I did light long-range reconnaissance deep in the mountains of Afghanistan for a couple years. I mean very remote, hundreds of miles from any power or roads. My whole platoon experienced crazy events and animals. Including two pterodactyls that flew over us for the first few days on an OP we had established. My whole team watched them as they flew over us, getting quite close, for days. They looked exactly the same as what you would see in a dinosaur book, except they weren't like 70 feet across, more like a 10-foot wingspan. The red coloring is called henna, the same stuff Hindu women use to paint temporary tattoo like designs on their skin. It is a religious/cultural practice, the Afghan men also stain their hands with henna.