[center][h1]Iron Sap Woods:[/h1] [b][i]Ancient Site - the Lost Ruins of Tiberius Delthus[/i][/b][/center]
The sleight trickling of babbled gently into a sizable hole in the woods that could be found admits the a clearing. Deep inside it, where only a few shafts of light dare penetrate, could be seen impressive rough stonework and runework broken by time. On the ground at this site once stood an impressive that now lay sunken and forgotten: burred beneath sediment and rock of ages. Despite being a potential treasure trove of ancient knowledge and power the site had been long since purged from historical records and outline only by the hole it left in history. A hole both metaphorical, and physical, as the traveling duo stared blankly into the gaping moss-covered maw in this forest clearing.

Despite having been to this location numerous times it had been somewhat difficult to rediscover each and every time. This time, however, with Jumper at his side Grandfather had no trouble at all finding his way through the dense maze of ancient trees among whom all traditional forms of traditional forms of navigation utterly failed. It was almost as if the trees knew him and were granting him passage. It was a ridiculous thought that the elderly man squirreled away with a grin. 

The elderly gentleman sat on a nearby downed log to rest, and pulled from his waste a water-skin to re-hydrate. He was cautious about drinking from the stream that flowed both under and over the ground to this site due to what all he had found inside while exploring. Though, on this occasion, it did not take the many days of travel to find the site as his earlier adventures did and as such he found himself less tired than normal. He watched as his traveling companion--who had no need for rest--frolicked in the stream wholly unaware of the dangers this site presented.

Having caught his breath and quenched his thirst he called out to the carefree child. "Jumper, ma'boy, do you know where we are?"

"Yes, Grand-papa," came the response as Jumper crouched down to poke a river toad. "Is where you found me, yes?"

Grandfather hesitantly nodded, "Yes, Jumper, you were found here among..." the elderly man paused as to carefully phrase the statement, "many [i]less fortunate[/i] of your brethren." He capped his waterskin and returned it to his belt, before beckoning his companion back over to his side. "There was..." he grimaced at the subject he was about to bring up, potentially despoiling this innocent youth, and thought it best to just best to forge ahead because he needed answers. "a war. Do you remember?"

The river toad hopped away as Jumper's finger had left a vacant impression upon it, wherein a magical seal formed invisibly in its flesh, unnoticed by the creature. "No, grand-papa," Jumper said as he got up and returned to his grandfather's side on the rickety old log.

"The [i]Rising Sun[/i]," Grandfather said while directing attention to the faded symbol on Jumper's cloak, "The people your emblem represent. Did they fight here?"

The tentative question was answered in an identical fashion with identical words and mannerisms.

Grandfather wondered if perhaps the questions he was asking were simply not the right ones and opened his line of inquiry up more broadly. "What do you remember about this place?" he asked.

Jumper calmly looked up, and without a care in the world explained: "There were no survivors, grand-papa." He kicked his feet back and forth as the dangled from the log and looked to the sky as to recount the events, which he recalled with absolute clarity, and a childlike freedom from emotion. "The river ran red." he added a glance down to the creek that barely constituted a comparison to the torrential flood in his memory. "It pooled into a moat that weakened the ground," his arms sprawled wide as to suggest that the tower was far more massive than even the ruins Grandfather found beneath this site, "Father's tower fell under its own weight, yet even as more blood filled its halls it continued to be spilled on the surface above. It was pooled into a lake. It was drank by every root. Rose in every stem, blossomed in every flower, and was drawn again by every thorn."

Abject horror filled grandfather's being as he inched away from the child. "But... Why? Who did this?"

Jumper looked visibly confused as if the event was so important it should already be known by every being on the planet as well as it was known to him. "Everyone," he said with a raised brow, "It was the Apocalypse."

Grandfather did not take well to the idea that he, his family, his whole village, and all he ever knew was somehow a post-apocalyptic wasteland. "Jumper, do you understand what you are saying?" he cautiously asked. There was a childlike sincerity to Jumper's simple nod in acknowledgement before grandfather could really gather himself. "Jumper. What is the Rising Sun?" 

Jumper simply pointed to the mouth of the cavern, which at first Grandfather took to mean it was where the answer lie, but slowly it dawned on him what Jumper had meant to convey. Jumper was, after all, [i]of[/i] the Rising Sun. They were not [i]a[/i] people. They were [i]all[/i] people. Original survivors of the apocalyptic fall of whatever great civilization built this place. 

"Are they the survivors? Those who saw the first sun rise?" Grandfather confirmed his revelation with Jumper.

"No." Jumper said, "They became the first sun rise." With that Jumper stood up and walked to the edge of the cavern. He scurried down into it and beckoned for Grandfather to follow him. "The sun burns all it touches," Jumper said with outstretched arm, "its cleansing fires have worked through your people, and raged the world over." There was hesitation in Grandfather as Jumper finished. "Their fire still burns here, Grandfather. I can [i]feel[/i] it!"

In that moment Grandfather was presented a choice. A moment of fight or flight. To go, or to stay. It was a false choice though, he thought, in retrospect there was only one thing he [i]could[/i] do.