"Damn it..."
The surviving residents of Garbage Mountain were trapped by the blaze in a cramped, smoke-filled patch of ground. They had nowhere left to run, surrounded on all sides by roaring flames and suffocating smoke.
"We're done for... the fire's surrounded us..."
"It's so hot! There's nowhere to run..."
"How did this happen so suddenly..."
More and more people even gave up trying to escape. They had lost all hope. All they could do was kneel on the ground, endlessly wiping away the last moisture spilling from their eyes and wailing at the top of their lungs.
Yet a chance finally came. Just as more and more people abandoned their attempts to flee, a strange sound suddenly rang out...
Whoosh!
A firebreak appeared out of nowhere in the previously impenetrable wall of flames!
"Huh?"
"What's with this path? An explosion cleared a strip through the fire!"
At such a desperate moment, no one had the leisure to investigate where the path had come from. They had only one thought: survive!
The despairing people finally saw hope again. Dragging their utterly exhausted bodies along, they sprinted toward that path!
"Hey! I can see a ship!"
"This path leads to the shore!"
"I don't know what happened, but thank goodness!"
At the end of the shore, a massive ship lay moored at a harbor facing the raging blaze. Its prow featured an impressive dragon's head, with the body beneath it seeming to coil tightly around the entire ship. In the flickering firelight, this vessel that looked so much like a pirate ship seemed utterly sacred.
It faced the firebreak directly, and the path was crowded with fleeing refugees. On the other side lay another firebreak, though this one was much narrower. It did not need to accommodate so many refugees, only