OOC: Set on Erimis 3 (3rd July) around A Goddess's Fury.
“Come on, Comet, I don't have time to let you run off at will today.” Ever since Fawn's death, the wolf had become more and more unruly. Ordinarily, Piper didn't mind his detours on their way home from her boutique or even during her lunch breaks (partially because, despite her vampire strength, he still managed to take her by surprise and yank her from one side street to the next in search of tasty and interesting smells), but today was a working lunch and she was already late getting back from her meeting with the weaver.
The wolf, naturally, ignored her and snapped to her left anyway. Ready for him this time, Piper juggled a mug of coffee, two muffins and the roll of sample material to tauten his leash and haul him back. “That's enough, Comet. I really don't... Eep?”
The ground trembled under her feet. Piper froze in place, wide eyes fixed on the growling wolf as he lowered his head and lifted his butt, teeth bared. She would have apologised for his behaviour to the trio of girls who had been passing and shrieked, but the whole street had stopped in their tracks. “Ummm. Did Elysia have quakes?” She'd never felt one before, and there had never been any sign of them being near enough to a fault line for it to happen. She'd endured a mild quake in Kyriake once when she was up there for tiny gemstones, but that had been from a tunnel collapse. This felt completely different.
“Eek!” Comet howled as Piper staggered to the side of a cart as another tremor rumbled under her heels. Coffee splashed down her top and across the roll of silk, the sudden heat making her drop the mug so it smashed into muffin crumbs beside the cart wheel. She latched on with one hand to the rear gate, but the sudden heaving of the ground made her pull on her arm with such force that she ripped it clear of its hinges and sat on the cobbles with a blink of surprise.
She was lucky. She heard screams radiating out from the portal plaza just ahead, traffic backing up all the way down her street. Striders smashed into the rear ends of carts, horses reared and broke free of their reigns. Glass smashed. The tang of blood filled her nostrils. Piper brushed a braid out of her face and wrapped an arm around Comet's neck to keep him close, half under the cart for shelter. “EEK!”