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 Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 10:00 am
There weren’t enough buckets in the world for this! Truffles cursed under her breath words she’d learned from her ex-boss as she tossed another bucketful of water out a window. “How are those holes coming?” she called to Aatami as she replaced the bucket under the steady leak in the roof and looked up at her brother. He was standing on their old table, trying to patch the roof from the inside with whatever they could find. Blankets, leaves, socks, the floor... Dang. This couldn’t be natural. Some storm pokemon was super ticked somewhere nearby.
It really hadn’t started too long ago, but it had come fast and heavy. A freak winter rain storm. Truffles pulled her hat down again, fighting to keep her teeth from chattering. She was already soaked through, and Aatami didn’t look much better off. Even their special coats couldn’t keep the water or the cold out anymore. Every minute of the pounding rain seemed to add a new hole to their flimsy shack. “If this doesn’t end soon, this whole place is gonna fall over,” she grumbled under her breath as she picked up another full bucket, her arms starting to tire from all the constant heavy lifting.
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 6:14 pm
Aatami swatted his hair out of his face, his hands still placed on the piece of flooring he was trying to nail to the ceiling. Thank goodness he'd been able to pry the nails from the floor, but beating them in with a rock with water coming in on top of him was hard! And it was disheartening with some of the nails slipped out of his hands.
"They're coming!" Aatami called out, stepping on the other side of the table to take care of yet another hole. The shack was full of them! At this rate they'd be swamped in no time flat. Shedding his coat, since it was soaked anyway, he tried his best to stuff it into a new hole, taking the full brunt of the rain on his face at odd intervals. He hated all of this! Rain, water- the whole lot was freezing, uncomfortable, and made him want to crawl in a corner.
He couldn't get this coat to stay, and the longer he held it, the further he had to stretch on his tippy toes. Eventually his toes slipped on the old surface, causing him to cry out and fall back on to the table, which broke under his weight.
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:05 pm
It was starting to feel hopeless. By the time she emptied one bucket, she had to run to empty another. She had to pause for breath, growling as one bucket overflowed. Not that she could tell with all the water already on the floor. Her head snapped around at the yelp and the loud crack, wincing as she watched her brother fall. "Aatami! You okay?" She ran over and yanked him out from under the deluge of water, coming through even easier now.
She had to decide. ...They couldn't stay. "Aatami. We gotta go. Find somewhere safer." Clinging to her brother, her mind spun with places they could try. Her first thought, they could go to- ...no. She didn't want to look weak in front of.... No. Or maybe the old shop? Sure, she wasn't supposed to go back there, but surely no one else would be out in this weather! "Come on. I know where we can go. Just gotta get to town. You okay ta run? We gotta move fast." They would have to fight their way through this storm.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 6:15 pm
He was scratched up and even sore now than before, but he was able to nod. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Aatami grunted, wincing when he moved his back to moved closer to Truffles. He couldn't control the shivering anymore, and leeched as much warmth as he could from his twin.
His thoughts went to another. Hopefully that person was safer in this weather. The last time it had rained this hard he'd almost died, so Aatami could only hope he was faring better than they were! "We'll have to move really fast, so-" Aatami paled as he looked outside. Even though it was darkening outside, he could see the shine of the water through the cracks of the shack. It was close; really close and it was gaining ground. "Truffles." Taking her hand in his, he gripped it hard, frozen from panic.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 6:35 pm
Nodding, she turned and grabbed a blanket. It would weigh them down a little, but it would protect them from the downpour from the most part as they ran.
Hearing Aatami's pause, she looked up at his pale face and frowned. "No, don't do that. We gotta-" Her ears twitched, and she finally turned to follow his gaze. "What's that?" Narrowing her eyes, she practically dragged her brother to the window of the shack and looked out. There wasn't supposed to be a river out there... "Aatami. What's going on?" she asked, gripping her brother's hand tightly. Why was the river getting closer to them?
She gasped as freezing water suddenly pooled around her feet, and each blink saw the water rising higher. It was coming it through the cracks of the walls and under the door. Her heart began to thud hard, and she tugged on her brother's arm. "We gotta go..." she squeaked, shaking her head. The walls groaned and creaked under the weight of the building pressure, and she knew they wouldn't hold long...
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 8:25 pm
"It's flooding..." He answered in a squeak of a voice, soft from disbelief as his eyes raced with the tan water. Aatami took a deep breath to calm his racing nerves, and bit his lower lip. This was bad, bad, BAD, way worse than losing a shack!
Acting on impulse he moved for the remnants of the table, digging around for the chair he knew would be there. It was old, but tall and stout. He propped it up underneath the hole in the ceiling, directly under the spout of water covering a thick branch.
"Truffles! Come on, you can climb up through here." She was the better climber so she'd have to go first, and then she could pull him up. He'd try to help her out as best he could, but hearing the groaning pop from one of the surrounding walls made his eyes widen.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 8:42 pm
Flooding? Truffles pinned her ears back and shrank from the window. This wasn't something she could fight. She couldn't yell at it to go away. She couldn't... She gasped when Aatami spurred into motion, watching him hurry around. Wow.
Looking up at the hole, she wrinkled her nose, but climbed onto the chair without complaint. If they could get to the tree, maybe the would be safer? She threw her coat off to keep it from catching on the splintered wood, and wiggled herself up onto the flimsy roof. She felt herself shaking from more than the cold as she found a bit of footing. That was when she felt the shack shift under her. "Aatami! Hurry!" she shrieked, her arm reaching through the gap to try grabbing her brother.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 8:47 pm
It was something he'd learned watching Quinn fight off that Scoliopede. All he'd been able to do was hide, and in that moment he felt just as scared, but he wouldn't let his sister get caught up in this. She was what kept him moving, what made his mind work and his gave his hands the strength to support the chair, then her legs as she climbed.
Aatami felt the water encompassing his legs, moving up to his shins as it pulled him away from the hole. Even as he tried to climb on to the chair he felt it shift from underneath him, moved by the power of the gaining water. He reached out desperately for her hand, the tips of his just touching hers when the walls collapsed around him, sending a torrent of water and debree at the Eevee boy.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 9:09 pm
Truffles stretched her arm as far as she could, but it wasn't enough. The rush of water was throwing Aatami just off balance enough to make him hard to reach. Why couldn't she be long like he was?!
Before her eyes, the walls fell to the pressure of the muddy water. It pushed Aatami out of her reach. She heard herself scream. Still on the roof, she felt weightless for a second before she followed it down.
Under the murky water, Truffles was immediately disoriented. Which way was up? Where was the surface? Where was Aatami?! She had to find him! Popping back up to the surface, she gasped and sputtered as she inhaled about as much rain as air. The water pushed her every which way, bumping her into trees that she couldn't quite grip with her numb fingers. She couldn't see her brother!
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 9:17 pm
Aatami could see nothing, but diluted brown water as he was tossed about. His lungs had been filled with the stuff when he had tried to scream, and now the burning was an all consuming thought. He tried to claw at his chest, then tried his best to make it to the surface. It wasn't until he was tossed up against a piece of the shack that he breached from the water.
The frightened child tried to take as many deep breaths as he could, but between being taken back under and trying to cough it was a horrendous task. Where was Truffles?! She was okay, right? He tried to call out to her, to say something to find her, but he was being pulled too far, too fast...
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 9:33 pm
Arms flailing, Truffles fought to keep above the surface. She was shoved under again, feeling her feet scrape against the ground. She managed to kick against the ground, propelling herself in some direction. Breaking the surface again, she gasped in a breath right before being thrown by a wave and slammed into a thick tree branch. The air and water exploded from her lungs, and her head spun.
The water tugged at her feet, but she was hooked over the branch to keep from getting dragged further. Blurry eyes lifted to look around. The rain and darkness blocked everything from her sight. No... A few coughing gasps finally got some air into her lungs. "Aatami!" she yelled as loud as she could, but it might as well have been a whisper. She could barely hear herself, yelling out for her brother again and again.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 9:39 pm
Hands turned into frigid claws, Aatami grasped at the first thing he could to hold him above water. His hands grasped a piece of driftwood, but it wasn't strong enough, so he dipped back down before getting hold of a sturdier piece. He sputtered and coughed, gagging on the thick water in his lungs.
He thought he heard a voice on the wind, just a wisp of it, but above the roaring den of the water and the raging storm he couldn't listen well. Aatami couldn't feel his body as it was pulled down...stream? Wherever he was going, the water made sure it was at a fast pace, jerking him against trees, stumps and other debree with nary a cry from the boy. He was too cold, too numb to voice any opinions by this point.
On a sputtering cough, he felt his blurred vision darkening, and Aatami blacked out.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 10:00 pm
Hours later, Truffles groaned and blinked her eyes open. It was light again... Aatami! Lifting her head, she gasped with the pain of her stiff body, and slipped off the branch she'd been stuck on the whole storm. A grunt of more pain sounded as she thudded to the ground; mushy still but hardening from the cold. She could barely move. She was so cold and tired...
Teeth starting to chatter again, she slowly got herself to roll onto her stomach, and pushed herself up. All around her was devastation. Grass was stripped from the ground, long trails dug into the earth, the smaller trees were either leaning or knocked completely over... There was no sign of Aatami.
Her whole body shook from cold and fear. Was Aatami okay? Was he alive? Where was he? Who was going to watch out for him? ...Who was going to watch out for her? She'd never felt more like a child than she did now, lost in a world too big to go alone in...
She looked down the way the water had flowed. There was no specific path she could follow. He could have ended up anywhere. Maybe.. maybe he would try to follow the water flow back? If she headed off, he might come back, and they might miss each other, and it would take even longer... And with the shack destroyed.. Truffles brushed weakly at the small flood now coming from her eyes. No. She had to stay here, find her way back to town, for when he came back. He had to come back... Aatami...
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Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 6:36 pm
Hours had passed, maybe even a full day, before Aatami felt the strength to move. He'd come to consciousness a few times over the course of that time lapse, but it had never lasted longer than a few moments at best.
When he felt the strength to sit up it felt as if his body was broken. The boy cried out, clutching shaking arms around his chest. Something didn't feel right there, and it hurt alot to move, but at least, after a little wiggling, he could stand up.
Looking about him, Aatami quickly realized he had no idea where in the world he was. He bit his lip and felt his cheeks warming with tears. Where was Truffles? Where was home? ...Where was Truffles?!
The area around him looked as if a great foot had stomped down ontop of it. Large trees were bowed over, the smaller ones broken off. Whole bushes had been ripped up, and the ground itself was gored. He stumbled over a few branches as he tried to walk, holding stiff to his side, tears free flowing down his cheeks. Whatever confidence he had managed to acquire was gone, shot down from the sky like the storm itself.
The worst part? The entire area looked as if it had been hit, so he had no idea which way he was supposed to go. So, Aatami walked, murmuring at first, and then openly, desperately, feverishly calling for his sister. He called and called until his voice broke inside of him.
Leaving a broken, lost child to search for a path in his new wayward life. Cold. Tired.
And alone.
(Fin)
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