Never Know Your Luck
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Corrin
Date Posted: 15th April 2025
Characters: M'kadja
Description: Survival isn't just about running, it's about taking. As floodwaters rise, Akadja lingers in the holdless warrens…
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 5, day 5 of Turn 12
The water was rising faster now.
It sluiced down the cavern walls in countless grimy rivulets, turning the hard-packed ground into a treacherous slurry of mud and water. It swirled higher and higher in the hollows where the stone dipped, before overflowing into dark streams that rushed down the narrow tunnels into the deeper recesses of the holdless warren. Akadja’s boots were already soaked through, his toes agonizingly cold in the frigid water, but he ignored the discomfort. Pain could wait.
Like a shadow, he slipped through the gloom of yet another cavernous chamber. Once lively with voices and color and life, now the chamber was a ghost of its former self: a sodden mess of abandoned goods and gear--the wreckage of lives left behind--their owners having long since fled. Cowards. Well, their loss was Akadja’s gain. He would not be so hasty.
Dagger flitted ahead, the blue fire lizard a dart of motion in the dimness, his hide barely catching the weak light of Akadja’s guttering glowbasket. A sharp chirp signaled a find and Akadja sloshed his way over to a half-rotted crate to see what his little thief had sniffed out.
He crouched, pressing his finger against the latch-- locked. A knife blade wedged into the seam, a sharp twist-- nothing. No time. Giving up on finesse, Akadja stood and stomped the crate until the soaked, rotten wood cracked apart.
He fished a handful of jewelry from the wreckage. Tarnished, but nice enough. His now. If the others were too busy running into the arms of the Weyr to take what was theirs, that was their mistake. He still couldn’t believe that Evanram had called them, or that they had come.
The water was getting higher.
Akadja waded to another likely heap, digging through a mess of cheap tin cutlery and sackcloth to find a cache of food. Most of it was too far gone to the water, but there was a nice piece of salted fish wrapped in wax paper. Not perfect, but still edible. He tucked it into his pack. Food was as good as currency.
A rumble of thunder boomed out, so close it seemed to shake the caves.
Glancing around and calling for Dagger to do the same, he scanned the place one last time, looking for anything else of obvious worth. Nothing. Nothing that looked obviously valuable. No sign of Naldhavi either. He hadn’t seen his brother in some time, but that didn’t worry him. ‘Dhavi was no fool. He’d either gotten his hide to safety or he was doing exactly what Akadja was.
The water was well past his knees now.
Time to get going. He whistled sharply to his flit, calling him back to his shoulder perch, and grabbed one last bundle from the water. It was promisingly heavy and wrapped in thick cloth. If the contents were ruined the cloth itself would be worth something at least, with winter coming. Then, arms full and pack crammed with plundered goods, he finally fled the caves.
Last updated on the April 15th 2025