“Ugh..”

The first thing Capra saw when he opened his eyes was a vast blue sky. He looked around for Baba and Workdidi but couldn't find them.

He tried to call out to them, "Baba! Workdidi!", but neither answered.

Capra found himself in a familiar forest, there were blue trees and blue plants everywhere, but something was off.

“Is this blue moon forest? Why is everything so big?” Suddenly a powerful wind blew through the forest.

A hulking figure appeared in the distance and walked forward. It moved through the forest slowly and unhindered. It was strange, it was massive but its size didn't cause the earth to tremble when it moved, and the trees in the forest were unharmed. It was like a giant spirit.

Strangest of all was that the behemoth was identical to the the elder ent Capra had fallen into the abyss with, except much larger. It was so big that its head was obscured by the clouds, and even though it was over a kilometer away Capra knew that it could squash him in an instant.

Capra watched the behemoth, entranced, until he noticed that his surroundings were changing. The leaves on the ground indicated it was fall, but fall soon it became winter, then winter became spring, and spring became summer. The seasons began to cycle endlessly and Capra felt like he was at the center of a timelapse.

“Is this a flashback?”

It seemed the goblin visage had triggered a flashback of some sort. Flashbacks weren't rare in CAF, but being the first to witness a historic scene usually had its benefits so Capra waited and watched.

The seasons cycled through rapidly, but for a few cycles nothing seemed to change other than the weather.

Throughout all the seasons the giant elder ent remained tall and forlorn, mighty and majestic. It lived on in a state immune to the elements... but... Capra felt it was very lonely...

...

After the 150th cycle new inhabitants came to the forest. They were familiar to Capra, but not as he remembered them.

“What. The. Hell.”

The blue moon rabbits were huge. They were horse-sized, maybe slightly bigger than the drawings he had seen in the tunnel.

“Is this the blue moon forest after all?”

Most forests had ents, so seeing the giant elder ent hadn't made Capra certain that he was in blue moon forest, but blue moon rabbits were different. They were a species of monster indigenous to the blue moon region, which meant he was in the blue moon forest after all, and that the blue moon rabbits before him could be the ancestors of the ones on the surface.

"What happened?" He wondered.

Unlike their descendants the ancient blue moon rabbits only ate plants and had gentle demeanors. They got along well with the giant elder ent, and lived in harmony with other small woodland creatures. There were completely non-aggressive.

As the cycles passed more and more creatures came to the forest, birds of different sizes, wolves, reptiles, deer, and even aquatic animals made their home in it, but all these creatures had one thing in common. They were gentle, not carnivorous, and a lot bigger than their modern day equivalents.

It was at this point that the giant elder ent lowered its head from the clouds for the first time. Its long wooden beard made it look like an old man, but it kept a gentle smile on its face as it looked down at the forest and its new inhabitants. As it watched, it didn’t seem so aloof and majestic anymore, and Capra got the vague feeling that the elder ent was happy to have some company; however as the cycles continued to pass by Capra wondered why he had yet to see any humans.

...

Cycles continued to pass and the forest grew taller. The forest animals multiplied, but after fifty cycles no humans came, then a hundred passed and still no humans, until eventually a new species did come... but it wasn't human, and Capra was forced to stare.

The first humanoids to come to the forest were strange little green men and women. They were roughly the size of a goblin, but their features were fair, and gentle. Their hair came in a variety of colors like wild flowers, and their eyes without exception were a piercing light blue. They were very kind and joyful creatures, and as as time passed they grew very close to the elder ent.

Overtime the green people multiplied and built a beautiful civilization. They used the trees as their homes, and used magic to make their surroundings flourish. They created natural lights with the aid of fireflies, and they used their innate empathy to help the creatures of the forest live in harmony.

They made the forest a beautiful place to live in, like a fairyland.

...

A few hundred more cycles passed.

By now Capra had become immersed in the flashback. Growing up in a city he had never seen nature like this and he loved every second of it, but then night came and the world slowed down.

It was a rainy night, different from the many rainy nights Capra had seen through the cycles. There were no green children playing in the rain, no gentle wind blowing through the leaves, and it was heavy downpour that blocked vision and was accompanied by heavy thunder.

On this day the green people hid in their homes, warmly sharing the space they had with frightened forest creatures. They looked up out of their windows towards the giant elder ent, but all that could be seen was the shadow of its face, and its two blue eyes looking off towards the distance.

Capra didn’t know what was happening but he knew something was wrong, terribly, terribly wrong.

Skreeeee!

Something roared above the clouds. A clap of thunder briefly illuminated the silhouette of a massive four winged creature. The elder ent slowly stood up and its head once again pierced the clouds.

Suddenly dark green flames filled the sky. The flames wrapped around the elder ent, causing it to burn. It tried to fight back but the creature flew circles around it, and no matter how much it rained the fire kept burning.

Despite being on fire the elder ent moved with speed unbefitting its size and grabbed the creature’s tail— or what appeared to be a tail. In reality it was a clawed leg, but the elder ent didn’t care. It swung the creature down towards a nearby mountain range like a rag doll, over and over again.

Capra could see it now. The creature had four large bat wings and a head similar to that of a pterodactyl. Countless bones jutted out of its spine, and its torso and neck were fat and heavy. It only had one leg, but it was placed where a tail would normally be.

As the elder ent slammed the creature into the ground, it tried to use its powerful bat wings to stabilize itself, but it was unable to, so it wrapped itself in all four of its wings and took the elder ent’s beating.

Capra didn’t notice, but as the creature was repeatedly slammed into the ground it glowed green, a green that became more and more obvious with time.

Skreeee!

The creature unfurled its wings and rose up into the sky— briefly resisting the tug of the elder ent.

Its abdomen had swollen massively with green energy which the creature expelled like a crack of thunder, forming a massive green fireball which knocked the elder ent back.

The force of the blow made the elder ent release the creature, but it held on to one of its wings tearing it off with a mighty tug.

Skreeeeeeeee!

The creature howled in misery, it tried to fly back up to the sky but was completely unable to. The loss of a wing had thrown off its balance and all it could do was flap around near the ground.

The creature panicked and began to release its flames with reckless abandon. The flames caused a burgeoning forest fire which immdiately claimed countless the life of countless forest creatures.

OOOOeeeoooooo!

The elder ent wailed, its voice deep, and inhuman... yet obviously in pain. Its flaming body ran towards the creature and tackled it. Then it punched.

Boom!

Again.

Boom!

and again.

Boom!

Each fist on the creatures face was fast, and weighty. The wind pressure caused the trees in the forest to bend, and a few of them were sent flying, but the elder ent didn’t relent.

Skreeeee!

The creature continued to fire off its flames, uncaring of the consequences, meanwhile off in the distance the wing that had been torn off began to melt becoming black sludge.

The black sludge permeated the ground, spreading quickly. It warped everything it touched. Trees became twisted, and red, as did surrounding flora, and animals that failed to escape surged out of the sludge... different.

Some creatures became razor terrors, others became flying horrors, and some became beasts that Capra had only seen in the drawings he had seen on the underground tunnel's walls.

The phenomenom caused normal creatures to flee enmasse all with the exception of the green people. The green people fought back, they used powerful nature magic in an attempt to keep the black sludge at bay, but inevitably many of them fell.

It was as if all the cycles of peace and serenity Capra had seen were a dream, and armaggedon had come to lay claim of the forest.

The elder ent had become weak due to the flames and was knocked away from the creature, but the creature was in bad shape too. It stood on its one leg and used its one remaining wing to stand, hardly balanced. Its eyes glowed a bloody shade of red, ands its abdomen swole massively, then it fired at the elder ent. Once, then twice, then three times, forcing elder ent to its knees.

Boom!

OOOOeeeoooooo! It cried.

After its barrage of energy the creature lay exhausted on the ground. The body parts it had lost melted and corrupted all life nearby. Both titans were exhausted, and weak and for a second silence reigned over the forest.

Skreeee!

The creature was the first to move. It struggled up from the ground and looked down at the forest and its inhabitants. Looking into its eyes all Capra could see was an endless void, filled with malice and hatred, and then the creature took a big breath... and released it.

Fwoosh.

The flames surged towards Capra.

...

Capra had his knees and his head on the ground in a defensive posture when he felt a light tap on his shoulder. He trembled and shot back, only to bump in to something hard.

“Careful...” A voice said, it was a familiar voice and Capra opened his eyes,

“Baba?” He asked.

Workdidi and Baba stood beside him, watching him as he slowly stood up. The goblin gate stood behind him, it was what he had bumped into.

The two goblins watched Capra silenty...

“What was that?” Capra asked.

A loud sigh came from his right, and Capra turned to face Workdidi. Workdidi lowered his head and closed his eyes for a moment, then he looked up to Capra.

“It... our history.” He said, but Capra was confused. There were no goblins in the forest...

“Did I not see them somehow?” He pondered, but that was impossible. He saw everything that went on in the forest and the closest thing to a goblin in the flashback was... then it hit him.

“The green people.” He muttered.

The idea hit him like lightning. The black sludge had warped the creatures of the forest, making them unrecognizable from what they once were... so what if the green people had been affected too? All of a sudden it all made sense.

“You were... the green people.” He muttered.

Quest Notification: You have witnessed part of the history of the [Hard Foot] tribe.

You are the first and only human to witness their history, but it is incomplete. Find the remaining half.

Quest Notification: Viewing the history of the [Hard Foot] tribe has given you insight into their origins. Rewarding title: [Friend of the Goblins].

[Friend of the Goblins]: You have been acknowledged by the goblins of the lowlands, and witnessed part of their secret history. +5 wisdom, +5 dexterity.

Title Effect: It will become easier to associate with goblins.

...