Running through the dense forest covering his homeworld, Puck pushed branches and undergrowth out of his way with his arms and legs, a big smile on his face. He enjoyed romping amongst the trees; it gave him the opportunity to assess the overall health of the forest itself, and it also gave him practice for running through the woods that his Eternal magic summoned into being. Not that he'd had the opportunity to really utilize it yet, but there would come a time when he needed to, and he wanted to be ready. It wouldn't do for him to trip over a tree root or something while playing catch-me-if-you-can with a Negaverse agent.

As he ran, he could see that the forest was coming back. The woods felt more alive now, when before they had seemed dormant, asleep, waiting for his return. There was much more new growth, especially noticeable in the bracken and immature trees and other plants that made up the bulk of the undergrowth on the forest floor. Things were overall greener now, and the air smelled fresh and alive. And there were bugs! Puck hadn't seen too many, certainly none of the massive creatures he'd seen in his visions, but he had noticed a few small insects flying or crawling around near the tree he'd claimed as his home here. As if it had known he was thinking about bugs, a firefly winked its glowing tail at him in the shadows ahead, causing him to skid to a stop and look for it.

It was then that he noticed something wrong with the ground near where the firefly had lit up. Cautiously he approached what looked like a dead patch in the undergrowth. Only this didn't look brown like a normal dead patch would – it looked a sickly, ashen grey. Puck was puzzled by this, and leaned over to investigate further. As he did so, he bent some of the apparently dead grass; though instead of snapping or crunching, it simply disintegrated into ash.

"What the bloody ********?..." he muttered to himself. Grabbing a stick, he poked around gently, causing more of the dead plants to turn into ash. He looked more closely; in amongst the ashen remains were a handful of dead insects, some small beetles and a couple of fireflies.

Puck shook his head. "This is too weird." What was happening here? And was it going to spread? That was his biggest concern: what if this was something that would spread through the rest of the forest? He had a responsibility here, he knew, a responsibility to save this world and try to restore it to its former glory. And he had made progress in that direction. Apparently it wasn't enough to prevent something like this from happening. What had caused it? Was it something he'd done – or failed to do?

Backing slowly away from the dead patch, he turned and ran back the way he came, back towards his tree home. Instinctively he knew the way, and instinctively he'd be able to find his way back to this patch again. He had to get to the bottom of this, before it got worse – and he couldn't do it alone. There were others, he knew, who could potentially help him. Maybe he'd mention it to Pendour, or maybe he'd encounter someone else who knew about this…

[WC: 564]