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Post by Row on Sept 25, 2014 0:38:57 GMT
"It's a black hole!" someone cried. The shuttle was jerking about, harder than normal, and enough to cause Duncan to be thrown into the side of a chair.
"Everyone buckle into your seats!" a voice called out "Help each other if you can!"
Duncan found that he was able to help one lass into her seat before being thrown back and into the wall of the shuttle. He felt a metal bite at his back, felt the jagged edges tear flesh and something warm start to run down his back. Cries and screams rent the air, enough to make him wish to be back in prison, just to make the screaming stop. He tried to move forward, stood before the console but it was all foreign to him, as if the diles and buttons were all labelled in Russian. He could deal with the working components of the shuttle, not the driving parts.
A violent shutter sent him falling backwards. They had just entered something. A terrified scream broke the air and he looked up just in time to see the ground rushing toward the nose of the shuttle. A girl tripped over him and Duncan had enough time to roll over on top of her and shield her with his body before the shuttle crashed into the ground
. . and Duncan toppled out of bed, upsetting Adhainn and hitting his face on the floor. "Pummil!!" he shouted, rolling enough to hold his face and raise his hand checking for blood, in case he had broken his nose. Of course, Adhainn began shrieking enough to wake the dead and he couldn't focus enough to get her to stop.
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Post by slush on Sept 28, 2014 0:35:25 GMT
Navelon was a heavy sleeper. His mother used to joke that he could sleep through a Fall, provided no Thread ate through him. He didn't so much as twitch at Duncan's shout, and he didn't even mutter at Adhainn's distressed calling. Shee, of course, was another matter entirely. She had been sleeping on Nav's pillow, her tail draped across his forehead. Merc was coiled by the young man's left ear, emitting a soft, odd whistle while he slept.
The serpent cracked one eye open, sighed, and wriggled his body closer to Navelon's warmth. The firelizard, on the other hand, jerked bolt upright, eyes whirling scarlet alarm. She spread her wings and called out, questioning. When the shrieking did not abate, she took to the air, buffeting the human's face with air. She took up the distress call and magnified it, swooping in a figure eight above Navelon's cot.
Beneath her, Nav grumbled and yanked at his pillow, tugging it over his head. Shee complained, darting down to poke insistently as his exposed ear. When this action evoked no response, she repeated it until at last the man sat up, swinging wildly. "For Faranth's sake, you sharding lizard!" he roared, though it came out slurred since he was still largely asleep. Shee instantly quieted, though she leaped aloft again and soared around the room, obviously upset.
Once Navelon realized the racket was not solely due to his pearl, some of his wrath subsided. He sat up, scrubbing at his eyes. There was no smoke or screaming or anything going on, so presumably whatever it was wasn't too awful. Perhaps a Candidate had a bit too much wine at supper and their new-hatched companion was overly concerned. At any rate, the sound wouldn't abate, so Navelon took it upon himself to investigate.
He yanked a glowbasket from the wall, unshuttered it, and blinked in the sudden light, feeble though it was. He shuffled his way across the barracks, following the noise. Shee, nosy as ever, followed him. He blinked stupidly when he came across Duncan's empty cot with its twisted up furs and creeling aquamarine. It took him several seconds to register that the other Candidate was on the floor.
"Err," he croaked, "You all right, man?"
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Post by Row on Sept 28, 2014 12:55:55 GMT
Hearing another lizard had heard her call, Adhainn got a little quieter, but she was now sitting on Duncan's cot, eyes swirling with worry, chirping time and again, as if constantly asking if Duncan was alright. When the area around him suddenly was a little less dark, he glanced up, holding his nose more in pain than anything, and blinked at the arriving person. Navelon. Duncan could hear his firelizard going insane, probably responding to Hai's call. "I'm sorry lad . . . Just some nightmares of de pas'. I'll be alri'h," he rumbled.
Slowly, and with great aid to the other Candidate's glowbasket, Duncan lifted himself off the floor and back onto his cot. Adhainn instantly curled around his hand, and up his arm, crooning to him and nuzzling. "I'm alri'h, I'm alri'h," he said, fingers kind of moving his nose back and forth making sure nothing was broken before looking back up at Navelon. "I apologize for wakin' ye, Navelon," he offered, knowing it wouldn't help the lad catch up on the sleep he was missing.
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Post by slush on Sept 28, 2014 15:15:20 GMT
"Oh, don't worry. It wasn't you at all. It was her." He jerked his head at Shee, who'd vacated his shoulder to go chirp soothing lizard-things at the aquamarine. "She sees fit to rob me of my precious sleep most nights, whether it's because she's hungry or there's a particularly interesting trundlebug on the wall or Merc is invading her personal space or she just things sleep is superfluous..." He was rambling. Luckily, his stream of thoughts was interrupted by a mighty yawn. "Anyway, it's no bother. Do you think you need to visit the infirmary? They'll probably let you have a glass of wine laced with fellis if you tell them you're having trouble sleeping."
He quieted, suddenly uncomfortable. He'd never experienced any great trauma or loss in his life, and though he typically knew just what to say in any given situation, he was out of his depth when it came to things like this. Nav simply couldn't relate to what those who suffered the crash were going through. It made him visibly uneasy. Merc, not liking the young man's distress, unwound himself from Navelon's left arm, raising his head to peep at Duncan.
"Or there's always just mulled wine, if you don't want the fellis. The cooks supervising the night hearth won't rat us out as long as we don't cause any trouble." Or perhaps he should shut up and let Duncan get back to bed. But judging by the potency of whatever nightmare plagued him, that wasn't likely any time soon.
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