slow dancing in a burning room

It had only been a few moments since their perfect reunion. Or maybe it had been days. Time slipped onward, moment into moment - it was a concept that didn't really seem to exist. Little Shadow stayed close to Oxide's side, never more than a few feet away. They had been together when the volcano erupted. She hadn't seen it, of course, but she'd heard and felt it. The explosion had shaken her to her core. Lament had guided the Ademre south, urging them to make their way as far from the origin of the disaster as possible.

Vaguely, she wondered if their debt to the vikings would be temporarily suspended in this time of chaos, but it was like a thought that someone else was having. Eris could hardly focus on more than the shadow and smell of Oxide nearby. He anchored her to this untrustworthy, volatile world. Smoke clouded the air even this far from the explosion. Although she couldn't make out the details, she could tell that the ocean surrounding the strait they crossed was angry. Was this the price of her happiness? Everything had a price.

The wind whipped wildly. It blew the tepid scent of her heat far and wide. Eris was unconscious of the changes her body was going through; it wasn't something the Ademre acknowledged. Her face was frozen in concentration as they scrambled mindlessly forward. "I'm right behind you!" She called through the smoke ash. Of course she was. She always would be.