The boar sprinted through the forest, passing up great red wood trees with every step. The snap of twigs and clouds of lifted dirt alerted its hunters of its whereabouts. With a whistle a sharp steel tipped arrow punctured the ground next to the boar, arrow after arrow came close to stopping the boar's sprint. Finally one landed in the boar's right back thigh causing the boar to tumble violently to a halt.  A group of five hunters emerged from behind the trees, in bushes and from behind large boulders that lay rest inconsistently around. They finished off the helpless animal and loaded it into their wagon which was drawn by a single gryphon. Their hunt continued throughout the evening, the haul was small but enough to feed the mouths they needed too. On the journey home nightfall had come, the moon barely lit the ground through the tall trees and their thick gatherings of thistles atop them. They stopped their cart parallel to the base of a tree. What seemed to be a long vine was hung from high up in the tree, one of the hunters gave it a firm tug; a large makeshift wooden platform lowered from nearly the top of the trees held up by a series of ropes and pulleys. Once the lift had touched the ground they loaded their cart and sent off the gryphon to its nest atop the leaves of the great trees. 

The lift carried them to a large deck that rounded the tree with a bridge connecting it to a civilization that lived above ground. There were many platforms stretching for a few miles, some were held up by multiple trees and had large makeshift favelas for housing and shops, whilst others had few buildings and were built for more recreational purposes; all of which were connected by long rope held bridges. The hunters wheeled their car to a large building held up in between four trees, the hunt of many creatures they had gathered was carried in by few workers of the building. There was a loud chatter coming from within the makeshift lodge, you would think an entire city had gathered for a great festival; but this was simply dinner for this civilization in the trees. Inside the dining hall there were tables filled with people from wall to wall and there was a nice warmth coming from a large furnace in the middle of everyone. The culture and race of people varied; there were people of different races, species and even mythos. There were human-like animals and animal-like humans, none split up by race or sex but by their group of freinds. The hunters were made up of two humans, an anthropomorphic raven, bear, and a valkyrie; they all took their seats in the hall amongst their separate groups.

Sigrun, the valkyrie of the hunters, sat nearly alone with few people surrounding her. One person sat especially close, his name was Ziggy and he was a gecko. They had fun that night for a good while, feasting on the day's hunt and everyone enjoying each other's company. Sigrun had taken an early leave, she was imagining what tomorrow's hunt would bring on the back porch of the dining hall. With the full moon rising the dining hall slowly cleared out until it was empty. Sigrun was still out on the porch growing tired and her eyes starting to feel heavy, she was startled awake when a hand was placed on her left shoulder. It was large with flabby fingers, it was Ziggy's hand. 

“You've been out for quite a while, the hall has cleared,” He said “It's late”. 

Sigrun gave him a scornful look and responded “Shut up, it isn't even midnight yet.” The moon could barely light up her long braided brunette hair, If reflected nicely off the light armor she wore. Ziggy stepped up next to her; his bright orange scales visible from the corner of Sigrun's eye. 

“Remember when you first came to the redwoods? We were just kids and the hunters brought back a child girl along with their hunt. Where did they find you again?” he asked with a mocking smirk. 

“sleeping in a tree cavity.” she responded with an annoyed look but chuckling; “I still have no idea how I ended up here or any of my time before that.” 

“You valkyries were a fairytale to us before we found you, it's surprising that we haven't seen any BUT you in all this time.” Ziggy said. They both stared into the miles of tree tops hearing the rustling of creatures below and in the bushes and brambles

The moon had reached its peak, Sigrun was half asleep on the porch next to Ziggy. “You want me to walk you home?” Ziggy spoke, waking Sigrun slightly.

“No, I'm fine alone,” she responded nervously.

Ziggy grew a disappointed look. “Ok, goodnight then,'' he said in a weak voice and returned to staring into the woods. Sigrun returned the goodnight as she walked away towards the long rope bridge connecting the dining hall to the tree cluttered with a favela of shops. The sound of Sigrun's boots on the bridge was one of the few things she could hear, the occasional animal in the leaves above her and sometimes a howl from a wolf below. She was over half to the shops, few were open so it was dark in most the alleys and streets. The walk to her house could cover two more trees. From the bridge she could hear the hustle of people closing and the chatter from the food stands. The noise slowly eased into a silence as she tuned it out, she walked peacefully until a booming crack broke the silence of night. Animals sprinted in the treetops, away from the dining hall. 

With the seconds it took Sigrun to realize what had happened the bridge she was standing on was already being pulled down violently fast by the great redwood plummeting behind her. She was too shocked to react and was ripped down with the bridge. She fell for a few seconds before she caught herself with her wings; she levitated in the air, not knowing what to do or think. Memories of all the fun dinners and all the friends she had made in that building flooded her mind, the building that stood since she had arrived had just collapsed in a matter of seconds. Then she remembered that she had left Ziggy on the back porch alone. She nosedived towards the once base of the tree, the town panicking above her; once she made the ground she stained forward and rushed towards the top of the tree at high speed. At the wreckage of the dining hall there was nothing but sharp planks of wood  with nails sticking out in several directions. She frantically yelled out for Ziggy with no response; Sigrun rushed towards the area where the back porch would’ve been. There were planks of wood everywhere, burying the ground beneath for a few feet.  She desperately threw planks looking for any sign of the gecko but nothing was coming up, until she saw a hand with flabby fingers sticking out from underneath a mound of planks. Sigrun threw the planks off him as fast as she possibly could. Once he was unburied Sigrun noticed his body was covered in deep splinters and cuts; the next thing she realized horrified her, he wasn't breathing. 

 The town had begun evacuating and citizens shortly arrived at the wrecked lodge. Some dug through the rubble looking for salvage whilst others stared in horror as Sigrun sat in front of them holding the body of her life time friend. It was only a few minutes before more cracks were sent throughout the silence of the night, trees fell around the townspeople. They all watched helplessly as their houses, life's work and for some families were torn from them in minutes. The civilization in the trees had been nearly annihilated  in a few moments. One thing had become clear to the less than a quarter of the population that had survived as they were surrounded with fire and rubble; this night was no freak natural accident, they had been attacked.

The rest of the night and early morning was spent in shock and horror. No one knew what caused this and why. Their mayor had died in one of the collapses, the townspeople didn't bother to look for bodies; they had concluded that anyone who wasn't standing on the ground was dead. They had lost almost everyone and the handful of survivors was too broken to react. Sigrun sat in a ball atop a rock, spacing out into the trees standing around the bodies of the fallen trees. The brush fires scattered across the rubble caused by the torches lit around the trees had left large black ash scars on the land below by burning the dead bushes and thistles. Sigrun thought about the night before and she was yet to fully realize what she had lost, Ziggy and the rest of her friends were dead and her home was gone. The loneliness and solemnity of her situation set in as she thought about the moment she found Ziggy’s corpse among the rubble; in that moment she broke down into tears among the rubble of her village and the corpses of its inhabitants. As her tears dried her grief turned into resentment, even though she didn't know where to direct these emotions “god? nature? Who!?” she questioned in whisper to herself. The thought that Ziggy would have lived if she had just let him walk her home, she blamed herself; berating her mind with insults and questioning her actions. Anger and depression flooded her mind as tears did to her eyes once again, these feelings reciprocated between all members of this newly broken society; no one could find hope within their enclosed wasteland.