From:
Andre Oliveira <oliveand@bellsouth.net> Date: Wed Aug 14, 2002 7:51
pm Subject: [DL-T] New Acquaintances
Day 5
Early Morning
Leaning back against the wall of the Med Center, Soucivi groaned
silently and sighed. Life sure had become more interesting quickly. How
many days ago was it that he had been leading a boring, commonplace
life? No more than a few days probably, yet it felt like it was another
lifetime ago.
He closed his eyes and the images of his old apartment manifested in his
mind. The smell of coffee and dirty socks, the sounds of K'rvey's
snoring, the taste of food that had been kept in the back of the icebox
for who knows how long. Such an easier life, full of mindless activities
and inconsequential decisions. Where nothing really depended on him and
he barely needed to depend on himself.
His lips pulled into a small smirk as his life now came to mind. Chasing
a rebellious young dragon into the forest, meeting girls left and right
who seemed determined to make his life miserable, trying to survive
another day of training under the careful gaze of the ever-watchful
Eth'n, and becoming a constant visitor to the Med Center and Dragon clinic.
Not to mention recently being buried alive and Dargen dislocating his wing.
Well, he thought, at least it could be worse. Dargen could have done
some real damage to his wing, I could have busted open my skull, and
more than one girl could have used my face to clean the floor with.
A familiar feminine voice came to his ears, bringing him from his
thoughts, "Whatcha doing?"
Soucivi opened his eyes and saw a pair of smiling hazel eyes. He smiled
briefly before his face returned to neutral and closed his eyes saying,
"Just sitting. Thinking."
Tanda smiled and sat next to him. She leaned against him and rested her
head on his shoulder.
"Mind if I join you?" she asked as sweetly as she could manage it.
Feeling his ears burn Soucivi managed to say a small "Uh..."
"Please." She said burying her head deeper into his shoulder, her lips
touching his neck.
Feeling his face turn into a raging inferno, Soucivi grimaced, slightly
embarrassed at the show of affection.
"Why are you so uptight?" Tanda said as she took a hold of his hand and
began playing with it. "You weren't like this last night."
"I... I don't know..." he flustered.
Tanda laughed lightly and kissed his cheek. Then changing her tone she
said, "How's your head? Does it hurt?"
"It's... it's ok." He stammered, " I just have a headache."
Tanda kissed his cheek again and wrapped her arms around his waist,
hugging him tightly. She sighed and said, "I really like you, Sovi."
Feeling his face flush, Soucivi stared down at the floor trying to come
up with an answer. Unfortunately the only thing that he really wanted to
do was ask her why she kept calling Sovi. To him, it felt like it was
something only a little girl would call him. He looked down at Tanda,
her eyes closed, still hugging him like he was her personal comforter.
Was she only just a little girl with a crush or did she truly like him?
He could only wonder. Either way, it was fine for now, since he didn't
know how he himself felt.
He closed his eyes and began wondering how Dargen was doing. His wing
had been popped back into place while he was still unconscious, and the
healers had said that there shouldn't be a problem, if a little soreness
for a few days, but still, Dargen was so young, and a damaged wing now
could cripple him for the rest of his life.
A sudden lurch from Tanda brought his thoughts back to the present and
he looked down at the girl.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"What do you mean? You're the one who just..." her voiced trailed off as
she heard something falling from the Dragon clinic and crash on the floor.
"What's going on?" she asked as she tried to stand and promptly fell
back down.
Soucivi stood, leaning against the wall of the Med Center, and helped
bring Tanda back to her feet, "It... it feels..."
"Like what happened last night!" Tanda finished his thought.
The earth stopped moving and the two teenagers relaxed for a few minutes
before the earth began shaking again.
Tanda's eyes dilated in horror as the thought of being buried alive
again came to her mind. "Where's Konrad!" she frantically asked, "I need
to find him!"
She began calling to her younger sibling and panic swelled in her voice
as she bellowed her brother's name over and over, running clumsily
across the field to the barracks.
<Snip>
Eth'n began to accompany her, when he was distracted by the hatchlings
and their riders. Instead he called out, "Mae! Be careful!"
Tanda stood crying and near to a panic. Eth'n approached to find out
what was wrong.
Soucivi answered for her, "It's her brother. She can't find him
anywhere, and since he doesn't have a dragon, he probably isn't even
aware that there is trouble."
Eth'n nodded. "We'll find him, Tanda. Don't worry! I'm sure he's
probably sleeping somewhere after the party." There were many unjoined
who might not be aware of the danger, he thought, as another larger
tremor shook the warren.
"OK, trainees, gather round!" He quickly sketched out a plan. He sent
the trainees out to scour the un-joined quarters and get people outside.
<End Snip>
******
Kerrick sat in the searchling's quarters when the tremors hit the
warren. He had been living there for the past few weeks, having lived in
Corry and searched not long ago.
He was 16 years old, not very tall, not extremely attractive, kind of
average. He was stronger than most of the other kids his age, thanks to
his father's training, but he hadn't had a lot of opportunities to
measure his strength, as he was new to the place. He didn't like fights
either, though he was very capable of taking care of himself. His blond
hair was usually cut very short, but now it was starting to grow, and it
bothered him.
Aside from the initial culture shock when he first got into the warren
and seeing dragons, he wasn't very much impressed. Nothing happened, as
far as he was concerned. He hasn't joined with a dragon yet, hasn't made
as many friends as he had wanted, and generally there was nothing new at
the warren.
Until the tremors. They were new. They were exciting. And since he
wasn't hurt from them yet, they were interesting and fun.
Kerrick decided to check things out.
Quickly leaving the barracks, Kerrick saw the commotion, which wasn't
normal to that early hour in the morning. People were running out of
their caves screaming. People were panicking, crying, yelling. It was
way too loud for Kerrick.
A group of people stood in the middle of it all. They seemed to know
what was going on, and they kept trying to calm people down and telling
them to get out of their caves and the likes.
Good, Kerrick thought. Someone in control. He promptly walked in their
direction.
*******
Soucivi tried to calm Tanda down as the rest of the trainees ran in
random directions, warning everyone they could, that it wasn't safe to
stay in the caves until the tremors passed.
Clumsily putting an arm around Tanda's shoulder, he tried his best to
comfort her, even though he felt like panicking as well.
"It's ok Tanda," he tried meekly, "I'm sure he's fine."
Tanda embraced Soucivi and began crying on his shoulder, giving in to
her fear.
"My brother is going to get hurt!" she bawled on to his shoulder, " I
just know it! It's all my fault! I shouldn't have yelled at him!"
Sighing, Soucivi was about to hug Tanda back and tell her that they
should start looking for her brother when a boy came up to them and
said, "What's going on?"
Soucivi looked up at him and raised an eyebrow, "To tell you the truth,"
he began, "I have no idea. I just know that it isn't safe to be inside
the caves right now."
Tanda pulled herself from Soucivi and looked at the new arrival, "Have
you seen my brother!? People say we look alike, have you seen anybody
that looks like me?"
Kerrick scratched his head and tried to remember. "I believe I have." he
said. "At the unjoined apartments. I didn't really see what he was
doing, but I distinctly remember the face."
Tanda practically threw herself at the stranger and grabbed his collar,
bringing her face millimeters from his.
"Where!" she screamed, "Where did you see him? Was he all right? Is he
hurt?"
She was about to ask more when another shudder took hold of the earth
and interrupted her.
Kerrick used the momentary confusion to break free from Tanda's hold.
"I'm really sorry, but I don't know." he said. "I know he's at the
unjoined apartments, and I haven't seen him come out yet. I could be
wrong, but then again..."
As Kerrick backed away, Tanda tripped over her feet and feel on her
hands, she yelped in pain as a rock broke the skin of her palm and
looked up at the blond young man before her, tears in her eyes.
"Please," she said she stood and wiped her face with the back of her
hand, "Please, you must take me to where you saw him!"
Kerrick, unable to refuse, looked at Soucivi, then at Tanda, then lifted
her from the ground and leaned her on him. "Come." he said. "I'll take
you."
As they walked, Kerrick ripped a piece of his shirt and wrapped it
around Tanda's hand and pressed on the wound. Tanda squirmed a bit, but
Kerrick told her "The pressure helps the bleeding stop."
Tanda smiled and said, "Thank you." as she blushed slighty.
Soucivi followed Kerrick as he helped Tanda balance herself as they
walked. He couldn't help but notice the gesture and Tanda's reaction. It
was reasonable to say that he felt a small pang of jealousy.
Kerrick quickly led them to the unjoined housing, and soon they found
themselves in the boy's dormitory. It was a spacious, brightly painted
building, and it would have been very welcoming if it weren't for the
fact that it was completely deserted. Looking around the building,
Soucivi began to wonder if maybe the stranger had been mistaken.
"Well, where is he?" he asked after a few seconds of looking at the
empty building.
Tanda pulled herself from Kerrick and began walking to the back of the
building where the beds were.
"I think I know." she said.
She walked to an unmade bed and pulled away the covers to reveal a half
dressed, drooling boy, with some sort of gooey sweets on his mouth.
She sighed and looked at the two young men staring at her. "I should
have known," she said as she leaned down to the boy's ear.
"Konrad," she whispered, " Konrad..."
The boy mumbled something incoherent and rolled on his side.
"KONRAD!"
The boy immediately shot up and blinked his eyes open. "Huh, wha?"
Tanda grabbed his ear and began pulling him out of bed, "You lazy...
you... you goof...how can you sleep" she then pulled him into a tight
embrace and began crying, "You idiot! How can you sleep through this?"
Kerrick, relieved that the young child was found; was shaken a bit as
yet another tremor shook the earth. It brought him immediately to the
present.
"We have to get out of here," he said. "You said that being inside is no
longer safe, and I'm beginning to see what you mean," he added as parts
of the ceiling broke.
Soucivi looked at the broken plaster on the floor and gulped. Walking to
where Konrad was trying to push Tanda off of him, he grabbed both their
shoulders and began leading them outside.
Once outside, another shudder was felt, but noticeably weaker than the
last. Another shudder followed, weaker still, and unlike its preceding
brethren, instead of suddenly stopping, it slowly grew less violent
until it had completely vanished.
The four young people stood completely still for a few minutes
afterwards in complete silence, and when nothing happened, Soucivi spoke up.
"I guess it's over. Thank you... uh....what did you say you're name was?"
"Kerrick." came his reply. "I'm one of the searchlings. I've been here
for a couple of weeks now, but I haven't joined yet. And you?" he asked.
Soucivi looked at the boy up and down before he answered, "Um... well
I'm Soucivi," he pointed to Tanda who was holding her little brother's
shoulders as she looked at Kerrick, "that's Tanda and Konrad."
The two shook hands and then stood in awkward silence for a few seconds.
"So... it was nice to meet you." Kerrick said finally.
"Likewise." Soucivi almost barked as the silence finally ended.
"Thank you for helping me to find my brother." Tanda added.
"I was just sleeping," her sibling snapped, "How can you guys not think
to look in my... ouch!"
Tanda squeezed her brother's shoulder and smiled at Kerrick as he turned
to leave, "Thanks again."
Kerrick began walking back inside the slightly shaken up building and
waved a quick farewell. "It was my pleasure. Maybe I'll bump into you
guys again."
Tanda smiled radiantly and waved back, "Sure!"
Soucivi felt that pang of jealousy again as he noticed Tanda reaction at
the thought of seeing their new acquaintance again.