Torrential Rescues (3/6)
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer 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: Iluva
Date Posted: 15th April 2025
Series: The Perfect Storm
Characters: Zilben, Tzanna, Avakian
Description: The Holdless rescues continue with Zilben, Tzanna, and Avakian finding themselves in a precarious situation.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 5, day 5 of Turn 12
Zilben grunted, readjusting the soaking girl in his arms. She was
mostly arms, too, and legs, somewhere in the frigid water rushing
around his waist. He squinted at the dying light in the cavern to
measure how fast the levels had risen since last he checked, then
sighed heavily. “This is the last time. We’re gonna have to leave it,
Tzan.”
Shivering, Tzanna could only cling tighter. “Uh-uh.” Her dark hair
plastered to her head, looking freshly painted on, she shook it
emphatically enough to shed water. “No.”
He sighed again.
The compartment they had been tentatively calling theirs the past few
months was only half full, but the section used most frequently was
lower, recessed deep and wide into the cave floor. Decades ago this
section had flooded in what was a similarly devastating disaster,
pushing everything that was there before out, carving little pockets
of erosion that became the places the children nestled in, warm,
protected. All of that" gone now.
“Girlie"”
“_No_.”
Zilben grunted. “We don’t go now, won't make it out at all. Your mama didn’t"”
“NO!” Tzanna screeched and erupted into a kicking fit hard enough to
throw them off balance, and with a hard look at her as he steadied
them, he immediately turned to scan the water for"-
“Avakian!” and roared louder, “Avakian! Just leave it!”
There. Floating far out in the middle of the pool with just his face
above the surface, just his face alive in the current. The boy just
shook his head.
The man growled. Lingering at the edge that served as a crude step
down into the darkness, he watched the kid’s blond head bob tiredly
for another moment, still a bit too far from reach. Then,
horrifyingly, Avakian's little face raised up out of the water like a
thumb poking through a hole in a blanket to look at him and his
sister, swallowing a deep breath.
“Alright, lad. That was a good effort. Come on. Come over here.”
Avakian shook his head resolutely, then down he went.
“You little-” Zilben growled.
They were done for.
The time and silence and waiting pressed on, all the while he rubbing
Tzanna’s shoulders as reassuringly as the cold rage and fresh onset of
terror would allow. It was only when she whined that Zilben realized
he was clinging to her just as tightly.
They were a fine pair" neither able to swim, forced to watch a little
boy bravely and stubbornly dive for his mother’s most prized
possession.
“Your brother’s gotten stupid down here.”
She turned dark-eyed saucers up, they narrowing into a surprisingly
cold glare. “He’s taking too long.”
“Think I don’t know that?” Zilben laughed. “Don’t you worry, now.
We’ll get him out of here, Tzan.”
But, well, that was just it " the boy _was_ taking too long.
The next time he surfaced" ‘if’ he surfaced at all" he’d just have to
grab him and go. As they counted the seconds together, he found it
strange it was so hard to watch it go, and odd to think a better sleep
had found them here than anywhere else. The last place it would ever
be the _four_ of them.
A new sound drew his attention up. A crack near the ceiling,
struggling with the amount of water now trying to get through, meant
Zilben had to tell himself the stone wasn’t swelling, absorbing, about
to burst, that the only life left in here wasn’t about to be drowned
out.
“Is he gone with mama?” Tzanna whispered.
“No. Not yet" I don’t know.” It was one thing to let it go. Let her
go. They _had_ to do that. And Zilben had long abandoned trying to
figure out what Vidraliz would do or say in this world without her -
her light had been out for some time.
But then suddenly"
Avakian.
Bursting from the dark depths below like a shipfish gasping for
breath, and as Zilben caught him by his shirt, holding him afloat,
letting him lie there a moment as he fought for breath, he knew he’d
never let the boy go again.
“I gotcha. You’re okay, lad.”
Avakian nodded, stilling only briefly before thrashing violently with
the realization they were rising " not with the water, but out of it.
Fighting the whole way, first splashing, then skittering rather
uselessly through the tracts of mud, he was practically breathless.
“Zil- Stop! Z-Zil-”
“You stupid, stupid"” Tzanna’s little foot pummelled the top of his head _hard_.
“Ow! Jays, Tzan-”
And again, harder. “Stupid, stupid-”
“OW!”
“Come on, boy.”
They were somewhere outside the entrance of the cave when Zilben
slowed, the three of them looking like everyone else, holdless or
dragonrider: exhausted, distraught, and bogged down by a thick layer
of mud. The boy hung defeatedly from Zilben’s fist, the rain filling
his eyes. Avakian coughed anytime he tried to speak, even as his lips
twisted with a weak smile. “Zilb… I-I got it, Zilb-”
“Hey, little man! Wait up!”
Last updated on the April 15th 2025
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