'Any minute now,' he thought to himself, checking the smoke above as he picked his way through the brush.
He had been walking for over an hour now. His back hurt from lugging around his backpack full of things, but he didn't mind. If it meant escaping these woods, he'd do it again twenty times over.
But his hopes were soon dashed as he took one final step.
He felt a faint resistance press against him, trying to stop him in his tracks, but he pushed through, and then, as if he had entered a separate dimension, the area around him changed from a peaceful, healthy forest to a smoldering wreck of fallen branches and charred corpses.
Smoke wafted up from small fires, floating up into the air and creating the trails he had followed to get here. Battered, green-skinned, and pointy-eared women covered in dirt and soot rushed to and fro, chanting under their breath and dousing what fires they could with water.
