Shadow had some experience with fire. Her group had made one most nights when they camped. She had always liked them. The way the flames burned the wood, and flickered to and fro, sparks floating all around. It had always seemed so nice and warm, comforting.

This fire was not like that.

Jonas always found a patch without foliage or cleared it away himself when he couldn’t find a good place. He had explained to her why, how it would be bad if a fire got loose in the forest. The explanation made sense, but she didn’t really understand it on a visceral level.

She did now.

The ladder was an inferno. All the sawdust that had been piled at its base caught fire almost instantly as the burning oil from the lantern fell on it.

And it was spreading.

“Shit. Shit!” Mr. Clive swore, backing away from the conflagration.

Shadow backed up with him. It was spreading quickly.

“Back! Kids, get back!” He pointed in the direction of the other end of the room. It wasn’t actually visible because of all the sawdust piles.

The kids obeyed and started scrambling in that direction.

“Wait! Is there another way out down ‘ere!?”

Ara and Roy just looked unsure, but Maggie shook her head and answered in a quavering voice, clearly terrified.

“N-No! Only the ladder!”

“Shit…” He glanced around. “Blades, tools, I need an axe! We’ll go through the wall! Help me find one!”

That was all the encouragement she needed. With only a moment of hesitation, Shadow turned on her ear-sight and acid spit. Now was not the time to be overly cautious.

Everyone was backing away from the growing flames as they clawed along the ceiling and floor. The sawdust burned too well, and the planks seemed to be catching fire extremely fast themselves.

She could see some blades, but they were too late to get them. The tools were all already engulfed in the inferno. The heat was already growing unbearable. It was already painful to stand in line of sight of the blaze.

They were forced away from the ladder, deeper back into the crawlspace, behind the piles of sawdust.

She ran ahead to try and find something further in the back, but neither her eyes nor ears turned up anything useful. All the tools she’d found were already on fire.

It seemed Mr. Clive also realized that they wouldn’t be finding anything useful, as he started barking out orders again.

“To the back! Get to the back wall! We’ll break through there!”

The grouped rushed to the back wall of the crawlspace, as far from the hungry flames as they could get before they reached one of the walls.

Mr. Clive didn’t slow down, just bracing himself and slamming into the wall. He impacted with a crash and… bounced off. He fell back on the ground groaning, grabbing his shoulder for a second before he started to rotate it.

Hurt, not broken.

She’d have never been able to do that when her shoulder had been smashed.

The wall, for its part, didn’t budge. The planks it was built with were thick, and it was well made.

Mr. Clive recovered quickly, scooting up to it with his back on the ground. He started slamming the wall as hard as he could with the bottoms of his feet. It still wasn’t breaking.

“Help me however ya can!” He shouted. Shadow could hear the panic in his voice. He was out of ideas.

Shadow for her part did the only thing she could think of and started licking the wall above where he was kicking, hoping the acid would help.

It tasted terrible. Almost like she was licking a firepit. She had noticed that the wood the buildings in town were made of had this strange, oily smoke smell to it. Almost like it had been burnt. If so, the wood showed no signs of it. She hadn’t really been able to place the smell, but whatever it was, tasted terrible. It seemed to be part of the wood, or soaked into it somehow? She wasn't sure, and this wasn't the time to worry about it.

She tried to claw at the spots she licked to help break though, since her own acid didn’t affect her, but found herself unable to make any real progress. The wood was sizzling a bit, but her acid was not having as much effect as she expected. Even with the help of her clawing at it, there was barely a divot in the wall. It wasn’t quite at full power yet, but it should be close enough. The substance infused with the wood appeared to be reducing her acid’s effectiveness.

I really need you to work right now acid!

She noticed Mr. Clive had stopped kicking.

She turned and looked at him, only to see his gaze flicking between the sizzling line on the wall and her with wide eyes.

This is not the time! Keep kicking!

She gave him a small screech, before flipping herself over to kick the wall a few times herself in demonstration, impatiently motioning for him to continue.

Sparing a glance back at the advancing light of the firestorm, he took her instructions and started kicking again.

“What in the hells did I jus’ see…” he muttered to himself.

The kids, for their parts, had started screaming for help. Shadow decided to join them, adding occasional top volume screeches to the cacophony, between her frantic licking and clawing. As long as the humans woke up and came over, it would probably be helpful, whatever the reason.

Rob, being the largest of the kids, took a spot next to Mr. Clive and tried to help with the kicking. Things were starting to get pretty smoky at this point, and Shadow saw actual flames rather than light starting to peek around the corner of a sawdust pile. They were running out of time. Her licking and clawing wasn’t enough. The kicks weren’t enough. The wood still wasn’t budging. Like Mr. Clive said, they needed an axe.

Shadow realized she knew how to get one.

But…

She looked at the new friends, trapped down here. They were all crying at this point, screaming for help. They didn’t want to die.

She didn’t want them to die.

This was the only thing she could think of.

She looked out a small gap in the wall and shadow-ported outside.

She heard some surprised exclamations coming from behind her, but she ignored them. She had to move fast.

What she hadn’t expected was the scream that came from her left. A lady was stumbling to a stop, eyes locked right on her as the billowing shadows dissipated. She was still a pretty decent distance away, perhaps 80 feet? She’d been too far to see with her ear-sight and not in line of sight of the gap. The lady turned around and ran away, still screaming.

Great. Just what I needed, she thought with an internal sigh.

There was no time to really worry about it, though. She took off at full speed and sprinted toward a place she remembered seeing an axe lying up against some logs. She stopped producing her acid-spit and did her best to clear her mouth, spitting on the ground as she ran.

It only took her a few seconds to get there and find the axe. She grabbed it by the back of the head, careful not to get acid anywhere someone would be touching. It was pretty obvious how the thing was meant to be used, even though she’d never seen someone actually use one.

She sprinted back to the sawmill, which was very much on fire, and slid to a stop right next to the wall where she left so she could get a view through a gap. She was seeing many more people coming out of their houses and many were yelling and running toward the building.

She heard Mr. Clive shouting.

“­—mon’s abandoned us here to die!” he struggled to get the words out, hacking and coughing.

“She… She wouldn’t do that!” Maggie yelled back, although she sounded uncertain, as she struggled to speak through her own coughing.

As soon as she spotted the inside, she shadow-ported again.

She emerged to four sets of eyes staring directly at her. She could also see the fire advancing.

No time.

She ran to Mr. Clive and dropped the axe next to him.

He just stared at her, looking both terrified and confused.

She screeched at him, and shoved the axe forward, then desperately motioned at the advancing wall of fire.

I’m stuck in here too now! PLEASE USE THE AXE!

He glanced toward the fire, and that seemed to be enough to snap him out of whatever state he’d been stuck in.

He flipped over and grabbed it, then went to work on the wall.

If there was one thing she could say about Mr. Clive, it’s that he knew how to use an axe. If all of their earlier efforts had made the wall seem impenetrable, his efforts with the tool quickly put that worry to rest. It took him maybe 15 seconds to cut away a plank, and after one was gone, others followed even faster.

They burst from the building just as the heat was beginning to sear her flesh. The kids went first, then Mr. Clive, with Shadow following immediately after.

The smoke burned in her lungs, and she was doing the best of the bunch, having been outside of the building for a bit.

They all stood there in a clump, hacking and coughing. The townsfolk were starting to congregate en masse outside, running all around. She noticed buckets being gathered, some people already starting to sling water at the blaze. Few people seemed to notice them, and it seemed the burning building was more important, as no one came over to check on the group of people coughing and gasping for breath.

Shadow heard people shouting about forming 'bucket brigades' and getting someone named Glenda.

And then she saw Annie burst from an alleyway, wearing her night shift, rage and fear covering her face. Her eyes glowing with golden light, shining runes circling her head, and seemingly glowing through her thin shift, in a circle on her stomach. She was followed shortly by Jonas, in his underwear, sword drawn, pushing a man with bound hands in front of himself. A gaggle of townsfolk followed right afterward, several shouting in surprise at the sight of the building being swiftly engulfed in flames.

Annie's eyes immediately found Shadow's, relief flowing over her features.

She took in the group in a moment and turned a thunderous scowl on Mr. Clive. The glow left her eyes and moved to her hands, runic scripts starting up anew, circling her wrists. The light on her stomach remained.

“Kidnapper! Release her at once!” she roared at the man.

Oh, I’m going to be in so much trouble.