The sky fell, screaming.

Spears of glowing fire rained down from the night sky. Some hit the nearby water, the howl of their fiery passage extinguished in an explosion of water and steam. Some struck houses. The smaller ones, little burning peas, pitted miniature craters in walls and rooftops. Some were bigger, ripping through shingles and punching through roofs, leaving burning wood and shattered clay in their wake. The nightmarish sounds of splintering explosions suggested that some were disastrously large.

Maethius entered Berendale at a dead sprint, hugging the sides of the street, hoping that the buildings would shield him from any but the largest of the fireballs. His younger brother Rhaiven ran with him, hugging the opposite side. Larger and stronger from his work as a stonemason's apprentice, he kept pace easily.

The brothers had been collecting firewood when the mountain exploded. They felt it more than heard it - a bone-grinding rumble as a pillar of smoke and fire shot towards the heavens. It lasted only seconds, followed by ominous quiet. As a silent black cloud slowly filled the sky, the brothers were about to give up their search and haul the half-filled wood-cart back to town. Then the rain of fire began pounding down around them, and they abandoned even that.

"I'm going to find Thea!" Rai shouted. Math nodded, waving him away.

"I'll find Mom!" Math yelled back. Best to split up, he thought. Rai and Thea had only met this summer, but already were planning to be married next spring. Math was fond of the young girl and hoped she was safe, but as much as he wanted to go after her, his mother lived alone and would need help.

Math turned a corner and Rai was almost instantly out of sight behind him, obscured by a cloud of ash and smoke. He was on her street now, her house a small, nondescript 2-floor cottage placed neatly in the middle of a row of small, nondescript 2-floor cottages. Half of them were in flames. Some of them were levelled. Math could make out a broken windowpane and the telltale glow of flames as he approached his mother's home.

The impacts around him were less frequent now but the town still burned. He hit the front door hard, splintering it off its hinges. His brother may have been stronger, but he was no runt. As kids, they had been able to hold their own even when outnumbered by town bullies three years older. It wasn't long before the two of them were running off the street toughs, which earned them a constant crowd of young hangers-on at the time.

"Ma!" he shouted as he crashed through the door. "Are you in here?"  Inside, the fire was spreading quickly but the ground floor was not yet completely consumed. A quick check of the few rooms turned up nothing. He turned towards the stairs and was just able to hear his mother's voice over the crackle of the flames.

"I'm up here!" her voice carried down. Up the stairs Math could see more serious flames. Going down on hands and knees he scrambled quickly up, trying to stay below the heat and smoke.

The top floor of the house was more of a low-ceilinged loft. The roof on each side slanted in, leaving enough room to barely stand upright only in the center of the room. This was where she slept. A low, long chest of drawers hugged one wall, just fitting under the slope of the low ceiling. Two windows occupied the unsloped ends. A small vanity sat near the window looking out over the street. A small bed occupied the other end. His mother Ana was near the chest of drawers, frantically gathering up a few of the knickknacks mothers collect over the years from their growing children.

"Leave it!" Math ordered. "We have to go!"  He grabbed her hand, dragging her towards the stairs. Reluctance showed on her face, but she didn't argue. She was always a smart woman, and although willing to take some risk she saw the flames approaching and knew her son was right.

"I'm coming. Where's Rai?  Is he alright?"

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"He's fine Ma, he went for Thea. Are you hurt?"

"No I'm fine. Let's --"

They weren't halfway to the stairs when they were thrown back by a hideous, unbearable detonation of wood.  The ceiling didn't collapse, it was just gone. Math pushed himself back to his feet quickly, pulling her mother up with him. The stairs were gone with the ceiling, leaving a gaping hole in the roof and the wall. He caught a glimpse of the town, still half in flames, then turned to look for an escape.

"The window," he ordered. "Hurry!"  He pulled his mother towards the now-shattered glass. She stumbled behind him, and he turned.

"You are hurt," he said. The blood was visible now, a red blotch spreading out from the length of splintered wood protruding just above her knee.

"I'm fine. Let's go."  She leaned heavily on his shoulder, swaying, but kept her feet.

Math nodded and headed for the window as she hobbled next to him. The glass was mostly gone, leaving a few shards jutting out from the frame. Math kicked them free with a boot, then leaned out. The air outside was cool compared to the furnace in the house. Below, people ran up and down the street, all tending to their own personal emergencies. The window let out onto a thin strip of roof, then dropped to the cobbled walk leading up to the front door.

"Can you hold on?"  Math asked.

"I think so."

Math stepped through the window, one hand on the window frame, and balanced on the narrow row of shingles under the window.

"Grab on," he said. She stepped gingerly through the window herself, grunting in pain as the shaft of wood piercing her leg bumped the window frame. Math steadied her with a hand to her shoulder, the other hand still gripping the wood frame. As she stepped out, she wrapped her arms over his shoulders, clasping them in front of his chest.

"Ok, hold tight, and when I am hanging, you slide down."  Math crouched down, gripping the edge of the roof, wondering if his grip or the clay tile would give way under their combined weight. He slid his legs over the edge, then his stomach, and started lowering himself down to get as close to the ground as he could before he let go.

The tile gave way first, sliding free with a crack as he slid his chest down over the edge. He flailed desperately for a handhold but found only smooth slippery tile, followed by empty air. They were still several feet from the ground below, but he only had time to push himself away in an effort not to land on his passenger.

The effort was barely enough. They hit the ground hard. He didn't land directly on her but came down hard on her uninjured leg and arm. She cried out as they hit the ground, and Math heard and felt the crack of bone underneath him. His own ankle twisted on impact, and a wave of nausea overtook him as his elbow cracked against the stones.

He laid on his back, stunned, as the house crackled and roared in flames in front of them. The house was close to fully engulfed, and the flames were searing his skin. Shaking his head clear he rolled to his knees, taking a quick inventory of his injuries. Pain shot through his ankle and elbow, but neither seemed to be broken.

His mother was not so lucky. Her impaled leg still seeped blood, and blood also dripped from a gash that showed through the hair above her ear. Her other leg was twisted below the knee. She moaned weakly, but only one of her arms was moving.

The storm of fire from the sky seemed to have ended, but the heat from the burning house was unbearable this close. Math forced himself to move, limping over to his mother's head and grabbing the cloth over her shoulders. She was still conscious and knew she had to move. He could see her grit her teeth as he started dragging her further into the street. She groaned through her clenched jaw but didn't scream. He saw Rai and Thea running up to the house then and let himself double over, coughing out soot until his chest felt like it was going to collapse.

Rai immediately pulled the knife at his belt and cut a strip of cloth from his mother's already ruined leggings. He cut the cloth completely away from the other leg and folded into a square. He packed the square around the wound, then fastened it down with the longer strip, tying it down tight enough to keep pressure on the wound.

Math regained his breath enough to speech in a raspy, wheezing voice.

"You ok?"  he asked Thea.

"I'm good," she answered.

"Rai?" he asked.

"We're fine. Half the town's gone though. And not everyone made it," Rhaiven replied.

Math nodded but didn't have the heart to ask who hadn't. "Let's get Mom to the surgeon," he suggested instead.

The destruction around them had left enough broken timber to find a couple straight pieces to splint the broken leg. A couple more strips of cloth cut from the leggings tied them in place with a minimum of crying from the injured woman. The arm was not broken but seemed to hang loose from the shoulder. A makeshift sling kept it from moving, and the brothers lifted her onto half of a broken door as gently as they could. The improvised stretcher complete, they lifted her, one to each end, and went in search of the town's only doctor.