Flotsam (Kireon + Weyrbrats/Candis)

[Chek]

Trailing along behind a gaggle of Weyrbrats, and the occasional Candidate thrown in for what, to Loki, seemed like spite, the dragonless healer quietly stewed, resenting the Masterhealer who’d ousted him from the Infirmary and onto this foolish adventure. He didn’t need fresh air. He didn’t need sunlight – or at not enough to warrant being chased out of his tiny lair within a decommissioned infirmary room.

Nearby, a fairly familiar face – brownrider Durian – was the only other adult escort for this mission; the mission being to get the weyrbrats out of the crèche worker’s hair for a few candlemarks while they scrubbed everything down. An outbreak of tiny biting insects had been plaguing the crèche for a fortnight, and they’d finally gotten it under control, with the help of the slinky little creatures that now seemed to populate the place.

It was Durian who’d suggested they acquire a few Candidates to wrangle the children; but whether that was a good or bad decision had yet to be seen.

The loose group wandered a bit, but finally ended up on a nice, quiet piece of shoreline. Loki thought it might be near where Agnith had broken his leg that one time, but he flinched away from the memories; mainly of the blue dragon who featured prominently in them.

He coughed once, pointedly, and amazingly all eyes, Weyrbrat and Candidate alike, turned to him. Growling, he pointed to an upturned pile of beach refuse the might have once been a boat, “No further than that pile, no closer than this to the docks. Stay out of the trees, and if you go in the water, you better be hand in hand with someone who can swim and who has been through puberty. That said, go…do whatever it is you do.”

The group scattered, and Loki sighed as he settled down onto a largish rock, shoulders sagging. “Durian,” he said quietly, running his hands over his face, “If any of them disobey, please tell me I’m allowed to feed them to a wild wher. It’s such an elegant, if messy, solution.”

Hunching forward, he draped his arms limply over his knees, gazing seaward and only barely paying attention to the children; Sigyn, on his shoulder, was alert and watching for him. A clump of debris on the water caught his wandering attention; a tangle of netting and driftwood, mostly sea-weedy and dark, but with a few striking lighter bits that looked almost armlike. Why did it interest him? He didn’t know; but it was something to look at that wasn’t a small child. It bobbed, mostly in place, out beyond the breaking waves.

A shadow coasted along the beach; he glanced upwards and winced; blue. He turned back to the sea flotsam, but shrieking children called his attention away again; a little girl chased a few others up the beach, holding out something spindly and with two many legs. “Or a boat. Put them all in a boat and put them out to sea. We can monitor them and see how long it take for them to start eating each other. I suspect less than a day.”


OOC: Open to Candidates in good standing and any Weyrbrats. Stuff might happen! Exciting stuff! Kireon and I have a plot but ya’ll are welcome to join in around it. TRUST ME IT MIGHT BE WOOOORTH IT.

[Kila]

Summer, 6th Turn, 11th Pass
Aydan didn't know where they were going, but to be honest he didn't much care. Ever since he had caught a ride to the Gather and realized that the crèche kids got to go places and do things he had decided it wasn't as horrible of a place as he'd thought. He didn't stay there with the other children, much to Nadya's disappointment, but he did hang around and go in every now and then. He and the other kids still didn't mix much, but he was curious to see if he could weasel his way into another adventure.

Today he was in luck. The crèche had been particularly itchy the past few days so Aydan had been avoiding it. When he wandered by that morning, however, he saw the children being herded out and eagerly joined the crowd. Some of the women that worked in the crèche didn't like having him around , as they had a right to after his tempestuous tantrums, but he was a weyrbrat, frequent patron of their service or no, and they could not turn him away. Shardit and Bug followed closely at his heels as he walked out into the Bowl, the Brass bubbling and looking about suspiciously and the Blue bopping along happily. Fearless as a mighty Wher, he knew he was in no danger of being chased off with his six-legged friends at his side.

When they finally stopped at the edge of the ocean Aydan looked around, half expecting to see a dragon waiting to carry them further. Finding none he stuck out his lip poutily. Nadya and Nadysk patrolled this area- he had been here a million times before. After winding up at Western for the Gather, a walk across the Bowl was pretty disappointing. The other children were thrilled though, and in no time at all Aydan was throwing sand and running into the water. He looked back at Loki when the man cleared his throat only to see what everyone was looking at. He understood what the Healer said, he just had no intention of listening. Aydan was not good at taking orders. It ran in the family. Grabbing Shardit, he let the Brass pull him around. Though young, Aydan was a great swimmer. Having been with pillies from birth he had never been in danger of drowning.

[maruset]

It had been partly chore, partly volunteering that had Letorin out watching the kids. There seemed to be quite a few of them, and he was there to help out.

Besides, Letorin liked kids, and he enjoyed spending time with them and answering questions they had. It made for some interesting conversations, and sometimes they even triggered an idea or two. So he was down by the water with a small herd of children, his pets having come with.

Stormageddon even came down as well, perched on a rock near the edge of the water, enjoying the petting she was getting from one of the children. The gray was purring quite hard, and Letorin just shook his head at the spoiled feline.

His fair was scattered about, the flits settled around or lazily flying around the children. The only one who wasn't was Vitula, who was settled in her favorite spot of the top of Letorin's head. The others were following his directions of keeping track of children and making sure none went past the limits set for them. Letorin himself stayed near the edge of the water, keeping an eye on the children there.

He also was tracking his pillies, who were enjoying a swim for the most part, though Akshi was tapping his antenna on one of the children, who didn't seem to mind the blue too much. At least Xaxanc wasn't causing too much of an issue today. Mostly because Letorin though he might have gotten it through the brown's head that the children were a no-go zone.

Really, it seemed like there was so many more kids than teens or adults that Letorin was trying to keep a good eye on the little ones. Things had been going well, and he didn't want anything bad to happen while they were all out having a fun time in the fresh air.

[kireon]

In a way, she'd wanted to give a piece of mind to the person who'd told her to accompany Loki in watching the children. It wasn't that she was beneath the task, far from it, she spent more than her fair share of time playing with the children in the creche or covering an ailing drudge's shift in the hours of the morning where the truly sane should have slept and watching over the Weyr's future. It was that... the flight, it's aftermath and everything that had gone down felt a little more important at the moment than anything else.

But, she could see the wisdom of it as well.

Tending children was a good enough excuse to keep her mind off of things that would otherwise chew on her last nerve and likely cause an eruption of temper that could very well put Waroth or any of the other temperamental reds to shame. She also suspected there was a bit of an extra incentive in sending her with Loki; primarily to keep him from potentially throwing himself into the sea- or throwing the children to wild whers, for that matter. "I don't know about a wild wher," the brownrider replied with no small amount of amusement in her voice. "but I think you could probably bribe your sister into making a special visit to discourage them for the future." She remembered the tall red head having more than her fair share of adventures in and around the entire Weyr's many tunnels and caverns.

Then again, that might bring a plague of new problems upon the poor man.

Shrieking every which way, she resisted the urge to smile and laugh along with them, though the corners of her mouth tugged upwards upon solemn presentation of something with an abundance of legs waving wildly about from within the confines of an opalescent, spiral shell by one such child who recognized her.

A whispered comment and said child went tearing off after others with the mysterious something in hand, answering shrieks of mixed terror and delight of the disgusted signalled it'd been the correct choice to make- and would likely keep them occupied until someone decided to find another of the pretty shelled creatures to make them fight or something.

Or she'd just come up with something herself to keep them away from the unwelcome places. "I doubt they'd eat each other, sadly." Maybe. Probably. There were a couple she'd think about later. Reggae gave a melodic chirp-whistle to herself, bobbing this way and that in time with the music she composed. Her brightly colored hide, speckled liberally with lighter and darker shades of pink along the back, tail, neck and hindquarters was starting to silver, giving her hide more of a frosted sweet appearance. Something caught her attention mid-song and she perked up, eyes whirrling inquisitively as she looked out to sea.

Durian's eyes headed in the direction once the chirp-song stopped, impressing an inquiry into what had her attention. The image of floatsam out on the waves came in, only a little more magnified than her own. Seaweed, dark, driftwood and other odds and ends with something... not quite right about it. Reggae whistled softly to Sigyn, sending her the same image with a questioning feel. Since they had the wings, should they go out and look, did she think the same?

Spring-green eyes swung from the children to Loki. "Reggae thinks she sees something out there. Looks like driftwood and debris to me from here. Should we send the flits out to look?" There was something unsettling, uneasy in her gut. She wanted to dismiss it as just the events of the last few nights.

But still...

[birdi]

Inanna let out a breath, scrunching her brow and holding a hand palm-down above her eyes to shield them from the glare of Rukbat. She whistled low under her breath. Man, there were a lot of kids around. More so than even the bunch she'd occasionally have to deal with back at home, when their folk were out on the boats, bringing in the catch. Weyrbrats were taken care of by the entire weyr, or so she'd heard, and so she had to suppose things like this were common. Still, she didn't regret volunteering along--the sight of the sea, the brush of cold salt-specked wind along her cheeks; she would babysit a murder of whers, if she had to.

Somebody's fingers tugged at her trousers. Inanna looked down, to see a quiet, shy little weyrbrat girl turn her big-lashed puppy eyes up at her.

"I wanna swim," the girl mumbled, then ducked her head.

Inanna raised an eyebrow. "Have you before?"

"Not really..."

Sigh. "Alright then, c'mon girlie." She held out a hand, and the tinier one slipped into her grip after a brief moment of hesitation. Inanna brought her to the water, and then knelt down. "You see how it pulls at your feet, even from here?" The girl nodded, eyes fixed on the water as it brushed against her toes, and then retreated. "You gotta be careful about that, know where you're coming in, 'cause the sea sucks in. Could drown ya."

The girl looked horribly frightened. Inanna suddenly remembered why she wasn't good with youngins. "No, no, I'm not gonna let you drown, I was just trying to..." Oh, frick, now she was crying.

This might be a long day...

[Chimera]

"Peep." MiniMe exclaimed as she chomped on a juicy bug she'd caught. Though the green firelizard was still young, when it came to bug-catching she was no grasshopper. Akklyn smiled and patted the smug flit's head. She had no idea why they'd walked so far to the actual shore - not the lake. Her pet was happy about the different varieties of food to catch, but Akklyn...there were hordes of kids around, and she wasn't a social butterfly. The Rukbat glared down at the collection of weyrbrats, Candidates, and the riders responsible for watching them.

The young girl had found a few decent kids out of the bunch, at least. Now she was just relaxing, making the most of this outing. She gingerly dipped a foot into the shimmering seawater, before withdrawing it. Meh. She cupped some of the seawater with one hand and brushed it on her face with the other, careful not to let it leak near her eyes and cause a bucketful of pain.

Loki spoke a lot, and it was kind of annoying - but hey, Akklyn sympathized with the guy. She'd be grumpy if she had to babysit a gaggle of Weyrbrats and Candidates too. From what she'd heard, the man had lost his dragon. Akklyn couldn't even imagine something happening to MiniMe...

She eyed the flotsam, attention occupied by the mysterious debris for a few moments, before the ear-grating sound of someone crying reached her. She wheeled around in the direction of the noise and stomped over to Inanna and the other weyrbrat girl.

"What's the matter? D'you make her cry?" Akklyn stared up innocently at Inanna, not angrily at all - at least from the outside.

((inanna receives another stubborn snarker to interact with lol))

[Chek]

Watching Aydan swim outwards, despite orders to the contrary, Loki considered Durian’s comments, “No, Damali would just encourage the little monsters. That’s the last thing I need. That or her adopting any more of them.” Not that he didn’t like his niece! And at least his baby sister had acquired a child outside the normal manner; pregnant Damali was a nightmare he didn’t want to even contemplate; except now he was and it was terrifying and painful.

That absorbed his thoughts for a moment, trying to purge the mental image from his mind. A child crying made him glance in that direction, though everything seemed fine. Excessively crying children, nothing unusal. He glanced over Aydan again, noting the pillie this time and deciding that the large aquatic pet was likely just as safe a companion in the water as one of the Candidates.

Possibly moreso.

Durian was talking again; it took him a moment to tune back into her voice (missing her opinion on the children eating eat other; a pity, it was an experiment worth trying), but when he did he lifted his head and squinted at the debris out on the waves. None of the children had gone near it, it was far too far out, but now that he looked at it again, seriously, it seemed odd. Sigyn, like Reggae had for her owner, provided a clearer image of the object of her man’s attention.

Loki straightened, “I think it’s the remains of a boat, actually,” he said, quiet, to Durian. Without a verbal order, Sigyn was in the air, fluttering across the water, low, and was soon landing on what, indeed, was a weathered and battered plank. The pink nosed through the seaweed tangled over and through everything, soon coming across one of the pale things that had originally caught Loki’s attention.

It was indeed what he had been worried it was as soon as the realization came that this particular piece of flotsam was a boat. He glanced down the beach towards the far marker for the children, a storm-weathered broken pile of boat, and rubbed his face with his hands, “Lovely. Perfect. Exactly what I needed.”

From his rock, he looked up at Durian and saw the knowledge in her face, that she too recognized what was had been discovered, “We can call in a fisherman to haul it towards the docks, as long as we keep the brats away from…” he sputtered to a stop.

Sigyn was a good flitter. More importantly, she was a good Healer’s flitter. So when Loki had pulled away from her in order to discuss the body tangled in the wreckage with Durian, with a body before her and no immediate orders, she’d done as she was trained in an emergency: she found a face and throat and set her paws upon one certain spot; it took her a long moment to find what sought, but once she did, she sat down and peeped.

And, a second later, peeped again. Loki, of course, started paying attention again at this point; this was heart rate monitoring behavior that had been extensively trained into the pink, and she simply did not make mistakes. If she was peeping out a pulse – as unsteady and halting as it was – then there was a pulse.

This, at least, was something Loki was comfortable dealing with; surging to his feet he stuck his smallest fingers in his mouth and whistled, piercing and loud, then bellowed, “Everyone to this rock, RIGHT NOW OR YOU’RE NOT LEAVING THE WEYR BOWL AGAIN UNTIL YOU’VE IMPRESSED OR APPRENTICED!”

He reached, instinctively, and faltered, finding only Sigyn, but recovered quickly as he stormed towards the water, “Durian, call Healers. I work well with Delilah and Ondine – Agnith and Dilath for their dragons – but get someone, anyone down here.” The boots came off, discarded in the surf, “Have your dragon to eat any of the brats who try to stray.”

Chest deep, he dove into the surf and disappeared, popping back up for a breath several dragon lengths further out. He didn’t doubt for a moment that Durian was right behind him as he grabbed onto the remains of the boat and heaved a mass of seaweed away.



OOC: YES, THE EXCITEMENT I PROMISED YOU ALL ARE MENTAL SCARS AND TRAUMA FOR ALL YOUR YOUNGLINGS! MWAHAHAHA. What did you expect from a thread that I am writing, anyway?

[kireon]

OOC: Medical intensive stuff in here. Not for the squeamish.[/size]

"That's when you pay her back by having one of your own." Durian returned with a chuckle, knowing full well the man would give her one of the most horrified looks ever, or one of the blackest scowls he could muster- and Loki was notorious for his vast array of scowls. One could even make a hide series on what each and everyone meant. Maybe I'll have Damali help me on that one, present it to him as a joke. She stretched out, tethered lightly to Reggae as the pink soared after Sigyn to keep an eye on what the two flits found.

Aydan... that boy was an odd one in a Weyr full of odd ones. His tantrums were nothing short of what legends were made out of, and they only seemed to be getting more intense as time went on. She'd spoken, briefly, to the creche workers, and had done some observing of her own. If things didn't change for the little lad, life was going to be considerably difficult for him as he grew older. That he was away from Nadya and Nadysk was an improvement, not even screeching this time. Little bits of progress, but not enough for her to be comfortable keeping the child out of sight. The bob of a familiar sight relaxed her, somewhat, as the wet-shiny carapace of a pillie beneath the swimming boy revealed itself. That one was almost always in his presence, anything went wrong and they'd know in due time.

The somber mentioning of wreckage gave her reason to pause, eyes narrowed as she looked to the pile of splintered odds and ends on the shore. "Who said the 'may your life be interesting' curse?" She asked the air, not expecting an answer as she ran a hand through the short, couple inch long locks atop her head. Her mouth hardened into a line as she got images from Reggae, her musical little look out being the perfect little spy, as always. She inched the open toed sandals off her feet, straps sliding down her heel to wedge beneath as she kicked one, and then the other off. Her jacket, used only for decorative purposes really for the rank- stupid and useless as it currently was in her eyes- dropped atop them. Dark colored sleeveless top and form hugging trousers specifically designed for swimming clung to her angular form, all muscle and hardly any curve, and something was strapped to the small of her back, something in a sheath and about a hand's length in size.

Reggae's wings rustled as she dropped beside Sigyn, nosing the pale, salt-crusted something with her head and flicked to taste with a tiny blue-green tongue. Definitely salty, but was it fleshy? She sent back images of the arm, knowing hers was distracted, and nosed up the arm to where Sigyn had discovered a face. Peeping softly, she settled on the opposing shoulder and nuzzled the face insistently. This was no sleeping place, sleepy one, they needed to wake up. Her head ceased its nudgings at Sigyn's rather distracting noises, the littler of the two flits observing, head cocking to one side as she measured the sound, the pitch, and the rhythm. Strange song, but she could join in too- and did so without understanding the implications behind it. She pitched her voice a little higher though, in comparison.

No sooner had she touched Mesreath's mind than the brown threw his wide wedge of a head upward and bellowed to the air seconds before he appeared overhead and landed a safe distance from the children. He was at the aforementioned rock, wings large and curved to provide shade from the glaring rays of Rukbat. Unhappy at having to stay behind, red-orange eyes swirled irritably as he looked to the children. Children. Here. Follow orders or I am to eat you. His attention blanked, touching that of the two pinks attached to their healers. Dilath, Angith; yours are required at the shore. There is trouble, bring assistance. [/i] He approved of Loki's solution to trouble makers, and stood on guard, ready to reach out and trap any children who thought to disobey. The pillie happily swimming and playing boats with the child was sent a distinct, firm impression of danger in the seas and an urge to get out and return to the safety of numbers.

Durian was already in the surf, arrowing in beneath a wave and breached the surface with wiry arms and legs propelling herself forward. Swimming hadn't been a truly appreciated skill until she'd had more time to practice it out on the lake. She didn't have much in the way of curves to create any kind of water resistance and drag either. Though it was the height difference between them that likely contributed to Loki beating her to the broken pile by the span of a few heartbeats, Durian wordlessly dove, coming up around the other side and shook water out of her eyes. Reggae broke tune, stretching her neck out to nuzzle her bonded in greeting.

As expected, Loki was instantly giving orders, Durian trying to aid the man into getting the victim on top of a clump of boards that seemed to be put together well enough to serve as a makeshift raft until they got her to shore. Efforts were met with unnatural resistance, however, and she muttered an oath under her breath. "Reggae," she sent images of what she wanted the flit to do, and watched the pink launch into the air, wing back and dive straight down with a neat little splash. Her eyes closed as she focused on merging her thoughts as best she could with the sweet little pink's.

Images came, blurry and inconsistant, but cleared little by little as the flit looked for the cause- and found it along with a multitude of other problems. Spring green eyes flew open and she looked to Loki as the flit swam back up, floating next to Durian like a miniature leaf on the waves. "Her leg's done for, I don't know why anything hasn't gotten her before now, but it's tangled up in the anchor by the ankle." Reggae, ever helpful, sent an image to Loki of the leg she'd seen; bone protruding in two places, unnatural angle beneath the knee, and with the reddened, chafed flesh about the ankle where the rope had mercilessly rubbed against it. To be fair, she hadn't recognized the knee at first, swollen up to the size of one of the extra large rindfruit varieties ssome grew as it was. There were further injuries on the leg that would render it pretty unsalvageable- and that was if they could get her to shore. "...I'm not you, but I know what that looks like, and I think it's broken beyond repair, to say nothing about the swelling and infection probably running nuts in it." Considering how discolored and mottled the flesh on her leg was in places, she didn't think she wanted to see the kind of colors it'd be once they were on land.

Her hand checked for the blade, the straps had held true as she'd made them, and lay snug against the small of her back as it had on land. "Knife on me, I'll get her free." Reggae, show Loki. She didn't want to hear the number of oaths the man was about to take right before she was about to dive. The instant her head disappeared beneath the water, Reggae dove with her to serve as her eyes and escort, only pausing an instant to send the image of the woman's heavy distended belly as they passed.

I can be there to aid. Tell me. The others can watch the weyrbrats. Mesreath informed her, burning angrily within Durian's mind as he watched, through her, as they hacked at the rope. Such a trivial task wouldn't be a challenge, he would carry them, anchor and all, to the shore.

I need you where I know the kids're safe. Stay there until I tell you otherwis- that's an old injury. She counted several old looking scars, several recent, and others that she doubted were actually water or shipwreck caused. The sound of sawing rope was unbearably loud, Reggae changing from looking at the rope to around for any kind of man-eater or too curious sea-dweller. With a last, vicious saw at the rope, Durian-Reggae watched the anchor disappear down and swam up with the blade between their teeth.

Blade switched to one hand as she gulped air, Durian looked to the healer and nodded, mouth a grim line. "Worse than I thought, let's get her up and going." Their victim was... pale. Durian frowned. Worse than the wherhandlers even, and not all of that was because of the layer of salt that crusted on her skin and hair either. Too thin looking, and she jerked, startled, as the woman's eyes opened; pale, indistinct eye color rimmed in scarlet, as if all the vessels in her eyes had simultaneously burst at once.

Exposure to saltwater and the winds, and a lack of sleep, maybe, she couldn't put a color to them, really aside from the red sclera. Wispy, stringy and salt crusted pale blonde hair and intensely thin looking. She uttered something weakly, indecipherable as they manaaged to load her up and started for shore. "Say again?" Durian asked, softly, edging a little closer to catch whatever she'd said. Again, the words came, and they were just as unfamiliar, broken as before, and faded into a low, shuddering, and delirious moan of pain.

Mesreath's head jerked at the injuries this unknown held, eyes going starkly red as he rumbled deep within his chest. All children. Under my wings. Now. Do not disobey. Do not look. Every single child and Candidate, once there, would find themselves in complete darkness as the dragon dropped the curved appendages to splay and cover their eyes from the view of the Healer and Durian coming to shore.

Could anything even be done for the woman?[/size]

[birdi]

Inanna sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of her nose, in an attempt to ward off a headache. When she’d signed on, this was exactly what she wanted to avoid. “I—“ I didn’t make her cry would be a lie. Denying it at this stage would be a little silly… “might have, yeah.” She finished, helplessly. She gestured in the other girl’s direction. “Do ya know any way to get her to stop, by any chance?”

If only she knew then that this mess would be the least of her concerns in a matter of moments.

There wasn’t much of a chance of figuring out what was going on—first, Loki was shouting something about them all heading over to a rock—Inanna didn’t think, the tone boded no terms of argument, she just grabbed the still hiccupping child and ran over as commanded, and another young boy who stood shock-still like some folks got when people started yelling. Pulling them over, she started helping the other candidates herd the children to the rock.

Mesreath was there almost as soon as they were, and quicker than a few of the others. His orders were enough to set off the little girl clinging to Inanna’s hand crying again. She wished he’d said something other than imply that he’d eat them, though she couldn’t find it within her to blame him at the same time. Inanna glanced around, wondering if that other girl was going to pop up again and ask about the crying—“it wasn’t me, this time,” she muttered.

Inanna couldn’t help but squint and try and figure out what they were doing by what looked to be an old shipwreck, trying to get a glimpse of what was happening, and then immediately grimaced when they started pulling something out of the wreckage and towards the shore… she caught sight of something that looked like a dead body. Shards, this was just what she got for talking about drowning earlier.

Mesreath’s warning echoed in her ears and his wings covered everything in darkness, but it was too late. Inanna looked down at the kids, worried that maybe one of the youngins had caught glimpse of it.

“Y’all doing alright?” she whispered, trying her best to be sensitive. Would’ve been better for the kids if someone else had come along, she had no fardling idea how to deal with it if one of them piped up and was all ‘why, no, I am not ok, I think I just saw a half-dead body out there’.

[Kila]

Aydan glanced back at the shore when one of the little girls
started crying, setting the candidate she was with all afluster. Another
of the weyrbrats went over to them, though he could not tell what she
was saying from the water. He made a face in their direction; they were
nothing but stupid children, afraid of the water. It didn't hurt his
feelings that none of them had splashed out to join him, but it was
impossible to ignore the way they all paired up and clumped together.
Srrrrrr Bug garbled, swimming in little circles
around him. No need to be sad when his pillies were there! They were
better than runny-nosed children. FfRRRR! Shardit
agreed, wriggling beneath him. Aydan smiled. Of course they were right.

While the half-sunken hull was not well visible from the beach, it stood
out in stark contrast from the water when it was bobbing at eye level.
Aydan spotted it not long after Durian and Loki and was immediately
interested. He pointed, looking at his two pillies imploringly. The pair
was loathe to deny him anything, but they could tell that something was
amiss with the floating debris. It smelled like human... in a bad way.
Aydan pursed his lips when they did not respond. He nudged them with his
mind but still they did not budge. "Go!" he said in an
insistent tone. His speech would have shocked anyone if they had been
around to hear it, but as per the norm it was just the bugs. It wasn't
that he couldn't speak, most of the time he just chose not to.

The pillies' fears were proved correct when Loki let out a sharp whistle
and began to shout. Aydan looked at him with annoyance. He did not like
men, especially when they yelled or touched him or tried to tell him
what to do. He had gotten that from Nadya. Shardit hissed. He did not
like anyone. The Brass bristled when the two humans in charge dove into
the water, but Mesreath's silent warning quieted him grudgingly.
FrrRrrRrr he grumbled at Bug, turning and
beginning to haul Aydan towards the shore. The small boy was less than
thrilled, but Mesreath's sharp words interrupted his protest. He
considered this as he was pulled. Aydan really wanted to see
whatever was floating in the water, but getting to see a big angry
dragon up close would be really cool. After a little contemplation he
gave in and let Shardit and Bug drag him. He looked at the flotsam all
the way to Mesreath though, and got a good look at what Loki and Durian
were doing. He couldn't understand why there would be a person out
there, or why whoever it was looked so pale, OR why there was so much
fuss over it. Aydan had never seen a (near) dead body before: he didn't
get it.

He forgot about the shipwreck for the most part when he was herded over
to the Brown. He looked up to admire Mesreath but was promptly covered
by a big wing and plunged into darkness. Aydan scowled, inching away
from the people that were crowded around him. This was not what he had
signed up for. The same candidate was murmuring reassurances, but there
were still a bunch of small, sniffling children crammed together in the
dark who were not at all calmed by her words. Aydan squirmed, his
pillies fussing about his feet. This would not do at all.

[maruset]

Letorin had using Akshi to keep track of their swimming child when the adults leading this little expedition began to react to something in the water that caught their attention. Tuon, who didn't want to get too close to the kids, and Kuanos were both circling the area, and noticed the debris in the water. Both little blacks circled, though did not land. Letorin was frowning faintly, trying to puzzle together what they were showing him.

Then Journeyman Loki's flit was there, and the adults started moving around. Definitely something was going on.

When the call to gather up came, Letorin didn't hesitate. Issuing orders to his flits, they began to herd children together. There may have been a nip or two if some of them lagged. And the pillies charged in, also nudging at kids.

Curiosity tore at Letorin, but he was supposed to be here to watch the children, and that was what he would do. Once they were next to the dragon, and the wings came down, Letorin crouched, so he was more on a level with the kids. Around them, his flits found friendly shoulders to land on, humming softly as Letorin directed them.

Even Tuon did, tucking himself around Letorin's neck. Letorin counted the children quickly that were on his side before it went dark. Then he spoke to the dragon, aware that he could understand, even if he did not speak back, and let him know how many kids that Letorin had under the wing with him. Better to know for sure they had all the kids. Hopefully they had all the others on the opposite side of the dragon.

The firelizards were humming a soft song, the harper apprentice pulling from songs that he had learned from the Harperhall and filtering it through them.

[Cathaline]

Trouble.

Delilah was on infirmary duty, and she instantly informed the healers that something was going on down at the shoreline. They had kits, packs to take to emergency situations, and she grabbed several bags and slung them over her shoulders. Bring your straps. All of them,[/i] she told Agnith, her heart pounding in her chest. This was the first time she'd been deployed in a non-Threadfall situation since her promotion to Journeyman, the first time she'd had to put on the extra straps without having time to gear up, and the old insecurity and desire to not be in charge was rearing its ugly head.

But she was a Journeyman, now. She was in charge of things.

Agnith thumped to the ground outside the infirmary, and Delilah made haste, her slim fingers rapidly tightening straps as she crawled all over her brilliant pink's back. Not just her saddle, but a belly-sling that could act as a stretcher, nets along the sides for those not especially injured to cling on for a short hop back to safety. It took too long, too long, but at last she was hitching the medpacks, scrambling into her seat, and clicking the buckles to her belt to hold her fast.

They blinked between as soon as they were off the ground - a very short jump, but too much time had been wasted already. They came out just over the beach, and Agnith winged in a wide arc, landing half in the sea, a wave rolling over her paws. Delilah slid to the sand, ignoring the water that flooded her boots, and looked around quickly before striding up the beach to a more-or-less dry area. She whipped a blanket out of one of the packs and spread it on the sand, and Agnith told Loki and Durian, We are here, with supplies! Who is that?[/i]

[Chimera]

Akklyn continued looking back up at the Candidate.

"Sorry, I don't really know how to stop her crying. It's a trade secret of us Weyrbrats." Akklyn had barely managed a dry but amused wink, and MiniMe a smug look at Inanna, when some sort of chaos happened. The Weyrbrat frowned, trying to keep calm as she scanned for the cause, but her face had paled and her heart was thumping. Even the riders and grown-ups looked extremely upset and disconcerted, and she?

She was just a kid for now, and MiniMe was no trained healer's firelizard.

MiniMe had learned enough flying, however, to flap up in the air as her bonded joined the other kids on the large rock after Loki's shout. She had also learned enough mental imaging to show a pale body, possibly dead, among the debris to Akklyn.

She sucked in a panicked breath, and exhaled.

"MiniMe, come here!" The green landed on her shoulder, nudging the girl's cheek and peeping, frightened. Only a moment passed and the last thing the girl would ever remember was a big brown wing closing out the sky.

...Well, luckily not. Akklyn relaxed, cracking open an eye to see - nothing. After many visits to her wherhandler father and honorary uncle, the Weyrbrat had developed rather good night vision, enough to at least see the scared, sniffling kids in the darkness. She hugged MiniMe tight, stroking the panicking green's little wedge of a head.

"Shh." The girl said to her flit, but whether she cared or not it was loud enough to be heard by any others under the mighty dragon's wing.

[Ondine]

Ondine was also in the infirmary when the call came to Dilath, and the pink dutifully relayed it to her rider even as she hauled herself up from where she had been soaking up the sun in a rare moment of relaxation. She knew that Ondine would hardly deny attending, so they were going to be off in another moment. Indeed, the pinkrider jumped to action at the same time that Delilah did, and she picked her own loadout based on what her fellow healer was carrying. Dilath, ca- oh nevermind! Sorry, didn't realize you were already getting your straps. The industrious pink bugled happily into her mind, singing in the way that she couldn't physically, I'm the best! Really, are you surprised?

The healer laughed inside, but she ran to get a few medical kits before dashing out to Dilath, calling for two apprentices to join her. “You two, with me! I'll send word back as soon as we know what's going on.” Scurrying over the straps, she was seconds behind Delilah, and the two apprentices clung to the nets on the side for what would be a short hop. Contacting Mesreath, Dilath crooned to the brown, Can we get a visual please? For one, it was easier to between closer when she knew where they were, and for another, she didn't want to jump into Agnith and cause another tragic accident. When the brown obliged, Dilath leaped into the void, vanishing for only moments before space sundered and the pink popped back into reality only a few short yards above sand.

Slamming to the ground a few seconds later, the two apprentices scrambled down from the nets even as Ondine practically jumped off the pink, scrambling to Loki and to understand what was going on. Mesreath, what has happened here? Dilath was a little concerned, but optimism laced every word and thought. With Ondine here, no one could try harder! Hopefully senseless death would be averted. The healer was pounding toward the brownrider and Loki, and only a decade of training and her own experience kept her from gasping at the state of the woman. In that moment, she unconsciously echoed Mesreath's own question, and then stepped in to help. “We have two apprentices with us.” Her eyes went to the shipwreck, and narrowed for a moment. Then she jumped in to help, unless Loki had a command for them.

[Kila]

It was getting stuffy beneath Mesreath's wing. Though he didn't have Nadysk's nose, Aydan could almost smell the fear around him. Shardit and Bug didn't like it either; the two pillies had glued themselves to Aydan's legs, trying to avoid being stepped on and attempting to put some distance between themselves and the others. Shardit's feelers were twitching and he hissed dangerously under his breath. None of them were used to being confined in a small space with lots of people. Oftentimes they went hours in the Lower Caverns without meeting a soul. There were things going on outside too. Aydan heard the dragons landing, people shouting, and Healers splashing in the water. The noises only reinforced the sensation of being trapped.

Where he had been only curious before, he was now claustrophobic. The weyrbrate wriggled and pushed his way to the edge of the crowd, close to the Brown's wing. It was a strange firelizard flying into his face that sent him over the edge. Spluttering and raising his hands to his face, he managed to push the confused creature away. He closed his eyes... opened his mouth... took a mighty breath... and screamed.

The sound filled the cavern made by Mesreath's wing, bleeding out even into the world beyond. Inside it was deafening, without it was alarming. Aydan screamed until he was blue in the face, took a deep breath, and screamed again. Someone tried to reach out and touch him, but he flailed away and screamed all the louder. He wanted out! No longer was Aydan a fan of the crèche outings. Bug crawled up towards his face, distressed, and Aydan hugged him tightly as he continued to howl. Young and unhappy as he was, he had no idea how much more difficult he was making the already disastrous situation.

[Chek]

OOC: Warning for medical trauma and potentially triggering death-related issues.


Durian was more welcome than a queen egg as Loki and the brownrider pulled the makeshift stretcher ashore; the apprentices and rider-healers coming up to help carry the woman to the blanket Delilah had laid out. One of the medic kits was jammed into his hands and he flicked it open with practiced ease before starting initial observations. “Female, unnaturally pale, not just from exposure, surprisingly unburnt – thank the seaweed, I suppose – severe trauma to right leg, difficulty breathing; so water in the lungs or chest trauma; likely both…and heavily pregnant.”

Loki pulled one of the woman’s eyelids up, his face a blank mask, “Pupils blown completely, and a fever running so hot I almost regret taking her out of the water – that’s the worst right this second, she’ll cook herself and die before we get a chance to treat anything else. We can’t Between with this one – and yes, yes, I’m not saying it for you Ondine, Delilah, but for the apprentices – the leg is gone; that’s pure necrotized flesh around the tearing, and the blood poisoning is…” Loki has moved down the woman’s body, hands sure and confident as he touched and checked and examined; he was prodding the ruined leg with a sterile steel rod when the woman’s body heaved and seemed to seize up.

A rush of red stained the sand around the mystery woman’s thighs; Loki sat back on his heels, head tilted skyward, and opened his mouth the say something – when Aydan began screaming under the cover of Mesreath’s wings. He twitched, a fully body spasm, and closed his eyes, “I hate life.”

He was only a moment lamenting his continued existence; the woman let out a soft, helpless little moan as her body bore down, barely audible under the sound of the weyrbrat’s screaming. “We have, it seems, a woman in labor. Possibly giving actual birth – she seems far enough along, but there is not way to tell at this point, labor likely induced by extreme stress. Don’t expect a live birth; but – Delilah, you’re on the labor issue, apprentices with you. Durian, can you shut that boy up? Ondine, start prepping that leg for amputation; it’s going to have to be the first step once we get her back to the Infirmary. In the meantime, do whatever it takes to cut off the blood poisoning, and then hands in with Delilah. Sigyn!”

The pink popped away, returning a moment later to deposit a wad of snow on the blanket near the woman, disappearing again as soon as her claws were clear. Several other flitters joined her on subsequent trips, until Loki was packing the rapidly melting snow around the woman, desperately trying to get her temperature down before her brain boiled.

She seized again, crying out and Delilah and the apprentices suddenly started fussing louder than before, her eyes actually opening, seeming aware for the first time, and flailed a hand out; Loki caught it without thinking, moving to tuck it back in against her side in the cooling snow, but, shaking, she used his arm to drag her torso upwards, gazing down at Ondine, Delilah, the apprentices and the tiny still thing that was in Delilah’s hands,

She said something unintelligible; and it wasn’t just that it was garbled by her sickness; the words sounded lucid, intelligent, but they just didn’t make sense, like someone had taken Pernese and twisted the language; because Loki could sort of understand a few of the words she was saying, but not near enough to be sure of what she was attempting to tell them. She turned from person to person, finally setting on Loki and she rasped something again, her head starting to droop.

“What?”

Loki slid in to better support her, trying to get her to drop back down, but she slumped against him and mumbled her word again, “Aloius.”

“Her name, do you think?” he said to his fellows, then repeated her word, “Aloius, is that you? Aloius,” she wobbled, slumping backwards, but her gaze locked on her face, “You Aloius?” He pointed as he said the word, finger almost touching her chest. She glanced down at the finger and smiled, nodding, but her head flopped like she had no muscle control. She sighed, hugely, and went boneless. Laying her back down on the blanket, Loki’s fingers found her throat, but no pulse.

As soon as his hands reached her chest, thoughts of attempting to revive her clear, he stopped, and sighed, “This is…broken ribs, internal bleeding, likely worsened by the contractions. I can’t even feel where this piece of her ribcage is, but I can feel the shards through her skin, How she survived as long as she did is a mystery. There is nothing we can do; any attempts to resuscitate her would in all likelihood simply be worsening mortal wounds.”

Sitting back on his heels, Loki sighed, the heels of his palms finding his eyes, “Well, at least we have a name to work from. Delilah, Ondine, whichever of you…was it a stillbirth or just too young?” He was already thinking about the work that would be going into finding any relatives this mystery woman with her strange dialect may have out in the world.

Before an answer came, he stood abruptly, “Apprentices, check the beached part of the wreck, right now!” The two lit off across the sands like he’d set them on fire; his focus on them, as they started poking around the debris – one of them recoiled abruptly after moving aside a board, then waved his way before making a distinctive gesture – one hand, flat, slicing across the neck accompanied by a head shake. Another body then. Ondine was saying something behind him about the infant; “What? Wait, what did you say?”

[Cathaline]

Delilah had birthed babies before, but never as the resident expert. There were always actual midwives in the infirmary, and she acted mostly as an assistant - but she had attended multiple births, so it wasn't like she didn't know what she was doing. Still, she'd never been to one this...dangerous. The woman was in the process of dying, and it made her heart rise into her throat, remembering the mother she'd never known. They had to save her, they just...had to.

Kneeling between the woman's legs, she gave rapid orders. "A blanket, a clamp, a scissors. Thank you. Miss, we need you to push. Breathe deep - " But it was clear the woman didn't speak their language...which seemed implausible, impossible, bizarre. But women had been giving birth for centuries and centuries, often without assistance. It was a natural process, and in what seemed like no time at all, a tiny, pallid thing was sliding slimily into Delilah's hands. Female, vaguely blueish, and Delilah grabbed the proffered blanket to wipe her off, giving her a solid smack on the back to start her breathing. She let out a thin, very thin, wail, abortive; she was struggling, her lungs perhaps not fully-formed.

"Cut the cord," she said. "Clamp it first. Thank you." Cradling the infant to her shoulder, she told Loki, "Still alive, barely. She needs help we cannot give her here. I'm going to take her back to the infirmary on Agnith, we can ride in the nets." She felt cold inside, terribly cold; the baby's mother hadn't even lived long enough to touch her, much less feed her or show her the slightest affection. It was all terrible, and it reminded her of things she did not want to think of, but for now, she had to do her duty. It was her responsibility to try to make this pitiful baby live, for as long as possible. A little breath whistled near Delilah's ear, and she murmured, "Good girl. Such a good girl."

[Ondine]

Ondine prepped as Loki gave his observations. The weyrbrats and candidates a short distance away were a distraction, an unfortunate complication in a situation that wasn't doing well. Many of them, she thought sadly, might have to come to the infirmary after this to speak to healers about this. Even worse was, just a bare short seconds later, the mystery woman started going into labor. The healer just sighed and started to follow directions, but prepping the leg for amputation was hardly a task that took up all of her attention. It also felt like a lost cause, as if there was no way she was going to survive. But that wasn't going to stop her, even as she kept one eye on how Delilah was doing with the birth.

When the woman spoke after that baby was out in the open, Ondine's eyes opened wide. That wasn't Pernese. It sounded intelligent and lucid, as though she meant to say exactly what she had. And it meant nothing to her. Her eyes flicked to Loki and then back to her job. What did that mean? Apart from Loki divining that it was her name, it didn't really do much for them-

Her heart sank in her chest the second she saw the woman go boneless. That wasn't natural, and the leg she was working on didn't even quiver before it simply let go of all the tension it had had. That left...an impossible path. Her hands left the leg, worthless work now that it was, and touched the chest, feeling the same things as Loki, and came to the same conclusion. The mystery woman was gone, and there was no getting her back. She turned to Durian and shook her head sadly before turning to the child that Delilah was still working on. Judging by his lack of response when Delilah spoke, it seemed that Loki hadn't heard her. He was watching...the apprentices out at the shipwreck find another body. Her heart sank again, two dead and a mystery shipwreck with a language they didn't understand. So she spoke up, “Loki, the child is alive.”

She smiled a little bit when he didn't hear her that time either, but at least he noticed she had spoken. “The baby's alive so far. It's not doing well, Delilah is taking it back to the infirmary to make sure it stays alive.” She turned to watch the shipwreck, wondering if there were any more dead inside of its broken timbers and where they had come from. Then she shook her head, “I can take the body of the woman and a few more from the shipwreck back on Dilath. We can see if anyone recognizes them or where they might have come from.” Her lips tightened just a bit, “Should I get help for Durian to get the children back?”