[Video]

[coimiceoir]

[Well, someone's looking a bit more mature than usual... Aisling looks at least 13 instead of 6-8 years old - something about the shape of her face and the proportions of her hands as she brushes her hair back from a gilded tiara engraved with oak leaves. Unlike her normal, generally care-free attitude, she's actually looking a little worried.]

Does anyone know anything about something kidnapping animals and killing trees? There was some damage done yesterday, but before I could get there, the culprit was gone! One of my friends didn't come home last night, and no one around the damaged area is home either.

Comments

[thneed]

Maybe the animals ran away somewhere.

[Audio]

[coimiceoir]

Some of them, but not all of them, all at once, and my friend wouldn't have run off without telling me! Lách would have at least sent a messenger or three.

[audio because he's petting lach on the head like a bond villain ]

[thneed]

That's worrisome.

[Audio]

[coimiceoir]

I need to find them and make sure they're all right. I don't know what did this, but it's not natural.

[audio]

[thneed]

Not natural? It doesn't seem so bad.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

Of course it's bad! All these living things, cut down before their time, driven out of their homes, upsetting the balance of nature! I don't even know what's caused the blackness... It wasn't fire.

[audio]

[thneed]

[ HUMS LOUDLY OVER THIS ]

Hmmmm. How do you know it wasn't their time? Maybe it was. Something else might replace it. Natural selection and all that.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

[She's getting a little sharp now, irritated by his complete lack of comprehension.]

I know this forest better than I know anything else. This is not natural selection. This is willful and unnecessary destruction.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

[It takes a moment longer than it ought, but it's clear when she recognizes the sound - She makes a short, strangled noise of shock.]

What's going on?

[audio]

[thneed]

Nothing. I'm redecorating.

[audio]

[coimiceoir]

With what?

[audio]

[thneed]

Guess.

[alwaysimpure]

How does the damage look?

[coimiceoir]

Bad... It's like someone has blighted a large patch on the city-ward edge - trees have been cut down, the undergrowth has died, and what remains is black. I can't get anything to regrow there!

[alwaysimpure]

Can I take a look at it? Maybe I can help find out what or who it was.

[coimiceoir]

Yes, I would be grateful. [She doesn't hesitate, even though she's asking a favor. Anything to help her get this figured out. Anything to help her friends and her forest.]

[alwaysimpure]

Then I'll come to the forest. Where exactly are you, Miss...?

[coimiceoir]

Aisling. [She pronounces it ASH-ling.] The forest edge South and West of the city, toward the mountains. Here...

[She turns the camera to give a panoramic view of the city edge then curves around - mountains in the distance, forest running down and then this disgusting, dried, dead, blackened patch where trees curled over and in on themselves, grass withered and crisped... A small-ish patch, but the trees near the edges looked sickly too, like they were being affected more slowly.]

[alwaysimpure]

I'm Sirius Black. And I'll be right there.

[Literally. Because, BOOM, apparating wizard! Right in front of her.]

[Action]

[coimiceoir]

[She may be fairly used to magic, but she was not expecting that! She was suddenly up a nearby tree, staring with wide eyes.]

[Action]

[alwaysimpure]

Oh...

[Now he just look sheepish.]

About that... I'm sorry. Should have warned you.

[Action]

[coimiceoir]

[She shakes her head and drops down out of the tree with a gesture that pushes the fright away.]

I'm skittish - this hasn't been a good day for me.

[She touches the enormous sun broach on her chest absently, as though seeking comfort from it, and makes her way over to him.]

Have you ever seen anything like this?

[She means the dead patch to one side.]

[Action]

[alwaysimpure]

[He does his best to seem reassuring, despite appearing from thin air. Looking to the dead patch he frowns and crouches down by it, pulling out his wand.]

No, I don't think I have. Do you think it's magical?

[ainosenshi]

That's horrible!

[Audio]

[coimiceoir]

Yes... You haven't seen a large, tan wolf with a pale chest, have you? Or an unusual number of squirrels and birds?