Tulisia

PRELUDE:  UNDER A CANOPY OF INDIFFERENT STARS

The embers of the campfire cast a dim pool of light, insufficient to hold back the stifling nighttime darkness in the wilds of the Long Wood.  Surrounding the campfire, huddled within dirty blankets and rags, slept a group of outcasts and thieves.

A short distance outside of this pool of light a silent procession of shadows moved through the wood.

Nothing stirred in the camp.  The majority of those around the fire were sleeping off the effects of a keg of brandy that they finished off several hours before.  The brandy cost a group of miners their lives.  However, life was cheap in these parts, and brandy was valuable.  Those in the camp had little need for morality or guilt.
   
Within the camp one man awoke, an unnamed terror causing the hair on his neck to stand.  He peered out from under his filthy blanket, scanning the trees about the camp.  He looked for a moment into the forest, peering closely in the direction from which he thought he heard the noise; perhaps made by a small animal.  He could not see anything, but the unknown fear that woke him led him to investigate further.

He spat to clear the foul taste from his mouth, crawled from under his blanket, and rose quietly to his feet.  His many years as a thief taught him how to move silently at need, and he exercised that skill now despite his sleep and drink befuddled mind.  He stepped over the other sleeping forms clustered by the nearly burnt out fire.  The air smelt of evergreen and pitch, only lightly tinged with wood smoke.  With curiosity that was beginning to overcome fear, he approached the edge of the camp, looking away from the fire to give his eyes time to adjust fully to the near complete darkness.

At first, he could not make out the source of the gentle noise he heard as he crept slowly away from the clearing.  Then, the fire popped behind him, startling him into a small forward jump and a barely audible yelp.  A fraction of a second later, he recognized the sound and began to calm himself.  It was only then, as the fire fed briefly upon the sap inside the small piece of wood, which popped open, that he saw the source of the fear that had awakened him.

No more than twenty feet in front of him, the firelight reflected from a shiny, dark, almost manlike shape.  While the short-lived light lasted, the man saw an unknown number of like creatures further away from the camp.  With instinct borne of years of survival, he jumped away from the nearby alien figure with a screech of terror.  This screech turned into a shout of warning to the rest of the camp as he backed further away, scrambling to find a stick or stone to defend himself with.  Wake up--help, they're in the forest!  Wake up, we're under attack, wake up!  He continued his shout, awaking the camp.

Many men rolled groggily to their feet, unable to think past the pain in their heads.  Others, more alert, rolled quickly to their feet, searching for weapons.  A few of the women with their wits about them threw fuel onto the fire.

As the growing fire pushed the darkness further from the camp, other men in the camp began to see the dark shapes moving amongst the fir trees.  Their cries of alarm and fright joined those of the thief.  After a minute of panic and confusion in the camp, the camp leader came out of his tent, armored and armed.  Following the shouts and directions of his men, he quickly identified the source of the threat to his camp.