Rescue Mission

Writers: Jane, Kaysea
Date Posted: 12th May 2007

Characters: Kateena, Swift
Description: Kateena follows a child out during the storm and is lost
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 3, day 19 of Turn 4

Kateena was helping herd the smaller children into the main building, they were about to close the side entrance, and she was doing a head count, but her attention was distracted by a small flash of red and white out in the rain. Had one of the children gotten away? She quickly turned to begin counting again, but once again the bright white flashed through the rain just for an instant; she couldn't risk it, she had to go and find out. She yelled across to Dreana, one of the child carers, but wasn't sure if the girl heard her or not, she really didn't have time to waste.

Making a break, she took off out of the side entrance, trying earnestly to see where the child had gone.

~ ~ ~

Swift scurried around making sure all the late arrivals from the outlying cots found somewhere to sit and were told that they could get food and drink from the counter any time they wanted it. The kitchen staff would do their best to accommodate the families, he assured them, they just needed to ask for what they wanted.

And then sometimes, he'd ask about Kateena. Mostly they knew her by sight (it wasn't a very big Hall, after all, and she was a new face) and their reports were reassuring. Apart from being out in the extreme weather she seemed to be managing all right.

Swift told himself he was being over-protective. She was a dolphineer.
She working in conditions far worse than they were experiencing. But still he asked.

~ ~ ~

Through the wind and rain, she caught brief glimpses of the child, he or she was only small, but as she watched the wind buffeted the child over and over, was it too late? Her heart skipped a beat at the thought.
The little one could be no older than two or three turns at most, going on his or her size. Had they gone looking for their mother or father, would both she and the child have been missed by now?

The rain was getting worse, she could barely see as she walked into it.
Her hands kept having to shade her face, so she could see where the child was. Her hair, the stray pieces that always managed to escape her plait, were whipping her face harshly in the wind. She stopped against a tree, hugging it tightly as she tried to gain her balance. She had lost sight of the child.

~ ~ ~

Everybody was in now. Safe - as safe as people could be. Swift supposed he wasn't alone in being unable to forget Topaz SeaHold's fate in another such storm.

Nevertheless everybody was trying to stay positive - not always easy for dolphineers with partners out at sea. The families were doing their best, though, and the exceptional crowd was keeping Swift busy.

Occasionally he asked after Kateena, but nobody had seen her recently.
Not since the main doors had been closed. Perhaps the Hallmaster had her off doing something? When he next saw the man he would ask.

~ ~ ~

She pushed the stray hairs, and rain, out of her eyes, searching desperately, and just when she began to lose hope, there was a flutter of red and white amongst the trees up ahead. She pushed herself against the force of the wind, and noticed she was now wading through ankle deep water, the tide had risen perceptibly - how had the child managed?

She stopped again, using the tree for shelter, she was beginning to lose her bearings - an area she had become familiar with over the past couple of sevendays, was now becoming like a maze to her. Or was she dreaming?

She struggled again, and then caught a flash of red and white to her left. She turned and started following what she could make of a small inland track, the red and white was fluttering up ahead in the water.
The child! The child was down, water was flowing. She pushed her legs and skirt through the water, the drag of her clothing stopping her normal strides. She managed to step up onto higher ground, the child was caught in a culvert of earth and rocks, luckily for them both.

Her hands reached out as she neared the fallen child, she almost had them in her grasp when a branch cracked and snapped off over head. The sound of the crack was lost in the howl of the rushing wind, but the wind wasn't strong enough to take the branch far from the tree. It fell to the ground, taking Kateena with it.

Her hand reached out and grabbed at the cloth, clenching fast as she lost consciousness.

The empty basket lay trapped in the culvert of rocks and twigs; one twig pushed through the baskets weave, holding it steady.

The red and white tunic was torn and dirty, barely recognisable. One button, trapped in the handle, all that kept it attached to the basket, as the wind whipped it back and forth.

Last updated on the May 14th 2007

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Rescue Mission