The ambush had worked like a charm, at least the Crow and the Swallow tribe had thought so as their ambush parties had popped out of the forest to attack the Owl tribe’s delegation, the rain had been falling heavily as several elders of the two tribes had ambushed the Owl tribe, their intel told them that the Owl tribe were transferring several magical & mystic artifacts to make alliances with some of the other tribes within the Sinking Valley continental area. At first they had covered the delegation with arrows and spears, afterwards they had walked over recklessly, there had been no resistance, how could the Owl tribe ever hope to stand against the combined forces of the Crow and Swallow, their arrogance had blinded them, they had severely underestimated the cunning of the Owl tribe.

Pote a senior elder of the Crow tribe walked carelessly together with several other elders of the two tribes, then they ordered the regular tribal members to stand back and keep watch, it was obvious that before they delivered anything to their respective tribe’s they would deliver a little something to their pockets, it wasn’t the first time that the elders had conducted such business, and it wouldn’t be the last time.

The several did owl tribe members lay in pools of dark red blood being washed away by the heavy rain, Pote barely glanced as he and the elders walked over towards the covered carriages. Pote pulled the leather skin cover off one of the carriages, and the moment he did a short ‘crack’ sound was heard, Pote’s face had a look of confusion as he looked at an ash-blue branch that had cracked when he opened the cover, the branch sprayed out a blue liquid that fell through a hole in the carriage, Pote was truly confused, he looked at the elder beside him who had a similarly confused facial expression, there were three carriages, and different elders were at each one, each carriage had held a branch, one was ash-blue. The other was ash-purple and the last one was simply black, they yelled their findings to one another, but they all seemed nonplussed. They all walked over to Pote who had been in charge of the intel and began discussing the peculiarity of the branches, it was not anything they had seen before.

While the elders poke the fluids began moving, it was as if the ash coloured fluids were attracted to the black fluid as they made their way towards the middle, somehow the rain couldn’t wash them out, nothing happened the ash-blue fluid connected with the black fluid under the wagons, and nothing happened when the ash-purple fluid connected with the black fluid, but it didn’t stop there, like two hands reaching for each other the two coloured fluids drew closer, and the moment they touch they began spiraling creating a strange odorless gas, the process itself happened very quickly, and the gas was extremely thick. The elders of course noticed it and it quickly dawned on them, they had been led to a trap, but what kind of trap was it?

. . . .

Not long afterwards Mahar and Ragor walked down the slope towards the area where the ambush had taken place, what faced them was an absolute bloodbath, the regular tribe members and the elders were lying scattered all over the place, arrows and sword, axes and spears penetrated the different people lying dead, the gas long since dissipated.

“I’m glad that you are on our side!” Ragor exclaimed as he saw the dead people lying all over, a hint of fear and admiration in his voice.

Mahar smiled joyfully at the sight of the bloodbath “three branches from the same tree during different periods of the year, when mixed they create a truly marvelous scene, don’t they?” He laughed as he stood at the precipice of his own destruction.

Ragor shuddered slightly “I’m glad that you’re getting your revenge Mahar, but don’t let it consume you”

Mahar didn’t answer and walked towards a man lying under a wagon, he pulled him out fiercely, surprisingly it was Pote, and he was still alive, rasping for breath while he was bleeding out.

Pote’s eyes flickered in confusion as he saw the man in strange foreign clothes and black skin; he was obviously not from the Sinking Valley, for a moment he felt a hint of hope “Friend…” he coughed desperately “help me!”

Mahar didn’t speak as he smiled gently and squatted down, then he pulled out a dagger “to think that I would see you here old friend” he said calmly “don’t I look familiar to you?” he asked innocently as he slowly began pushing his dagger into Pote’s leg, the dagger was laced with a slow acting poison, so even with Pote’s high health pool and defense he still felt acute pain, not to mention that his health was already almost bottomed out.

He rasped in agony as the poison entered his bloodstream, who was this man? Why did he hold such hatred for him? “I don’t…” but then it dawned on him, so many years had passed, it couldn’t be? But it had to be, the boy of the merchant from the Endless Dunes “You, you…” fear maligned his face as his life finally ebbed out.

All the while Ragor had been watching the process in the back, he didn’t fear Mahar, he pitied him, he walked up to the man who sat there still pushing the dagger into Pote’s leg, his face expressionless “The mission is done, you have saved out Owl tribe a lot of lives, it appears that the Crow and Swallow tribes never realised that it was their own captured soldiers we had riding the horses, they are truly a careless bunch, yet this is only part of our thronged attack, let’s see if they have any information on them, and then go reconvene at the war-tent” the two quickly searched the elders for letters or documents and were quickly on their way.

. . . .

“SILENCE!” Alena’s loud voice reverberated throughout the war-tent, quietening everyone present, Mahar and Ragor had returned as well and were standing with the rest of the elders and other small tribe leaders, each of them had fervor in their eyes, their battle-spirit was soaring, multiple ambushes and tricks and war tactics had been executed over the last couple of days, effectively bringing the Crow and the Swallow tribes onto the brink of annihilation.

Alena surveyed the crowd, her stern expression easing as she smiled victoriously “we have pushed the two tribes to the edge, all they need is a final nudge” the crowd almost began cheering when she lifted her hands calming them down once more “although slow, the two tribes were not known to be the largest for nothing, we have destroyed large parts of their internal decision makers and their external infrastructure, yet from recent intel we’ve been told that they have successfully joined together under one banner and are now marching towards our encampment, they hope to take us out with sheer manpower” her eyes glistened coldly as her smile deepened “but they have been misinformed severely, thanks to the staff of negativity and Mahar’s magic artifacts we’ve barely had any casualties, tomorrow we meet them on the battlefield with our first advancement, Ragor show us your plan” she glanced at the elder not far from her.

Ragor smiled viciously as he began moving the pieces on the large war-board “hopefully we can end it with the first advancement, as you can see here” he pointed the stick towards an area near a mountainside “we plan to roll flaming tree-logs down the mountainside together with boulders, during this distraction we’ll have Cad enchant the logs and boulders with negative emotions, this will demoralize the troop” Ragor nodded towards Cad, who smiled nonchalantly “and if all goes according to plan the army will move into the forest away from the boulders and logs, this will be where Mahar sets fire to a special oil that we will spread throughout the forest leaving only a few select paths open, effectively guiding the fleeing army into a further ambush of arrows and spears, and whoever makes it further we’ll meet with axes and swords” he finished grimly.

That night the encampment was unusually quiet, there’d be time for celebration when victory was grasped.

. . . .

Russa was just a regular member of the Crow tribe, yet today he was marching on the forefront of the army, he wasn’t happy at all about the arrangement, usually someone like him who hadn’t even reached their second class advancement would be in the back shooting arrows, he just had to sleep with his superiors wife, he shook his head restlessly as he continued onwards. Russa looked to his left where there was a large mountainous area, and on their right was a forest, they’d be past the mountain soon enough, and from there they’d be no more than an hour away from the Owl tribe.

He sighed loudly as he marched onward towards his demise, the entire charade was stupid, Russa was clear that the Owl tribe had not only decimated the two tribes, but also made some alliances with smaller tribes, the right solution would’ve been surrender, but the leaders were blinded by their ancestors previous glory, he glanced over at a fat large man in expensive furs riding a large bear. Russa was about to sigh once more upon the sight, but then he caught sight of something rolling down the mountainside, it was a flaming tree? Russa rubbed his eyes, ‘ah yes I was wrong, it wasn’t one flaming tree it was several’ he thought as he began screaming, yelling and pointing at the mountainside, the army quickly reacted, but it was still too slow, and soon chaos erupted as the flaming trees bounced into the army creating havoc, soon they were followed by large boulders. Russa ducked and weaved, the sound of horses neighing, bears growling and men yelling drowned out any rational thoughts Russa might’ve had, ash began clouding his vision, it was almost as if there was something wrong with the ash Russa began connecting the dots slowly, but then he began getting exceptionally sad, too sad to think or to move, then he was angry and ran in anger and punched whoever was in the way.

Cad looked down at the chaos that was spreading below; he kept enchanting the trees and boulders from the mountainside. He couldn’t help but think of the contrast of the chaos just below, and the amazing breathtaking view had had from where he stood, rivers and forests, mountains and valleys. His thinking was interrupted when he felt a light hand on his shoulder, it was Bolis.

“Don’t overdo it Cad, I realise that the staff does most of the work here, but you’re draining yourself, I can see it” Bolis’s voice was concerned, yet it fell for deaf ears as Cad shrugged her hand off him.

‘Look at me!’ Cad thought ‘Look at my power!’ his eyes began to become bloodshot, his willpower draining, it was then that he felt a wisp of something in the staff; but he ignored it, it was nothing but his imagination, the final ritual had created a balance constraining each of the specters. Cad mindlessly continued casting enchantments, his staff covered in a blood-red light that kept increasing, as the light kept increasing, equally so did Cad’s positive emotions decrease, Cad didn’t realise that everyone around him had backed off and were staring at him fearfully, he was full of hatred, resentment, sadness, despair, envy and grief. His vision fell as he began collapsing, the staff slowly disintegrating into embers, in his final moment he had clarity as he viewed the picturesque landscape, with his death the staff turned into a blood-red ash that was swept off by the wind.

. . . .

As the blood-red dust whisked away in the way it passed the battlefield below, whatever the result, it would not know, nor would it care, it simply drifted off inauspiciously passing the landscapes below. Within the ash on a different plane of existence was the blob of negative emotions with a tiny dot in the middle consisting of what little Cad had of positive emotions. The blob was Edra’s soul wrapped up in a raw ectoplasm of emotions, yet he wasn’t conscious yet.

His consciousness that had previously lost all but one emotion was now pulsing with different kinds of emotions, the negatives far outweighing the positives.

. . . .

Edra was standing at the doorstep to his wife’s parents home, the rain fell in buckets as he nervously stood there his hand lifted ready to knock on the door, but he couldn’t, how could he? The news he would have to relay would devastate them as much as they had him, if not more. He took a deep breath as his knuckle fell on the door with a loud knock.

Grief permeated the small home as the mother and father held each other in tears, Edra himself cried helplessly as he told them what had happened, and that they would never see their little girl again.

. . . .

Edra stood in an endless desert looking at his status screen in, the reality of losing his entire world sinking in; sadness and despair welled up in throes.

. . . .

Edra’s tiny child hands clenched into fists as the anger of seeing his friend being bullied build up, and he stepped in, even though he knew it was a losing battle.

. . . .

A cold hospital room, doctors speaking in low emphatic voices, yet Edra and his father heard none of it, all they knew was despair as they looked at the sleeping lady in the hospital, cancer was a terrible thing.

. . . .

And so Edra kept seeing one memory after the other, for every 100 negative memories he would see one positive.

. . . .

“Yes of course I’ll marry you” a young slightly chubby brunette answered joyfully, her cheeks blushing scarlet as she jumped up and down holding Edra’s hands.

. . . .

“A cheers for my dear wife who beat cancer!” a gentle looking middle-aged man said cheerfully as he lifted his glass, the small gather too lifted theirs and yelled “hear hear!”

. . . .

As the memories piled up Edra’s conscience grew stronger, the blood ash began condensing and sank downwards, the ash slowly formed to circles that grew smaller and smaller. Around the two circles a ghostly image of a young man began blinking into shape, the two circles clearly the pupils of the ghost, yet even as the ghost had formed into a misty red shape of a man, the pupils remained unfocused.

And there in the middle of nowhere the ghost simply floated hunched over; it was then that a stray dog came over, all it did was bark once and the ghost jolted the pupils behind its eyelids contracted and then the eyes opened.