Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

They say life is never easy. I for one never really took it to heart. After being deployed into a war zone, it sank in real quick. Each day is a roll of the dice, hell even a flip of the coin to determine what horrible thing can happen that day. Being a corpsman I got to see the grizzly things a body can endure up close and personal. Seeing friends you'd bonded with going home in a bag is the worst feeling in the world. Its even worse when you did everything you could and it still wasn't enough. Nothing could prepare me for what was going to happen on that fateful night...

Everything hurt. Stars dotted my vision as I awoke. Green sprawled forth from everywhere though everything should have been barren. Lush vegetation mocked what I knew to be true. Mortars had torn the land asunder in my memory. Machine gun nests were missing from the hillside along with the craters that should accompany them. Nothing was as it should be.

“What in the hell...” I muttered to no one in particular. It was mostly an attempt to hold onto what sanity I had at the moment. The entire battalion I was with was no where to be found. I would have even expected corpses yet there was nothing.

“Ouch!” I yelped after slapping my face with a good amount of gusto.

This wasn't good... I wasn't dreaming, I was alone. My mind began to race, trying to grasp for any possible logical explanation. None came to mind. Oddly enough, all the gear I had was still with me. My kit reminded me to check myself over. Nothing was out of place at least physically. Mentally, that was another question. The woods looked so much different with, well, trees and anything resembling green. Scanning the area I tried to find anything that might give me a clue as what to do. I groaned.

This was leading me no where. Nothing made sense. No signs of conflict and not to mention, the woods were alive and well after a war raged for fifteen days. Hefting my gear and shaking my head I began the only course of action that I could think of, move forward. Sitting here was doing nothing. The logic seemed to fit since there wasn't any to begin with. The woods luckily weren't very thick. Growing up near timber made it easy to navigate compared to the cramped spaces of home. As I continued trees had fallen in alarmingly high amounts. Thick tree trunks were splintered and large splinters littered the ground. This wasn't caused by anything natural. The ground had large imprints in a consistent pattern. The depressed earth had the same consistent shape as well...

“Oh...shit...” I breathed as realization hit. These were tracks.

Something living did this. In order to match the tracks, the thing had to be enormous. Hell, I could fit myself into the print multiple times.

Whatever it was I had no desire to run into it. Images of what monstrosity that left the trail entered my imagination. Stopping abruptly my eyes bulged as I finally witnessed what had turned trees to splinters. Crimson hair flowed with the wind. Slender, long ears extended from her head making her resemble an elf from numerous fantasy novels and movies. Regal clothes covered her body but the silk had been torn in various spots as though there had been a struggle. She lay slumped against several uprooted trees, blood had trickled down her face coming from a gash on her head. While not large, at least for her, head wounds did tend to bleed readily. My eyes scanned the woman and my medical sense kicked in. Quickly sifting through my kit I withdrew the required items to begin my work.

Being out in the woods, I needed to ensure the bleeding stopped and the wound cleaned. Places like these can cause infection to set in easily. Since I was so small compared to the elven girl I really had to put my body into it to ensure the bleeding stopped. Putting pressure on the wound was key but at my size it was very difficult. Since my bandages were nowhere large enough to cover the gash, I used a white t-shirt to cover the wound. The white turned to red as the cotton absorbed the blood readily. The fact that this enormous woman was knocked out like this bothered me. I mean it would take a lot to get something that large to pass out from a head wound. As I pondered this I jumped upon hearing a very feminine voice broke the silence of the woods.

“Human!”

The body I was standing on began to shake as the elf began to move to her feet.

“Ah hells...”