Forest of Crnine

Column of soldiers slowly marched into the forest, and instead of the sun, which was expected at noon, and the period that would be the brightest in the next few hours, darkness increasingly covered their sight. Dark spruces slowly appeared instead of the oaks and hornbeams that were there before, the sound of owls could be heard everywhere, somehow eerie, as even Urki couldn't determine exactly where it was coming from, as if something blocked the orientation.

"Light the mana lamps," commanded the commander of the common unit, Taurus.

And in the thick darkness, it was as though fireflies emerged, gliding through the forest.

However, this was not enough, Urki knew. Forests like this became denser and more black as you approached their core, so much so that you couldn't even see a finger in front of your eyes. Urki took a flower of rapast, which he picked two days ago, with one hand, and cut it in half. Using a small knife, he took its insides and slowly added them to a water bottle, making his personal lamp. Then he told his soldiers to do the same.

The soldiers hesitated for a moment at Urki's decision, as if it was unnecessary, but the darkness was becoming denser, so they decided to comply.

"Where did you learn this?" Morris asked him quietly, so others wouldn't hear, not wanting to draw attention to himself.

"An old trick I learned from where I was born," Urki lied, feeling somewhat guilty because he lied Morris.

As they went deeper, the sounds owls became fewer, but those that remained, had deeper and more eerie, spreading a sense of dread and mysticism.

Urki had always hated owls; he could never stand their morbid sound. That reminded him of sound he heard once when his unit, led by Captain Miro, invaded the elven region trying to capture a city located near the border. He remembered the large statue of an owl, which seemed more and more terrifying as his unit approached it. "Captain Miro shouldn't have listened to the superiors," he thought to himself. It was obvious that it was a trap, which turned out to be true when Urki's unit returned with only 15 men.

Since then, he had hated owls and what they represented, the gods of wisdom that the elves worshiped so much.

Urki pulled out a coat made of domestic pigskin, which was torn on the left side and hastily sewn up. It was becoming colder, even in the middle of the summer season when temperatures reached up to 40 degrees Celsius, the temperature in forest was dropping.

"Dorade, how much have we walked?" Urki asked Dorad.

"5 elven heights," Dorad told him, who had the mission to count their steps.

"We shouldn't be far," Urki told his unit.

"Rak, what did your family do to be rewarded with land?" Urki asked, trying to lighten up the tense atmosphere, and wanting to know more about his members.

Rak, who was always cocky when he answered, now replied calmly, wanting to portray the power of his family better. "My father," he paused and cleared his throat to better articulate, "was the commander of the battle at Clade," he said proudly, "and that's why we were given land near the Terme River, to protect the farmers and their crops... from other farmers," he said, somewhat confused.

Dos and Kamis were astonished, Morris became even more frightened, and a smile appeared on Dorad's face. It seems that the battle of Clade was significant, Urki thought; I'll have to read the historical records when I get permission to read the archives, Urki brightened up.

The central unit stopped, and Commander Taurus pointed to the trees; their cutting would take 2 days, and loading around as much.

"It's time," Urki told his unit as he slowly left the baggage they carried aside.

One by one, each approached and took an ax for cutting. The axes were almost brand new, as if they had hardly been used. "Better to use these for defense," Urki told Commander Taurus.

"Don't babble," he retorted.

The units then moved 200 meters away from where they left the baggage. Each unit was supposed to leave one soldier from their ranks to report an alarm in case of an attack by any creatures.

In the meantime, the large black trees, which were almost bare halfway, and from the upper end began to resemble a hyacinth flower due to the way their branches branched out, were as hard as lead, even harder.

Taurus went out and told the soldiers to move. He took an ax and turned one part of his body to the right, then told them to watch how it's done and turned his feet so that he could draw strength from his entire body. With his ax, he struck the tree, and the sound, as if striking heavy metal, echoed through the forest, bong..bong..bong, resounded one after the other.

Despite this, and as the hours passed, no tree had been felled yet.

As time passed, and as the progress increased, Urki began to look around. He looked left and right every time he swung the ax and when he was replaced, he looked even more.

"What are you looking for?" Dorad asked him, who was striking the tree.

"Maybe he's afraid of ghosts, buahaha," Rak said mockingly.

Morris got scared, and Kamis and Dos approached Rak, who was next in line to hit the tree.

"It's strange; you usually expect to have smaller attacks during this. But so far, there hasn't been anything," Urki said doubtfully.

The soldiers looked at each other because this thought frightened them.

Fear gave Dorad courage, and he asked Urki, "What exactly did you mean when you said that death gives us meaning?" Dorad was the only one who paid attention to those words because in the entire column, he was the oldest, and time had taught him that these words still had some meaning.

"How long do elves live?" Urki asked him.

"Surely over 10,000 years; no one from my village remembers an elf's death," Dorad replied.

"And orcs," Urki asked again.

"Similar to elves," Dorad told him.

"And the others? Like the Tandra trees, all the way to the ice giants in the east?"

"Some less, some a little more," Dorad replied again.

"And humans," Urki asked him again, now looking directly at him.

Dorad stopped hitting the tree and turned to Urki, "At most 100 years."

Urki now looked very serious, as if he had stepped back into his days of glory, he didn't hide his aura anymore, the proud lord once He was emerged from surface. He showed his true face, his true character, demeanor, and everything he had hidden, now, while answering Dorad. In that moment, he sought to honor the old man, as human to the human; It was like he was some Lord of royal blood.

"Other races don't know death as humans do, and they don't rush to find meaning because they can leave it for the next century or millennium. But humans live shortly, and because of that, they know their end is near. So with that in mind, they rush to do things they have imagined, to leave security for their offspring as soon as possible, to make their name known as soon as possible, to get rich as soon as possible, to start a family as soon as possible, to do something as soon as

 possible before death catches up with them. In that sense, death gives meaning to humans because they know their end is near and hurry to do something because maybe as soon as tomorrow, their existence will disappear."

Soldiers in Urki's unit, and some around them, noticed that Urki's aura was different. Rak seemed to feel his father because of it, and that's why he had been silent the whole time.

Urki then wanted to continue, but a shout from a soldier interrupted him, "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" yelled the "Coffins' Puppies" unit.

Urki quickly turned to the source of the sound.

"Dorad, Kamis, Morris, and Dorade, stay here; keep watch all the time in case they don't attack you. Let one work while the others keep patrol. We have another day, and if we all go there, this will take much longer, which is not good," Urki told them, as fear appeared on their faces.

"Rak, come with me," Urki ordered.

"Yes fat.... sir," Rak yelled.

The place where the "Puppies" were was not far away, right next to them. Urki and Rak followed the mana lamps, which stood so that they showed the way from one unit to another.

Urki immediately noticed some small creatures, with one hand dragging a human body. He took his sword and cut off its head before the creature noticed, it looked like something small and green, like a rabbit.

As they approached, he saw more of them. "Rak, guard my back," Urki said. "I'll take one, and you take the other." These weren't strong monsters. Urki flew with his sword from one to the other, while Rak tried to keep up. Heads fell, one after the other, screams were heard more and more; more and more soldiers came from the side. They finally repelled the attack by surrounding the remaining rabbit-like creatures. Now it was time for cleaning; Urki, with a sense of satisfaction, slaughtered the remaining ones.

On the first day of mission, 3 men from the "Puppies" unit were killed, leaving them at 4.

From the "Red Stars" unit, one man died, leaving them at 7.

No one died from the "Green Lilipans," "Crooked Swords," and "Jumping Lizards" units.

The first day was over.