Elid, Lostin Forest.
The piles of rubble moved violently. After some period of time, a tiny hand emerges from beneath it. The hand pushed the debris around to make some space.
Eventually, a full-grown dunirr rises up to the ground.
He looked around in a daze, trying to access his surroundings. It was so quiet that he could even hear a whisper. All he sees is darkness.
His hand frantically reached upward.
There's some sort of cloth lying above his head and blocking the sunlight.
Only then, he recalls everything that happens. A very traumatic experience that sends a chill down his spine.
'How much time has passed?' He asked himself. The question was left unanswered.
His mouth doesn't stop from greedily gasping for air. Yet, his action doesn't improve his situation a single bit.
"Huff...Huff." He feels suffocated and begins to sweat profusely. Gradually, his heartbeat began to increase as well.
This situation is unbearable to him. He needs to get out of this situation.
In the midst of darkness, his hand randomly grabs for something. Something to cut the black clothes above him. It didn't take him too long to find the object he needed.
By only relying on his touch, the dunirr gently inspected the rubble he just grabbed. Luckily, he finds what he assumes was a broken wood with a sharp edge on his first try.
He nods satisfactorily.
He adjusts the wood with a sharp edge pointing upward before thrusting it into the cloth. He then tore the cloth apart.
The sunlight entered through the hole he made. Once his visibility improves, he finally sees the sheer destruction caused by the humans. Not a single place escapes from being burned by fire.
He doesn't know how many of them were captured or how many of them survive.
What he knew was they were no longer safe living here. They need to migrate elsewhere.
Without wasting any time, he begins searching for survivors. By relying on the sunlight. He begins to clear up the rubble beneath him first.
Since he lives alone, he didn't expect to find anyone trapped under the rubble. He was glad that he took advice from the old people in the village to make an underground room.
Despite his preparation, the time he spent in that room was painful. Especially when the smokes infiltrate. His lungs felt like they were on fire.
"Let's move to the house next to me. I hope they're doing okay. But, before that..."
He tore the cloth and widened the hole, allowing for fire smoke to escape and more sunlight to come in.
The surrounding area becomes brighter.
The dunirr turned his head to the side. His neighbour's house was in the same state as his, utterly destroyed.
He doesn't know whether they were captured or not. Nonetheless, he hurriedly moved his feet there to help. His neighbour was a family of three who always helped him when was left alone in this world. Helping them was a natural thing to do.
He lifted up rubble after rubble and stacked them on the side nicely.
After hours, he found only one dunnir. She's the daughter of his neighbour. As for her parents, he has yet to be found. Maybe he can learn their whereabouts from the girl.
For a moment, he was captivated by her beauty. Although her face was smeared with fire ash, her beauty does not fade at all. Not to mention her bewitching body.
Remember his original purpose, he snapped his mind out of it. Then, he brought his finger closer to her face and put it in front of her nose.
He breathed a sigh of relief, 'Thank goodness, she's still breathing albeit faintly.'
He tries to wake her up by gently shaking her body.
The girl frowned. Her eyeballs start to move under her closed eyelids.
"Urgh..." She groans. Slowly, the girl opened her eyes. Even though her vision was blurry, she could still recognize the face of the man who woke her up.
"Elki, is that you?"
"Yes, Lena. It's me. Where are your parents at? I couldn't find them anywhere here."
Lena broke into tears, "T-They were outside when we were attacked." She then clutched tightly on his shirt, "P-Please, Elki! Help me find my parents. I'll do anything for you."
Seeing her pleading with him invokes his deepest desire to help a beauty like her. However, he doesn't easily lose his mind and agrees to her request.
As an orphan, Elki's mind wasn't that fickle. He can think rationally, "Well, I would love to find them too. I can't do anything if they're captured though. My current objective is to move downstream as soon as I can before humans come back."
Hearing his answers, Lena's face grimaces with anger. "What!!..." She yelled at him. "Are you just gonna leave? Have you forgotten the kindness my parents have done for you all these years?"
Elki shrugs his shoulder, "I do remember and I'll never forget about it. But, saving them isn't worth it for me to give up my life. Do you actually think it is plausible for me to go inside the human territory and save them?"
Lena lost her word and has no way to refute him.
Seeing her dumbstruck, Elki wastes no time on her. He got up to look for other survivors.
"Wait!" Lena suddenly tugged at the hem of Elki's shirt.
"What?" He asked. Honestly, he start to get annoyed by her.
"Didn't you have a crush on me? If you save my parent, I'll marry you." Lena made her offer. She knows Elki secretly glanced at her whenever he came to visit.
"I do have a crush on you but it's not enough to gamble my life on. I've to think about my survival first."
"So what!! Are you going to leave me alone?" Lena barked. She somewhat felt betrayed.
Elki simply smiles at her, "Lena, I've been living in this world all by myself for nineteen years and I'm doing just fine. I believe you can do it too."
Elki leaves her alone for now. There's no point arguing with an emotionally unable person. He'll come back to her once Lena calms herself down.
Currently, he is searching for survivors. The chance of finding them alive is pitifully low.
So far, they either burn to death or die of suffocation.
After hours of search and rescue, only a hundred or so dunirrs survive. He had them make preparation to move northward. Without a word of objection, dunirrs move according to instructions. They know the drills and can do them without Elki's supervision.
As for Elki, he returns to talk to Lena once again. Thankfully, she has calmed down.
"What are you going to do now?" Elki asked. he stared directly at her puffy eyes.
"Tsk," Lena clicked her tongue. "What else can I do except follow you? So, what's your plan?"
Elki look a bit lost, "I don't know. If we find a settlement, we might as well live there. If not, we have to build by ourselves. Let's see where our feet bring us to."