Fate of The Gifted - Red smokey forest, visual inspiration

I created these pictures with Dreame App AI, to create inspirational images, for some of the major scenes in my story.

In FATE OF THE GIFTED Kai starts his adventure, sneaking out into the forest just before dawn. A red smoke swirls throughout forest. The smoke is thick and makes it both hard to breathe, and difficult to see. Kai wants nothing more than to prove that he can help his family survive. He is searching for what may possibly be their next meal.

~*~

Red smoke and crisp dry leaves blew in circles on the musty forest floor. Heading into the wind, Kai zig-zagged through the wood as quiet as possible. He hoped the smoke would cover his scent, and his footsteps would mingle with the leaves already crackling in the wind. Hugging the trees, his eyes darted between the giant mist shrouded trunks surrounding him.

Ahead, a flash of brown darted between trees. Kai pushed his back into the nearest redwood and held his breath. Brown feathers shimmered between another set of trees, this time a little closer. Kai could now tell the brown plumage belonged to a forest pheasant.

The pheasant didn’t notice him, yet.

As he readied his bow, beads of sweat formed on his forehead. He stared down the shaft of his arrow, waiting for it to move into sight.

Crack!

Somewhere to his right, a stick broke and smoke curled upward as a scrawny coyote pounced from behind a tree. It dashed toward the pheasant’s hiding spot within the piles of decaying leaves.

Startled, the arrow slipped from Kai’s fingers and bounced toward his prey. Throwing leaves into the air, it thumped into a tree a few yards from the bird. With a shrill scream, the pheasant flew into the foggy canopy towering above, and out of range.

The coyote stood panting as it watched the bird fly into the first rays of morning light. With the bird out of sight, the coyote put its nose to the ground and pushed through the leafy piles. It jumped from pile to pile, following the pheasant’s scent. It pricked up its ears and slowed as its nose twitched at the scent of something else. It paused at the arrow laying on the ground, sniffed, and growled.

It spied Kai through the smoke and its hackles rose as it hunched down. Ears back and head lowered, it stalked straight at him with throaty growls. It snapped at him from just a few feet away, its teeth clicking loudly.

Kai grabbed at his arrows with shaky hands and clutched his bow tighter. Arrows fell to the ground around him.

Startled by the rapping of the falling wood, the coyote jumped back, baring its teeth.

Afraid to drop eye contact with the canine, Kai bent his knees and reached around in search of an arrow.

The coyote lunged forward...