He had darted out without warning and Lydia, already lightheaded from the drain of energy almost fell. She staggered against the wall, glaring at the shifty eyed human. From the look on his face, he had not expected a bold attack. Disgust at the acquiescence of the villagers everywhere they went filled her face with rage. Why did no one fight back? She thought with irritation. The gentle, understanding part of her brain lay curled up in a safe corner. She wanted to fight, wanted everyone to rally to put the world to rights. They lacked a leader. They lacked hope. And so, she thought, they were kept as sheep for slaughter.<br/><br/>The loud slamming of the door stirred her to press out of the closet. Her skin crawled as the screams were silenced by the crunching of bones. Shenyo’s voice resonated through he as he commanded her to burn the shop to the ground. While he made sure the door remained closed, she summoned even more magik and flung fire balls, first at the walls in the kitchen area, then at the floor around the table, leaving Shenyo a pathway for retreat. As the tongues of fire caught hold and greedily began to devour the dry, ancient wood, she could hear that the bone crunching had stopped.<br/><br/>Shenyo couldn’t hold the table over the trap door and slid the latch into place at the same time, so she darted in and did that. From her position of kneeling on the floor, she could smell a fetid breath oozing from the floorboards. She didn’t hesitate, but stood and directed a fireball right at the place where that thing had been snuffling at her. A shiver of heebie jeebies crawled down her back. An unearthly howling and yelping began to vibrate the floor under their feet.<br/><br/>“Come now,” she urged him. “ We must away so I can make sure to burn this place to the ground. It is too dangerous for us to stay inside a moment longer.”<br/><br/>His tail flicked out and brushed her cheek. Lydia hoped that meant he agreed. She turned and ran out the door, waiting for Shenyo to join her. The man, the informer stood without, his mouth agape and for once she didn’t think about consequences, or doing harm to none, she threw a fireball at him and he exploded into a shower of blood and ash. Her head was spinning by now, and she grounded herself to the Earth to draw in as much energy as possible so she had enough reserves to finish what she had started.<br/><br/>“Shenyo? Come on.” She yelled over the roaring of the flames in her hands.<br/>