After returning to the Dome and finding Cal, Mariyah asked him about the smoke. He had no answers for her, other than assuming it was a large campfire some village decided to start up. She wanted to agree, but her gut kept nagging her to think twice. She set her hands on her hips as she paced around the glass wall of the Dome, her eyes locked on disturbed sky. The smoke was becoming thick and black.

She pressed her lips together in thought and just shook her head. “I’m going to take a look at what it is. Just to be safe,” she said to Cal.

Mariyah brought Rose with her, and the two flew towards the source of the smoke. As they grew closer, soaring over the trees, she began to hear distant noises. She couldn't make out what she was hearing at first, but it was soon clear to her that the sounds were screams of women and children. Her heart dropped as she turned her eagle head to Rose who looked just as startled. “Let's go!” Mariyah called out. She quickly sped up closer to the smoke, diving down as fast as she could, Rose following close behind her.

The two girls shifted instantly and ran into the streets of a village which had large huts and buildings on the sides of a dirt road. This village seemed much more advanced than Peter's with actual built homes rather than tents and huts. But these houses were ablaze with rampant and hungry flames, pumping smoke into the air above them and leaving the village hazed and cloudy all around.

Mariyah choked on the thickness of the smoke and looked about. “Rose!” she shouted. “Please, go get more Healers! As many people as fast as you can!!” She was almost screaming.

Rose quickly turned around in a panic, her words taken by shock. She stumbled as she began to run and jumped into the air before shifting into a dove and flying off as fast as she could.

Mariyah stood alone in the streets as she heard screams coming from homes in every direction.

“Please!!” she heard someone yell out in the building beside her, and another plea for help behind her. Then another and another, too many for her to keep track of.

It was chaos.

Pounding on doors.

Screams of parents, and cries of babies.

She stood in the middle of the village, nerves bunching in her throat as she spun in a circle, looking in every direction. Voices of agony surrounded her, and her senses were soon overwhelmed with relentless sounds of pure torture.

A crippling wave of panic fell over her; she didn’t know which home to go after, she didn't know the fastest way to do this, she didn't know anything other than to move towards a house. There was no way only she could save them all in time

What is happening??!!

“E-everyone! We’re going to get you out! I’m coming!!” Mariyah's cracking voice called out to whoever could hear her. She couldn’t seem to pull her legs in one direction, rather they felt pulled to go in every one. Who do I go to?!

“Help! Someone, please! Just save my baby, just save her!” was the only voice she could make out through the screams. The woman’s voice screamed from the building behind Mariyah, sticking out more than the rest. She spun around, seeing flames bursting out of the window. Without hesitation, Mariyah swiftly ran to the door and tried to push it open, but it wasn’t budging.

Hearing a clunking noise under her efforts, she looked down at the door latch and noticed a padlock. They locked them?! Rage filled Mariah’s heart as she pictured guards locking these families in their homes to burn. How could they?! Her stomach turned and with fuming anger, she kicked the door again, and then once again, and again, until the wood around the latch split, forcing the door open. When the door swung open, she quickly stepped to the side, seeing the flames burst out of the now open door as they were exposed to more air. The flash of heat that smacked her face told her just how hot it must be in there.

She breathed out nervously as she realized she wouldn’t be able to enter that way. “I’m coming, miss! Please, just hold on!” Mariyah shouted, hoping to provide the woman with some hope.

She shifted into a monkey and quickly climbed the house onto the shingled roof. Once on top, she shifted back to a human and began smacking her hand against the shingles. “Where are you?! Scream so I can find you!” Mariyah shouted and stood silent for a few seconds, waiting for a sound.

“Here! Here I am! Please, save him!” the woman shouted below her before soon erupting in a fit of nasty coughs.

Mariyah’s eyes shot to the direction of where she heard the pleas for help and ran on the roof toward the area she thought the woman was in. Her heart was pounding and her eyes blurred from adrenaline with screaming from everywhere in the background.

Focus, Mariyah! One family at a time. “Okay, move away from the ceiling and duck down!” she shouted before breathing in deeply as she peeled the shackles from the roof, cutting her hands and fingers in the process. Once she made a hole barely big enough for her full body to enter through the rafters, she reached her hand down in it and waved it about to signal to them where she was. “Come here!” Mariyah shouted into the hole, black smoke almost suffocating her as it funneled out of the hole.

Seeing that the woman wasn’t coming, Mariyah sat down and dipped her feet into the hole, then jumped in and landed on the wooden floor. She was immediately bombarded with even more of the hellish smoke, her eyes burning, causing her to keep them shut. She coughed roughly and then forced her heavy eyes open despite the burning pain she felt and the tears that began to form as they tried to moisten her drying eyes. “Where are you?!” she shouted through her coughs.

She didn’t hear any response for a few moments until she finally heard a faint baby’s cry.

Mariyah’s heartbeat quickened as she laid flat on down to the ground hoping to get away from the smoke. But she couldn’t see a thing, the smoke blinded her and caused wrenching pain inside her eyes as she forced them to remain open, but still, only black. All she had to go by was her sense of hearing. She blinked repeatedly and waved her hand in the air, swiping at the thick smoke hoping to clear the air. “I’m here, just keep crying for me,” Mariyah choked out loudly as she crawled on the floor, her hands in front of her, feeling around. She followed the sound of the baby’s cries until she reached her hand out and felt a human body.

Light through the hole in the roof illuminated the corner just enough to provide Mariyah with sight once again through her blurry and throbbing eyes. The woman was now unconscious, but the baby clutched so tightly in her arms was still crying. Mariyah breathed out heavily, relieved to see again. She whispered an expression of gratitude as she stood up.

The young girl coughed a few times and gasped for air as she felt her lungs clogging more and more. “I found you, come on,” she said raspily as she scooped up the small baby. Holding the child in one hand, she dragged the mother towards the hole in the roof.

Her weak body quivered as she looked up, unsure of how to lift both bodies out. She looked down in search of anything to help her lift them up, but found nothing. She could feel her mind clouding and her swollen eyelids beginning to not give her a choice and shut on their own. What animal, what animal? she asked herself.

But the next time she forced her gaze back up to the hole, Cal’s face peered back, and her heart jumped. “Cal!” she croaked out, grunting as she lifted the baby up and brought the child to the hole in the roof. He reached his two arms down and took the baby, then the woman’s body that Mariyah just barely managed to lift upwards.

Cal called up a few eagle Healers who flew in, all gently gripping the woman’s body with their talons and lifting her off the roof, heading back to the Dome. Mariyah looked up through the hole and weakly took Cal’s extended arm.

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"Come here!" He looked down at her with strained eyes, lifting her body up out of the hole and over his shoulder.

He quickly walked to the end of the roof and leaped off, landing on his feet harshly with a rough grunt. Mariyah held onto his shirt tightly and looked up at him as he gently placed her on the ground away from the building now engulfed in flames. “Thanks,” she coughed out. She shook her head, her thoughts disoriented and swarming her all at once.

Cal stayed hovered over her body as his eyes scanned her repeatedly before locking onto her blackened face. “Breathe, Mariyah, please, breathe.”

She nodded her head, choking a bit more until she could finally get more words out. “I’m fine-I’m fine.” But it was a lie, and the smoke in her lungs was excruciating. The agony her eyes were in was no better, and she felt the strong urge to be knocked out and put to sleep. But still, she sat up and looked around, Cal pulling back but still watching her. Her puffy eyes widened at her surroundings. “There’s so many!” Another scream caught her attention. Despite her weak state, she scrambled up to her feet.

Cal stood up alongside her, reaching for her arm. “No, Mariyah, don’t-”

But she quickly sprinted off to the next house before he could grasp on to her. Her irritated eyes couldn't supply much vision, but she noticed movement out of the corners of her eyes as she ran. A flash of cheetah print, and a flash of tiger stripes. The other Domers must be here. Reassurement flushed through her mind.

“Mariyah!” Cal shouted after her, running behind her. “You’ve taken too much smoke!”

But his words were silent to her. She used her knife to pry the padlock off of the closest house to her, smoke almost exploding out of the house as the door opened. She stumbled backwards, falling as she stared into the doorway. Flames.

No one was in there that could possibly still be alive.

“Mariyah?!” Cal called again.

Tears filled her eyes as she screamed out, “NO!!” and ran to the next house. After tearing open the door and allowing the initial smoke out, she immediately dove in, her skin burning from the heat.

“Over here! Over here!” a man shouted, his voice so hoarse and choked up that she could barely hear.

She pushed her way through the debris, her eyes pouring out tears from a mix of smoke and her own emotions. She reached her hands around desperately as all she saw was blurry blackness through her pained and squinted eyes.

“Here I am!” she shouted, grasping onto a finally fleshy feeling.

The man used her arm to support himself as she carefully rushed him out of the building.

“Healer!” Mariyah croaked out as Cal ran over to her.

“Stop, Mariyah!” he shouted.

“No! Don’t stop me! We need to get more out!” she shouted back, looking at him with eyes that were almost swollen shut.

He looked at her smoke covered face and bloodshot eyes that were struggling to stay open. “Mariyah…” He motioned a Healer over and the man was quickly taken care of. “Mariyah, you need to see one yourself.”

Her hands trembled violently by her side and her body twitched at every scream that continued to fill her ears. The cries around her soon grew muffled by the sound of her clogged lungs wheezing. “There’s more burning!!” she cried out raspily.

“They’re doing what they can, Mariyah.” Cal took a step towards her, wrapping his arms around her as he couldn’t help but feel his heart break at the sight of her in such a state. “Everyone is breaking into buildings as we speak, there is nothing more we can do-”

But she pushed him off of her, tears streaming down her cheeks, and ran in another direction of the few screams left to hear. Most of the screams were slowly quieting as the Domers rescued some and others died of burns. By now, there were hardly anymore screams of pain to release except those of sorrow and grief.

Her weak legs quivered with each step as she ran towards the last sound of shouting. Her head flicked to the building where a woman was screaming in tears.

“My husband is in there!” the woman screamed out. “Someone, please!” she yelled. The woman was pulling at the boarded up windows, to no avail.

Mariyah grunted and ran over to her. “Where is he?!” she asked in a hoarse voice as she looked around for a window that wasn’t boarded up.

Following behind, Cal ran after his friend. “Mariyah let me go in, you can’t go back in the smoke anymore!” he shouted. “You can barely even see.” He began grabbing wooden boards and ripping them off the windows.

“Cal it’s unsafe!! You-”

“Mariyah, please!” He looked at her with such serious eyes that she went silent. “Stay here.”

Lius jogged over to Mariyah at the same time, where he took her hands in his and looked at her closely. “You’re a mess- you need to see someone-”

She shook her head at Lius, watching the crying wife. “Just wait, please.”

Cal turned to the hysterical woman. “Where is he?”

“In the bedroom! That's where they locked him - God, please help him!” she begged.

Mariyah swallowed hard as she watched Cal climb in through the window, into the house that was engulfed in flames. Soon, his back was taken by the black smoke and he could no longer be seen. She wanted desperately to go in with him but she knew that’d just cause extra work for Cal to help her along with the man as well. She held her hands together tightly as she paced around the window, stretching her neck to see and begging her blurry vision to clear up just for this moment.

Too many seconds passed without a word from him. Lius rubbed her back gently to comfort her as best he could as she tried to somehow see through the smoke.

“A hundred fifteen, a hundred sixteen…” Mariyah finished counting. “He’s been in there too long!” she shouted as she stood by the window. “Cal!!” she called, but there was no response.

“Cal!” she shouted again, her voice cracking.

Her eyes widened as she finally saw him appear in the window frame with a body over his shoulder. “Oh my- Cal!”

He handed Mariyah the man’s body through the window, and then climbed out after him. She grabbed the man, but her knees buckled under the weight and she fell down with the body on top of her. Lius immediately helped her, pulling the man off and helping him lay beside her. The man had burns all over, and his skin was incredibly tender. Her chest heaved at the smell of burning flesh that filled her nostrils.

Cal burst into loud fits of coughs, while Mariyah scrambled to her feet to rush to Cal. “Are you okay? You breathed in too much!”

He hunched over with his hands on his knees and let out a chuckle mixed with a cough. “You’re one to talk.”

Mariyah breathed out in relief and hugged him tightly. “You scared me,” she whispered.

She felt him hug her back gently before the two slowly pulled away and she looked at the body of the rescued man below her. She looked at the wife beside her and motioned her to come over, her panic beginning to calm down. “Your husband is alive. But he’s unconscious. He needs help- he needs help now,” she croaked out and motioned over a Healer to come help.

“Cal!” Rose shouted, running over to him. “You shouldn’t have gone in there!” She wiped his charred face with a cloth as her wide eyes scanned his body for wounds.

He gently took her hands and motioned to the burn victim. “No, no, Rose, help this man. I’m fine.”

Rose turned and looked down at the withered body that Lius was trying to wake up.

"No, no, let him stay unconscious." She shook her head, looking at the man's burns. "It's better that he's out."

Jord, one of the head healers next to Rose, ran over and looked at the man. He ran a hand through his short and dusty brown hair and rubbed the back of his neck as he saw how serious the wounds were. He frowned as he observed the wife crying beside the unconscious man.

“We’re going to have to make a hammock,” Rose said. “If we tied him, his skin would just…” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Fall off,” she finished. Rose bit her lip nervously and called over for a woman named Anne, another new Healer. “Please, he needs to be taken immediately to the Dome.”

Anne nodded and grabbed a blanket that the medics were handing out. She laid it out on the ground and looked at Jord. “I’ll get the shoulders, you get his feet.”

Jord nodded and bent down, putting his hands on the man’s ankles. He stopped, feeling the skin, and looked at Anne. It felt as if the skin would just slide off if he touched it. Feeling around, he found an area of less burned skin and gripped that. Anne gripped his torso and they then lifted him, and set him onto the blanket.

“Let me come with you, please,” the woman said through her tears.

Jord nodded his head and looked at Mariyah. “Can you find her a ride?”

The woman shook her head and shifted into a falcon. “I’ll fly with you.”

He nodded his head and he and Anne both shifted into large birds. They each gripped opposite sides of the blanket and slowly lifted up, forming a sort of hammock that the man lay in. They began to take off, bringing him to the Dome as the wife and Rose flew behind.

After watching them take him away, Mariyah turned her head to look around at what was happening with the rest of the village.

And her heart broke when she did. As if she watched the sight around her ensue in slow motion. The blurry sight of charred bodies far too small to be adults were carried out of houses. Surviving mothers were moaning in pain for the loss of their children. The infants and children who survived were crying and looking for their killed parents.

Mariyah's arms hung by her side as she stood motionless with silent tears slipping from her lids. She felt her knees beginning to buckle below her. And she soon collapsed.