Aftershocks

Writers: Yvonne
Date Posted: 27th February 2021

Characters: Reyela
Description: Reyela still has nightmares about the earthquake at River Bluff Weyr
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 8, day 12 of Turn 10

Reyela woke with a start, her eyes wide in the dark as the walls closed in. The air was thick and full of dust-- no, just stuffy in the Candidate Barracks. She sat up, pulled a shawl from her bedpost and slid her feet into the sandals by her bed, then hurried outside.

Just a dream. The night air was soft and cool against her face. Fresh. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, letting the nighttime chirps and rustles and whispers of dragonwings fill her mind. Just a dream.

At first, she'd had nightmares every night. The ground shook, animals screamed, dragons keened. Blood on her hands as she tried to help. Rocks falling and dust clogging the air and blotting out the sun. Then it was once or twice a sevenday. Now it was once a month or so. She was forgetting.

**It's a good thing,** she told herself. **It's okay to forget.**

Deep breaths. In, hold, out. Her heart was racing. She pressed a hand against her breastbone to try to get it to slow. Deep breaths.

Five things she could see. Reyela opened her eyes and stared up at the night sky. The moons and the Red Star's baleful light. The light from a weyr on the cliff. The faint outline of trees in the dark. The roof of the Candidate Barracks.

All right. She was safe. Reyela took another few deep breaths. Four things she could feel. The thong of her sandals between her toes. The scratch of wool around her shoulders. The night wind against her cheek, the solid ground beneath her feet.

Three things she could hear: the chirp of night insects, the rustle of wind in the leaves and far away, the soughing of the ocean. **Maybe I should go for a swim,** she thought, then discarded the idea. She didn't want to deal with sticky, salten skin and wet hair, although imagining the cool embrace of the ocean made her ache to go.

Reyela took another few deep breaths, feeling her heart finally beginning to slow its rapid, panicked beats. She wondered if she could go back to sleep. How long until the dawn?

It was frustrating how the aftershocks of the earthquake at River Bluff Weyr continued to shatter her sleep. She should be over it. Reyela rubbed her eyes, then looked back up at the night sky. Perhaps she'd go for that swim after all. It would be a good distraction, and if she tired herself out enough, she might be lucky enough to catch a few candlemarks of sleep before dawn.

Surefooted in the dark, she began to make her way down to the beach.

Last updated on the March 9th 2021

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Aftershocks