Catastrophist [Ability One-Shot]

[fae iona cloudbreaker]

Fae had been awoken by the earthquake, a violent shake, something that she had never experienced in all her time living on Hy-Brasil, and crash from somewhere in her kitchen. Her house was tiny, nestled behind a hill located in the corner of her family’s farmlands, so she felt the full impact of the quake. Tip-toeing into her kitchen, which was only a few feet down the hallway, she saw the damage – it had been enough to send a few plates in her kitchen cupboards clattering out, smashing on the floor. Cleaning it up wouldn’t really be an issue, but before she could even think of doing that, another noise came from somewhere outside. Not another tremor rattling her house and the nearby trees, but the worried cries of the griffins that shared their land with her family. Throwing on a jacket and taking her wand, she ran out onto the path that went from her house to one of the clearings the griffins liked to sleep in.

She was met with a swirl of feathers and a cloud of dust from the beasts taking off into the sky, the remaining few being the bravest of the herd. While they were equally spooked by what had occurred only minutes earlier, they only resorted to dragging their front claws into the ground anxiously. Her closest friend amongst the griffins, a speckled griffin she had named Storm, immediately came to her, nudging Fae’s shoulder and then looking up into the sky. Upon doing so, she realized that that this was much more than just an earthquake.

The barrier had disappeared. The griffins that had fled in fear had flown far higher than they would normally go, or would even be allowed to. Her whole body went cold, as she watched them fly higher and higher, only snapping out of her own shock when Storm nudged her again. Fae knew where she had to go now, but it wasn’t like that was going to fix the immediate problem that Hy-Brasil suddenly faced.

She ran back to her house, scribbling out a letter warning the council of what had most likely happened and where she was going, handing it to her griffin to take to town so that the news could be passed along. From there, she headed towards the cave that housed Merlin’s Staff, and where she knew someone had gone to bring down the barrier. She was angry, her hair reflecting that in the sudden fiery red that it had taken on, her eyes matching. The few druids she came across on her way to the cave turned away from her, surprised at the new appearance she had taken on. Known for her softer pallet of colors and calm demeanor, this was an extraordinary site to behold. It wasn’t like her to lose her cool like this, but there was no other way for her to channel the sudden stress and fear that had taken over her. This was the last thing she had wanted to happen, and it had to occur under her watch.

A million ideas of who may have done it and why ran through her head as she cut through dense forest and over creeks that only few had seen over the last few centuries. She had only been to the cave a few times in the last five years, mostly to see if she could gleam anything from the staff or how it worked. Like those that studied it and were High Druid before her, it was seemingly impossible to decipher, and no form of magic could replicate it. That left her wondering what was possibly strong enough to destroy it – a spell that had held the barrier for over two-thousand years.

Inside the cave, Merlin’s Staff lay on the ground, pulled from its normal suspension in the air. Fae rushed over to it, picking it up gently, almost cradling it like a newborn as she looked it over, and expecting it to outright tell her what had happened. There was nothing. And no signs of anyone but her and the staff inside the cave. Frustration starting to take over, Fae climbed the rocky pedestal where it usually levitated, and held it in place, knowing that it wouldn’t work but hoping it would nonetheless. Sliding down to the cavern floor after realizing she had nothing that could put it back, she screamed out, tears starting to stream down her face, her hair turning the darkest black she had ever seen it turn before. There wasn’t anything written down or passed on if this were to happen. How was she supposed to fix something that wasn’t supposed to fail to begin with? It was a while before the oldest of the council members arrived at the cavern and found her, a shivering mess clutching onto the staff like her life depended on it.