crickets and creatures will come in the night
who's hunting or running, you gotta decide

September took off from the place where the Overseer was, uh, Overseeing, and headed in the direction of where he knew the Arborspire was. He hadn't ever approached it himself, but it'd been pointed out to him. They needed to get some shit cleaned up before Artio came by and fucking murdered them all.

As he galloped his way through Eridanus, he made sure to take a path where that gross Order fungus was waiting, sending heat out through his hooves and turning much of the white in his path to ash. He'd do more, but without anyone to help control...yeah that would be dangerous as hell. He didn't want to die from something like a beautiful spriggan woman smiting him for burning her plants. That...didn't seem like a bad way to go out, but he would prefer to not go out at all.

At last, he reached the edge of the Sanctuary, eyes widening with surprise at the very sudden change from Order infestation to perfectly clean, beautiful, pristine gardens. "Rift?" he called out. "We might need your help now!"

september

Rift heard the call and turned immediately - he hadn't gone all the way back to the tree, but rather wandered the edge of the Sanctuary, antsy. He didn't want any of their fire to threaten his garden and had been maintaining a thin spread of mist, just in case the heat and burning air began to effect his life's work. It hung low to the ground, keeping the plants safe for the time being.

But as soon as September's voice reached his ears, he turned and took off, finding the sambar a few moments later.

"What happened? Did someone lose control?"

crickets and creatures will come in the night
who's hunting or running, you gotta decide

He watched the cougar approached, spending the short amount of time it took for him to approach burning some more fungus without actually starting fires. However much he did want to start a fire, without anyone nearby to help, he knew it wouldn't be a good idea. So smoldering would work for now.

"Yeah," he huffed. "Kind of. Pride made a tree wilt. On accident." He frowned, maybe not mentioning the leaves he'd burned. "It's going slow. Listen, on our way back there so you can fix it or whatever, do you mind doing control or whatever for me? I'm still getting the hang of the whole fire thing."

september

He looked from the burning fungus around them, back to September. He'd been a little worried about this one, enthusiastic but young and just about ready to burn the whole forest down for the fun of it - at least, that's the vibes he got from his energy. But the tempering of his magic gave Rift a bit of pause. "...Okay. You said it was Pride that withered a tree?"

Pride. Pride. I know that name. I knew him, once. His eyes narrowed. He...he wanted to get back and speak to this Pride. Maybe get back more lost memories from someone that sounded so familiar. It didn't come with...a great feeling, no fondness or love, just an acknowledgement that he existed, that he knew Pride, and the faintest hint of respect in there somewhere.

"Lead the way," he grunted on the outside, ready to follow September back, and also preparing magic to control the flames on the way.

crickets and creatures will come in the night
who's hunting or running, you gotta decide

September nodded. "Yeah something something magic rebound. Total accident. Its not destroyed but uh. It needs a bit of help."

Seeing that the other was ready to go, September turned and headed off - not at the same sprint that had taken him here, but ready and preparing his magic to really start burning shit down.

He paused at one point, where the fungus grew thick and healthy, and turned with a smirk. "Alright, here's a good spot to start. You ready?" At Rift's nod, September turned. He could feel the cougar's nerves from here, but he didn't care. Overseer Tectus wasn't bearing down on him anymore, Artio's warning was a whisper in the back of his mind. It was time to have some FUN!

What was the point of September, after all, if not to push their allowance to the limit?

He sucked in a breath, as deep as he could, and the resulting roar of flames that burst from his throat was powerful. He cringed at the burning pain it caused, but his eyes were nothing but wild with delight as the white was caught in flames and quickly began to go up in smoke.

september

crickets and creatures will come in the night
who's hunting or running, you gotta decide

Once the flames had died from his throat and the resulting blaze had taken over a wide patch of fungus, September laughed. He glanced back at Rift and the tilt of the head was the only warning he got before he was bounding forward, calling the winds to his side. Precise steams of air pushed the fire to spread onto nearby infected plants, following him as he pranced through the white-infected Eridanus.

He could feel the fire spreading, the warmth on the air, he could feel the heat against his flank as the winds pressed close to him, bringing the fire along. A harmony of wind and fire. He had never had so much fun in his life!

september

Rift followed closely behind September, trying not to let his nervousness interfere, but he had to admit, seeing that gout of flame burst from the stag's mouth, catching a large swatch of fungus on fire, and THEN watching him just prance off into Eridanus, carrying the flames through the wind, was more then a little alarming.

But Rift wasn't a runner, he was a problem fixer. So he trailed close behind, keeping an eye on the flames, blasting small jets of water at the trail once the fungus had been sufficiently burned, keeping the damage to a minimum as September just went on his merry way.

crickets and creatures will come in the night
who's hunting or running, you gotta decide

He could hear Rift behind, every so often glancing back and seeing him smother the trail they were leaving behind. Good. He liked the wildfire idea, but he didn't actually want the entire forest burning down.

The winds obeyed his commands for a while, but then the magic started slipping, the winds came weaker. The fire jumped where he didn't intend for them to go (but at least they were still just burning the fungus) so he released the spell, stopping for a moment and turning around, panting, but eyes glowing with joy.

september

crickets and creatures will come in the night
who's hunting or running, you gotta decide

Stopped in an area pretty heavily infested, September glanced around, gathering the energy he had and grabbing at the existing flames with magic. With a pull of his will, the fire went exactly where he commanded it, jumping across uninfected grass and landing right on a pile of foul white mold. It burned quickly, and September commanded it elsewhere.

He went on for a bit, controlling the fire precisely around the area, burning the mold, avoiding the uninfected plants, picking the fire right off the smoldering remains until the spell began to slip from his hold. With the last of his energy, he brought the flames together in front of them and let them disipate into the air, leaving nothing behind but the smoldering remains of the fungus they'd burned. He looked to Rift, eyes gleaming. "Nice," was all he said about it.

He motioned with his head - they'd pretty much arrived back at where everyone else was. "It's over there, by the way. I'll show you." He turned and trotted off, pretty damn casual about the whole thing, feeling pleased and energized, despite the exhaustion pulling at his bones.

*Exit

september

Rift stepped back as September began to pull the fire around, shaping it to his desires. It was quite impressive, he had to admit. Wanting to at least put a little bit of help in, he pressed a paw against a tree, trying to push out what mold had been threaded deep into the bark, but he flinched back as the flames got too close to his paws. "Careful!" he called out, rolling his eyes.