"Not again!" The Lizard complained, as it walked a bit around in Yvie's hand. It didn't dare to jump down, but it also couldn't stand to stand still.
"Maybe we just can't see it" Yvie said, trying to walk through the place where the gate had been, just a moment ago, checking if it was just invisible again.
"Nope, it's really gone" She determined, as she walked a bit around, not finding any sort of stone. Once she had made sure, she looked up at their current situation.
A village was on fire, but no people, nor animals was around.
'Did they leave it just now, because of the fire?' Yvie wondered, looking around.
'Or was it already abandoned?' Yvie continued, trying to figure out what to do next.
'But if it was already abandoned, how did it catch on fire?' She pondered, looking at the flames dancing around old buildings, neatly build.
'Did it simply catch on fire on its own?' She wanted to get closer, but the flames just kept growing, eating away at the little place.
"It can't have been going on for long" Yvie found herself concluding out loud, as she noticed how the houses still looked like actual house, although burned. If it had been going on for a while it should have burned down to ashes.
"I knew that" The Lizard answered, though it didn't. The concerns it had, was just how to get away from this place. Not why the place was as it was, nor how it came to be like that.
"Of course you did" Yvie agreed, as she didn't feel like spending her time arguing about something like this, when an entirely new place filled with questions was waiting for her. Calling her to ask away, finding answers, or making them up.
"Let's go closer" She said, and without waiting for an answer, started to move forward. The Lizard didn't have a choice but to be carried along, as Yvie still held it in her hand.
"Do you think people lived here? Or something else?" Yvie asked, as she looked around. Having learned from the former place, that she couldn't assume things to be human, this was the first question pressing on her mind. As far as she could see, most of the place looked human. A little chair, in normal height for an adult, stood in front of one of the doorways, getting eaten by the flames. Although Yvie couldn't see much, her eyes were able to fixate a bit on some interior, also looking like things being made and used by humans.
"Not humans!" The Lizard said, outrageously, as if she had deeply offended it by just suggestion the notion. However, as it usually was with the Lizard, it didn't really know.
"Sure" Yvie said, having figured out it wasn't to much help. Her discoveries told a different story. Mostly Yvie wanted to put out the fire, but as there was no water anywhere in sight, she quickly gave up that idea. She treaded lightly and fast over burning place, jumping from safe spot to safe spot. Something she wouldn't be able to do in snake form, she thought.
The Lizard, who had no choice but to hold on tight, and hope for the best, kept complaining, as it was forced to follow the whim of Yvie.
"Oh! It's an island!" Yvie shrieked, as the slight notion of the ocean showed up in her sight. Excited, she hurried over to it, figuring she could get water there, and maybe even save a house or two.
"Tell me if you see something to carry the water in" Yvie said to herself, as much as she told the Lizard, though she wasn't counting much of the contribution it could bring. As she ran, she looked around, but everything was either caught on fire, or already ruined.
As she finally got out to the coast, she saw sand. She turned into a snake at once, enjoying the feeling of it rubbing against her skin. Crabs played a bit away from her, and Yvie felt a nostalgia that swallowed the moment she was currently in. A little melancholic melody played in her head, as the Lizard was angry at suddenly being dropped, being stuck in the sand around them.
Yvie looked out into the horizon, as she had been so used to, but instead of thinking about how she had to hurry home, she thought about the questions she had learned to ask. How she had learned about finding answers. Making them up. How the process in itself was enjoyable. How she couldn't really trust lizards. At least not the one she was currently seeing as her companion.
'Maybe I can carry the water in my mouth?' Yvie thought, as she went closer to the ocean, trying to soak it in.
'Oh… This doesn't work' she quickly concluded, as she had another thought. At once, she turned back to a girl, and went over to the Lizard, who had been annoyed and stuck in a pile of sand, not moving much.
"Can you carry the water in your mouth?" She asked it, as she played around with its gums, opening it up, pushing down inside, seeing if it was possible.
"Of course I can!" The Lizard said, as if being doubted was the worst offence it could ever be made to suffer. It didn't really knew if it could or not, but damn it, it would have to now!
Luckily, the anatomy of a lizard was almost made to carry water, and Yvie ended up using the poor thing as a bucket.
At first she took a little swim, as she thought it would be better to be soaked, rather than go into the place dry. She took the uncomfortable lizard, made sure a lot of water filled in, and hurried back to where the fire was still raging.
"Let's just go into this house" Yvie told her bucket, as she went into one of the smaller houses. Inside, she saw more things suggesting humans had lived there, as she couldn't quite imagine other beings using the exact same things.
"But who started the fire?" Yvie asked, holding her bucket's mouth shut, as it shouldn't waste any water. She looked around, figuring out what would come in handy.
"What about something that floats?" Yvie asked herself at first, but decided she could swim, so that would be a waste.
"How about food?" She asked, but as she looked around, she noticed there wasn't any. The feeling of the village having been abandoned for a long time once again rushed in her, as she couldn't find any signs of actual life. No food. No mess. Just a picture-perfect place, that was burning to the ground.
"So who put this place on fire?" Yvie asked the Lizard, who couldn't answer, even though it really wanted to.
"Or rather, what?" She thought, as she remembered that the right questions would lead to better answers.