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[color=ec008c]"Seems even the wind decided to sleep in today."[/color]

It was true the the normally bustling island was oddly quiet today. Instead of being outside and enjoy the rather nice day, the townspeople stayed inside, or at least out of sight. No kids played in the streets causing elders to trip over their feet. To say it was odd was an understatement. But what was even more unnerving than that was the fact that even the forest was silent. Not a single sign of life came from any direction, and Iris sat high in a tree in the dense part of the northern Kurkow forest. Today she had planned to do some routine target practice with good old SLIM, her sniper rifle. That idea was quickly tossed aside when she realized she grabbed a half empty set of rubber bullets. There was no point in wasting them, and for some reason, the atmosphere just wasn't right today. It seemed like everything was hiding from something. But... what was it?

Iris decided she was content with just lounging around like a cat. Stretching her legs out on the limb of the tree and propping her gun on an adjacent tree limb, her eyes closed and she basked in the odd silence. It was not too long later that that the wind blew through the area and the leaves began to rustle. It kind of felt good as it rushed through her pink hair. That was, until it got more forceful and threatened to toss her off the branch she was on. Sitting up and pushing the hair out of her face, a large object passed just over the tops on the trees, humming loudly and disturbing the silence of the woods. Her eyes bulged out of her head as she watched it land a few hundred feet away from her. The ground shook at the impact, and she nearly fell over. What the hell was that thing? Some kind of airship was the only obvious clue. Grabbing SLIM and setting her sights on it, she watched the crew of the ship bustling around from a safe distance.

It was a few minutes later that she figured the people were not out to kill anyone, so she quickly and quietly slipped from her tree perch and made her way into town. Somebody else had to have seen that and know what it was. Slinging her arm through the strap to carry her sniper rifle, she started at a fast jog into town in the direction of her family's shop. As she maneuvered through the streets, she noticed small groups of Rift Hunters running into town. Everything about the day seemed so odd, hopefully she'd be getting some answers soon.

Unfortunately that was not the case when another ship flew overhead. It stopped her right in her tracks, causing her to do a kind of comical skidd. This time, there was no mistaking what she was seeing. The symbol plastered so proudly on the hull was something that was bored even into her memory. 

[color=ec008c]"The Crucible."[/color]

Urgency began to come over her and Iris began racing at a full sprint to where she knew her parents would be. This was bad... really bad... The three of them could go away for life with the amount of illegal weapons stored in their shop. She had to warn them, before it was too late.