Alius heard two explosions, the first shaking the walls of the already rickety huts, knocking off poorly attached planks, and the second sending a dark blur tumbling into the sky. Just seconds after, a barrel of concentric circles radiating a blue light formed around the hole the earlier explosions had left, releasing a low hum that built in intensity until the screeching culminated in a earth-shattering blast, destroying what was left of Three’s hut and sending a beam of light to pursue the dot in the sky.

Ducking under a flying plank, Alius sheltered behind a nearby wall. Waiting until the shaking stopped, he stood up, patting splinters off of his pants. It wasn’t until he stood that Alius noticed that it was miserably hot.

That’s strange…it wasn’t hot before, why now?

Alius circled back around the wall, and hmmed when it felt cool again.

Sticking his hand past the wall left it to be enveloped by the exhausting heat again.

Standing to the side of the wall, Alius saw a trail of paper stamped into the ground, piling up to a hut. All the writing was spilling out the windows, to the point where the ground near the shack was no longer visible. Also, there was a tiny lick of fire spreading from the side. One bare flicker that danced along the window.

Seeing it was the only visible source of heat, Alius considered his options before deciding that the best course of action would be to extinguish it so he could get closer to what was presumably Two’s house. It fit the description perfectly, being both a dump and on fire, and with the only information Alius had being this house, it was the best bet.

Alius stuck his hand into the heat again, marveling at the heat that the tiny flickering flame was able to make. For it to be so hot meant it wasn’t any ordinary flame. Or the entire house was on fire, just invisibly. Alius decided to just go with the former.

Thinking back to his childhood days, which were just three days ago, Alius recalled a class he had half slept through about fires.

To extinguish a fire, just pour water on it.

Alius spit around the wall, but it bubbled into nothing before hitting the ground.

If the fire is small enough, you can try to stamp it out.

Was the fire small? Yes. Did Alius want to try and stamp it out? He took a look at the distorted airwaves above the fire that reached high above the hut. No.

Smothering a fire in dirt can extinguish it, but be wary of the residual heat.

That sounded promising enough for Alius. He picked a rock off the ground, recoiling a tiny bit when its rough edges scraped against his fingers. Peering down at the fire, Alius whipped his arm around, shooting the rock towards the tongue of flame.

As the stone spun closer to the flame, it began to smoothen out, visibly melting even as it approached the twist of dancing red.

The rock plinked onto the flame and bounced inside, where it hit something with a ding and went silent.

Slowly, the tiny red flame dimmed, but didn’t shrink. Instead, a pale see-through green-blue tinge crept up from the bottom, flushing the red flames out.

Seeing this, Alius felt a strange sense of dread. In just moments, he heard a female voice exclaim, “Oh! You work now?” The flame sputtered and whipped wildly, then shrunk itself out of existence.

It didn’t explode? Thank-

A violent shock threw Alius off his feet, accompanied by a visible shockwave that originated from the hut, first ripping all the paper piled around the hut, then shredding every building around. Alius huddled behind the wall, covering himself with his arms as wooden splinters peppered him from all directions. The blast didn’t produce any sound, but instead left a ringing directly in Alius’s head. The only noise present was the quiet thumps of cracked wood hitting the ground.

When the shaking stopped, Alius unsteadily rose to his feet, standing in a fine layer of wooden splinters. Brushing the wood chips off his clothes, Alius saw people standing in the ruins of the previous shacks, also brushing themselves off.

A deep voice cut through the crunches of the wood and the quiet crackling of flames. “Alright, who did it this time?”

“Not me.” A lyrical voice that cut off into coughing shortly after.

“Nor was it I.” This time the voice was rough, but carried an invisible weight that made Alius shiver.

“Hey! Everybody, I did it!”

Suddenly, Alius saw all the figures turn towards the source of the voice, their eyes carrying a predatory shine.

“Wait! Not like that!”

The first voice resounded like deep rolls of thunder. “Speak quickly.”

“One, One, we’re all siblings here. Relax a little. Please.”

The voice took a breath that turned into an excited squeal. “I got it to work!”

There was maybe only a second of stunned silence before everyone started shouting at each other.

“Dammit! I wanted to be the first!”

“Oh, she gets it first? That’s not fair! Two’s been here for like, a day. I’ve been here two whole MONTHS! And SHE gets it first?”

“Speak for yourselves. I can finally go and have a hot bath. Some idiot stole my bathtub.”

“And that's our problem? Bring more stuff next time, dumbass.”

“Well, do any of you want to hear how it worked?”

All the voices shut up at that. The figures standing in the ruined buildings rushed towards the voice, which presumably belonged to Two, Alius’s next lead. Their conversation was quite a bit quieter now, but still audible.

“So, I was struggling to get it to open up, but then a rock flew through my window and hit it. Yes, Four, a rock. No, I didn't plan that. It just happened. No, I’m not the chosen one. What? No! Wait, where’s Three? Not you, other Three.”

It was then that everyone on scene noticed a high-pitched whistling, and upon looking up, they saw a battered human figure drop out of the sky, trailing light blue shards that dissipated after he passed.

Three was unlucky enough to first hit the wall, audibly knocking the wind out of him, then bouncing face-first into a clump of splintered wood.

“Oh. Hey guys. Hi Alius.” Three’s voice was hoarse, made even more muffled by the mouthful of wood dust and spikes he was talking through.

“Who’s Alius?”

The wall Alius was crouching behind twitched before sliding to the ground in many, many small pieces. Finally, Alius was able to count the-

One, two, three-

Eight people gathered behind it. Five girls, two boys plus Three who was collapsed on the ground. There was also Ditus, who appeared from out of nowhere, standing in the middle of the group. As the seven of them whirled around, shocked, Ditus tipped his hat in a greeting.

“Nice to see you all together. Meet Alius. Say hi later.”

Ditus turned towards Alius.

“Hey Alius. Playtime’s over.”