An eye for an eye and the world goes blind
With a scream the barn owl took to the skies, leaving her bond-mate upon the burning earth along with so many others of their Court. Alba whirled about in the smoke-filled air, watching down below as the trees, brush, and grasses all continued to steadily burn. Her eyes remained rooted upon everyone, darting from form to form as they bucketed water from the river and did everything in their power to douse the flames before they could spread further throughout Delumine.
The team of firefighters worked carefully, desperate to protect their home. They would not fail. They could not fail.
Stay determined, Somnus repeated in his head, a repetition of stalwart passion and fortitude as he shouldered another bucket of water to carry towards the front lines, the extended use of his telekinesis draining. We must stay determined! The Dawn King’s hide was marred with soot and sweat, streaked a muddy grey and hardly resembling the typically immaculate golden hue. The tips of his wings, mane, and tail were all singed, the smell of burning cloying his nostrils. His lungs acrid from smoke, his voice choked and raspy from the prolonged exposure to such poor air quality, but he couldn’t give up. He wouldn’t.
Somnus knew that those who fought the flames beside him felt the same.
Just as he opened his mouth to shout a suggestion, the dunalino watched in both awe and horror as the fires consumed a large tree just on the front line, burning and eating and smoldering it through from the inside out. The tree remained a beacon of destruction for only a moment before it gave way, charred and unstable, and Somnus screamed, his voice guttural.
The tree crashed to the ground only a moment later in a devastating shower of embers and ash, raining molten heat down on any who stood too close. It breached the front line, the flames licking and spreading closer towards the group of firefighters that strayed too close.
The terror and dismay of it all only lasted a moment, until his attention was drawn elsewhere, watering verdant eyes widening in horror. There, near the front lines, an equine’s mane had caught flame from the raining embers. Immediately the Dawn King lurched forward with his bucket of water, desperate to help as the equine’s screams of fear and pain reached a terrible crescendo. Please, Oriens, no… This cannot be happening!
A split second, and Somnus thought of Eulalie. He thought of little Regis and Anemone, so frail and helpless beneath the fury of the flame. His heart constricted painfully in his chest, the breath escaping his lungs that had no correlation to the brutality of the flames. It could easily be them among the flames, burning, dying… A second later and the Dawn King came out of his terrified thought, knowing they had no time for such things.
If they wanted to survive, if he wanted to survive, he could not falter.
Approaching the terrified, burning equine, Somnus tried to steady them with soothing words as he focused his telekinesis.
