Snippet #1670566

Most of the veteran hunters and Board members had spread out through the forest, and John Greenwich was no exception. Given their task following the assembly, he once again questioned the regular formal attire. No matter. He wouldn't be hunting. The hippie gazed up into the trees. Now was the easiest time to spot the imps, before it got dark. He saw something flit through the trees. An imp! Too bad there were no nearby hunters that he could tell. John smiled. If only he had managed to find his test's monster that easily, back when he was becoming a hunter. Suddenly, another imp leaped past him, only a few feet overhead, running in the same direction. Strange.

He looked up again, but not into the trees. He gazed past them, into the blue sky. A trail of black smoke was visible in the distance. Perhaps the imps had smelled it. Still, imps had no power over fire. How bizarre. A flock of birds soared over John, away from the smoke. A few squirrels followed. John quickly contacted the others in charge of watching the test via a headset they all carried. "Looks like some fool set the poor forest alight. Not cool. Whoever did this is disqualified, automatically. Didn't think I saw any fire-based weapons... they wouldn't be particularly effective against imps, anyway, though they seem to be drawn near it. Carmen, did these imps have fire magic?"

Carmen Tapia sat back in the clearing of the assembly, waiting for hunters to come back with their prizes. She was surprised by John's comment and quickly replied, "Impossible! Imps, at least this subspecies, are non-magical! Impossible, they could not possibly be attracted to fire, either! Investigate this at-" Suddenly, communications shut off, and the test watchers were left isolated.

"Hey? Hello? Anybody read me?" John asked the tiny microphone. No response. He didn't seem particularly worried, uttering only a sigh. His battery had probably ran out. Nevertheless, he had to figure out what to do before the forest burnt down. Luckily, it had recently rained. The fire would probably go out on its own. Still... he stared at the sky again. More smoke. Perhaps he should go back to the assembly, but hunters might be in danger, especially with the imps all strangely leading towards the fire. John set off at a jogging pace, carefully looking for signs of hunters.