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"We would love to help with your garden, Nehanda. I know Pueblo would love to too," Fae said quietly and smiled back at Foenix. Fae wrapped an arm around Pueblo and held her close. She was aware of people walking past them, but she couldn't look up. It was like a funeral scene; everyone but them that walked around them were in slow motion.

Pueblo's ear flicked and squeezed Nehanda's hand. She had never seen her friend so heart broken before. Actually, she had never experienced this much sadness before. It was terrible. She wanted to see Nehanda happy again! Getting an idea, she whispered into her guardian's ear and ran back into the Centre. "I'll be rite back, Nehanda! I promise."

A few seconds later Pueblo came running back out with a piece of paper in her hands. She panted a little, but held the page out to Nehanda anyway. "See? It's yor flower. There's still one left!" she referred to the drawing and gave a half smile. Maybe it would inspire Handa? "Sometimes... when I'm painting... I needs inspirishon," she said, hoping it made a connection. She cocked her head a little and backed up against her guardian.

Fae smiled with a mothery proudness purring in her heart. She held onto Pueblo's hand and squinted away blurry tears. "We should probably go see how our house stood. If you need anything, we're right next door," she told Foenix and stood. "C'mon, Abby, let's go inspect our home. As she started, she noticed something moving in an odd way ahead of her. Her eyebrows furrowed until she saw Alyosha in the middle of swirling water. Aly the firefighter he was! Corking a brow, she was curious to ask, but didn't. Something about him was troubled. Smiling down to Pueblo's tug, they continued on to check her house's damadges.

Alyosha looked down blankly at the bubly little Aerandir for a second. He paused to think about this for a moment. When he spoke, it came through the water, distorted and low sounding.

"Ask Ieyasu to watch you, Osusuki" he said "you can try putting out some of the small fires but be careful and listen to what Ieyasu tells you." He was not keen for the little one to be harmed but Osu was a fire spellweaver and this might be good practice - being able to put out fires was a skill that was best to learn before finding out how to ignote them. If Ieyasu was watching him too, there shouldn't be so much of a problem.

Alyosha moved on, pouring water as he went.

"Ok!" Delighted that Alyosha had said yes, Osusuki spun around and ran off to find Ieyasu. As he ran, he kicked up small clouds of black ash that settled again behind him. Now, he just had to go find Yassu so that he could practice with the bigger fires!

Heading back from the remains of the house, Ieyasu wondered how he was going to tell Osusuki. Much as the kid liked fire, it would still undoubtedly be upsetting for him to find that the house was gone. As he made his way back towards the centre, Ieyasu saw Osu running towards him. Before he could begin to consider how to tell him, a stream of excited chatter burst out from the youngster.

"Yassu, Yassu! Awie says I can help wif the fires if you watch me! Can I, can I, can I?"

Blinking, Ieyasu took a short moment to decipher exactly what Osu had said.
"Hey, slow down." He then considered what Osu would asking. It should be ok, as long as he didn't try to work with any fire that was too big.

Giving the kid a wan smile, Ieyasu nodded. "Alright. Why don't we find a fire you can put out then?" Spotting a small fire burning at the foot of a ruined fence, Ieyasu held out his hand before heading towards it.

"Ok!" Happy that Yassu had said yes, Osu ran to catch up with him.

Blankly, Nyxa planted her butt right on the ground in front of her cabin. She once more drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, burying her face in her arms. It was horrible; the children didn't know what was going on, the adults were almost wandering about in a daze. She sure as heck didn't know what to do to make things better.

So she sat there in front of her crispy yet still-standing cabin, wondering if this was all a nightmare that would somehow just ..go away.

Lucius watched Osu for a minute, still trying to come to terms with the situation. The other boy was bouncing around with the white haired guy, playing with fire. Suddenly Luc saw Osu put a blaze out with ..nothing? Perplexed, Luc drew closer, crouching next to Osu as the other boy put out the flame on the fence.

"Eh, whatcha doin', Osu? How'dja do that?" Luc didn't have any sort of cool fire-putting-out powers, and that was really awesome that Osu did.

Luc, of course, was in hot pursuit of Osu, eager to see what the other boy could do. Luckily, he saw the other boy stop in his tracks, and Luc screeched to a halt, his sturdy body stopping mere inches from the now frozen Osu.

"Osu.. where's yer house, huh?" Baffled, Luc peered at his friend before moving past him, scratching his head with a look that was far beyond confusion. "I thought it was right here..?"

Nyxa lifted her head as she heard Ieyasu call out for his ward to wait a minute, her reddened eyes following him. Wiping away her tears, her eyes widened as she realized that where there should be a cabin, there wasn't.

Rising to her feet, she jogged over to where the trio stood, moving to stand next to Ieyasu. An unintelligible murmur broke past her lips, a sound of sorrow and sympathy.

Luc looked to Nyxa, gnawing on his lower lip. He didn't want to see Osu cry, and a slight frown creased his sturdy features. Shuffling closer to Osu and Ieyasu, he looked pleadingly to Nyxa. Maybe she could fix it somehow?

Nyxa reached out to press her hand against Ieyasu's back, her other hand moving to rest on Luc's shoulder while she spoke to Osu. "You guys can stay with us, huh? You and 'Yasu and your kitty can move in with me and Luc." She chuckled, the sound strained, "It'll be a little cramped, but we'll all fit."

Luc beamed at her, nodding fervently, "Yeaaah! That'd work, huh, Osu? I could share my blankets with you n'stuff, and Nyxa can share hers with Yasu." He grinned pridefully, "I been learnin' how t'hunt, so I can bring you food and stuff. And for your kitty, too."

Acia finally stopped trembling. The ground had become violent, had shaken her belief in it's solid, soft nature. Of course she had known about volcanoes and earthquakes, she had read about them in Alyosha's books, but they had been abstract and she had not quite known what such events would encompass.

The ground had seemed to her as if it were screaming in pain as it's very lifeblood, the warm substance Acia could sometimes feel when she searched deep into the earth with her spellweaver powers, had erupted to the surface.

She let her tense muscles relax as much as they could in the small cocooon. She had been gawking at the smoke, the volcano and had not had time to make it back to any building for shelter before the molten, fiery rocks had begun to slam into the earth. Instinctively she had made a thick dome of earth over herself, hardened it against the shattered stone which pelted into it. She let this slowly curmble now ready to bring the loose sand grains back into a defensive barrier if need be.

The sky was still hazy but she could see the twilight coming on through it. Stretching her lithe body, unfolding her wings, she let her powers soar out, tendrils feeling the earth. What had become of those in the village! She could feel that the world had changed. The structure of Cetalu seemed to go on longer. Her powers weren't able to tell her about the organic lifeforms which inhabited the village but she could feel the debris in the soil.

Quickly she took the the sky, her large black wings flapping, and headed with blind speed towards the settlement. Alyosha, Nehanda, Anakiro and Tsukai... Osusuki. All of them and even the others she had barely or never met, the little spellweaver worried for as she made her way back into the village.

Ieyasu grinned at Nyxa, before turning to set Osu back down on the ground again. He seemed to have calmed down a bit, at least. Even if Nyxa had said that there was no need to repay the favour, Ieyasu wanted to do so anyway. He'd figure out a way somehow.

Straightening up, he looked back to Nyxa again. "Of course. But thank you all the same." He smiled at her before turning back to look at the ruins. When he spoke again, it was quieter. "I'll need to come back here later and see what I can salvage.."

Standing up, Osu stayed where he was for a moment. He scrubbed at his face again, but he didn't look like he was going to immediately burst back into tears again. "I won't.." He smiled at Luc. "I get to stay with you. We can play more and stuff. Maybe it not so bad.."