Pride could certainly live up to his name at times, but this horrified moment was not one of those times. Silver eyes, snapped wide, stared at the rain and wind cutting out the blaze that had damaged the trees. He felt relieved rather than insulted, offering Shango a wordless nod before managing a muttered "Thank you."

He'd entirely lost track of Dread, which was also a horrible start. But for now he focused on the tree, wincing.

Maybe... the healing magic Tenzin had passed on? He hesitated; did that even work on trees? One mental shrug later he made his best attempt.

He wasn't sure if it'd worked, or not. The sensation of being drained, of his own health sapping, was certainly there. But the tree... cracked, further. It was odd. Does swifter healing cause them damage..? Should I have left it alone to mend in its own time? he fretted.

That draining sensation intensified, then, and Pride buckled abruptly; knees gave way and he blinked as he found himself prone in the dirt, confused as to how he'd gotten there. A slow pain was seeping through him, like tree bark through his muscles.

Or maybe they take more healing than I can provide. Maybe... I gave too much. His next thought, though wordless, was more deeply concerning: what if he returned to his gemstone here and now? His consciousness was flickering, a bone-deep ache thrumming through him. The fires would no doubt take him if he fell asleep in Eridanus now.

Silvered antlers tipped forward, then back, as Pride fought to remain conscious.

Beside him, the tree withered a little more.

red deer img credit - dan seagrave

crickets and creatures will come in the night
keep my back from the reaper
who's hunting or running, you gotta decide

With the dragon firebombing from above and the fires very quickly being put out, September thought that maybe now was the time to turn it up a little bit. Spread the fire around a little more. Things were pretty under control right now, so he didn't see any problems with this.

A spot where there were still a few flickering flames, September made to grasp them and move them away, to dance along some other areas of mold, but the spell slipped right out of his control and, instead of following his mental directions, the flames instead jumped the opposite direction, catching right onto some perfectly uninfected leaves and branches.

Oops.

september

GRAY SOUL AND STATIC IN MY EYES

Trying to keep himself from flinching at the sound of fire raining down and definitely exploding some parts of Eridanus, Huckleberry began to turn his attention to some of the fire getting out of control - like the one that had just moved to some uninfected plants. He glanced briefly at the deer before zeroing in on the flames and willing the air to leave the space. It was a pretty small area so it wasn't hard to move the pressure in such a way that the flames no longer had oxygen to burn and, within a couple seconds, was completely killed and put out.

He looked around again for the next place to help with and noticed Pride struggling. For a moment he thought to turn his head away, but then the stag faltered, almost slipping forward and his eyes widened as he realized something had gone quite wrong.

"Pride!" he called and, before he could think about it, he was rushing forward, standing up next to the deer and offering a shoulder if he needed to lean at all. He glanced between him and the withering tree and frowned. "Are you okay?"

TRY TO SEE THE FUTURE,
BUT I'M NOT SURE IF IT APPLIES

@Pride

Oh she should have shut her big fucking mouth, huh? The dragon was helpful, at least, targetting the most heavily-infected areas, but the rest. Wow.

The Overseer watched in horror as the tree Pride was working on (failing on?) just started fucking withering from his tampering. And the deer she'd been hauling around proceeded to set fire to a tree with no white on it. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to collect herself. They were all going to die.

"Stop. STOP!" she bellowed as she opened her eyes and charged forward towards Pride. She struck out swiftly with the side of one of her trunk-like forelegs, aiming for the collection of diamonds at his neck to try and stop the spell before it could do any more damage, but not so hard that she broke his neck. She glared at him and tried to shove herself between him and the tree that he was fucking up. "Just leave it. You're making it worse! I don't need you slinging spells around blindly while you're in this state! Take a breather or something, or just leave. You're putting all of us in danger." She frowned and then turned to September. "I thought you said you had control! Just. Stop. Go get one of the ones that can regrow - they'll fix the damage." The amount of incompetence on display at the moment was maddening.

@Pride

As Moros flittered along, she found herself sharing her Overseer's irritation. Bumbling idiots.

Either way, she had a job to do. In the space between two stands of trees, fresh green shoots were poking up through the soil. A patch in the white. Safe ground.

She lands there, on the tallest of them, fanning her wings wide. Then she'd call out with her magic, to form dancing lights. If the others cannot see her fluttering wings and shining stone, they surely could not miss the purple, harmless flames.