After a time, the rains finally begin to slow. The sky still weeps from time to time, but the showers are scattered and infrequent, their fall light and easy. The clouds even begin to part, flashes of blue woven throughout the gloom, a ray of sunshine piercing the murk.
But it only serves to shine light upon the destruction left in the storm’s wake.
The flood waters are still high and raging, the streams flowing far past their banks and drowning the surrounding meadows. The swamp has become one big, stagnant freshwater ocean, downed trees hiding in the muck and waiting to knock horses off their hooves. But the greatest change lies in the Sussoro Fields, where the earth has seemed to collapse in upon itself, leaving holes several tens of meters deep.
Sinkholes have ravaged the ground, hidden tunnels broken and fallen. The ground is unsteady and prone to mudslides, every step treacherous and uncertain. The cries of horses and other animals can be heard, half-buried beneath the mounds of dirt and mud. But rescue itself is also uncertain, when every step might prompt another section of ground to fall suddenly fall away.
With the storm passing and the sinkholes beginning, you can’t help but wonder: is the true disaster finally over, or has it only just begun?
Up ahead is a small gathering of horses, growing by the second. You find yourself drawn to them, your own four hooves carefully picking closer, navigating through the destruction. They have gathered around a particularly big and deep sinkhole, talking amongst themselves in worried tones. Once you join them, you understand why: there are two foals trapped below, not yet yearlings. One is unconscious, and the other insists he has a broken leg. The onlookers seem to have no idea how to proceed with their rescue… perhaps you have an idea?
And they are not the only ones in need. The sinkholes have trapped many, horses and woodland creatures alike. The ground is rumbling, and for a second you could swear that you hear footsteps beneath the ground. Whatever has caused these holes and buried tunnels may still be lurking below, and based on the size of them, it was no mere groundhog.
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08-19-2018, 04:38 PM - This post was last modified: 08-20-2018, 12:23 AM by inkbone
She is bedraggled and soaked, her pale skin stained with mud and other debris that marks her last few days as having done her duty -- but still, her job is not done, not until Terrastella stands dry and safe after the downpours. Her breathing rasps in her throat,a hacking cough leaving her chest every so often, but still she strains her wings and soars above Terrastella.
She is perhaps one of the first Halcyon pilots to notice the crowd gathering around the sinkhole, her wings folding as she dived down -- and what she saw made her heart stop for a few moments. Two young foals trapped below, and a crowd that didn’t dare get closer for fear of triggering another sinkhole… or worse.
“Stay back!” She commands the crowd with a voice hoarse from coughing, using her wings to help usher the curious away from the edge -- with two young souls already trapped, they didn’t need anyone else falling in. “Does anyone know how long they’ve been down there?”
It was surprising, the way emotions seemed to have limits.
As wrathful as his anxiety was, after being high strung from the flood waters and his own personal grievances, the mental anguish seemed to run out of steam. It ran out of energy to keep going, and Auru found himself leaving the safety of the swamp to see how others fared, the plaguing thoughts of illnesses of the mind without the energy to deter him after so long on full blast, and only a compassionate heart left to lead his hooves.
The lion boy was swift to come upon the sinkhole, the mild thrum that Anxiety was able to stir up keeping his senses on high alert, making him keenly aware of the powerful vibrations beneath his hooves.
He paid the gathering of others no mind, instead stretching as high as his admittedly somewhat shorter height allowed, keen ears and eyes picking up the cries of the children below.
He skirted around to the side, trying to find a path that might lead them down. Even if some horses were blessed with wings, that only meant that they could get down there to help, not that they could necessarily get back out.
A voice sounded as copper eyes were busy scanning the slopes, trying to find any stability. Auru looked up from where he stood on another side of the sinkhole than that of the sounding voice. A woman was on the other side, using her wings to keep others from falling prey to the earth.
Her voice sounded, and despite not having the answer, Auru had a feeling he knew who did.
He brought himself closer to the ground, legs bent and tensed so that he could spring back at the first sign of the ground giving way beneath him. He directed his gaze to the foals, voice rising to call out to the one who had consciousness left to speak.
What had happened? A torrential downpour, and now? Now sinkholes dotted the lands of the Terrastellan fields. She wasn't at one where the foals were, but at a hole where others had fallen into. It was a treacherous looking thing, but her ears pinned back as she maneuvered around the edge. It looked like an easy slope down, at least on one side, and she was careful to take steps.
"Hold on," she called out. She took her time, picking out steps, pushing her hooves deep and creating holds where she could. She even picked with her telekinesis, flattening out where she was able, until her muddied hooves reached the bottom and she stood straight, flecked with dirt and other bits, shaking herself slightly. "Is anyone hurt? There is a way up now, even though it is a bit steep. I created a path the best I could." Her throaty voice was deep, concerned, golden eyes flickering between those at the bottom.
She hoped there were no injuries, at least none to prevent walking. If there were, it would take more than just her to get them up the path she had created in the packed mud.
@ any || figured since it said there are foals in one but others in need she's at another
08-20-2018, 01:29 PM
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you looked at death in a tarot card, and you saw what you had to do -
There is nothing - well, almost nothing - left.
Rains flood the fields. Crumbled bricks of sandstone lay slumped in the wet streets. Sinkholes stretch their yawning black mouths deep into the earth, so wide and so dark they seem to go on for endless miles. Terrastella is the textbook definition, the reference picture, for disaster: rent with mudslides and broken rock and bodies already lifeless or still fading to dust, wasted on the dystopian world.
But still they have their Sovereign, their regime, their scar-silvered warriors; still they have their Halcyon unit, rain-drenched and sorry and wrecked as they are; still the citadel has withstood the raging storm and still no war is impending, and for that Marisol must be grateful.
She tries to keep this in mind, as the newest tragedy unfolds before her.
Against the mud-slick ground Theodosia is her own pale light, that lavender skin glowing in the impending darkness against the perfect curve of the newly opened sinkhole. Her wings are outspread and head ducked toward the ground, and Marisol would be mad, if the energy for it, that the unit’s own commander couldn’t find her way here before a cadet, but now is not the time for petty squabbles or measures of judgement.
Mari slicks her wings to her sides and goes diving down.
She lands with a kind of crash, hooves slipping in the wet dirt, wings beating wildly to keep her from falling into the sinkhole as the force of her landing sends her spinning dangerously close to the rift; it’s only years of precision training that keep her from tumbling in after the foals, having underestimated how loose the ground is around it. Choking on what was almost a breath of surprise. Mari braces her legs and looks over the edge -
In the darkness float the silhouettes of two spindly-legged youths. The Commander’s heart bangs so loudly in her chest it almost makes her sick, and for a moment she almost wishes she could turn away and let someone else deal with it.
But what choice does she have -
Keep them back, she snarls to Theodosia, And call Ard and Erd, and tell them to bring a sling. And with little ceremony she slams a hoof against the edge of the sinkhole and goes plummeting into the deepest part of the open earth, landing between the two foals with a forced confidence and little of an obvious plan.
The poor children aren't given chance to respond when the calvary comes crashing in, quite literally. Auru's own heart thuds a bit too loudly in his ears for him to catch her words, but in the end, it is irrelevant to him, as he stands on the other side of the opening.
The lion-boy does not hear her words, but the intent is obvious as she moves to join the youths in the pit, and his first thought is that she slides about too much, not knowing how to place her hooves on the slick mud. A jolt of fear splits his heart as he worries that she will bring injury to herself as well.
But she recovers, and a gasping breath that was held in his chest is blustered out through already tense lips as she stands before the children.
Having not heard her words, copper eyes scan the walls of the sinkhole, looking for something that could be used to help get them out. He doesn't see as such, but he does see something that can be used to help get another down.
A large tree root sticks out a good 2/5 of the way down near the lion-boy. He fathoms that it must be from an old plant, or at least, one that was felled recently, for he cannot see any trunk that it could have been attached to.
(Perhaps it is from a large bush, those have been seen in the fields before, and with winter, the stem might not be visible at the moment.)
Either way, it still looks relatively healthy. It looks fresh and flexible, not rotted out and prone to splintering or crumbling to dust at the slightest of nudges.
It looks strong enough to hold the weight of a horse, if only for a few moments.
More specifically, it looks strong enough to hold the weight of a chronically underweight, and slightly small as it is, stallion.
"I'm gonna fucking regret this.
Auru's hooves are working before his mind gets far enough along to convince him that this really is a very bad idea. He's close to the root as it is, and it only takes a few steps for him to become level with it. The stallion stands at the top of the sinkhole, squinting at the other side where the children are, before glancing at the floor far below him.
Well, not far enough to be fatal, at least.
He's turning so that his backside faces the hole before he can stop himself, hooves shuffling backwards until the rear end of his hind hooves kisses the lip of the sinkhole.
His voice is a quiet murmur to himself as his heart pounds like the drums of war in his breast.
"Well, just the other day I was wishing I could be a little braver at times."
Three, two, one, go before you can talk yourself out of it.
He hops backwards, feeling gravity's pull as he begins to fall to the bottom. In less than a second, the root gives his hind leg a painful 'thwap' as he hits it, and Auru's jaws open to snag onto it before he falls past. Enormous, predatory canines and wolf teeth actually find themselves of use for once, the large, lion-like fangs sinking deep into the bark; tearing at it but piercing true and holding firm.
His neck jerks painfully as his momentum is suddenly arrested, but he grits his teeth through the pain, and because he needs to in order to hold on.
His hind hooves are a little over half way down from this point, and, knowing that the root can't hold him long, Auru digs his hooves into the sinkhole's wall. Releasing the root, he begins to fall once more, but this time, the fall isn't so far, and he has the added benefit of whatever traction his hooves can manage.
When he hits the bottom, it is not graceful in the slightest, and the man topples onto his side with a grunt. But hooves that have lived in the swamp for nearing on two years are quick to find their hold once more in the watery mud, and Auru wastes no time in scrabbling upright and shaking himself like a dog to banish the water.
He immediately starts rapidly picking his way across the unstable surface, seasons of swamp-life keeping him firm, and he soon comes to the woman and the two children.
Were this any other day, and any other situation, Auru would be easily cowed into following whatever the stranger had to say. Hell, he wouldn't have even come down to begin with (probably). But this was not any other situation.
"What if, you were really old, and really kind and alone... you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry."
The stallion noses at the one who had fallen unconscious, before trying his best to get his head underneath them. He bends his forebody towards the ground, trying to shift the unconscious foal so that he can carry them, trying to get their hooves over his torso.
"Come on, help me get them on my back. The longer they're sprawled out cold and wet like this, the more likely they are to fall ill. At least this way we can keep them out of the water. The cold may have already done damage as is, but at least this way we can prevent more."
In winter, you tried to stay out of the swamp's waters unless you had no other choice. The near-frozen water sapped heat from your bones quicker than a predator at your jugular.
Sometimes, she really wondered what the hell they were even doing.
The child’s voice wavers with fear when the man calls down to it, wracked with the same sort of harsh cough that has lodged itself in her own chest, and the answer is enough to send chills down to her very core. ’After daybreak,’ The young thing had called back, and oh, daybreak had already been so very long ago.
The poor things had to be freezing down there.
Marisol’s voice rings in her ears even as the mud slides beneath the commander’s feet, a second equine following her down, and it’s all she can do to keep from following them down -- but orders are orders.
“Okay, boys, you can show up any time now,” She mutters beneath her breath even as she uses a wing to shove a particularly pushy rubbernecker away from the sinkhole, her eyes shifting up to scan the skies urgently -- she could have sworn Ard and Erd had said they would be right behind her.
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