It Could Have Been Me
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyrhold
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Elsewhere on Pern
NPC Weyr (NPC)
River Bluff Weyr
Seacraft Hall
Writers: Estelle
Date Posted: 5th June 2020
Characters: Terren
Description: Terren witnesses the disaster at the prison mine
Location: Emerald Falls Hold
Date: month 3, day 17 of Turn 10
Notes: Mentioned: R'fal
This mentions the events of "EFH: Endings in the Dark"
The first Terren heard of the accident was a distant, muffled rumbling
and a vibration on the surface of the water in the pail he carried.
His task that day was to bring water to the men working deep in the
rock, to offer each one a sip, no more. The job was easier than most in
the mines. He'd got it since his sentence was relatively short and his
crime less serious than most, and the men were often grateful for a
moment's relief from their thirst. Even the hardest among them were
thankfully too worn down with exhaustion to try and wrest the precious
water from him.
All the same, every morning when he entered the glow-lit darkness of
those tunnels, hacked out of the barren mountainside, he felt his heart
start to race. The older prisoners told blood-curdling stories of mining
disasters when they were locked into their cells at night. Cave-ins,
rotten support beams, bad air that crept silently into your lungs and
choked out the life. The chilling cries of those trapped behind rock
falls, left to die in the dark.
For the past five months Terren had lived in a state of constant,
grinding low-level terror of the guards, the worst of his fellow
prisoners, and the sicknesses brought on by hunger and cold and
exhaustion, but most of all, of the dark.
When he felt that distant sound, he froze, his throat suddenly so tight
he couldn't breathe. Back towards the entrance, someone was shouting.
Cave in!
**No!** Panic overwhelmed him. He dropped his pail, sending water
slopping across the floor, and stumbled back down the tunnel towards the
entrance, as fast as his chains would allow. This couldn't be happening!
He was only one month away from freedom, he couldn't die here, not now!
Behind him he heard guards shouting, tools clattering to the ground and
the crack of a club against flesh as someone tried to keep order.
When he saw daylight ahead of him, he gasped in pure relief and
staggered forward. Men were gathered outside, grimy and dust-covered,
staring back at the dark mouth of the mine.
Terren stood for a moment, looking up at the clear blue sky above in
astonishment. It was a sight he'd not seen in months, since they started
before dawn and returned to the prison at dusk. He took deep breaths,
drinking in the freezing mountain air, letting his heartbeat slow. **I'm
safe.** Maybe it had been one of the old, barren tunnels, finally
collapsing after Turns of neglect.
"Who was it?" he heard someone ask.
"Dunno. I just heard there were men in there." Another prisoner spat.
"The guard got out."
Terren felt bile rise in his throat. If he'd chosen to go down a
different tunnel first... Over near the entrance, he saw the foreman
shouting, pointing at men to go back inside. Hastily, he backed away to
where a cart of rock stood abandoned and stood behind it, trying to look
inconspicuous.
**Another four sevendays. Not long,** he told himself, but another voice
screamed in his head. **I can't go back in!**
He looked up at the sky again, desperately, searching for a glimpse of
brown wings. Where was his son? He'd promised to come for him! Some use
he'd been, running off to the Weyr. That was when all the trouble had
started, when the dragonriders had come to his hold. He deserved to be
rescued. R'fal owed him that.
**Please. Come and help me. Please...**
"You! What are you doing, standing there?" It was one of the guards, a
big, brutish man with a permanent scowl of disgust. With a jolt, Terren
recognised him as one of a group who would drag a weaker prisoner out of
the cell at night, sometimes for a half-imagined transgression, other
times at random. Those men returned days later, barely walking, a mass
of swollen bruises. "It was one of the lower tunnels, the rest's sound.
A few less of you thieving scum for us to deal with."
**I can't.** The words dried in his throat. He couldn't make his feet move.
The guard's face darkened. Terren caught his movement just in time to
flinch away, but the club caught him an agonising blow on the shoulder.
He stumbled back, whimpering and clutching at his arm.
"Back inside!"
Left with no choice, he dragged himself back into the tunnel, sweating
despite the cold, fighting waves of panic. His pail was still there, the
water half gone. Shaking, Terren heaved it up and forced his steps down
the side tunnel towards the rock face where the miners toiled.
The day passed by in a blur. At last, he found himself curled up in a
corner in the darkness and stink of the cell. He longed for sleep, but
then the whispers started.
"It was those two from the Weyr."
"The girl?" There were groans of disappointment.
"She only went with the guards, anyway. Weyrbred slut."
"Aye, but she was worth looking at."
"It ain't right." A quieter, older voice spoke. "Kids. Dying like that."
"Might not be dead, yet."
"Shut up," someone hissed. It was too late. Terren shuddered, imagining
the girl and the boy, scrabbling with bloodied fingers at rock in the
darkness.
"They wasn't kids. Tried to kill a dragonrider, I heard."
"Good for them." A bitter voice. "Parasites. They get everything they
want and don't have to work for it." There were a few murmurs of
agreement. Terren edged away, hoping none of them had heard about his
connection to the Weyr. He missed the reply, but heard the angry voice
rise. "Protect us? You see them protecting us? Think they care what the
Lord Holder does to us?"
"Wouldn't surprise me if they had something to do with it," another man
said, darkly. "Protecting their own. Bastards."
"Don't matter if they did. We can't do nothing about it." That voice,
low and rough, was one you listened to if you knew what was good for
you. "Shut your mouth and sleep."
The complaining voices subsided to a low muttering. Terren wrapped the
thin blanket around him and closed his eyes, trying to think of home,
but he couldn't keep his body from shaking. His thoughts returned,
relentlessly, to the two who'd been lost, and how easily it could have
been him.
Last updated on the September 29th 2020