[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/PExzdE5.png[/img][/center]

[hr]

[color=darkorange][i]Something’s not right.[/i][/color] Dallas squinted his eyes at the dead thrall and knelt closer. He’d seen over a hundred Lost disperse after death. This time was different. He scanned his eyes over the vaporous aftermath of the thrall's death and noticed that it wasn’t spreading evenly, but rather moving… towards something. Dallas looked sideways and saw the landscape painting leaned up against the wall. [color=darkorange][i]Can it be? Did Akaia really find it this easily?[/i][/color] 

Dallas’s train of thought was interrupted by a tremor that vibrated the entire house. Dust loosened itself from the ceiling and fell on his head, forcing him to blink involuntarily, but his mask kept the worst of it out of his lungs. He waved his hand to clear the cloud of debris and stood up. [color=darkorange][i]What the hell was that, an earthquake?[/i][/color]

Just after the tremors began, Dallas could hear Desmond and Erik call out to them from the entrance. Once Akaia was done reorganizing herself, he patted her on the shoulder and pointed his thumb to the exit. [color=darkorange]”Akaia, I think you found the mistle! I don’t know what’s going on outside, but this building is about to come down on top of us! Let’s get out of here and tell the others!”[/color]


[color=bca346]”No time!”[/color] She replied in a mild panic. Returning to the painting, she gripped the top edge of it and slid it enough to the side that the mistle was visible to them both. Wasting no time, she carefully pushed her fingers into the softer dirt near the plant’s base and began digging the thing out. Within the minute, it’d been exhumed and was now cradled in both of her hands as a dimly glowing flower sitting in a small patch of dirt. Bits of concrete were still stuck to its roots. [color=bca346]”Okay.”[/color]

[hr]

Dallas, Akaia, and Licorice made their escape from the house while narrowly avoiding fallen pieces of wood and drywall. The structure was in such a fragile shape that even the slightest disruption was causing sections of the walls and ceiling to fall apart.

Dallas cleared the final doorway just in time to behold the colossal mass of flesh laying waste to the city. When he saw it, his heart nearly fell into his stomach. Though his face didn’t betray his thoughts, he was secretly panicking over the idea of an entire city block going up in flames. He looked between Desmond and Erik and started to speak.

[color=darkorange]“Erik, why the fuck is there a Tsar out here!?”[/color] Dallas impulsively blurted out. Realizing how alarmed he sounded, he took a composed breath and straightened his respirator. [color=darkorange]”Shit, I mean, listen! We found the mistle.”[/color] Dallas nodded to Akaia, who tenderly opened her hands to reveal their golden egg. [color=darkorange]”Look boss, if there’s a Tsar in this city then delivering this mistle is the last of our worries. What’s our plan for not getting turned into ash!?”[/color]