Seeking Shelter

Writers: Cali, Jane
Date Posted: 25th February 2009

Characters: Trellyn, Ylisahn
Description: Trellyn finds Ylisahn sheltering in a Dolphin Hall outbuilding during a storm.
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 1, day 19 of Turn 5

It wasn't the rumble in the uncharacteristically dark midday that sent the Dolphin Cove Weyr's Headwoman scurrying for shelter, it was the zzzzt of passing lightning that had preceded the noise by only a hairsbreadth. The rain was neither here nor there in the tropical climate of the Dolphin Cove area, but being hit by lightening wasn't something she was willing to chance.

Though, if it had come to choice between lightning and caves she would have chosen the lightning. It didn't come to that, in fact, since the outlying buildings of the Dolphin Hall were up ahead and Ylisahn's long legs were still fit enough to carry her along the damp sand at a good rate.

The door of the first building was clearly barred and the leggy blonde woman didn't bother to stop to see if there was any other way in. The buildings were warehouses, storing the items coming and going from the Dolphin Hall and when in use were kept locked against theft.

The next one, though, was open. She leapt into the doorway with relief, then realised in the flash of light that seemed to come hard on her heels that it had no door, nor anything else. It was little more than a stone shell with -

She glanced up. The roof was intact or as near to it as it needed to be. She had safety and shelter for the moment, and she turned with a grin to look out the wide opening to watch the storm.

"You okay?" Trellyn asked as she stood in the doorway and saw a woman staring back at her. She'd seen her run into the warehouse as she was securing gear on the dolphineer's dock before the full brunt of the storm hit and she figured she'd better check on the woman.

"Just wet." Ylisahn looked at the brow-haired woman and shrugged in unspoken apology. "You're a dolphineer, I take it. Will anybody from the Hall mind?"

Trellyn looked at the woman oddly, "Mind? No. The side entrance isn't far though, we could run to it." She pointed out the door even though she couldn't see the door through the storm.

"No," Ylisahn said in protest. "No need on my account. I'm happy to wait it out here. It moved in fast enough - hopefully it will pass on as quickly."

"Who are you?" She noticed the woman wore Weyr colors, but she obviously wasn't a dragonrider.

"I'm Ylisahn, from the Weyr. The Headwoman." The blonde woman smiled. "And who are you?"

So that at least gave some sort of reason for a visit to the Hall, something official she supposed. "Trellyn, I'm a journeywoman here."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Trellyn." Ylisahn indicated the building, especially the opening out toward the sea that now she had time to look bore evidence of damage. "What happened to this place?"

"This _was_ a warehouse." Trellyn explained, "We've got a dozen or so of them all along the beach. When the hurricane hit, the waves bashed it up a bit and swept everything in here out to sea."

"Out to sea?" Ylisahn said, looking at the wide door on the front of the building - now more a hole than a door - and the smaller one on the other side of the building. She smiled. "Did you recover any of the ... whatever it was?"

Trellyn shrugged, "I don't know, maybe. There was lots of smashed up debris all along the beaches. Plenty from the Weyr too."

"Yes. We had more debris than we have furniture for a while there," Ylisahn said as she looked around the hut again. There was none of her usual feelings of confinement in the building despite the subject they were covering and _that_ could often bring on one of her 'moments' when she struggled to carry on normally. "Did the Hall itself get flooded?"

"Oh yes, the lower levels got flooded from our cave entrance, destroyed several of our supply rooms." Trellyn had almost gotten trapped in one of those flooded rooms so she knew first hand.

Ylisahn nodded listening with half her mind as the other half waited for the expected panic. Often just talking about the floods - often just talking about _tunnels_ could set off a reaction within her. But ... not this time. And she didn't know why. "I visited the Hold when it was empty - before your Hall arrived. It's fairly shallow, isn't it? The corridors don't go very deeply into the cliff?" From memory most of the rooms had one end against the cliff so nearly off of them had natural light.

"Mostly," Trellyn wondered why the woman was so interested. "We've plans to expand deeper, but we haven't even filled up all the rooms available yet."

"Ahh. That's interesting." The Weyr's headwoman looked out at the storm and smiled again. "I might come and visit your Hall properly one day soon." She looked back at the dolphineer. "On a fine day, next time, I hope."

Trellyn had hoped that the woman would come to her senses and accompany her to the main Hall, but she made no move to, and Trellyn didn't think it right to leave her by herself in a broke down warehouse. So instead she found a couple of crates and turned them over, out of the reach of the rain, yet still close enough to have good light from the doorway. "Well, have a seat if you won't come to the Hall, we'll probably be here for awhile."

"Thank you," Ylisahn said, accepting the seat. "But you don't need to stay on my account - if you have things to do." Perhaps dolphineers working in the rain, unconcerned, because they must certainly be used to getting wet. She was ashamed to admit she didn't know as much about the craft as she ought to.

"I don't mind staying. I was just out securing some of our training equipment." She explained. "The dolphins say we'll have some rough seas and I didn't want anything to get washed out. Not that the dolphins wouldn't have fun bringing it back."

"They always look like they're having fun," the older woman admitted. "Which makes people - even outside your craft - feel close to them in a way they can't always feel toward dragons."

Trellyn smiled, she knew exactly what she meant, and definitely felt the same way. "If you'd like, you could come down sometime and swim with them. They love to meet new people."

"I'd love to do that one day. Is it all right to come and visit any time?"

"Sure, we're always around." Trellyn replied with a small smile. Where else would they go?

"Never too busy for visitors?"

Trellyn blinked as a flash of lightning briefly blinded her. "Someone is always available on the dock at the very least. We keep a man stationed there in case the dolphins have messages. But we've got a lot of journeymen and masters here who do other things besides teach, so they have pretty flexible schedules."

"Good. I'll speak to somebody when I visit," Ylisahn promised, finding herself looking forward to returning to the Hall - on a finer day - more than she had expected to.

Last updated on the February 25th 2009

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Seeking Shelter