((WARNING FOR KINDA DESCRIPTIVE BURNING OF A CITY- YOU GET INSIGHTS ON SOME PEOPLE'S SITUATIONS SO YEAH. NOT THAT DESCRIPTIVE MAYBE A FEW LINES?))

Ren travelled quite the distance— full on miles, if he had to make a guess... yes, he wasn't sure how many miles, but still- it was at minimum, 3 miles.

He walked on a beautiful path with lush greenery and many colorful flowers. As he strolled, he Ren realized that he actually recognized a few of them by name- even though he was never really a flower person. Or, at least, he never thought he was...

He enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere created by the rustling of leaves and the occasional squirrel he spotted.. it took all of Ren's energy to not chase after the squirrels, really.

The path seemed to go on forever, sure- but Ren was happy to take in the beauty and enjoy the moment. He had forgotten about the end portal noise he left to go investigate, even.

After a long while of walking, he almost figured he should turn back and go back to Life Village- but then, he heard... screaming. Lots and lots of screaming... and he caught a whiff of smoke. That was worrying.

Looking around, Ren saw a slight clearing- running towards it, to find the source of the screaming...

And there he saw it— a horrifying, and very traumatizing sight... 

Ren stood on what seemed to be the top of a cliff-  so he had a bird's eye of...

A whole god damn city, completely engulfed in flames bigger than Ren thought was normal for the average flame... but what does he know? He hasn't seen that many fires before.

The sight of the burning city was nearly surreal, and very overwhelming- for Ren, and probably the many people experiencing it too. The flames were consuming everything in its path, leaving nothing but destruction and anarchy as the remains of the storm it happened to be.

The worst part of the burning city, though, was the screaming of children and families. Ren covered his ears, so as to not have to hear their cries and sobs— knowing families would be mourning for so long due to this tragedy.

"MOM! MOM, WHERE ARE YOU?!" Ren could hear one child scream, louder than the rest of the people- it seemed to be a seven year old boy.

He could swear he heard someone, a female voice in their 30's, shout from afar: "HONEY, RUN! I'LL BE FINE!"

The child didn't hear..

Ren also saw multiple people sobbing, and even a bride & groom- what a terrible wedding that would be.

He couldn't even take his eyes off the scene-- all these people had lives, every single one of them... some- like that of the 7 year old boy's- would be cut off early, while others- such as a grandma in her 90's that Ren caught sight of, were already near death anyways.

But, then- Ren began to think about something else... he realized something, that made him pale a bit.

Something like this couldn't have just... happened on accident from a lab experiment gone wrong, or by Mother Nature's choosing- could it have?

Mother Nature wasn't that... cruel. She wouldn't do stuff like THIS... to a random city, nonetheless.

Someone..

Someone must have done this- or a group of people, possibly.. but for some reason, Ren didn't think that this could have been done by a group of people- he wasn't sure why he thought otherwise, but whatever.

He then remembered... that god damn ender portal sound- it was affiliated with this, wasn't it? It had to be.

Whatever came out of it, or whatever happened to cause the noise really— that must have caused, or at the very least be related to, this fire. Something told Ren that. 

Maybe I told Ren that, maybe you did... who knows? ANYWAYS-

But wait- that's stupid, that portal noise was just something that happened- it must be unrelated, right?... Surely- he's just making stuff up to get himself excited... but it also makes some sense-

His brain hurt, trying to make sense of all this. Ren knew he didn't have enough braincells to actually think through this, at least logically.

Turning around, with a slight frown on his face- Ren left, trying his best to ignore the cries from behind himself- the sobs...  and he also tried to ignore how he could hear that one boy still, begging for his mom to 'stop hiding'- and saying that he didn't like this game.

Ren was sure that the people in the fire- not the fire itself, but the people in it, would be engraved to his mind. He really wished he hadn't gone and tried to investigate.

He didn't think anyone would follow... but, someone did anyways.

I think you can guess who's following Ren, readers... first encounter time!