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Interlude: A Voice Beneath the Waves
🕑 Added 2021-11-14 23:57:44 +0000 UTCA couple of days had passed since Tehri first heard the rumors about her sister. It was safe to say that she had been jumping in silent glee since then. She had celebrated with Kamren later that first day and Hana cooked something nice as well.
There were still a few challenges, especially with how expensive it was to get something delivered to the capital in any meaningful time frame and there was no guarantee that she would see it. She had tried before with Tyris and it hadn’t worked. Either that or he had ignored it. Tehri didn't really want to consider that option so she did her best to disregard it.
Even with the cost and the risks, Tehri was still willing to consider sending a letter. She had even spent every moment that she could when she wasn't otherwise distracted composing it. When it was finally done, she rushed to the market to find a merchant bound for Tærin City. She paid the woman handsomely and even bought some of her wares in the form of some brightly coloured yarn. Tehri was of a mind to do some knitting.
There was one slight dampener to Tehri's mood as she made her way home, however, which came in the form of an angry looking mass of clouds coming in from the west. Even so, a little rain never hurt anyone and the house was nice and warm
*****
The rain started falling a few hours later. It was light at first, but as the day went on it got heavier and heavier to the point of being akin to a violent cacophony. Byrden came home before it got too bad. Had he waited much longer, he might have needed to hole himself up in the forge. As it was, he had sealed it up to the best of his abilities.
Tehri could see that he was scared about his smithy. It was close to the river and he had said that the normally gentle flow was already breaking the banks. Tehri had already given up hope that her garden would survive. She cursed herself for thinking it was just going to be a mild downpour. Each crash of thunder made her practically jump out of her skin.
By nightfall, the full weight of the storm was upon them. The thundering rain spoke to a primal fear in Tehri. It called to the night of the eclipse and the sound of a thousand crashing hooves. The memory was ingrained into her unconscious mind regardless of the fact that she had slept through the whole thing.
The small family of three huddled around the fire for warmth. It was a small comfort for Tehri. She craved the company of others out of fear that she would lose herself from the storm. From the way the usually confident Hana was shaking, she felt the same.
Tehri knew that they were lucky. Their house was especially well built as far as the village was concerned. Only a few others could compare. The rest were perfectly functional most of the time, including when it was particularly stormy. This was not, however, anything close to an average storm. Even the worst storms of the past five years didn’t compare. Neither did the earthquakes or the eruptions to the north.
Tehri was scared that the majority of the village wouldn't survive the night. The lightning made everything worse. It was assaulting the village with vicious intent and every strike was accompanied by a deafening roar. Before long, the charged air started to produce a sickly sweet aroma and Tehri could feel blood coming from her ears.
A few hours later, Tehri was practically deaf in her left ear and her right wasn’t far behind. For that reason, she was denied any warning for what was about to happen. The storm had been feeding the Tanra and Karik Rivers that flanked either side of Aran village nonstop and they had grown decadent. Each river drank its fill and then carried on drinking until it could hold no more. The two torrents crashed at Aran Village and the river banks became a distant memory.
The flood came crashing through the house in an instant. Within seconds Tehri was separated from Hana and Byrden. They had both managed to grab hold of something as the combined might of both rivers hammered into them. Tehri had no such strength. She was slammed against a wall and moments later she was being pulled through the broken remains of the front door.
Panic hit hard and fast. For the second time in Tehri's short life, the Karik River was trying to kill her and this time it would likely succeed. She started hyperventilating which wasn't exactly the smartest thing she could do while she was being thrown around like a ragdoll by the river.
After anywhere from a few seconds to an hour passed, Tehri felt someone grab her arm. Then she was coughing up a day's worth of water from her lungs. Kamren was looming next to her on his knees, his hand up in the air. From the burning in her ribs and the fact that he was the only other person around, it was clear that he had revived her. She tried to get up and give him a hug. With how battered and bruised she was, it was a challenge, but she eventually managed and he hugged her gently back. It was a small comfort, alongside the familiar touch of her bracelet and her sister's pendant.
Now that she was aware, Tehri realised that they were in one of the village's barns, specifically the more durable of the two. Kamren had managed to carry her through the flood and the storm and up the ladder to the barn's second level. They'd be safe there as long as the barn remained strong. Tehri was willing to risk it. Anywhere else was too risky and she was too scared to go back into the water. Unfortunately, there were other issues they needed to be concerned about, namely the fact that they were both soaked to the bone.
"We can't stay like this," Tehri signed.
"What do you mean?" Kamren responded.
"We'll get sick if we stay in these clothes," Tehri answered. "We need to remove them and huddle together for warmth."
Tehri wasn't sure if she had signed clearly enough because she was shivering and he was blinking in confusion. She was about to sign it again when he asked, "Are you sure?"
She replied with, "Yes." One of her first lessons with Master Idyr had been survival techniques and right now she loved him for it.
Out of respect, they stripped back to back, though it was largely a moot point once they sat side by side against the hay. As they sat there in silence, the storm raging around them, Tehri wanted to ask Kamren what had happened and why he was alone. Unfortunately, signing wasn’t exactly designed for side by side communication so she had to improvise. That is to say, she shuffled round until she was facing him and then she simply asked him.
"We were hiding in our home like every other sane person. Once the winds really picked up, however, the thatching practically disintegrated. At that point it was too dangerous to stay inside so we braved the storm. I got knocked off my feet pretty quickly and Ma got pinned down by a tree. Lightning struck as Da tried to free her. It hit the tree and it exploded in their faces. I could barely recognise Ma after that and Da wasn’t much better. There was nothing I could do for them. If I was any closer, I'd probably be dead as well."
Kamren was visibly crying as he told the story in both sign and spoken word. Tehri placed a comforting hand on his leg as he continued.
"After that, I tried finding shelter with our neighbours but no-one would let me in so I tried to make my way to your house. I was around half way when the flood hit. Thankfully, I saw it coming so I was able to get some height before it swept me away. I'm glad I did as well because it let me catch a glimpse of your bracelet quickly enough for me to catch you. After that I struggled to get you here and you know the rest."
As Kamren finished his telling of the events, Tehri reached up and hugged him fiercely, not caring about the pain or discomfort. She knew all too well the pain of loss. All she could do now was provide comfort for Kamren and pray that Hana and Byrden were alive and relatively well.
*****
Tehri and Kamren woke up the next morning covered in hay and holding onto each other. They scrambled up and threw on their now relatively dry clothes. The barn had survived the night and it was clear that the storm had passed for the most part. It was still very much raining, the noise made that abundantly clear, but there weren't any howling winds or rushing flood water. Instead it had mostly settled down.
They slowly made their way down the ladder. Tehri was nervous to be heading back into the water, but there was no helping it; she had to find her guardians. It helped that water had retreated enough to only reach her knees and it was fairly slow moving. They waded through to the barn doors, careful not to stand on anything hidden by the muddy water. Kamren opened the doors and they anxiously stepped outside.
The village was in ruins. It had been completely devastated by the storm. Tehri was amazed that there was anything left. She was also terrified, with the nightmarish scene before her eating away at her hope.
"Let's hurry," she signed to Kamren.
"Sure thing," he answered back, only half signing. Fortunately, Tehri's hearing had started to return.
They made their way through the village, seeing only the occasional person looking around aimlessly. Tehri tripped a couple of times as they made their way to her house and was extremely grateful that she couldn’t see what she had caught her feet on.
When they finally reached the Kaafast home, Tehri was glad to see that it was in a much better state than much of the village. That is to say that there was still half a building. Tehri wanted to call out for Hana and Byrden, but she couldn’t even manage a whisper. Even now, her voice was lost to her. Instead, Kamren did what she could not.
After five minutes shouting and searching through the rubble they heard a noise coming from one of the intact rooms. They had to remove a fair bit to get inside, but once they did, Tehri breathed a sigh of relief. Hana and Byrden had managed to jury-rig their bed and a wardrobe to elevate themselves above the water line. They were both alive and in miraculously good condition.
Hana dived off the bed and hugged Tehri. "I'm so glad that you're safe. We thought we'd lost you."
"I had to stop Hana from going after you," Byrden added as he hopped down. "Do you know if the forge is safe?"
"We haven't seen it yet," Kamren answered.
"That's a shame. It's good to see you, Kamren. Is your family safe?"
"Dead." His answer didn't really need more elaboration than that.
"I'm so sorry."
"I couldn't save them, but I did save Tehri."
Hana let Tehri go and turned to face Kamren. "Thank you, Kamren, and sorry for your loss."
What now? Tehri signed.
"We check the forge and then look for survivors," Byrden answered.
"And then we'll need to ask if we want to rebuild or move on," Hana added.
"I don't think there will be enough people left to rebuild," Kamren lamented.
He was right. By the end of their search, less than a quarter of the village's population had survived. As for the buildings, roughly half just didn't exist anymore and less than a tenth were even moderately intact. It was clear that they couldn’t stay. There was one thing they would need to do before they even started getting ready to leave, however, and it was something that they couldn't avoid.
The survivors all worked together to gather the bodies and prepared to bury them. It was a grim task, but they couldn't let the bodies fester and contaminate the river. A few more people fell to illness as they worked. Tehri was numb by the end of it. At the same time, numb wasn't quite the right word to describe what she was feeling on account of the fact that she was still very much feeling. She just didn't know any words that'd be more suitable.
Fortunately, the end also meant that they could start getting ready to leave and Tehri knew exactly where she wanted to go. Næmyris. It didn't take much to convince Hana, Byrden, or Kamren and roughly half of the remaining survivors agreed to go with them, though some were bound for Tærin City. The rest decided to go west.
Before everyone left, they gathered what food they could salvage and shared it equally. Any unclaimed valuables from the search were also considered fair game for anyone that found them. That included taking them straight from the dead. No-one was going to begrudge anyone else for giving themselves a leg up when they had lost everything. Byrden had instead dug up a cache from underneath his ruined forge and packed it along with whatever tools he could find.
The last things to be sorted were clothes. Similarly to the food, clothes were shared as needed. It resulted in some very mismatched wardrobes, but it was necessary.
Finally, when dawn broke the day after the rain stopped, they were ready to leave. Onwards to Næmyris.
