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Fire Belly Newts (15) : Pranks are common this time of year, and what’s funnier than a little arson? A lot of things, actually, but for some reason there are frequent reports of small fires being set and abandoned all throughout the city. Most of the time, these fires burn out before causing much damage, but things are escalating and it’s only a matter of time before things start getting dangerous–especially with how dry it’s been, and all these dead, fallen leaves. But, it’s worse than just flammable debris. Sometimes, there are small patches of boiled pavement. Melted metal–guardrails, lamps, fire hydrants. Destruction is rampant, and no one knows why. But you do. You saw one of them. A foot long, black newt, with a bright-red belly that glowed brightly when it spat up real, liquid flame right in front of you. Lava pooled from its round little belly, ignited like a match to oil. It darts through alleys and storm drains, too fast to catch. At least you tried.
Backdated to October 4, 2025
Hearing people talk about fires around the city was pretty new. And concerning. Sure, there were the occasional reports here and there, pranks or accidents--what was with so many fires being set because of dropped cigarettes or ashes?--but this was getting... excessive, wasn't it? Especially considering how dry the season was currently. Much as she could appreciate the crunchy leaves beneath her feet, and she did enjoy seeing young humans collecting large piles to then jump into. It was sweet. But the dry cold air did little to comfort anyone with growing news about so many fires. Patches of grasses in the parks were browning beneath the leaf cover, and all she could picture was how quickly so much of the city could be swallowed up in flames if people were not careful.
Who was even doing this? Pranks? Was that all it was?
She dropped that notion when she began to hear about boiled pavement alongside scorch marks. Then melted metal. Didn't take much of a search to confirm that... yes, the temperatures required to do that sort of damage needed to be extremely high on Earth. Far, far higher than typical pranks or accidents could cause--unless they were specific types of batteries that exploded when wet, but those didn't seem to be present at these incidents.
There didn't seem to be a real pattern to the fires, be it locations, times, nothing. Just the increasing damage they were causing. And when she saw a patch of melted, boiled pavement near the garage she frequented, Daesva decided she'd had quite enough of the unknown sources terrorizing the area. Especially since she really didn't want to see the damage extend to houses or businesses in the area. Or her bike.
Reaching out to Andreiya seemed reasonable to her. Better to have someone with her in case there was any trouble, though she couldn't fathom the potential type with all these pieces of information. She mentioned the news reports, showed him some photos she took of damages she'd seen or that others had posted online. She'd already found a few spots of metal chain-link fence with holes burned into them, melted metal burning into the ground below and around the spots. They were... small, though. Smaller than a human, anyway. So not big enough for one to use to crawl through...
"Ah, here they are," she said softly, when they'd gotten to the site. She crouched down by the melted fencing, frowning at the scorch marks where dry brush and debris had been burned away, leaving singed earth. A few more spots had formed in other areas along the fence, each relatively small compared to a human. "I haven't seen any fires, or anyone setting up anything that could trigger the heat necessary to melt the metal... but this is far easier to destroy than the light posts and such. "I don't understand why anyone would be doing this as a sort of... prank, but I also cannot see a logic in terms of a target for the destruction, a message to be sent, damage to property to steal anything, nothing."
Kyuseisha no Hikari
