In the distance, the waves crash upon the shore. The wind starts picking up, creating a warm summer breeze. As the sun sets, the Albanus estate, on a hill overlooking Anvil, is quiet. The few serfs that work and live there tiredly haul in from the fields and orchards.

The warm breeze picks up and the wheat fields make a slight swishing sound. Tigurius sits in a wooden chair on his villa's front porch, watching the sun set over anvil and smoking a pipe. To his left is his old friend, Barbatus Ambustus. The two sit in silence, savouring the moment.

Finally, with a great green flash, the sun sets over the ocean and disappears. Barbatus let's a smile escape his lips while Tigurius reclines. The smell of summer apples wafts through the porch, lingering with the exotic pipe smoke, the two scents dance together for a moment and part ways, creating a marvelous smell.

Kilroy the squire watches the two figures on the porch from the stables. The smell of pipe smoke barely reaches his nose, taunting it. He drifts off in to his thoughts as he brushes out a fine mare's coat. She whinnies in approval as he removes some unwanted dirt from her white hair.

Meanwhile, a serf sits alone in the serf house. Itylus sits on his cot, reading by candle light. It's one of his few pleasure's in life sometimes it seems. This is a particularly interesting section of his book so he leans closer, not noticing a shadow slip by the door.

Some gulls can be heard over Anvil's docks and tiny specs of light can be seen in the city as lamps and torches are lit. Behind the tool shed, Emerald-Eyes sits with another serf, Jerol, a redguard. Jerol reaches in to his burlap bag and pulls out a bottle of cheep brandy. The two pass it back and forth talking idly. As Jerol, now quite drunk, makes animated hand gestures to explain a rather stupid point, he accidentally drops the bottle, spilling the brandy all over the hay bales they are sitting on.

"Woops!" Jerol giggles while Emerald-Eyes rolls his eyes. Jerol picks up the bottle, corks it and puts it back in his sack. The two walk over to the serf house quietly, admiring the fields.

The silence is broken with a scream. The two turn to the house. Nothing seems to be wrong until a flaming figure leaps from the second story window, flames engulfing the room. Jerol shouts and goes to fetch water as the flames spread through out the house.

What's going on? How did the fire start? Is anyone hurt? We need to extinguish it! These are the thoughts going through everyone's mind.

Leaping from his chair with the reflexes of decades of training, Tigurius is quickly on his feet and bounding through the halls, towards the scream. As he climbs the stairs two at a time, he smells smoke, long before he can see it. A thousands thoughts thunder through his head, not the least of which include the safety of his wife and daughters. "Fetch the serfs!" he calls back Barbatus, "Have them draw water from the wells!" he turns back to the house. "FIRE! FIRE!" he bellows before dashing back down the halls, and towards the sound of crackling wood.

Dionna comes running down the stares from the fire, clutching Esmia.
"Have you seen Lianne?" she cries to Tigurius.

A quick pang of shock impales itself in Tigurius' mind, before quickly hiding it. "No, but I'll find her, I promise. For now, get Esmia out, and secure the horses before they panic. I'll find her!" he reassured his wife. Panic gripped him as he ventured furhter down the hall, two household servants bolting past him, almost as if they didn't notice him. He would have had them reprimanded, maybe even beaten, for failing to bow, if it weren't for the current situation.

Suddenly, a loud 'woof' came from inside one of the closed rooms; Abelard! The servants had forgotten to release his dog! Opening the door, Tigurius briskly ordered the great hound out, telling him to follow Dionna. "Get!". With that, he turned back towards the direction of the fire.

A sudden scream rises over the sounds of the fire, coming from down the hall. It's a young girls voice from behind one of the last doors.

Emerald-Eyes stared at the burning building for a moment as Jerol ran off. The Argonian had never seen a building burn that strongly; small flames from cooking gone wrong, sure, but a whole room engulfed in flame? It was almost hypnotizing how strong the fire was.

He stood there, almost in awe, until his senses came back to him. He spun around, looking for where Jerol went. "Ehh. . ." he mumbled aloud, and looked back to the house. How would someone combat a fire that strong? You'd need a lot of--

Water! Water would help, wouldn't it? 'Course it would. Emerald-Eyes ran to the serf house, trying to find a bucket or anything that could hold any amount of water to use. He grabbed the first bucket he saw and then ran back outside towards the burning house. A thought crossed his mind, and he skidded to a halt -- Water. Would. Help. Wouldn't it?

He spun around yet again and ran for the nearest source of water he could find.

Itylus stopped reading at the sound of the scream. He had been concentrating on the words so he wasn't sure if he had actually heard it, but now the sounds of alarm confirmed it and he quickly rolled out of bed. He stuffs his valuable little book under the straw mattress, pulled on his tunic (wincing at the smell) and run out of his hovel.
He stops a pace or two outside and takes in the ghastly scene at the manor. A fire! A big fire! He spots a group of men lugging water buckets and races to help them.

A line of people begins to form from the well to the house. Each man passes a bucket to the man next to him and so on until it gets thrown on the house. The fire is being somewhat combatted on the first floor, but there is still a lot on the second, where Tigurius is now.

Barbatus is lost in the flurry of activity, but assists his friend to the best of his ability. He conjures bulbs of frigid magical energy in capable, if rusty, hands and lobs them into the flames as he follows behind Tigurius.

A scream of alarm flashes through Kilroy's mind. Almost as if following his masters orders without even hearing them, the young man races around the stable, tieing each horse to it's post, as to keep them from panicing.

Once done with his task he hasitly throws off the bandolier of horse-care items he was wearing, and sprints full speed out the door. Ignoring the line of people passing buckets of water towards the inferno, he flies up the steps of the porch and into the house.

"Master!" he yells, frantically looking in each room for him as he works his way up stairs.