Sonnet: The Cities of Steam, Brass, and Aether

Chapter Four

Lance shivered at the cold, dead ground beneath the soles of his feet as he walked; feeling nothing of the life that once remained within this now blackened and charred wasteland that once made up part of the Vernelli forest. What was once a beatiful, lush, and brilliantly colored haven to countless species and races, had now become so barren and desolate that he didn't even see any vrock flying around.

A vrock was a large demon that vaguely resembled a vulture, in both appearance and mannerisms, with a neck that was several feet long with large feathered wings.

His gaze fell upon one disastrous sight after another; causing a sharp, slightly uncomfortable, stabbing sensation to bury its way into his chest. He saw whole trees uprooted, smashed underneath the weight of some heinous machine built by the humans. The machine left giant tracks in its wake. So large in fact that Lance almost could have believed a giant of old, destructive world-eaters that were fought off by the draconic, god-like, entities of this world, could have dragged a hoe through the ground in an attempt to create a garden for themselves.

While staring at a large, village-sized, crater that was filled with nothing but blackened rock and charred debris, Lance swore he could hear the distinct whistling once again; he closed his eyes and again could see that small mushroom shaped cloud that enveloped so many parts of the forest as they fled, even from such a distance he had known then that it meant nothing but death.

Leaving his eyes closed, Lance uses his instincts to guide him; trusting his feet to follow the familiar path that his eyes are so deceptively telling him no longer exists.

Slowly exhaling from his nose, and pausing for just the briefest moment at the apex of his breaths, he inhaled deeply in an attempt to get a hint of the past aromas that so enticed his senses so many years ago. Instead of being met with the pleasant smells of blooming honeydews and lilacs or the rich, earthy, muskiness that permeates throughout the forest floor after a spring shower; there was none of the savory smell of well-seasoned game slowly roasting for hours over a fire until perfection, nor the lingering odors of freshly manured fields in the distance.

No. Instead Lance was met with the unpleasant scent of ash, dust, and charred wood that left a dry and nasty taste in his mouth that won't wash out no matter how much water he downed. He suddenly stepped on several small, cylindrical, metal objects that made him slightly wince in pain; it was enough to give him pause, he reached down and grabbed the strange casings to inspect them. They were small and shiny, with each one being roughly the same size as his smallest finger,

He looked over the strange instruments with a look of pure disgust, now that he had found them he couldn't help but see them everywhere; scattered throughout the forest floor, almost as if the humans were leaving behind a book on the carnage they had wrought.

He suddenly heard a loud and shrill continuous whistle, emitting from a direction that seemed to be above and behind him.

He quickly sought after shelter, and was at once properly concealed within the shadows of a crumpling and desecrated building; it could have once been a garden shack or a large and extravagantly built forest palace, now it was impossible to tell what the dilapidated building may have been.

Once finally ensured that he was safe and well hidden, Lance looked to the skies and saw what appeared to be a boat flying low to the ground. It was held aloft by a single, monumental, spherical balloon and there were people walking around the deck of the ship located just below the balloon.

"What the hell?"

Anger began to well within Lance. A seething, boiling, resentment for the vile humans who so carelessly devastated the home of his people and mercilessly slaughtered his villagers. He continued to watch the airship as it made its slow approach from overhead, seeing how the humans casually danced about the deck; celebrating over the graves of millions while colossal clouds of heavy, thick, black smoke billowed out over the top of the balloon before eventually falling down to the ground, settling into great mounds of soot that smeared everything in the vicinity a charcoal black.