Chapter Text
Somebody told me once, that if you stand in the forest for long enough, you'll see signs of a hidden struggle. Raging between the forces of life and decay. That the survival of the forest depends of the outcome, and the good guys need all the help they can get. And if you don't see it...take a closer look.
And if you still don't see it...look closer
*
A lukewarm Summer breeze made the leaves of the fresh Oak trees sway, shading the vibrant green grass with it's cooling shadow. A tranquil peace was all throughout the forest, but a shrill, almost painful sound broke it. Three inky black Raven's all had the same target that was only a few feet away from them. It was a little, reflective green Hummingbird, who's wings were beating out a low hum. It tried to swoop through any open space it saw between the Raven's wings and claws. But all the sudden flapping and squawking caught the attention of a camouflaged camera lense, that made a little red light blink at the sight of it. Which made the phone of a man vibrate in his shirts pocket. The man wasn't just on a midday walk though. He was wearing a vest that was covered in little gadgets, trinkets and wires, that connected to a Moped helmet. A pair of, what appeared to be, handmade goggles, with different lenses were over his eyes, but he quickly flipped them up to look at his phone screen, and seeing the notification 'Sighting by John wilderness camera 25' he flipped them back down and took of running, tripping over the occasional log and ducking under the stray handing branch. Through the many lenses, he saw the struggling Hummingbird get pushed and snapped at by the Ravens. But with a single swat of a wing, the Hummingbird was sent right to the ground, making the man, or John, through himself onto his front, slamming himself onto the moss below him, with the Hummingbird narrowly missing his hands. Moving slowly, as not to alarm it, John picked the worried little bird up from the grass. It tweeted out a little squeak, twitching it's head as it pecked the tips of John's fingers. But he didn't care about that, as...something was held in the Hummingbird's mouth...a miniature reign, like the ones you'd see on horses. As John flipped his goggles back up and pushed a pair of round framed glasses onto his face, he felt his jaw fall open slightly, as he saw the little reigns connected to an equally littler saddle, made of a polished green leather-like material, that sat on the birds curved, metallic green back. Looking up, high into the forests swaying branches and leaves, John felt an ever so small glimmer of hope glow inside of him. The hope that his theory was true. They were out there. They had to be...
*
The Hummingbird was no where in the Ravens minds, or sights...but they still had a target, that was somewhere in the trees. But something was pulling them in their targets direction, something on their back. It was a Raven-sized, reptilian looking creature with smooth, but moist, sickly grey skin. It had a Shark like face, with amber yellow eyes, and slit pupils that saw it's prey in the distance. It let out a devilish snarl, as it pulled the spiderweb silk string of it's bow back, and let it go to shoot a sharpened arrow made of blackened wood, that was narrowly dodged by an equally small young man, who was hanging from an Oak tree branch, that bent slightly from the little man's weight. The man had to only be the size of an Oak leaf, and was wearing a suit of armour, that looked like it was made of Oak leaves. Polished and hardened to fit around the young man's arms, chest, legs and head as a helmet, breastplate and arm and leg protections, and a head of messed up hair stuck out from under the helmet.
"Psychopaths!" the young man snarled. He took off running through the branches, leaping from bendy branch to bendy branch, whilst missing the occasional arrow fired from the little monsters bows. He was lightning quick, whipping through the trees like it was nothing. But as he ran across a fairly straight branch, three more Hummingbirds swooped in next to him, and all three of them had people his size on them, all wearing the same leaf armour. Two had miniature Katana's by their sides, but the one in front was a woman, with elements of white and gold in her armour, and a golden streak ran across her helmet, sitting on her head of tightly tied back salt and pepper hair.
"Need a lift?" the woman asked, in an overworked, but strong accent, holding her hand out.
"I don't need your help!" the young man practically laughed, in between all the panting from how fast he was sprinting.
"Uh, you're running out of branch there buddy," the woman pointed out.
"Still don't need your help!" the young man insisted, just as a pair of Raven's claws wrapped around his arms, and plucked him off the branch, soaring away with him as he screamed his head off for help, making the woman roll her eyes so far back, they nearly rolled all the way back.
*
The little beast on the Raven's back let out a little growl, like it was laughing at the little man it had held by the ankle in it's claws. Until the woman dropped onto it's back from above, holding her Bo staff across it's neck, making it throw her over his head. But she landed on her feet, and span her staff around. Swatting and whacking the little creature all over, giving it no chance to fight back.
"Why aren't you with your group?" the woman asked angrily to the young man, as she knocked the creature down.
"What? I fly faster alone!" the young man explained, like he didn't see the issue with it.
"How do you not get this?" the woman sighed, "You know you're not the only person on this team you know?
"So why don't you go bitch at one of them for a change?" the young man argued.
The woman blocked the beast from hitting her head on with it's bow with her staff, without even looking at it. "You hear that? What am i gonna do with this kid? Oh that's right," she threw the beast over her shoulder, and let it free fall down onto the ground below, "You've got your own problems!" The woman jumped back onto her Hummingbird, and flew down to be at the young man's level. "Thack, you're a Leafman. You know how important today is."
"You know, i'm starting to think i'm just not cut out for shit," the young man said, folding his arms after he'd let them hang above him for so long.
"That's the problem. You are cut out for it," the woman told him, "And i'm tired of waiting for you to prove yourself. So get a bird, and get back to Moonhaven or you're done."
"Hey wait!" the young man reached out for the woman as she readied her bird to fly away, "You're not gonna help me now?"
"I just did," the woman simply smirked at him, and cracked the reigns, making her bird swoop away.
"Oh yeah, that's cool!" the young man yelled after her, as the Raven flew further away with his ankle still in it's claws, "I could probably just jump from here! I'll follow that last guy down!"