Futile devices, that's all it had been from the start of it and now, it seemed like things were worse off than they'd been before. Fire burned houses, the sick screamed bloody murder and wishing for it all to be okay. Their cries echoed through the city and it wasn't till their fur had all fallen off and the winter's chill grasped at their necks that they'd find any sort of relief.  So many dead, so many burned, and the panic spread.

The Sun had left, The Spirit gone, and The Father? Abandoned them. Oh so many ways for me to show you, how the savior has abandoned you. There had been so much hope within this bright beaming little town, so much love, and it had turned to ash in their mouths. They'd been cursed from the start, locusts, falling star, the winter's vice grip chill of death, and now a sickness that spread like pox.

Once again they'd awake to ash and snow, a kingdom burned and bathed in sacrificial flames. Filianore wept, her frame crumpling against hills, her garden nothing more, the church destroyed once more. There was nothing left, a smudge of where a town once stood. Her home, HER HOME. Within the chaos she could only find one, Cain, and she ushered the boy to her with soothing words. She held him close to her side as her body shook and trembled. "Temp.. Templar, we... We need to go. I can't bare to see it anymore." Tired eyes pleaded to the moon-touched knight to spare her this torment. "Cain, dearest, come along." Soft words, a mother's tone, with tear stained face the Apostle nudged the boy gently.

----

Sometime after they'd found respite within a quiet wintry forest, an old abandoned den had become a refugee of sorts for them as the three lay within. A woman holding close to a child, body tightly wound around the boy. Sleep seemed impossible, but god did her body wish for it. Her mind ran wild at aimless thoughts and blank wonderings, within a matter of days everything was lost and she was back with nothing, back to where she had started. She was so lost within herself, the familiar shakes and tremblings of sobs that happened when one tried to hold them off, fight them back, but it only seemed to make them worse. "No no,"  Filianore said softly to herself, but there was a firmness to it as well, "you've a responsibility now, you've someone to live for and take care of." You're a mother now. Pale gaze scanned over the beautiful little boy, her boy, nose nuzzling into his fur. "C-cain, sweetheart- I... I wanted to know how are you feeling?

The acrid stench of burned meat and ash still coated the inside of his nostrils and burned through his throat. 

His body, barely a few months old, so small and fragile, shivered as they traversed through lands blanketed by snow, warm respite found only under the curled tail of Filianore's when they would lie and rest - just. the. three. of. them.

He hated it. This number isn't who he was. This number wasn't his family. There were thirteen of them, so how, how, how was it now just three!

Enough. Compose yourself. You're in the presence of a lady. Don't give way to their emotions. That's what Fath--Martin would have said. 

His eyes looked to meet with Filianore's, green on blue, steady now, 

"You know how I'm feeling.

"I want to go back. I need to find my siblings. They'd ... be useless without me. I want to go back home."

Child pettiness and selfishness overruled his desire to be mature and logical, his mind not quite grasping the magnitude of what had happened at the Borogrove. Couldn't fathom that fire consumed and never gave back what it took. Why can't I see my Fathers, my brothers, sisters! Why can't I walk through that door, now, and go back to sleep! To feel the cobbled stone beneath my paws!

Why did you take me away from it! Why didn't you let me burn alongside them!

"I want to go back!!!"

Not matter what, it seemed all things ended in fire and ash. For a moment she was back there, not Borogrove, no, but Anor Londo. The desolate city, charred to an ashy crisp, smoke still rose off the ground and the wind was thick with ash. The sky forever a dusky gray, sunlight hardly ever was able to break through the dense smog, and the land had long since been dead. Boro too would share that same fate once the blazes burned themselves out in the mangroves.

You know how I'm feeling. Came the child's reply and the woman could do her best not to wince at it. The remark, she was sure wasn't meant to cause harm or to hurt, but still it did. I want to go back "Cain, you-" I need to find my siblings. They'd ... be useless without me. Fili frowned at this, inhaling a deep breath to continue. "Sweetheart, it's not safe for-" I want to go back home. Ears pulled back, and brows knitted together, she shook her head at him.

Going back was absolutely out of the question, there was nothing left of it, those demonic flames had long since consumed any life form that once inhibited the place. "You can't, we won't." She tried her best to soothe the boy, but she knew  it was no good. "I want to go back!!!"

The boy's scream rang out in the cave and she quickly glanced to Templar's form and then back to the boy, face stern though her body still shook and her eyes still held that resounding tiredness. "We're not going back!" A sharp breath and the woman's usually soft and gentle tone rose as she snapped back at the young child. "I'm sorry, but... there's no one left. There's no living things or people left there. It's burnt to the ground, all of it." They were the lucky ones, the smoke and ash only giving them minor coughs as they had escaped.

"You were the only one I found, I wasn't going to just let you die. I couldn't." She attempted to nuzzle at the boy, but hesitated in doing so, mind drifting to the last remains of Martin, Rosenlund, and Adriel. There little flock, this little boy being the last one. Perhaps it was selfish to hold him so closely, but Cain and Templar were all she had left of what was supposed to be a forever home. "I'm sorry, this isn't how things were supposed to be, but that's how they are. Our Lord.." The words caught in her throat and it was in that moment her faith wavered, "works in mysterious ways, he brought you to us." It was the best she could do with all that had happened, her mind chanted a numbing cry.