Ajay's Through the Ages Challenge: BRONZE AGE: The Great Fire

One bright and dry early Autumn morning in the Stone Roundhouse...

As Storm cooks breakfast, the central hearth catches fire. This is a straw, mud and wooden building, with dry reeds across the floor and there is no fire service or way of extinguishing the fire besides buckets of water.
Talia and Rabbit manage to get all the children out, but Storm himself tragically perishes while trying to douse the flames.

This might be immersion breaking, but I always love how disappointed Grimmie is when he turns up.

Poor Talia :( She's a family sim, not just losing the father of her children, but also her soulmate.

They manage to put the fire out, but all that's left of the large roundhouse is a few smoke-blackened walls. [you have to imagine rubble xD... I was too lazy to download anything for this one picture. I'm really not a storyteller haha]. They lose pretty much everything - their home, and all of their furniture. Everything that Storm and Talia have worked for and created, gone.

After a few days staying with Garan and Reya, in tight confines, the rebuilding project begins.

Firstly two smaller roundhouses are built, one containing the kitchen and bunks for the boys, and the other with sleeping space for Talia and the two babies.

It's a lot less space than they are used to, but the family has to make do for now, with the little they have.

Then comes the larger task of clearing up the remains of the old roundhouse.

Once the last of the old house is gone, Talia turns her mind to new beginnings. Storm wouldn't want her moping around, and she has to continue to work so that she and the children can survive the oncoming winter. They've long been hunting deer and wild boar in the surrounding forests, and the next time Rabbit goes out on a hunt, Talia asks him to bring back a couple of boar piglets, so that she can attempt to cultivate them.

Fox comes of age. He's similar in looks to his brother, but whereas Rabbit takes his pain and wants to accept and learn from it, Fox is forged in fire and anger. He wants success - to protect and provide for his tribe, by any means. So, he chooses the Fortune aspiration.

Berry also grows up, into a child. There's no school for the children to attend, but she assists with the pigs and the vegetable garden, as well as learning from her mother and older brothers.

And Amber also ages, into a toddler. Talia has her hands full, but as Amber will be her final child, and will grow up without a father, she makes an effort to do everything she can for her.

Berry watches as Talia prepares dinner. [As I don't use a lot of the children's skilling items, or bookcases, I allow the kids to 'learn' the first couple of points of cooking by watching someone else cooking. Then I use simBlender to give them a skill point. That will hopefully keep future fires to a minimum ;) ]