Redtail Rise above me, the sky is a river

@ Raven Hollow!

When he found the burned trees, something settled behind his eyes. The signs were unmistakable: the trees were stunted and charred, there was no canopy to speak of, even the grasses that grew here were different, like sparse stubble on dry, cakey dirt. It did not require forensic finesse to recognize what had happened, and to live it as if it were raging in front of him at this very moment, unbelievably hot and releasing strained, sharp noises from another world. Carbon burned freely. Its intricate structures -- of starch, surely, but also of softer, animal things -- either snapped loudly or crumpled to the earth with a sigh, a scream. Heat shot to the sky. Heat rippled space itself.

This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here.

Gavrel walked slow through the patchwork forest. Stipples of green heralded new growth -- certainly, the forest was unrecognizable compared to what it had been just a year, two years ago -- but failed to completely obscure the stratum of pale ash beneath the initial layer of soil.

He walked as if he was a spectator in a museum, infected by history. He sat down and began scratching mindlessly at his scarred cheek with his hind leg.