Its unclear what alerts him to it first, the sound, the smell, the distant flickers, or perhaps some natural divine affinity, but whatever it is, it brings his attention. There, down the road, just past the bend, fire. A sweeping focused beam of it, burning across a large swath of land. He cannot yet see the cause of the magic, but he can see the scorched ground, burnt to cinder and ash, nothing left behind.
The smell of burning wood and plant, and as he follows the plumes of smoke he sees more smoke beyond and behind the current source. Yet the forest appears to not be alight, the trees are scorched but not aflame.
There is no shrubbery or ground cover of plants for quite a distance into the woodland around the path, just the cut stems of the plants that once were. Here and there, in increasing quantity the further towards the curve in the path, is pockmarked ground, burnt, ash long since blown away by the wind, leaving the bare earth. No sprouts have yet begun to grow in the uncovered soil.
[ @professor-azran @shepherd-to-the-flock @the-moist-samurai @splintered-faith ]
*He takes all this in, and grins. This may be something worth his time in this wretched place. He turns towards the rest of the group, still smiling.*
“…We spoke of dragons, earlier, did we not?”