"Who the fuck decided to set off fireworks!?" Salzen snarled as he walked out of his, rubbing his throbbing head. His ears had suffered the same fate and now he had yet another headache. The glorious dreams that the honeyed wine was giving him were now completely gone. He noticed a small figure running full speed toward him and was surprised to see it was the youngling bloodsucker. As if he didn't have enough to deal with "What are you doing here kid?"
     "It's Lyra!" Hiroki gasped for air. "The fireworks are hurting her and she's in pain! I think it's her ears! She's holding her he-"
      Salzen didn't wait for the kid to finish and bolted to where he had come from, almost knocking him over. He quickly found Lyra slowly trying to stand, clutching the right side of her head.
      He spotted the blood dripping down. "You alright?" Lyra rubbed her ears and winced at the pain.
       They hurt, but she could feel them starting to heal already. "Ow, this is why I hate fireworks. Why did Taron set them off, he knows how much they hurt our ears." She glanced around to see who may have fired them off but saw no one. Part of her wondered if Ken hadn't managed to find his way to the shed with the supplies. He had already done it once
      Salzen could see a few people were poking their heads out of their homes or walking out to see what the commotion was about. "I don't think Taron set them off." 
      "Do you think Ken caught some spare ones on fire? He did that first night we spent here when he found some and thought it was a good way to cheer everyone up."And burned down the shed in the process, one of the few buildings that had been untouched.
     Salzen shook his head, his own hearing now completely healed. "I don't think this was him, and there was plain black powder that was laying around with those, I cannot fathom how that man would still be alive." Ken had almost blown up the whole town last time, this seemed more controlled with them being in one spot. 
      Lyra winced when she rubbed the tender part of her left ear. "If he didn't set them off then who did?"
      The sounds of swords clashing together caused Salzen to snap his attention toward the village. "Do you hear that?"
     "...no, my ear is currently bleeding, Salzen. I find it a miracle that I can even hear you right now. Why, what are you hearing?"
      "Swords."
     Lyra sighed. Damn. "Well, that kicked off sooner than I expected."
      Salzen spun back to look at her in bewilderment. "You knew that something like this was going to happen?"
       She gave him a bland look. "Seriously? Why do you think I'm here, even Taron figured it out faster than you." She glared at him. "Yes, I knew that there was going to be a fight happening. Even without Death breathing down the back of my neck, it was obvious having two warring nations at the same party wasn't going to go down well. Talk about a powder keg waiting for the smallest spark...no pun intended. I tried staying away, but He had other ideas, so here I am. Now, are you going to help or am I going to have to fight by myself?"
      Salzen frowned at her. "Are you still planning on fighting? Won't that change things?"
      "Normally yes, however, I physically can't mess things up any more than I already have. Believe me, I already got a tongue-lashing about that. Not to
Mention that someone just blew out our eardrums so I'm pissed and want to kick their ass, so are you in?" She rolled her eyes and waited for his answer, one she already knew what it was going to be. 
       "I'll see you down there." Salzen quickly raced toward the town, along some of the soldiers who were already on their way.
      Lyra ran off to find Hiroki to make sure that he was safe, only to find him running toward her. The boy looked absolutely frantic hearing everything that was going on.