MOTHERS' DAY OUT
It is a warm summer day in the small hamlet of Tobar, a coastal fishing village. Cherryblossom and FireEars are enjoying a pleasant visit to some of the small shops, and sharing the lovely day as mother and child. A strong, salty breeze blows in from the sea, carrying with it the promise of a carefree day.
Cherryblossom smiles and giggles some, prrrring softly as shi walks next to hir mother, one arm around hir waist, kissing hir cheek, "Good to see you out of town for once mom, you really don't get out enough."
FireEars nods and smiles gently at hir child, "Well, I thought about what you said last night. I've been spending far too much time at the school and not enough with you or your sire."
Far off in the distance, a faint crash is heard off in the woods, just loud enough to hear through the gentle cawing of the gulls overhead. Another crash is heard, closer than the first, and accompanied by a strange shivering sound. The gulls begin to dissipate in number, departing for safer climes.
Cherryblossom blinks some at the crashes and the gulls, looking around, "Hey mom.... This place doesn't have any active volcanos, right?" quirking a brow and hugging hir mother gently.
FireEars hmms as sie looks around then shakes hir head, "Not that I know of." Even sie's watching as the gulls head out to sea while people in the village stop what they're doing to look around, seeming to not find the mild shaking too frightening.
The winds begin to pick up, carrying the scent of danger; of heat and shifting earth. The faint sound of shivering slowly increases, becoming a distant rumble off in the woods. A nearby street merchant exclaims, "What in Bast's name is that?" amid the quiet clamoring of townsfolk.
Cherryblossom blinks at the trembling in the ground, "Um... Ok... No volcano... Guess it must be an earthquake then..." looking towards the woods, "Either that or something really -really- -REALLY- big..."
FireEars smiles reassuringly at Cherry then pats hir back gently while sie looks towards the forest, "I don't think this island has anything that could be that big, darling." The elder chakat braces hir legs against the increased tremors and holds hir child close.
The rumbling draws nearer, causing the ground to pulse lightly, steadily increasing in strength. The rooftops begin to shake lightly, and those few furs who are not dumbstruck by the strange occurance quickly take off for their homes. Scattered youths begin to cry out, frightened children screaming for their mommies.
Cherryblossom acks and does hir best to keep from falling over, very glad shi's a taur now, "Oh great... Big earthquake..." shi runs up to one of the street merchants, "Get everyone you can find, get them to stand inside door frames, or outside far away from any tall or overhanging objects, trust me, it's for their own safty, and I mean -everyone- you can find."
FireEars smiles at hir child's bravery then does the same. One frightened little girl, sie sweeps up into hir arms and plops her on hir back as sie heads towards the beach after the others, "Cherry, I'll take care of the townsfolk, you see about doing something about these tremors."
The ground vibrates tremendously, still building up to it's full power. Huts and cabins around you with weaker foundations begin to sway and shift along the earth. The straw roof of one shack down the street collapes like a house of cards. Furs of all ages and species begin to race frantically down the streets struggling to maintain their balance on the quivering ground.
Cherryblossom slowly runs towards the forest, in a long loping leaping run, careful to keep hir feet under hir, glad shi has four legs to work with as shi heads into the forest, intent on finding the cause of these disterbances.
FireEars watches Cherry for only a moment then races off after the townsfolk, helping those sie can along the way. Once sie's found the others and has more following, sie tries to pursuade the paniced people to follow hir to safer ground, away from the beach and cliffs.
As Cherry pushes hir way through the panicked dirtroads towards the forest, a slow puff of dust begins to fly towards hir. A long crevace of cracking ground expands towards the village, exploding with released gasses.
Cherryblossom acks and leaps to one side, trying to get out of the way turning and looking towards the villiage as the crack heads into it, whispering, "Oh no..." shi begins to run back towards the villiage, full-gallop to try and help those still within, skirting the edge of the crevace as the fastest way back into town.
FireEars does everything sie can to get the villagers to head towards open ground further up the beach where nothing can fall on them.. many of the people sie literally drags or scares with a loud roar over the din of the rumblings.
The widening chasm spreads swiftly towards the center of town, accompanied by short hot bursts of searing gas within, making FWOOMMM sounds as it draws nearer to the hasty gallop of Cherry. The surrounding cliffs begin to quake and shift, letting loose boulders and such tumble down below.
Cherryblossom begins to gather the people shi can to assist hir mother, keeping a sharp eye on hir parent, perhaps a bit worried about hir, helping those shi can to get out of town as quickly as possible, and away from the ridge.
FireEars gives hir child a proud grin while sie carries more up the beach to safety, narrowly being missed by a few falling rocks from the cliffs. When sie comes back, sie spies a mother and child huddled at the base of the cliffs, too frightened from the shaking and rumbling to move. Being the closest, sie gallops over, pushing aside any thoughts of danger to help them.
Cherryblossom watches hir mother, knowing shi's capable of taking care of hirself, being a quite accomplished mage as well, continuing to help those shi can away from the area, encouraging them however possible.
Heavy rolling rocks begin to pummel the village, crashing into homes and knocking down small trees. As FireEars races to meet the endangered family, shi fails to notice the heavy boulder bouncing down the cliff's edge, or the expanding fracture spreading towards hir.
Cherryblossom turns just barely in time to see the rolling boulder, missing the expanding fault-line, shi crys out, "Mom, look out!" though not likely hir mother can hear hir over the noise of the quake, shi does the only thing shi can think of. Hir hands glow for a second as the boulder is it with what could be likened to an invisible magicaly formed bat, of appropriate size for the boulder, in an attempt to knock it away from hir mother.
As predicted, FireEars doesn't see the boulder. Hir attention is intent on the mother and child as sie skids to a stop beside them. Frantic to get them to safety, sie orders the mother onto hir back just as sie looks up to see the boulder. Sie swallows hir panic when sie senses the power building from hir child then summons hir own as a shower of dust and gravel cover hir and hir passengers, obscuring hir own magical escape through a summoned portal.
Cherryblossom blinks and looks around franticaly for hir mother, seeing no signs of hir, shi runs quickly to the area, to check more carefuly, looking for any signs of if hir mother made it out all right, watching the surrounding area as best shi can, hir ears perked heavily.
Just as FireEars depearts under the shroud of debris, the crevace nearing her bursts forth with a momentous explosion, casing nearby trees and rocks to blow out in a volcanic-level eruption.
Cherryblossom eeeps as shi's knocked backwards, onto hir back, quickly rolling to hir feet and looking towards the volcanicaly destroyed area, looking around franticlay for a sign, -any- sign, of hir mother, calling out, "Mom! Mom can you hear me!?" though it comes out more of loud roars, though still decernable if you pay careful attention.
Fires begin to spread through the forest and village, homes and trees igniting from the bursts of steaming gasses from the fractured earth. The villagers, nearly all now safely positioned out of harm's way, can only watch as their homes are destroyed.
Cherryblossom continues to franticaly search for hir mother, too distracted by the idea of loosing one shi loves to notice the fires, though shi does pointedly avoid them, shi, at present, does nothing to stop or impead them.
FireEars steps out of a portal closer to town and well away from the fires, missing hir now safe passengers. Spying hir, child, sie calls out over the rumbling, "Come on, Cherry! We've got to save the village!"
The earth begins to shoot open before Cherry, cutting open and releasing a wall of steaming gas into the air.
Cherryblossom acks and leaps back from the steam, turning and running back towards hir mother, "How? What's causing these quakes!?" shi pants heavily, being about 90% of the way through hir term isn't helping hir any here.
FireEars shrugs a sie hugs hir child, "I don't know, but we've got to try. We're close enough to the center from here to pull our magicks together and put a stop to it."
Another explosion of steam bursts through the air in front of Cherry. As the cloud of hot air billows before hir, a dark face slowly forms. The face of a black fox growls, "Stop intervening, wench! This is my doing!" As quickly as it came, the visage is gone.
Cherryblossom blinks some at that, loooking around then nodding to hir mother, "I agree... It's decidedly not natural..." looking out towards the rest of the area, "Ready mom?" shi holds hir hands out infront of hir.
FireEar's quirks a brow at the image then nods to hir child, "Ready when you are, darling." then holds hir hands out in front of hir a sie braces against the tremors.
Cherryblossom nods, slowly closing hir eyes as shi begins to draw up hir energy, focusing all hir will power towards stopping this catastrophe.
Off in the forest, trees begin to fall with the sound of thunderous crashing. The woods are slowly leveling from the inside out, forming a wide circle.
Cherryblossom erfs at the sounds, but doesn't let it sway hir from the task at hand, continuing to gather hir energy, focusing it towards ending this disaster.
FireEars flicks an ear towards the sound while sie too gathers hir energy for the spell. instead of using the energy hirself, sie adds it to Cherry's, making hir spell stronger and boosting hir child's life energy to handle it.
Cherryblossom continues to gather hir energy, for about another minute, then releases it, all at once, directed towards ending this disaster and fixing the damage it wrought upon this town.
Slowly, the scortched and ruptured ground begins to mend itself, stuggling to pull back together in one piece. The geytsers of steam around the small village begin to close off, as the crevace recedes back into the forest.
Cherryblossom continues to carefuly manipulate the energy, trying not to waist any of it, hir heart and mind working in unison to fix the town as hir whole spirit focuses on that one goal.
FireEars stays close to hir only child, watching hir carefully as sie boosts both hir spirit and magickal energies while sie works.
The raging fires of the town die out slowly, extinguished by the force of Cherry's power. Burnt and dead trees slowly heal, and off into the forest one can see the leveled trees begin to mend. The force of desctruction that was once circulating through the earth has dwindled to nothing, the power behind the chaos lost.
Cherryblossom continues to slowly work towards fixing it all, letting not a single erg go to waste, hir eyes closed and hir hands glowing brightly as small sweat-drops form along hir brow, taking alot of concentration and energy to keep this up, but set in hir path, and not one to be swayed easily.
FireEars watches as hir child works, a proud smile appearing at the corners of hir muzzle as sie adds just a bit more to the spell.
Burned and demolished homes gradually reform into the sturdy shacks and huts that lined the dirt paths. The boulders begin to roll in reverse, pushing back up to their places of origin. Soon, the town and surrounding woods appear to be in pristine form.
Cherryblossom slowly finishes off the spell, completing the spell and nearly collapsing to the ground, breath coming in deep fast pants, "Oooh... Did I make it..." blinking up at hir mother, wincing some and looking very drained, having expended a mass amount of energy in fixing the town.
FireEars supports hir child's weight instead of letting hir go to the ground and smiles warmly at hir and nods, "Yes, you did, darling. You ended the quake and restored the town. You've done well."
Cherryblossom pants heavily, smiling weakly up to hir mother, hugging hir close and leaning aginst hir, "Good...." blinking some, hir eyes not quite focusing right, "I think I'm going to take a nice long catnap now..." slowly closing hir eyes as shi begins to drift off almost immidiately.
The townspeople begin to emerge from their haven, slowly examining the once-devistated town with awe in the nearly-flawless rebuilding of their homes. A few children rush to find the two chakats responsible, most of them recognizing FireEars as their rescuer.
They clamor around Fireears and Cherryblossom, excitedly asking what happened, what they did, some giving hugs to the mother chakat.
Cherryblossom prrrs softly as shi sleeps, or at least dozes lightly, leaning aginst hir mother softly, not seeming to notice the people in the least.
FireEars chuckles softly while sie levitates hir child and asks the children to be quiet. Hir first priority is to make sure Cherry has a safe place to rest, then sie'll recount the story to the eager children.
Cherryblossom prrrs happily and curls up midair, sleeeping softly and happily now, twitching a little at happy chakkitty dreams.
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