"Cow cow meow." 

"Meow meow cow."

The kids nodded at each other, slowly descending from their hiding places. The town was half destroyed, half the same. The portal hadn't quite worked the way they wanted it to. The monsters had still gotten through, the portal only saving half of the town. The smoke still billowed up into the sky line, past the buildings they once thought so tall. The younger child, a girl about 7 years old, looked frightened. The older girl, around age 17, put an arm around the younger girl protectively. 

"It'll be okay, they're gone now. They aren't coming back."

The rest of the town slowly emerged, a few began sweeping away the ashes. The town was half, but would soon be whole again. The two girls disappeared into the crowd, readying themselves for whatever the future might bring. A woman cradled her newborn, a strange form of symbolism for the old and the new in the half destroyed town.

"It's over now, c'mon." A younger boy motioned to his peers who slowly slunk from where they had dwelled during the siege. They all began to clear away the rubble, clouds forming overhead as though vowing to put out what few fires remained by way of rain. 

The rain began, and a few villagers fled back to the safety of the still intact part of town, terrified that the rain would bring new elemental monsters. The rest braved the storm, thankful that the fiery reminders of the monsters were being washed away, that the rain dissipated soon after was a sadness that most suffered.