Cinders

The air was still smouldering. What remained of Svalberg was a pile of bodies, burned out shells of houses reduced to their stoney foundations, and some charred wagons where the residents had attempted to escape the onslaught of… well, the trio wasn't quite certain what. Ash fell like snow into the hot air and cast the cobble streets into a night-like darkness, and what actual snow had been on the ground had melted away. A few crackling wooden beams lay across the walls of houses they'd once supported.
It had been the thick black smoke rising along the northern cliff face of the Jordskarian kingdom that lured them there. At their lead, a ryno with pale blue fur that fell around her in wirey wave. Drizzling red markings spanned down her spine and her paws, tail, and muzzle were dipped in the same crimson hues. Dragonis Hart looked upon the decimation with a heavy heart, and curled her paws into the blanket of ash.
Trailing behind her, to her right, a much smaller ketucari—short legged and finned—padded along hurriedly to keep up with his companions' much longer strides. His coat a deep blue and spanned with shimmering golds. His furtive gaze darted from burned out husk, to blackened body, to dark sky.
To Hart's left, a walking galazy of a ketucari. Even covered in fallen ash, Galaeth's shimmering purple hues gleamed. Her pale eyes seemed Unfocused on the decimation, but she spoke plain. "It wasn't an eruption."

It was a conclusion none of them had wanted to come to.

"I can't smell through the ash." Parvana said, folding his ears back. "If there's survivors—"

"Shh!" Hart hissed and dropped her belly to the ground. Galaeth followed, though Parvana saw no need. He was no taller than their shoulders as they lay and squinted at the cliff face.
There was a shape against it, massive and misshapen. It walked on two legs amongst the rubble like a wading bird across the surface of lilypads, glowing with a blue light. Its legs were marked by uneven bands of more of that blue light. Its waist, narrow, rose to a broad chest marred with more of the glow. It bent its—his—head down like unfolding a slinky, to fix his giant golden eyes at Something on the ground. He swung an arm forward, touched whatever it was he was looking at… and then straightened back up and turned his head as though on a pivot, to stare at the trio.

Bjorgrim's voice boomed in their heads. "You are not from these lands. Why have you come here?" he parted his heavy jaws, the tusks jutting up from his chin framing more conical teeth.
Hart stood, slowly, and tipped her head respectfully. "We saw the smoke, and hoped to help."

There wasn't much left to help.
She wasn't sure there was anything left to help. Bjorgrim pivoted his head this way and that, and heaved a great sigh. "…If only that you could."

The weight of the tragedy surrounding them settled all at once, and silence hung heavy for a long while. Parvana lowered his head, and sat, tucking his tail around his paws. Galaeth closed her eyes against the dark shapes and red glows from the embers. Hart's heart sank, and she lowered her head. Too late. They were too late.

"No point in staying here, then." Parvana said. "Cleaning up won't be much help if no one's left. Sorry for intruding, Bjorgrim." he stood, ducked his horned head, and started to turn away.
For just one survivor, Hart knew, Parvana would be willing to scour the entirety of the rubble to find them and ensure they were safe. If there wasn't anyone to find though—and Bjorgrim would know better than anyone—the little danuoc wouldn't see much point in dirtying his paws.
Hart was… admittedly inclined to disagree. And Galaeth was an unknown. If Bjorgrim said there was no one, Galaeth likely would follow Parvana.

Bjorgrim nodded, settling back on his haunches.
Galaeth started to speak, Hart suspected to ask what happened, when the quiet was interrupted by first a loud -thunk- and then a metallic ringing -clang-.

They snapped their gazes towards a particularly large building some distance behind Bjorgrim. In what little light that made it through the ashfall, it was hardly visible. Hart hadn't actually noticed it, distracted as she'd been by Bjorgrim himself.

Now, it stood out like a sore thumb, because there was a bright, golden light coming from inside.
A voice, young, masculine, probably a toa, called out into the dark: "Sound off: who's not dead?"

It seemed… cruel, given the circumstances, and Draconis Hart had to bite back a sour reply.
Thankfully, the stranger seemed to recognize their mistake, because the next thing out of his mouth was a much quieter "…Oh."

In a flurry of motion, four bodies moved. Hart, Parvana, and Galaeth broke into simultaneous sprints over the ash-covered cobble, whiel Bjorgrim unfolded to cross the distance. Over the clatter of claws, the stranger's voice changed pitch when a dark silhouette peered through the open door and spotted the Domain Guardian hurtling towards their position at mach-fuck: "Oh shit—MOR?! MOR WE GOTTA—" They tried to turn, but a massive fist shot out and snatched them from the doorway.
Yelps answered from within the building, a chorus of voices.

Bjorgrim jerked his head back, eyes wide, and dropped who he had in his fist. Hart leaped over the outline of another building to close the distance between herself and… oh, the building was a blacksmith's forge.
No wonder it survived the fire.
She panted, slowing as she approached what was now more clearly a danuoc. Their coat blue in the light from the door, a piercing horn between their eyes. Something familiar about their scent.
Claws pattered on stone inside the smith, and a second danuoc—lilac with a cream hood, a twin horn to the other danuoc's between their eyes and a jutting dagger of a horn atop their nose—skidded into the doorway, snarled and barelled out to leap over the blue one and stand between them and Bjorgrim. "Paws off my brother!"

Galaeth slowed and climbed atop what had once been a wagon to peer at the scene. Parvana practially slithered into place beside Hart, and blinked in surprise at his fellows.

Bjorgrim crouched low, knuckles against the earth to brace himself, and he once more slinkied his neck out to peer at the much smaller creatures around him. From inside the forge, voices rose in whispers and whimpers. Nervous bleats from akadri, the croaking voices of jordskar, the hooting nasal tones of humans. A few growling chirps and trills from other ketucari. Bjorgrim listened, ignoring the lilac ketucari boldly snarling at him, their tail in the air and feathers splayed out, and the blue toa sighing in relief and licking where Bjorgrim's talons had pierced his side.

Hart watched this all, and decided to take matters into her own paws. "What happened here?"

The danuocs both snapped their heads towards her, and regarded her with expressions she could only describe as 'doubtful'. The toa glanced between Herself and Bjorgrim, ears twitching and tail thumping on the ashen ground.
He looked around at the dark, ash covered streets. His expression fell. "…There uh. There was a uh. A mob." he said, finally. "Some toa—I think he was a toa, at least—bronze coat, big gold patches, smooth feathers. One of those… catlike ketucari, like your friend there? They called him some sorta… monster? Bound him up to a pole in town and set fire. Think they said he was a 'doppleganger'?"

Parvana made a sound in her throat like a low whistle. Hart never knew how danuocs made that sound. "You know the toa?" He asked. The stranger shook his head.

"No, never seen him. We're not local, just visiting. Anyways, once the toa started screaming something… weird happened. Sky turned black. And the fire kinda… exploded?"

Bjorgrim's expression tightened, disbelief on every line of his knobbled body. To Hart's left, Galaeth made a curious sound. "The sky turned black and the fire exploded?" She echoed. "How very strange. Have you any idea why?"

"Better question!" Parvana interrupted, before the toa could continue. "Who are you guys and who all is in there?"

"Oh! Right uhm. I'm Nile. This is my sister, Mor." Nile motioned to himself and the lilac. "We saw the fire explode and just kinda. Tried to get everyone to the safest looking building?" he looked around again, expression twisting with guilt. "Didn't think it would be this bad, though… We've… heard of this sort of thing before. We put silver in the doors and windows. Called to everyone who couldn't fit in the forge to do the same."

Silver? Hart sat down and nodded, trying to making sense of this. 'Mor' picked up where Nile had left off. "Apparently it happens a lot up here. Rumor's there's an old Count who… well. He knows somehow that there's burnings that happen. And he doesn't Stop them but he uh…"

"Braham." Bjorgrim said, voice booming once more in everyone's thoughts. "I will see to him. He has damaged my domain enough."

"You know him?" Mor asked, expression and voice flat in a way that Hart recognized as a very Zolkanian type of sarcasm. "And you haven't stopped him from eliminating a town before?"

"Mortal affairs." Bjorgrim answered. "His lands. Not my concern until he takes too much from my domain."

"Forgive me interrupting." Parvana drawled, "can we get back to the exploding fire? And how you all kept safe inside that building while the rest of the city went up in flames? What's a bit of silver going to do?"

The siblings shrugged in unison, and shifted to sit with their tails crossed over each other. Hart squinted, trying to figure out just what was so familiar about them. Nile said, "Supposedly it keeps the Count away. Can't get past it or something. It worked. And I uh… I won't say it didn't get hot in there. Some of the akadri are… er… pretty sick from it, actually. But we kept cool enough. Some folks have ice magic, that helped."

People were approaching the door now, expressions twisting in horror as they saw what had happened to their city. An akadri bleated and took off down the street, calling for someone. Hart frowned after them. Others began to weep, someone fell to their knees.

"…He started closer to the mountain. That's… why we had time to get to cover." Mor explained, over the rising din of voices. "…We didn't… think he'd really go after everyone." That certainly explained her brother's callous remark before. "Just enough to… I dunno, make a point? …Seeing all this, I wonder how he missed us."
Beside Hart, Parvana's expression hardened as he looked across the destroyed city. She shook the ash from her fur, and gathered some up in her paw. There would be a lot of clean-up to do here…

"…We'll stay and help clean up." she decided. "…Bury whats left of the dead, if that's what's done here."
"Agreed." Galaeth said, turning to amble after the sprinting akadri. "…We came to help. If there's someone to help, we'll help."

Bjorgrim stood, nodded once. And turned. He strode away, as easy as could be, without another word. Further north.

"We'd better get to work. We don't got anyone to grieve, unlike these folks." Parvana said, getting to his paws and stalking forward. "…least the asshole was kind enough to pile most of the bodies already."

With little further preamble, the ketucari dispersed and got to work.