It had to be here somewhere. 

Being a Fellblood offering help was the easiest way to be above suspicion.  The destruction of the volcano and the rising star of ancient primordial beings... the whole affair was beyond the scope of whatever occurred in Dante's world.  Powerful gods and mighty heroes cast long shadows, and the fallout had brought about the destruction of his family home.  Moving boulders wasn't exactly his first choice, but preference was second before his mother.

He sighed at the sight of it though.  He shook his head and muttered, "I could never do this all my own.." he turned to see others were busy with their own debris and ruin.  He slicked back his hair and in desperation he threw off his nicer shirt and got into the dirt to pull at the stones.  Their weight winded him in a matter of minutes.  Dante wasn't unhealthy and far from a weak man.  But he was no warrior, and even though he could make good progress it was endurance he struggled with.  The heat and ashfall in the air choked him.  Between labored breaths came less and less strength.  

Eventually he threw aside a rock and leaned against another, panting heavily.  He muttered under his breath, "Damn it all... I'm sorry mother.  I don't think I can do this by myself."

Wandering through the wake of the volcano's wrath, Val couldn't help but want to help. She'd been healing minor wounds and distributing supplies for days, but there just wasn't enough manpower to do everything. Here were people from all walks of life coming together to help each other- an act so selfless and so natural to people of this hard land that it almost brought Val to tears. She took a deep breath and continued sharing out water. This section of road was completely blocked just a few days ago, but this impromptu crew she'd ran into here managed to move enough debris to allow people through. She'd been running them water all morning, but it was time to move on. More people had shown up at the blockage, so Valerian continued searching for people in need of help.

Further up the road, as her waterskin was running low, she noted smoke in the distance. Looks like the area ahead got hit pretty bad, too. Sighing, she quickened her pace, moss hair flowing gently in the ashen wind.

The hamlet was devastated. Large boulders, still smoldering, were scattered far across the surrounding farmland. Most of their crops looked saved from the fires, but the ash rain blocked the sky and covered the land, stunting the crops' growth and rendering the already infertile land unworkable. One of the houses had been crushed by debris, and the generally older population of the hamlet was struggling. Val sighed and reached for her waterskin.

oh? that man over there looks like he needs this a lot more- goodness, I think he just fainted

She broke into a jog across the field to reach him. "Hey! Hey, you good? Here," she hands the Fellblood a waterskin with a mouthful or two of water, "There's so much to do here that no one can do it all. If you're here to help these people, and you need help too, then lets work together!"

Dante stared up at the soot colored sky and sighed. "I don't even know why I took off my shirt. I can't save it in this weather." A brief pause, and Dante made a rude gesture at the sky and muttered an expletive at the air's expense. Folks were still bustling around him, too engrossed in their own endeavors to pay him any mind. He stood out somewhat more when he was out of town, but in the Ash Lands Dante was invisible.

Dante blinked as a young girl approached him with her offering and call to action. He stared at the waterskin for a moment and said, "Well. Shit. You should be a merchant."

He took the waterskin and threw it back, not fully realizing how little water was left in it. Looking at the empty vessel, he said, "Dreadfully sorry about that, but you can take comfort in knowing you did your good deed for the day I suppose." He handed the skin back and stood up, groaning as he popped his back and neck.

"Normally I'm more loquacious and poignant but my house is under a boulder so forgive my grumpiness. Dante Discreet. And you are small guardian angel person?" He tilted his head and stared curiously at her. "You're not from around here are you?"

Val gave her new acquaintance a crooked smile, taking back her now empty waterskin as he slowly stood up. She'd fully intended to let him have the rest of the water, of course. "I'm not from around here, but I belong to this land as much as any other. As a wood spirit, it's my obligation and my pleasure to help rebuild after this disaster." Dante was clearly trying to pull himself together, and she felt somewhat awkward staring at him. Others in the field, hard at work, were no-doubt in need of aid. Yet-

"Oh!" Val remembered suddenly, "if you know of anyone who was injured, I should see them first. I'm not a doctor or anything, but I have some skill at healing. Also, we need to make sure people are drinking water. The heat and ash have been worse on some people than the actual volcano. Speaking of heat," She raised an eyebrow at Dante. "Are you feeling alright?" As she asked this, Val realized the breeze that had kept her going on her long walk was absent on the field. "The air down here really sucks, actually. A lot of these boulders must still carry the heat from the volcano, but there was a cool breeze up on the road. Maybe we should take a walk? We can carry back some water. I'm sure people here would appreciate that." She wanted to get a better view of the hamlet, too.

Even in these conditions, the people here prove they are more than strong enough to inhabit this land; I'm glad I can be of assistance to them

The wood spirit's mirthful demeanor was comically contrasted with the disaster around them. Dante was spellbound and perplexed staring at the dryad go on about helping folks. The delivery would have normally been saccharine had it not been in the context of such devastation. He rubbed the back of his head and said, "Walking sounds better than lifting." He was skeptical that she could lift these rocks, and he decided it would be more productive to get a break from treasure hunting for old family heirlooms.

"Well Madame Wood Spirit Ma'am, I certainly appreciate the gesture. Though when we get back there is something I do need to retrieve what I can from my family's legacy from the smoldering aftermath of gods and dragons and other such horrid, life-ruining nonsense." He spoke in a cavalier and subtly sarcastic tone to his voice.

"Forgive me, I know it's rude to ask but my house blew up so I don't care; how old are you? I'm all for altruism as much as the next guardian wood angel nymph person, but this is quite dangerous. Far be it from me to patronize, but I imagine it's twice as perilous for you being a small girl and a wood spirit wandering a volcanic ruin of a town. Do you need to like... be watered? Facing the sun? Fertilizer?"

Just standing by her he could catch the scent of grass from her hair contrasting the smoldering brimstone of the ashen air. No fertilizer though.

"I- I do not need watering, as it turns out," Val stammered. She'd never once had someone ask such a thing. She was quite thirsty, but she would drink her water like a civilized person, thank you very much. "Just normal food and drink, like you, I assume?" She glanced up at her companion as the walked up the ash-dusted slope to the road. Ah, that was better. Not only was there a relatively cool breeze along the road, but they were out of the worst of the volcanic boulders' heat.

While they walked, she chatted. "You want to know my age? You'll have to ask my oak tree, since I never bothered to. As for traveling, though, this.. is my first time away from home. I was drawn to the volcano shortly before it erupted, and I've been here helping whoever I can ever since. It really was a majestic sight: violence and destruction- a clash of the ancient machinery churning beneath our feet, wiping awa-" she stumbled, suddenly focusing too hard on the ground. "Or, sorry. I got a bit caught up. I know it destroyed your home, and I have respect for that. I'm sorry. Your efforts, too, are beautiful." she was quickly regaining her lost spirit. "Your endless defiance in the face of a land unyielding; the strength of disparate souls' collaboration. You'll rebuild stronger than before, I'm sure." Now beaming at her companion, she was sure things would work out for him and his.

They collected water from a nearby well, built to withstand the heat and ashfall. After filling what they could carry, they began the short trip back. Now, the hard part. As if clearing debris wasn't difficult enough, he was trying to find something specific in the wreckage. "So, what, exactly, are we looking for?"

Dante bit his lip when she showed admiration for the beautiful destruction as she put it. It was almost more stressful to hear her catch herself as it left him quite speechless. What was he to say to all of that? It was strange not having something quippy to immediately say. It took him back to his youth and uncomfortable thoughts, but this was far greater in scale.

He said, "Well my dear, we're looking for some of my mother's jewelry. The box is probably destroyed given the sheer levels of destruction, but we had a small safe that might have kept it safe. Either way, we should recover whatever we can find if not for sentimental purposes then for practical ones. Something tells me I'll have to look elsewhere to fill the larder, but that is an issue for another time."

Approaching the boulder, he said, "I don't know the full capacity of your strength, but if you wouldn't mind joining me on this side of the mineral and give it a good shove perhaps we'll be able to alleviate the ruins of my old abode and excavate it proper." He aligned his shoulder against the rock and planted his feet, bending his knees and turning his shoulder to get the full brunt of his body's strength against it. Val's size didn't suggest Herculean might, but she claimed to require an oak to tell her age so who was he to judge?

Hopefully with both of them working in tandem they could move the rock.

After a few short minutes of trying to shift the boulder, even Val had her upper robes tied around her waist, her bare, oaken skin transpiring precious water to keep her from overheating. This was hopeless.

"Dante, this isn't working. Even if we got half a dozen of us together, I don't think we could move it." She took a long sip from her waterskin and pondered their situation.

I've only been able to move smaller rocks; how am I supposed to help move this big one? Poor Dante is trying so hard to retrieve this heirloom, so I have to find a way to help

The day pressed on and desperation set in. In the sweltering heat, frustration soon joined her tangle of emotion and Val resorted to punching the rock. It wasn't moving anyway. While Dante rested briefly, Val's anger at her own weakness only grew. How she wanted to help this man succeed, to see him triumphantly reclaim his family's treasure from this carnage. Suddenly, in the midst of her huffing and panting, a cool, steady force overtook her and something changed. Green magic flowed from her arms as oak bark began to grow from her fists, slowly hardening as it covered her oak skin to the shoulder. With a single, all-consuming outpouring of anger and frustration and everything she felt at that moment, she struck the rock with such force that it crumbled to a heap of rubble.

Briefly stunned to silence, she quickly regains her voice. "Woah, did you do that?" Startled by her newly armored fists, she began to put it together. "Oh, I did that. I never would have known I had it in me. Hey, Dante, I think these pieces should be much easier to move. I just need to sit for a moment, and we should be able to.." Val collapses, exhausted, at the base of the former boulder, the heat and effort and excitement catching up to her. It would be a moment before she came to.

Dante gave Val a thumbs up and found a nice, uneven cracked piece of earth to lay down in. Truth be told, that was the entire ground, but standing upright had exceeded the discomfort of laying down on what amounted to cracked concrete with glass shard volcanic rock. He saw how frustrated she was getting as well as more of her bare... wood? Would it even be accurate to call it skin? It was a peculiar sight, but he liked the aesthetic. It was like looking at a really nicely made chair be turned into a girl through fairy tale pixie dust magic.

"You got this dear, we all believe in you."

Dante didn't mean for it to come out so sardonically, but exhaustion and tragedy had a way of sapping one's tongue and limbs. He dabbed his forehead with a cloth and sighed, noticing the other folk were stopping and staring. At first he thought it was himself, saying, "What are you lo-"

The boulder shattered, and Dante shot up in anxious anticipation. He glanced over and saw Val with her arm swollen with verdant energy and a now much more manageable broken stone. Dante rubbed the back of his head and said, "See? Told you we all believed in you."

The declaration seemed to ease the curiosity of the bystanders as they eventually went back to what they were doing. They had survived a battle with a god, a forest spirit was practically mundane by comparison. He threw rocks aside despite the ache in one shoulder and said, "Well then, we should be getting close to the..."

He spied the trapdoor.

"...Basement."

He gave the iron ring hand a heave and threw it open. Inside was a small basement with a threadbare larder that seemed like a bountiful harvest now. He pushed past the shelves and towards a bent iron safe and worked the security lock. It had been a while, and the mechanism was stuck. Dante retrieved a crowbar from a shelf and pulled out some lockpicks and got to work on the safe. It was moments before he had it open. Inside was a modest set of jewelry: earrings, necklaces, a few rings, and a bangle. He retrieved them slowly, sighing as he did so. They seemed so insignificant in the grand scheme of things, their meaning only relevant in the face of his mother.

"Thank you Ms Val."

The sky was darkening when Val woke up. Her head was spinning. She had briefly regained consciousness as someone was helping her into the shade, but the events of the afternoon left her exhausted, and she fell quickly asleep.

Oh, right. The events of the afternoon.

She sprung to her feet, still unsteady. The fields were nearly empty. Just a few stragglers finishing up various tasks. She had cast such powerful magic! Well, she had cast magic, anyway. Her victory was peanuts to the volcano. It felt so natural, though. Like a second layer of much tougher sk- she was thinking about bark. Yeah, that makes sense. She had really made a difference here, though. Oh, speaking of-

Her new companion was nowhere to be found. Not his smile, not his slight frame- still neglecting a shirt, not his bitter desperation to see his task through. Ah well, what did she know about people. The sky was unnaturally dark. As moonlight filtered through the ashfall in bleak diffuse showers, she let her attachment go. She stood slightly swaying, still as a tree, for a moment. Then, as she had every time before, she moved on. As she went, occasional crops sprung up out of the ash blanket, leaving a loose trail of life from the site of the boulder up to the road. There were certainly more people who would need her help, and once this disaster was mitigated, perhaps she could cross paths with that strange Fellblood again.

i hope, from now on, he smiles triumphantly