The forest's atmosphere had changed. The mood was dark, mourning almost. The branches of the trees drooped; even the moon's pale light seemed dull and stark. The grass was bent beneath an invisible force, and crumbled under my feet. All in all, I didn't like the looks of things; I knew I shouldn't have left for so long. Stuck as a human, as I have been for sixteen years, I folded my arms to my chest, my bag slung across one shoulder. This was certainly unsettling, and I couldn't wait to get to my own guild.

My Guild? I am part of the Natyre Guild, the Guild most in tune to the Life Spirit (Some call her Mother Nature, but we know better). Although I am an apprentice, I am quite aware of my surroundings, and right now, to my utter astonishment, the trees refused to speak to me. They never did; even my favorite tree, the only Maple tree in this part of the woods, close to the Guild Base, wouldn't turn a leaf in my direction. I felt more alone than I had on my exploration mission. This couldn't be good.

I got to the end of the path and just barely hesitated before pushing my way through the curtain of bracken that marked the entrance to the Guild. I stumbled out, almost rolling down the hill, but caught myself and looked up. The scene laid out before my stunned green eyes stopped my heart and bottled my breath til my chest burned. In only one moon, this...this had happened. For stretched out before me, to stab a stake into my heart like any normal, innocent vampire, was not a clearing filled with wooden platforms, lean-tos and the Guild members I'd come to love and call my family, but a thick, cloying layer of ashes, and nothing more.

One sound caught my ears and my head snapped over to the right side of the clearing, where the reception platform had been. It was a moan, a whimper, and I knew I wasn't imagining it. A burst of energy coursed threw my travel-weary form, and I leaped forward and flew down the hill. At the bottom, my bare feet crunched on the ashes, and I flinched, almost tripping. But I continued and rushed over to the area that I'd heard it from, falling to my knees and pulling away burned planks of wood and thick ash. Finally, I got to the bottom where black-tipped grass was trampled to the ground; but I saw him, laid down on his back, eyes closed, chest barely rising.

"Ryden," I whispered, throat closing quickly. The burned, bruised form froze, fear radiating from him. "No, it's only me, Destynee!" I assured him quickly, resting a cold hand upon a hot shoulder. He relaxed under my touch and slowly his eyes opened to stare up at me. Crystal blue, the only blue-eyed out of all of us. He was the healer, or the apprentice Healer, of the guild, though he was much more talented than the actual Healer, Syllis. "Oh, Ry, what happened?" I asked in a tear-brimmed voice.

"They...destroyed us." His voice was harsher than normal, although remnants of it's former soothing, warming quality lingered still. It probably was a result of the fire that had stormed through the clearing. Yet...They?

"They? Ry, who's they?" He coughed, leaving him dazed and trembling. "Oh, forget it. I need to get you somewhere. But..." I hesitated, looking around. "Did anyone else survive?" He shook his head, and that knowledge slammed down on me immeasurably. I choked on a sob before gently taking his lean, frail figure in my arms, easily bringing him out of the carnage coating the area. His shaggy, curly brown hair fell back slightly as I held him almost like a baby, revealing his pointed ears. The form he loved most was the Elven one, and he was the only one able to use it. We all figured that one of his parents had to be elf for that to happen. I stumbled out of the clearing, slipping on ash, and when I got back to the blanket of bracken I had entered by, I glanced back over my shoulder. With Ry's slender arms around my neck, clinging to me, I looked upon the clearing and saw how the Guild had been before my travels; but then he coughed, and I quickly left, worrying for his life.

I'd find out who did it. And then...I don't know what I would do. But, by the stars, whomever 'they' are, they won't get away with it. Not in my lifetime.