ways south, Me and my family got separated this morning thanks to all the smoke.”

The very noticeable relief that washed over the group, even the children, was palpable. One of the men who had tightly gripped the knife he had been using to cut a carrot relaxed so much it had nearly slipped from his grip.

I coughed, and hadn’t needed to fake it. Although nearly completely healed and re-adapted to normal air, the tinge of burnt flesh still lingered inside of me. I gestured at myself, and didn’t need to look down to know that my appearance had very likely helped out in calming them down. I knew I did look like I hadn’t just got caught in the fires, but had been burnt up myself. I could feel all over my body patches of exposed skin, being touched by the cooler air. The fires had burnt and scorched a lot of me.

“I only wish to know if any of you had seen anyone else? Or possibly know of any large rivers or lakes they might be traveling alongside?” I asked.

One of the women shifted a little as she relaxed. “We did see another family this morning,” she said.

The taller of the two men glanced at her, and then nodded as he remembered. “We did. Around Peak Mountain, heading northward,” he said.

Peak Mountain… Likely the mountain range to the north of here. “Is that the mountains just that way?” I asked with a point towards the donkeys, which was to the north.

“The top of the peak is flat as can be, that way,” the other man said with a point in the direction I had just come from.

Oh. The one I had just climbed. Made sense, it was almost like a plateau up there. The peak, huh? Interesting. I had thought the other mountain range had been taller, but maybe to humans it wasn’t.

“They’re the only ones we saw, stranger… But I must say you look very worse for wear. Would you like to sit and rest? We got plenty to eat, was easy hunting this afternoon the beasts were exhausted and unguarded,” the taller man offered.

I couldn’t help but smile warmly at them, a real smile. “Thank you, but no. If they were headed around that mountain then I best hurry to try and catch them,” I said, and was about to step away.

“Wait…!”

I paused as I glanced back at the woman who had stopped me. She glanced around her group, and I frowned at their strange expressions.

“There are no villages that way, sir. If you head too far that way, you may get lost with no help,” she then said.

Ah. A kind soul. Or maybe they all were. All but the children were nodding in agreement.

Humans really did bang together during crises. It was too bad my people rarely did the same.

“I appreciate the concern… but I have to try,” I said confidently as I stepped away, to return in the direction I’d come from.

“They wore robes! Dark ones!” one of the men shouted.

I hesitated a moment and frowned, but realized that was actually a good sign. Although the bison family didn’t outright need to hide their features, maybe it was just in case.

Picking up my pace, I ran off from the humans and their campsite.

Leaving them behind I hurried to return to the same mountain I had just climbed.

I knew it was a long shot and not the greatest of methods… but I had to try. Plus I didn’t doubt those humans at the moment. They had been visibly concerned for me. Odds are they genuinely had seen these robed people from a distance.

Either way I’d track them down. If they had seen them near that mountain range in the morning, even if it were the bison family they’d not have gotten far. They could travel farther, and faster, than humans with less rest but not by much. They were sturdy people, but not like Renn. Not like me.

Reaching the mountain, and climbing it once more, I quickly ascended back to the same spot I had just been standing in about an hour ago.

The world was growing darker. Thanks to not only it becoming nightfall, but also thanks to the mixture of smoke and dark clouds setting in.

I needed to hurry…

Stepping up to the edge of the cliff, up on the mountain, I glanced all around me. I once again made out the smoke from the campsite I had just left. It was darker now, which told me they had added more wood to the fire and were done cooking. It was now a fire for heat and safety.

The section of burnt forest was still smoldering, but it didn’t look like any new fires had started. Even the sections where the burnt forests met the still fresh one all looked fine. At the moment at least there was no urgent danger from the fires… at least here in this area. Off in the distance, far south where I’d come from, I could still see the deep dark fires and their smoke. It gave the world a strange setting sun look, even though the sun was setting in a different direction.

I scanned the horizon, searching desperately for any signs or hints. The forests were too thick to see any actual movement, from people or animals, but…

There.

I found a new campfire. A smaller one, with gray smoke. It just barely got over the treetops before being dispersed by the wind rushing down the other side of the mountain.

It was indeed situated on the northern end of this supposed Peak Mountain. At just the right spot and distance to make me believe it was the same individuals that human family had spoken of. If they had seen each other, even from a distance, on the southern side where they had gone their separate ways…

Studying the distance from me to this new campfire, I turned around to look at the other one. The one I had just gone to, and come from.

Yes. It was likely a little farther than they. Maybe half as far from here.

If it were the bison family it would make sense. They would travel farther in the same time span, even if also traveling with children and animals.

But to make sure I didn’t miss any other camps or things of interest… I waited a few minutes to study the world around me further.

Growing more and more impatient as I waited, I lasted what was likely half an hour.

Deciding to go and take a look, I focused on the small lisp of smoke and leapt once more off the mountain. This time to its north-eastern side.

This side wasn’t as clean of a drop as the other. Its cliff face was not as flat, not as steep. I ended up sliding down the mountain, kicking up rocks along the way.

By the time I reached the bottom, I had to quickly dart off away from the mountain as more and more rocks fell behind me. Some even as big as me. I had caused a small avalanche of large stones in my descent. It’d not kill me, but I was in no mood to run with a cracked skull or broken leg.

Hurrying away, leaving the loud ruckus behind, I ran through the forest and towards my destination.

They had set up camp what had seemed like half a mile from the mountain. A spot with very thick trees.

Hopefully it was them. If not then I’d be running around, going from campsite to campsite for the unforeseeable future. Odds are thanks to the displacement of the fires, there would be hundreds of people traveling around these areas. And the only real method for me to sort through them in my search would be to just simply approach them myself, usually when they had a campfire going since that was how I would find them.

Such a thing was a massive pain, but part of the job.

It’d likely cause strange rumors amongst the humans though, if I had to do it for a week or two. A strange man, in burnt and tattered clothes, who was appearing randomly… sometimes in the middle of the night; asking for any sightings of his long lost family.

To top it off once the humans started telling others about it, the moment they encountered someone else who had experienced it too? The chaos that would ensue. Especially once they compared notes and realized the ground traveled between them was inhumanly vast.

Yes. The perfect seedling for a regional ghost story. What with the fires and chaos.

Not the first time I’d spark such rumors and stories.

Another legend. At least this time it was amusing.

I smirked at the idea as I hurried, and wondered who’d enjoy such a funny idea more. Renn or Oplar.

I’ll need to remember the thought as to share it with them.

Hopefully it’d not be long before I could.

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