Diana Florence was trekking through some heavily wooden terrain on the way to her destination.  The hardened young woman took out a somewhat dirty canteen and took a sip of water.  She was quite thankful the true heat of summer was still a ways off but the air was still warm and slightly muggy, which made her bit of chain-mail rather hot and sweaty underneath.  Despite the minor annoyances she was still making decent headway though had to adjust her knapsack from time to time in order to feel comfortable.

The reason she was essentially in the middle of nowhere was because of her current job.  Her task was to investigate the claims that a monster den had appeared in these woods and if it existed to locate and report it's location back to the nearby town who would inform the proper people to handle the situation.  It was hard and dangerous work, especially for a lone mercenary where death or worse fates could easily befall her, but it was the life she chose for herself.

Only recently had she discovered signs of life other than wild animals in the area and she had started to track a set of hoof prints that betrayed the fact the creature walked on two legs, meaning it was not an animal but a monster.  As she hunted after the creature she saw more and more signs of recent travel, such as broken twigs, scuffed up patches of dirt, even some excrement which was unpleasant to stumble upon but told her that she was only a few hours behind.

[color=bc8dbf]"I can only hope it leads me back to its den."[/color]  Diana muttered to herself as she found herself climbing over a fallen tree.  [color=bc8dbf]"If its only a loner this will all be for nothing, but if I do find their lair I'll have to be careful not to be detected."[/color]  If there indeed was a monster den in the area and if the hoof prints belonged to one of the species she was thinking of, she would soon have to be careful in her pursuit and try to avoid setting off any crude alarms systems.

Her thoughts about how to proceed were interrupted when she felt that something was amiss.  Soon enough a bunch of concerned birds quickly shot up into the air and flew off.  Seeing where they were fleeing she looked the opposite way and saw a glimpse of something in the sky.  It was hard to tell what it was but it was big, quite big.  First thought was maybe a dragon but it appeared to be mostly one color and was just too oddly shaped to be any creature she knew.

She crouched down and hid, unsure of what it was, only that it was fast and coming closer.  Thankfully it was not head straight for her and would easily miss her but, what in the world was it?  She lost sight of it when she hid and then came the terrible crashing sounds as the object started to smash through the forest with its sheer speed and mass.  Trees snapped, were toppled and even splintered into thousands of pieces as the huge hunk of metal tore through the woods.  The crashing sounds were so loud and terrifying that Diana had to cover her ears and held her breath on reflex so the monster wouldn't notice her.

One more tree topple over from the onslaught, and then all was silence.  Diana gingerly peeked out for her hiding space behind a hollowed out tree and listened.  She waited for a full minute but no other sounds could be heard.  Extricating herself from her position, her tracking mission pushed aside for the moment, she hurried over to where the sounds were.  Soon enough she came upon a section disintegrated trees and earth where the massive object had first touched ground.  Following the carnage she saw it, whatever it was.

It was huge, made of what appeared to be metal, yet not.  It was definitely on fire and the swath of destruction it had caused was excessive.  Without closer examination it would be impossible to even guess at what it was, some secret project by a neighboring government perhaps?  Bits and pieces were thrown about the woods, most of it on the ground behind the thing.  She tried to identify it but it was like nothing she had even seen before, but then she saw a figure, sprawled out among the rubble.

It looked human, but the strange armor it wore was unlike anything she had ever seen before.  Like plate-mail yet perhaps more like the exoskeleton of an insect that was impossible for a human to replicate.  She had absolutely no clue what was going on but considering how strange this was, she needed to investigate and find out the identity of the figure.  Considering it probably fell from whatever the burning metal slab was, there was a good chance it was dead but as a mercenary she never let down her guard as she cautiously approached, careful of her surrounds as well as the figure on the ground.

Before long she was on top of it, one hand gripped her short sword for defense as she circled around, trying to detect any signs of life.  She gave one of its legs and nudge and stepped back quickly just in case.  This whole situation was so out of the normal, Diana hadn't a clue how to proceed. [color=bc8dbf]"It looks dead but with all that armor its hard to be certain.  What could have been flying around on that?"[/color]

She looked again to the strange object but it still made zero sense to her.  This was going to be a rather strange day.