| The fire burned fiercely, but was short lived. The trees were healthy and green, and soon, the flames died down to trickling smoke and embers. Kemberance landed gingerly in the river, steering well away from the now drying lava that had cut through the trees. Surprisingly enough, the river was unblocked. The small lava stream had simply flown along side the river. When the lava dried, it would be a strange sight: the lava trail running parallel to the flowing river. The volcano grumbled in the distance, and the ground shook in reply. No more lava flowed from it, but something had ruptured inside with the earth quake. Deborah got the feeling the shaking would be felt near the volcano for years to come. The heat was intense this close to the cooling lava, but Deborah insisted on coming down for a look. She turned in a circle, staying in the safe line of the river, with it�s cooling waters. A good number of trees had burned, leaving their twisted, blackened corpuses as testimony to the fire. One standing in the river, such as she was, could not see the beginning of the unburned trees. The gouge of lava made for a strange addition to the burned forest. It�s blackened path bearing witness of the earthquake, and the eruption of the volcano. Again, the ground shook slightly, a rumbling in the volcano echoing it. Deborah sighed, and turned to her companions. �Well, I suppose we should leave. Not much left here to see.� Fae came to her side, and put a sympatric hand on her shoulder. �I�m sorry. I knew you had your hopes on this place, but I�m sure you will get some new land before the time is up.� Deborah gave her a questioning look. �Who said I�m not going to use this place still?� Fae�s mouth opened, but nothing came out. Deborah made a sweeping gesture with her hand, taking in all the burned trees, and smoking ruins of the forest. �It�s perfect! Look at it! All the elements coming together in chaos. I love it!� Fae simply stared while Kem hid her smile behind a clawed paw. Deborah clapped her hands together briskly. �All right, lets get to it! I�m going to need a nest. Ooo! And a keeper. This is so exciting!!� The human girl bustled about, inspecting places, making mental notes and plans, all the while chattering away at the two. Kem just laughed, while Fae shook her head. *** Yasha slipped into the forest where the smoke was rising from without a sound. She dipped through trees, and weaved through underbrush, all the while getting closer to her goal. With a strange abruptness, the green trees gave way to burned and blackened ones. A small fire had consumed a fair number of trees, from what Yasha could see. The source of the fire was apparent: a long trail of dried lava. A small river bubbled merrily next to the river of dried lava. Suddenly, a loud rumble in the distance drew her attention. A few seconds following the noise, the ground began to shake. Yasha skipped into the river, looking wildly above for falling trees. The river was a lot deeper than she had suspected, and was forced to stand on the edge of the water. The shaking stopped and Yasha looked about. No trees had fallen, no lava was running down the mountainside. The shaking had been less sever than the first one that had struck. Suddenly, she looked at the burned trees and river in a new light. She found herself liking the place. With a small smile, she decided to stay. Her thoughts involuntarily went back to Meito, and she winced slightly, then smoothed away the pain in her mind. She would just have to busy herself with hunting to take her mind off of him. With another wince, she though of the time they had spent together hunting. It had been his favorite thing. Sigh sighed, and shifted, dashing into the forest on wolf�s paws. *** Deborah strolled into the burned forest, a pack across her back, a heavy, oval egg in her arms. She was humming slightly to herself, happy with the day�s events. She set the egg down very carefully on the ground. The pack followed. She strolled about the two rivers� side. She carefully pulled half burned ivy off of the higher branches of the trees. The had grown in abundance here, before the fire, and some of it still retained shape, even after the burning. Soon her hands were covered in soot and ash, but she had what she needed. Next to the rivers, one of water, one of hardened lava, between two trees, sat the pile of ivy she had collected. She mounded it up, and pushed the center down slightly, creating a little dip in the center. Then she returned to the egg, and genially gathered it up in her arms. She placed it in the center of the ivy, pushing the sides up around it to keep it warm. �There,� she whispered to it, �You will be nice and safe here, my little one.� She looked around apprehensively, not wanting to leave the egg alone without a keeper to watch after it, but she really didn�t have a choice. She took off at a trot, trying to hurry with her tasks so that she could return to her new egg as soon as possible... |
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