The first cedar fell just after sunrise.

The workers cheered.

The old woman didn’t.

---

STACY:
“They’re building a hospital.”

---

CAELWYN:
“They are.”

---

Another axe struck the trunk.

---

STACY:
“They’re building a school.”

---

CAELWYN:
“They are.”

---

STACY:
“They’re bringing medicine.”

---

CAELWYN:
“They are.”

---

She folded her notebook.

---

STACY:
“Then why does this feel wrong?”

---

Caelwyn watched another branch crash to the ground.

---

CAELWYN:
“Tell me.”

---

CAELWYN:
“Did anyone ask why this forest was never touched?”

---

Stacy looked toward the workers.

---

STACY:
“They said the villagers believed it was sacred.”

---

CAELWYN:
“That’s what they believed.”

---

A long silence.

---

CAELWYN:
“They never asked what the villagers knew.”

---

The oldest cedar finally broke.

---

The earth trembled.

---

Every bird in the valley fell silent.

---

Not one.

---

All of them.

---

Stacy slowly lowered her notebook.

---

STACY:
“…Coincidence?”

---

Caelwyn watched the elderly woman kneel beside the fallen tree.

---

CAELWYN:
“How many coincidences…”

---

“…before history becomes a warning?”

---

Far beyond the valley—

the forest canopy shifted.

Not from wind.

As though something impossibly large had just opened its eyes.

---

🜍 THE PRICE OF CIVILIZATION

The greatest danger was never destroying what people believed.

It was destroying what they understood.

---

If you remember what this felt like —
you already know what you’re missing.

Step back into it.
Or keep missing it.

👉 https://startplaying.games/gm/dunchan

Want to go deeper?

Then don’t stop at the surface.

The full stories. The dossiers. The things behind it —
they’re waiting. Or they’re not.

👉 https://www.patreon.com/c/mythveilchronicles_bydunchanhuntergames