ORIGIN

Pride stood for a moment in the water, his flanks heaving as he hitched in breath after breath. It didn't help that the air was sharp and acrid, thick with smoke; he found it difficult merely to breathe.

Grim, he turned his head slightly to see the cubs on his back. How young were they..? There was no way they could get out of here on their own. And if this inferno consumed Eridanus, they were all as good as dead.

No.

Determination bloomed in him, and he spoke sternly, though past a cough or three.

"Catch your breath! I will push on in a moment!" He lowered his head, sucking up cold water greedily, near-choking as he tried to do both this and gasp for air.

His legs trembled with exertion as he hauled himself back out. There was just no way that a single creek or pool would save them--against the fire, perhaps, but not against this smoke. The stag began to bullet forward again, though ever-conscious of the young ones on his back, ever-ready to turn back and retrieve one should it fall.

Stumbling through the dirt, half-blind by the smoke, he pushed on. Ahead, a burning tree blocked the path. Foliage--bushes and ferns--were consumed in roaring inferno, and though Pride didn't know exactly where the exit was (the fire and smoke had left everything changed), he knew that they had to pass this place. Gathering himself, grim and resolute, he drew upon his magic as he skidded to a halt. His head lifted high, antlers scraping the branches above.

A silent blast, and the flaming branches careened aside, clearing the way. A flood of gratitude--to his spell, to the world, to magic itself--rushed through him, coupled with immense relief, and Pride carried the two cubs onward. A few galloping leaps and he found that they were at last breaking clear of the billowing black smoke.

Pride ran on until they were safe enough to slow--somewhere near the wall of the cave, and hopefully near a tunnel. Only then did he gasp further words, his whole body shaking heavily with the strain. "Are you both all right?" he choked out, coming at last to a trembling stop.

Pride carried the little ones to safety, far, far beyond the reach of flames and smoke, and quite near to the exit tunnel. He settled them in, ensuring they'd be all right, explaining where the exit was. Only after he'd gotten confirmation that they understood--that they must stay there, in the mossy thicket by the brook, that they mustn't bolt back out into the heat--that if the smoke came again, they were to take that exit tunnel there--did he again depart.

He'd have liked to stay with them, but he had to go back in--to at least check the outskirts of the fire for other survivors.

Little did he know he'd wind up lost--unable to find the young ones again any time soon--in the charred smoke and ash, which changed the landscape into unrecognizability. But he would, at least, rest safe in the knowledge that he'd at least saved those two lives.