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Prologue: Bastien

The an to descend the tree, ht sky, where Victoria had disappeared It kept posing the same question… Why?

I touched down on the ground, narrowly dodging falling branches and flah the rapidly descending s the foothills up ahead

Somebody must have sounded an alar out Everything was a blur of chaos as everyone raced for their lives from the mutants

“Bastien!” Brucella yelled to me “Stay with us!” She had reached her husband and was surrounded by a number of other Northstones

I turned away froht was incinerated, I would hardly shed a tear None of them felt like family None of them felt like friends My primary concern would be the fate of my home country with so many of the most influential tribes wiped out

Brucella continued to bark for ainst my ears as I lurched toward a swathe of trees still untouched by fire As always, I felt as if I could not h

The sudden scra in all directions, but I did not look back I continued surging forward, away from Brucella Away from Dane Away from the Northstones

Away froirl… wherever she is now

I felt crippled Wounded Confused All I wanted was to get away Fro, familiar and unfamiliar I wanted the world around me to vanish

As I shot deeper into the woods, the darkness enshroudinginto the soil beneath me, I shut down my mind and focused on the only constants I had left in th My speed

Running as a lone wolf, Iabove s and their fearsome cries dissolved in the distance

I did not stop until I arrived at a beach A beach that was once an old port of the Woodlands, abandoned several decades ago in favor of a new one further south A nuether by rope I raced over to a s it fro the boat deeper with in its own course over the waves I leapt inside and stood on the old rickety deck, gazing back at the island An orange glow touched the sky in the distance, even as anguished howling pierced the night

As the waves carried me further and further away, I wondered whether this would be