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Progolo slipped into the room once he was sure Chao and Sanar were gone, and dropped into the bed with a loud groan. What a day! He tried to think about what his next course of action should be, but he couldn't...keep...his eyes...open...



He jerked awake all of a sudden, having felt a painful n** on his ear. He could hardly move, his whole body was so stiff from fatigue.

"Mm...wha...? Whatsamatter...?" Progolo mumbled, screwing his eyes up against the light of the bedroom fixture.

"Yuf hungry! Feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaauf!" Yaraif howled, right into his ear.

He moaned. What...How long had he been asleep? He felt like he'd just barely shut his eyes! But...guh...

"Yaraif...I'll feed you later...just let me sleep..." he plead dully, his deep voice coming out in a whine.

He felt Yaraif crouch beside his ear, and flinched. "Fooooood..." she whispered, surprising Progolo with an English word.

That was a red flag. "Alright, alright," he said, slowly stumbling out of the squashy bed and awakening the other creatures. He almost fell flat on his face from pain. His legs had seized up during his nap and ached terribly.

Recomposing himself, he laconically gathered up his things, biting back the pounding headache. His charges, too, moved slowly, also sore from their adventure earlier. Kununo absolutely refused to wake up. Mumbling tiredly, he gently cradled it against his chest, along with Myrrh, and forced his quivering legs to take him to the door.

He had to lean against the door to rest, and took the time to look back at the room guiltily. Ugh...it was a mess...the blankets were molded into the shapes imprinted by the bodies that had been laying there. Progolo hadn't even thought to dry off or strip down or something before he'd just collapsed onto the bed, and now the room bore the musty scent of salty, damp fabric. As if that wasn't bad enough the room was littered with bedragled feathers.

He sighed. He really ought to clean it up...but he could hardly move...

I'll clean it up in the morning... he assured himself, with exhaustion. At least he could be glad that none of the critters had needed to relieve themselves...

He huffed, and pulled the door open.

Then he blinked, closed the door, and opened it again to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

The lodge was dark. A few lamps shone here and there, but it was unmistakably very late at night. Taal came up beside him and peered around, as if he'd been expecting Sanar to be waiting there, but he was disappointed.

"Hm," Progolo said, to fill the silence. "Well...let's go, shall we?"

His little group looked at him blankly, their eyes glinting eerily in the darkness.

----end.

Sending a spray of sand arcing into the air as he landed on the beach near the watchtower, Osero folded his large wings on his back. He had done as Alyosha had advised - he had flown only when it was necessary, and he had kept low in the air. He didn't like the look of things right now. And his worry for the safety of Rahujo and Acia was nagging at the back of his mind.

However, he had to help where he could - and that was here. Loping up the beach and past the tower, Osero headed to the village. He had not visited here for a good while, and he had never had the opportunity to meet any of the inhabitants. The best place to start, though, would probably be the village centre. As before, Osero did not sprint - rather he moved at a steady jog as he passed through the village on his way to the lodge.

He squinted slightly as he walked into the village. A small darting form followed by a rather worried looking green-haired guardian. He wasn't sure but he thought that, by the look the the gryphon, this must be Wyvern. An odd name, really, that. No time to be pondering names and whanot, now, though.

"Wyvern" he called hoping that he had gotten it correct as the name slipped past his lips. "You need to head to the Lodge, now! If you see anyone else on the way they need to go too. It's dangerous out here!" by her worried look she'd probably already surmised this but it didn't hurt to make things a little more urgent.

In the distance he spotted another figure walking into the town, tall and dark. Another of the guardians? He nodded to Wyvern and gave her as much of a reassuring smile as he could muster and then motioned that, being on a mission, he couldn't stop to chat.

He headed further into the little village intent on the large figure.

Progolo came around the side of #3 curiously, having heard someone pounding on the door. He'd been in the back, enjoying a bit of the sea breeze when he'd heard the sound. But no one was there.

He peered down the street, confused. Maybe he was just hearing things.

"You need to head to the Lodge, now! If you see anyone else on the way they need to go too. It's dangerous out here!"

He barely heard this over the murmur of the wind, but he was quite positive he wasn't hallucinating, now.

Progolo balked. Should he go to the lodge immediately, or should he grab the jars first...? He hesitated a few more moments, before seeing the gentle curl of smoke rising into the air in the distance.

What in the world-?

He dashed inside the house so quickly the door banged against the wall. Sccoping the jars into a shoulder bag, he turned and gave his startled charges some hurried directions before dashing off again, towards the lodge.

It was only Anthony's sense of urgency which kept him from being gobsmacked at this first view of the tall, male Aerandir adult. In the flesh they were so much more. It was not the time for studying, though.

"I've been around all houses and I can't seem to locate anyone else." he answered, taking another last glance around the village. The plumes of red coming from the far side of the Island chain worried him immensely. "I agree, we should head to the Lodge, get some cover." he said to Osero. "Come, lets hurry!" he added, turning and heading with speed towards the Lodge.

((Following on from the lodge (The winter event))

Emi glanced over at Wyv as she stood beside her. Arms folded over the camera case, Emiko didn't say a word until the woman had finished speaking.
Her ears flicked back right to her skull again, her tail swishing too and fro in the dust. Squinting to view the scenery ahead of them again, Emi leant forward on her heels. She had been right, something was most certainly out there.

"Well, lets go," She was about to move, head on out before Anthony spoke. He was right, what damage could have occurred to the houses? Emi stared off into the distance, to the house nearest. She could just about make out from here her old rocking chair, laden with ash. The wooden structure had fallen onto its side, the glass lantern hanging dangerously off one rocker. Emi winced.

Toby, who had followed Emi, stood behind her. He looked like a soot-ball, all the white patches on his fur having turned to black. He lowered his nose to the ground, before his body followed. Resting his muzzle on his paws he waited. Waited for the command to move on.

"Alright, I'll make sure we're careful," The furry finished up. Pushing a few stray strands of hair back behind her ears, she headed off towards the other side of the village. Everything around her smelt, and was covered in a layer of ash. Even as her paws kicked up the ground, a small cloud of ash followed. Each step made another cloud fly up, disturbing the ground beneath them.
"Come on Tobes..." The dog hadn't moved. Turning, Emi flashed a smile at the old collie. Pausing a few steps away from him, she watched as the dog bounded to her side. Red sky at night Shepherd's Delight, red sky in the morning Shepard's warning. The furry glanced up as the sky darkened around them, folding into the sunset. Maybe, just maybe, the saying would ring true. Maybe everything wouldn't be as bad in the morning.

"You know, I still can't see the sea." The sentence was more for herself than anyone. Head held low, her azure blue orbs squinted to gaze into the distance. All she saw was sand, miles upon miles of sand. She was almost in the middle of the village by now, so surely the sea should have been looming up soon. The darker tips of her ears twitched. She couldn't even hear the far off sound of the waves lapping against the shore. Strange.
It was like the sea wasn't there, but surely, that wasn't possible. Was it?

Progolo gave Emi and Wyvern wide berth on his way to his own home to avoid the soot they were kicking up. He didn't know if the stuff was poisonous, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

His house was still standing, but it had aged about a hundred years in the few hours that the volcano had been wrecking havoc. For once, he was glad that his interior decorating was so shabby. Otherwise, he'd have a lot more mess to clean up...

Taal pushed past him into the house and ran up the ladder, squawking. Startled at the griffin's sudden panic, Progolo followed him up to the second floor. Taal was snuffling around in the big pile of blankets that made up his bed.

"What's the matter?" Progolo asked, perplexed.

Taal didn't answer in English, obviously, but he dashed over to Progolo and hedbutted him in the knees, almost knocking him back down the ladder.

The man yelped and clung to the wall, barely avoiding the painful tumble.

"Whoa! What's the matter?!"

Taal nudged dangerously at him again, something clasped in his beak. It was a dark blue feather.

Progolo connected the dots eventually. "You're worried about Myrrh, right?" Progolo asked, thinking of the little blue griffin that Taal so adored. "She's fine; calm down you oaf, before you kill me!"

Taal 'humphed', plodded back towards the blankets, and plopped down into them. Progolo held the feather, suddenly wondering how many animals had been killed in this fiasco. Would they find corpses everywhere?

And what about the Keepers and Aerandir? Had anyone been killed or hurt?

Seeing all of the ash floating about, Karma laid down the bucket she was holding and yanked a cloth out from her shirt pocket. Placing it over her mouth and nose, she finally took a few steps outside, mumbling something about "stupid allergies."

She tried to find her hut, or what remained of it, though failed. The air was too full of ash to see much of anything, at least for her. Karma soon gave up on attemping to find what was left of what she had started to live in, and began to listen to everyone else. Apparently the land had changed there was a sand bar, and they were connected to another island. Or so she guessed from Jizzy's question. "I'm not sure which island that is." The reply was slightly muffled, on account of the fact that her mouth was till being covered. She wiped her eyes, the ash was making them water.

Karma strained her eyes to see if she could somehow identify the island, she couldn't. At least not from where she was currently stationed. "I'm going to go find out which one it is though." She added. Her curiosity had got her and she took a few steps forward. One arm holding the jars, the other holding the cloth to her face.