Let It Rain

[Iriah Caitrak]

(Closed)


Iriah Caitrak could not remember the last time she had seen this much rain. It poured forth from the sky, cut through the trees and created the mouth of a waterfall right before her. At times it fell so heavily that she could barely see where she walked. The thin wisps of mists that snaked between the towering trees helped her little. They merely hid the dangers of the forest until they were mere inches from her eyes. Of course, right now the only concern she felt stemmed from not wanting to drown. As a native to the desert region of Fallien, Iriah was far from accustomed to swimming. Stand her in water up to her knees and she’d probably find a way to drown herself. Unfortunately for her, the pooling liquid in this foreign forest lay already passed her ankles. She feared she’d be swept away if she didn’t find a safe place to weather through the storm.

Water sloshed at her feet as she pushed forward. She constantly found herself blinking as she fought to keep the water out of her eyes, a futile battle at best. It leaked from her soaked, purple hair plastered to her head and dribbled down her face in a successive river. Deep inside her boots her toes squished on top of material long ago saturated. There was quite possibly no part of her body not drenched in water.

At least I won’t need a bath tonight.

If she made it to tonight of course. She needed to find shelter. Perhaps travelling to Donnalaich through the wilds of Dheathain on her own was not as smart an idea as she thought. Truth be told, some of the locals frightened her. Their bodies lay covered in scales of varying colours, their eyes nothing but obsidian stones inset into a hard and chiselled sculpture of a face. They reminded her of harpies, though far from that species in any sense or form, she couldn’t help but make the comparison. Because of that she had a hard time trusting them considering the war she had fought against those wretched women and their leader’s inconceivable jealousy. If only Malagen had stayed with her. Then she wouldn’t be so alone. By Suravani how she missed having him around. It was odd. She’d grown so used to having him there and then suddenly he was gone.

Shaking her head and sending scatterings of waters in all directions, Iriah ignored all thoughts of the man. She could not bring herself to think of him right now or she might cry. Their chapter ended and in a few weeks time she would be able to look back at it with a smile and remember all the good parts instead of those that ripped at her already torn heart. She would, one day, but that day was not right now.

Lightning cracked through the thick clouds high above her head, splitting the sky open in a blinding flash that scorched her eyes. Thunder followed it, making good on the name the common tongue gave it as it boomed and thudded against the beat of her heart. Her foot sunk into a hole and twisted off to the left. Pain shot through her ankle and leg as she tripped forward, landing face first into the water. Water filled her mouth and throat, leaking further down as she breathed in. Coughing and choking she pushed herself up onto all fours. Yanking on her leg she freed her foot and let out a small cry of surprise as pain ripped through her foot. Reaching up, Iriah laid her hand on something cold and hard. Pulling herself up, she sat down on the smooth surface, ignoring the squish of water as it invaded her most private areas normally protected by her clothes.

Her ankle throbbed in time with the beat of her heart. The fall had probably twisted it at best, broke it at worst. With a broken ankle it would be almost impossible to make it to Donnalaich without assistance. That being said, she could not sit here and wait for some random passerby to help instead of kill her, unless some monster did the job first.

Sighing, Iriah leaned back and felt the press of cold, smooth stone against her back. She closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the pounding rain. A moment later her eyes shot open and she turned and looked at the pillar of carved and worn stone behind her. It looked like the remains of a wall. Looking at the ground she found broken blocks protruding from the surface of the water, what she most likely tripped on. Twisting on her seat some more, she realized that she sat before what looked like the ruins of something, maybe a small settlement, a village or even a temple to some ancient God.

Shelter.

Pushing herself up, Iriah limped along the remains of the stone structure. Her fingers dipped into the mortar, the chips and cracks, feeling every year imposed upon the building that could only endure it in silent solitude. Pillars rose and fell around her, barely seen through the winding trees that had sprouted within the ruins. Walls that had once stood proud had crumbled into nothing more than a pile of unrecognizable stone that lay at her feet. Yet the deeper she walked into the place, the more intact it appeared.

When the wall disappeared she nearly fell, barely keeping her balance on her bad foot. To her right another wall loomed from the dreary mist and rain, appearing like a gift from someone. A large section of it broke away to reveal the impeding trunk of a tree, destroying things made by hand to show the power of nature. Higher than the first and more intact, it soared into the tree line and eventually met a second wall that cut through it. As first she thought she was trapped, then her eyes came to rest on a dark spot amongst the grey stone; a doorway.

Keeping off her one foot as much as possible, Iriah made her way towards it. Inside she immediately found herself in a small and enclosed area flooded by water coming in through a multitude of doorways or possibly just holes in the wall. They were the only points of light that seemed to stream in and glisten along the shifting liquid. At least the rain no longer pounded against her in here though, not that she could exactly rest in something resembling a stream though.

Iriah pushed forward. Twice she hit her shins on fallen slabs of stone blocking her path. The ruins appeared to be the collapsed part of a large building for she kept finding herself twisting further and further into it. Eventually, the water faded and the ground became dry though the inside of the ruins were cold. Coming to a small and open room she could barely see inside of, Iriah pulled off her rucksack and opened it. Only the blanket on the very top appeared to have become wet from the rain. Everything else seemed dry. Stripping out of her sopping clothes, she dried her body and pulled on a dry pair of beige pants and a form fitting red, sleeveless top with leather straps across her stomach holding it flush against her skin. Putting her pack back on, she began to explore. Maybe she’d find some wood safe from the rain that she could light a fire with.

[Kially Gaith]

The definition between day and night was one of question, the clouds high above within their darkened sky threw their fill down upon lush greenery with unrelenting vigour, dousing all below with torrent after torrent of pummelling rain.
Said rain, however, found not a single drop on a sheltering child below, for Kially had found himself a comfortable hidey-hole within a cranny of ruined rock and mutilated marble, the ruins of a fallen pillar.

Looking into the fury, Kially was downtrodden to see the utmost favourite of his creatures decimated, drop by drop into the ground. A white and gold butterfly, no larger than an infants hand was combating the power of water with strong beats of frail wings with varying and undecided levels of success, raising for a moment before pushing back down by an accurate shot of heavens finest. With interest and a mild tangible twinge of worry in his scrawny chest, the lad gazed forth, allowing the butterfly its’ struggle until nature won over, causing the insect to spiral like a down jet plane towards the ground at an uncomfortable speed much past the innocent creatures norm.

Registering this as something that did not bode well for the life of this given arthropod, Kially gave no thought to his own warmth which until now had been well preserved, hopping to his feet and dashing with nimble speed until reaching the winged being drowning in a developed puddle of misery. Boney fingers of his right hand dipped into the cold drink and recovered the fluttering creature from a watery demise, giving raise to purity and safety as the second hand cupped over a shelter to keep the insect from the rain, the butterfly was now safe, however, Kially was not, creatures of the forest lurked and crept without sound nor warning whilst in the distance, the more vocal beings made noises that unnerved even the seasoned forest goer. Renewing shelter and warmth was now not a matter of choice but a matter of health and safety, which even any self proclaimed idiot could denounce within such a situation.

Gazing back towards the pillar with a furrowed brow to protect his eyes from water, Kially found that such pillar had gone from vision, he had took no note from whence he had came in his panic to save the innocent creature he currently cupped, thus leaving him the choice to seek different shelter or babble in icy rain until he finally rediscovered his previous shelter. The young child decided upon the first option and pure unmarred eyes pierced into the darkness to find anything that even resembled a roof or canopy, where, from the darkness, an outline of a carved rock entrance could be seen within faint grey. With an undeniable denunciation, light although well paced footsteps made towards the opening, tired leather shoes slipping in the mud, making his short journey all the more difficult though sheer determination to protect the butterfly shone through and victory was acquired in the form of dry dirt and stone beneath drenched feet, he’d be sure to have blisters later.

A clap of thunder sounded out, followed soon by a flash of lightning causing a tree in the far distance to break, crack and then fall, causing a ruckus for the inhabitants of the forest whom howled and wailed in response to the natural disaster, unaware of the outsider sheltering within the forests’ history of days gone by. A quick glance revealed that the cut out of rock went deeper though darkness made seeing just how deep an impossibility of his limited senses.

In the mishmash of the sounds of the storm, Kially considered just why he’d came here, his guiding deity having told him that he would find a place of peace, solitude and safety within the forest which so far had offered him nought but danger and drenched clothing. Was this really worth it? Had mother finally misguided him? Was all this to save a simple butterfly?
While he could not argue that such was a valid cause for a long and strained journey, Kially couldn’t help but think he’d wasted his time, got cold, achy and tired all for nothing other than a creature that had a limited lifespan of about 8 days

Uncupping his hands, Kially gazed down upon the creature that was taking its’ wealth of the boys body heat, whilst the child himself shivered uncontrollably as he attempted to get dry. The butterfly kept its’ wings open in divine beauty, revealing to the child white alabaster wings with sparse veins of gold spanning like tree roots from its’ abdomen to the light, almost see through edges of its’ delicate wings.

Allowing the sodden butterfly to rest in his hand and take from him his body salts and what little warmth his pulse provided, Kially turned to face the darkness behind him and dropped his now spare left hand to his side, colliding particle after particle with his gift until they created a kinetic electricity, which in turn ignited particles of dust in the air resulting in a bright white ball of energy the size of a ball which flickered in his hand, most luminescent within the centre where a condensed golf ball sized ball of light held stage, dissipating out with energy that dimmed until ate by darkness. Mother had failed him so far, he decided he’d make his own path today, and with such in mind, proceeded into the dangers the darkness held with no care for his own safety, wishing only to sate innocent curiosity.

This would be a long day, a long day indeed.

[Iriah Caitrak]

Upon their first construction these ruins may have been rather large, but it became obviously the more she traversed them, the less and less seemed to survive. Hallways were cut short by collapsed rock leaving nothing but a bleak and black dead end, while others opened up like the mouth of a cave allowing the pouring rain to stream through in torrents. Any safe and potentially dry, warm place seemed to be evading her the more she travelled. And thrice now she had worried she’d moved within the span of a circle for everything looked to the same to her now night adjusted eyes. That crack along the stone foundation looked like the same one ten feet ahead of her.

Her mind grew weary and tired. Her body yearned for rest and though she thought herself water logged for enough of it had fallen upon her in the last while, her throat still thirsted for the substance to trickle down its passage. All she had to do to sate that was stick her head out a whole in the wall and open her mouth. But that would mean wet and cold and Iriah had already had enough wet and cold. Though her resilience towards such an environment had grown thanks to a certain man, she would never become completely accustomed to it. She would always naturally crave the sun and the heat. It was in her blood. Right now she wished for nothing else but the kiss of the sun of her face and a hot, desert wind as it shifted her garments. But she’d receive none of that here in this place of never-ending water.

Putting the thought of water as far from her mind as she could, Iriah kept moving. It seemed like she’d been wandering through this place forever, but mere minutes had passed. The throb of her ankle certainly did not help either. It made every second drag on to a minute. While pain was nothing new to her, it was far from enjoyable or even something she could ignore. She could merely endure it. Behind her, the wind whistled through the cracks and holes in the stone, sounding like the whistle of a long forgotten song. Ahead, she could see what appeared to be another collapsed hall. The side of the stone structure had given way, allowing water to pour in and pool along the ground, creating a small pond. At the top of the collapse though, more light filtered in and not the dull, grey light from outside either. Curious, she moved towards it.

From what her eyes briefly caught, it appeared to be a large room beyond and if she was right, the opening seemed just big enough for her to fit through. At the base of the pile of rock and with the wind suddenly lashing against her, Iriah began to climb. Water from outside splattered along the hard surfaces and splashed up into her face. She grew cold again. Feet off the ground, she pulled her head up to the opening. Beyond it laid a large and well preserved room. Whatever contents had been in here ago rotting away, but all the stone still looked as good as the day it was quarried.

With some manouevering, a few scraps against the sides of the rock and a couple knocked limbs, Iriah managed to squeeze her way through the opening without falling face first down the other side. Immediately she felt much warmer and safer as odd as that seemed. Perhaps the wind did not penetrate the area within. Upon the opposite wall that she had climbed through lay another doorway in shadows. She also noticed that odd light source. Against the far wall of which a stone altar appeared to remain lay several crystals. Some of that had scattered and broke upon the floor, but almost all of them were giving off a soft, blue glow that was just enough to chase away the shadows. At the end opposite the crystals lay a third doorway without a door, wide open and dark. In the corners next to it were dozens of what looked like pottery; bowls and pitchers and things of the like. Most seemed broken though a few appeared to have survived the decades.

Iriah moved towards the altar, climbing over one of the only two stone pillars within the room. One had stayed erect and straight next to the altar, while the other had fallen over and broke into several pieces along the stone floor, cracking a few of the blocks. One of which she didn’t notice until she tripped upon it. In front of the altar there was no floor, but it didn’t appear as if it had caved in. Instead, there seemed to be no floor deliberately. Moving towards it, she noticed it was filled with water; clear and clean water. Kneeling down, she dipped her hands into the pool of brought some of the liquid towards her lips, drinking it down as quickly as she could. She repeated the ritual several times until she felt full of the liquid.

Sated and at ease, she lay down next to the pillar and took off her pack, using it as a pillow as she rested. Hopefully within a few hours the rain would stop and she could once again travel towards Donnalaich. Oddly enough, she couldn’t even hear the rain from in here.