[quote]“Calm down, I’m not going to hurt you,” she began, smiling warmly to show that she didn’t want any trouble, “But do you promise you’ll call off the trees?”[/quote]

The masked child nodded feverishly, desperate to agree to anything so long as this strange lady with the glowing Lantern would be appeased. "Yes! They're called off now! Now just --"

The ground under them shifted and trembled; Palla yelped in surprise as the walls of Naia's new house trembled with it, and she knelt on the ground to avoid being thrown down against her will. "Are you doing this?!" she called over the thunderous rumble beneath their feet.

"This isn't me I swear!" the child shouted, clinging to the quaking ground on all fours.

Once Naia had removed the house from around them, they would see that the trees were swinging unnaturally, thrashing to and fro as the ground shifted and rumbled at their roots.

"What's happening!" the child demanded, and he raised his hands to try and soothe the trees -- but his power wasn't enough to stop them from flinging their branches. He backed up and gripped Naia's arm, hoping for her protection from the earthquake, which he'd never experienced before. He happened to look up through the branches, and he squeaked and pointed up at the silhouette of the mountains in the distance.

The biggest Mountain of the island was collapsing. From this angle they couldn't see much of what was happening, exactly -- all they knew was that the Mountain was crumbling, and the island shook with the powerful thunder of cracking stone.

A gryphon soared overhead, flapping toward the outpost that Palla and Naia had just run away from. Another gryphon flew past, soaring in the same direction. "Naia! The only safe place I know is back the way we came, but I don't know if that person's still after you! I could call my gryphon, we'll fly!"

No sooner had she spoken, the roaring, rushing sound of water filled their ears -- like whitewater rapids, coming closer. In the distance, speeding toward them, a wave of water crashed through the trees, racing toward them on its way toward the Mountain.

The child stammered. "U-uh . . . call that gryphon?"

Palla whistled high and sharp with two fingers to her mouth -- but there was no way the gryphon would reach them before the water got them first.