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((continued from The Spider's Web))

The sound of the eruption was distant, but still deafening. The blast rocked the earth and filled the air like the most terrible clap of thunder ever imagined. And as Lungaia reeled from the sudden ringing in her ears, the sky darkened like a coming apocalypse, a blossoming rain of ash spreading toward them.

Her balance was already shaky, ears and eyes trained on the rising ash, and Honoria half-snapped at Lungaia when she was shoved. It was instinctive, she curbed it swiftly, but her lips remained curled in a snarl as she attained her paws and leapt for the brush.

"Under here," Lungaia said, ensuring that her foundling fit into that narrow crawlspace between the bushes and the earth. She dug at it, trying to widen the area quickly so she could fit in as well. It wasn't a perfect shelter by any means, but as the ash began to fall, it at least succeeded in filtering the largest particles. She crouched halfway into her feeble attempt at shelter, hiding her face from the choking ash, and tried to make sense of what was even happening.

Flexibility was one of her attributes and Honoria used it to the best possible effect as she twisted her body to fit herself into the space. Kicking out loose dirt with a few flicks, she snatched a mouthful of Lungaia's fur and pulled her in tightly before tucking her own head down, pushing her nose beneath her foreleg.

The ash continued to fall. That wouldn't have been a problem on its own. The problem was the cinder that came with it -- the tiny sparks of flame that, eventually, would catch a dry bit of brush and throw this whole area up in fire. Even through the pervasive scent of ash, Lungaia caught the smell of smoke, of fresh fire. It wasn't safe here. Hiding would do nothing.

"Tui loves you, you know," she said, out of nowhere, mumbling into Honoria's fur. "You're his baby."

Lungaia, with her touch of madness, was prone to non-sequitors.

She struggled loose in the cramped quarters, the scent of fire coming closer. Somewhere nearby, the brush was smoldering. She didn't much fancy being trapped under a burning bush.

She heaved herself free and stood a moment in fretful indecision, feeling as though her body were being torn in two by her competing desires.

If Kaeerah finds him, he's dead anyway, she thought, and it strengthened her resolve. Without further speaking, she darted forward, running through the ash to follow the tracks - swiftly being covered - of Kaeerah's retreating form.

Without a moment to actually plan out what was going on, Honoria was left following on instinct as well, and every instinct was screaming that this was *not* an opportune moment to attack someone who could likely be a match for them even with the odds stacked in their favor.

An attempted sniff of the ground brought her head up with a sneeze and she strained her ears, pressing them forward as her shoulders hunched. Honoria's dark fur was turning a chalky grey from collected ash; she couldn't run fast enough to avoid it.

"What are we *doing*?" She hissed it, voice raspy from the persistent lack of usage.

That was the question, wasn't it?

It was a question Lungaia should have been able to answer. She owed that to her foundling. She owed that to Tui, who would weep for her absence. And she owed that to herself, an explanation for this fools' errand.

But there was no rational explanation. This situation defied rationality. The sky was on fire. The earth had trembled. The world might be ending, as far as she knew.

"I can't die knowing she's alive," she explained, keeping her pace even and seeking some trace of the blue-flamed wolf in the ash. "You should go back. Find Tui. Get him to safety."

That was a joke. What was safety? Such a thing had never existed, and certain didn't exist now.

Her next order was unspoken, but just as clear: Let me die out here alone. Let me finish this thing.

Satisfaction was something that one didn't take until after the deed was done. Honoria noted the bones and looped back, bumping Lungaia's shoulder with her own in a silent hint. Her head jerked, motioning towards the first rib she'd found.

It was entirely probable that neither of them would walk away from whatever they were about to do, but that was... something she wasn't as concerned with as she should have been. Honoria veered out, heading left as she picked up her pace, now working into a steady run.

Just follow the trail of bones... They were ivory against the grey, easy enough to see. She would follow the trail and swing out far enough to keep just the barest hints of Kaeerah's noticeable colouring in sight. It'd give enough space that she might not be immediately noted, but not put her so far away that she couldn't come to Lungaia's aid immediately.

The bones were sparse, but regular enough to follow, and soon there were pawprints within the ash as well. Shallow at first, filled with ash, but growing deeper. They were gaining on her, which meant that Kaeerah must have slowed her pace. Did she feel secure? Had she sought out cover? Lungaia wasn't certain, and she slowed her own pace cautiously. Was this a trap? or were they finally starting to experience some real luck?

...now that was a sound that wasn't something falling, wind gusting or fire crackling.

Honoria halted, freezing in her tracks, and turned towards the faint sound. There was no telling if it was someone else, something else caught out here without getting in closer. She'd overestimated her eyesight- the fluttering ash made everything indistinct and blurry.

Carefully, quietly, the huntress dropped to her belly and began easing forward.

Something tingled along the back of Lungaia's spine. She glanced at Honoria and gave a small, nearly imperceptible nod, before dropping into a crouch on her own and moving in a slight v-formation. She had not heard what her daughter had -- her own tattered ears did not pick up sound as well as they once did -- but she trusted Honoria's instincts. If the dark wolf was going in for the kill, she would move to flank.

For a moment, all was frozen. The silence was all-consuming. Elsewhere, limbs and grasses had caught fire, crackling and smoldering, but here all was still. There was only a gray sky connected to the gray earth by strands of ash, like so many dying butterflies falling to the ground, and in the midst of it there were three silhouettes, three dark wolves like living shadows.

Lungaia paused, hesitating for the briefest of seconds, to impress the image upon her mind forever. It was something she would never forget, whether she died today or lived for an eternity. In the dreamlike stillness of this apocalypse, this was something akin to a moment of peace.

Kaeerah did not see the blow coming. She was absorbed in memory, falling down the hole into the darkness of her own thoughts. Echoes of old memories stirred in her mind, all of her composure lost, all of her charms as broken and useless as the bones at her feet.

She heard her mother's voice in her mind, a voice that had never spoken aloud but which had whispered terrible things to her, fears and dreams that leaked from the seer's mind when she slept, backsplashes that spilled into the mind of a puppy who could not comprehend the terribleness of those thoughts and visions.

For a moment, she was vulnerable and afraid, little more than a puppy again. For a moment, she was a victim.

And then the bulk of Honoria collided with her, and she felt her legs give way as she collapsed to the earth, and her mind snapped once more into action, killer instincts taking over where her rational mind could no longer keep up. She snarled, sending blows at whatever piece of flesh would come close to her, kicking and clawing at the flesh of her aggressor.

With the snap of bone echoing in her ears, Honoria's determination to not take the kill vanished. All she knew was there was prey lamed and ready to be taken out.

Everything went into a haze of sheer red as she snarled deep in her throat and the charcoal-furred wolf dove with her canines beared. Not for the throat, no. It was too fast, the blood loss would result in sweet unconsciousness before death.

Even with her muzzle being gashed by the claws on Kaeerah's hind legs, she fought forward, lunging to bury her curved teeth in the soft flesh of the blue-flamed wolf's belly

Kaeerah had not made a sound up to this point, but now she let out an unholy, echoing howl, made all the more eerie by the utter stillness that had fallen around them.

And then that, too, was silenced as a second pair of teeth clenched around her throat.

Blue eyes rolled up, confused, and met a pair of emerald ones overhead. For the briefest of moments, both sisters shared a memory, though they wouldn't know it. A memory of Kaeerah standing over the corpse of her father, blood on her muzzle, legs trembling with the final escape of adrenaline.

But mad dogs had to be put down. It was what Kaeerah had known, when she did what Lungaia had been too frightened to do. And now it had come full circle, had closed itself.

Tenderly, Lungaia ran her tongue along the edge of her sister's maw, a gentle kiss of farewell to those few precious memories they still shared of what innocence had lingered in their childhood.

And then the light faded from those sparkling blue eyes, and Lungaia retreated, falling to her haunches, ash clinging to her pelt like snow.