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Ai stood a good distance away from the site of the church. Round green eys flitted back and forth, shielded from the evening sun by her dusty hand. At her feet was Kyrn, and the dark brown and dull grey colored puppy sat down while waiting for Ai to continue forward.

For Ai wasn't sure why she had even visited the site where the church had once stood whole. Even though the church building itself had been aesthetically appealing to her eyes, the site's tie to a religion that kept her tense easily placed the church as last on her list of places to freely visit. And with the destruction of Crosshaven, she found herself surprised that after a year of living on the outskirts of the ruined city, she had wound up at this church.

She had been here before though; she had actually began her journey into Crosshaven here. Her memory flitted to an older man, a priest, that spoke softly and wore glasses. She had somehow forgotten his name, but she remembered his face easily for she had sketched him into her sketchbook. He had been friendly, kind, and had taken her into the church without a second thought. She fingered a page from her sketchbook, but did not glance at it.

Perhaps he survived that nightmare upon which broke Crosshaven into a mess of rubble, lost lives and gapping holes, a city now devoid of the calm and prosperity that made Crosshaven so much her home. Most likely though, the man had been lost in that chaos and this place was a little more than a shell of what could have been holy.

With another glance to the building that stood before her, Ai began to make her way to the building, with Kyrn following at her side. Ai was determined to at least see what had changed from that one night she spent here so long ago, and, unlike when she first went into the building where there had been no shadows in her eye's perception; she found shadows now littered all about the site.

"To a new beginning, from the beginning," Ai found herself murmurring, totally unaware of how acurate that statement was. For this was the site, unknown to her, that the destruction had leapt upon first.

Ai felt her head c**k to the side, and the puppy at her feet mimicked her in the gesture. With a shake of her head, noting that Kyrn had copied her once more, she crossed the threshold in front of the church. Her steps were loud as they crunched on top of the ruined road, and Ai wondered if the noise could be heard from all the places held in this site.

She took a glance into the insides of the church; hands resting against the jutted outline of a mostly intact doorway. "Someone spent their time with those candles," Ai whispered, still hesitating at the very entrance. The candles, more than she could count at the moment, rested neatly atop the little stand in center, and their dancing light flitted throughout the area. Knowing that there was no roof, for it had been obvious from the outside, she gazed at the sky darkened by evening and quite a few clouds. "It'd be a pity if it rained, those candles would most likely go out."

Kyrn, while Ai held a staring contest with the sky, skittered over the floor, past one small patch of flowers and towards the kneeling shape. "Bark *whine* bark," Kyrn managed to speak through her clamberings; the small yips softly echoed about the air, right alongside the patter of doggie-nails on stone.

Ai glanced at Kyrn with an amused gaze and just as she was about to hush the puppy, spotted the lady in front of the collection of candles. She closed her lips at the sudden realization of anothers presence as her eyes widened slightly in surprise over missing the figure before. It only took a second for Ai to regain her wits though, and she took a few steps further into the room, now watching and waiting.

Ai stood still, quietly watching, as she tried to determine whether or not she should speak up. With her lips still a straight line across her face, even as the woman before her smiled; Ai felt her head c**k to the left. She let her eyes flicker from the woman to Kyrn, and smiled as the puppy eagerly lapped up the water laid down for her.

With another c**k of her head, this time to the right, Ai found herself speaking. "Were you...are you, from this church?" Ai's gaze landed on the photographs, and although at her distance she couldn't make out who they contained; she could guess what the gesture for them means. "Are you...the only one...left from here?" The words were hesitant, and it was obvious Ai was uncomfortable as she absently rubbed her right arm with her left hand.

Kyrn looked up from the bowl at Ai's voice, and just like Ai, cocked her furry little head. Kyrn began to wag her tail, seemingly glancing at the two humans before her, and rolled an impressive *whine* off of her tongue while Ai waited for a response.

Ai cringed slightly, the gesture visible only by her eyes, as she blatantly realized that such a topic would obviously be painful. After hesitating for a moment, she scrunched her nose as she tried to determine an answer.

"I came, because I came." It's just as slow as Ai's questions, and that shows just how little interaction she's had with other people since the incident. "Maybe, I came...because, my fates, guided...back again." A soft bob of her head causes some hair to fall into her face as her nose scrunches even more.

"And...you hope, to live?" She tugged on the piece of hair and pulled it behind her ear, eyes focused on Kyrn rather than the woman. "No one lives...without hope." Those last words, Ai wasn't sure whether they were right or not, but it was the only thing she could think of. So she stared at the candles still going behind the woman for a time, before finally looking at the woman.

It was small, but a guarded smile had spread across Ai's lips. She gently nodded her head, an acknowledgement of accompanying the woman to the kitchen. It wouldn't be so bad, Ai found herself thinking, to have this company tonight.

At the mention of knowing one of the others from the church, Ai found herself nodding. "I'm not sure of his name. He was...older, and had glasses." A pause in her words followed, before she added, "and was kind...very kind."

She finds her head bobbing slighlty, as she quietly agreed with the woman's words. A thought slithered into her head, with the realization of a lack of information, and Ai found herself speaking once more. "My na...ah, I'm Ai. You are?"

Ai jerked a little as a loud clattering sound basically echoed all about the ruined church. Part of her mind returned to the hellish day that everything was torn apart or engulfed by earth; while the other part informed her that it was more like metal clanking against metal rather than the rendering into piles of rubble buildings and pavement alike.

Kyrn has tensed too, ears pert and the head raised to the air, attempting to sniff out the noisemaker. A babyish growl formed in Kyrn's throat, more laughable than threatening. The squeak at the end of the growl could only be considered cute.

"Shh!" Ai whispered harshly, a downward jabbing motion at the air to hush up her puppy, hoping that she could find a hiding place in the now intimidating ruins before whatever making the racket found her. She quickly creeped forward, passing the lady she had been conversing with while making a motion for her to follow. "I hope she comes..." Ai found herself thinking, "Kyrn, come hurry."