A Call For Help 1/2

Writers: Cali, Emma
Date Posted: 16th August 2009

Characters: Y'nub, Teseada
Description: Y'nub calls for help when he spots a hold on fire.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 4, day 18 of Turn 5

Teseada

The evening was cold even with his lined riding clothes, the brisk wind and
Larweth's strong strokes only making it that much colder. Y'nub hated
sweepriding, at least in this sort of weather. He much preferred the summer months when he could strip down to just his pants and soak up the sun like he used to on board his uncle's ship. He had another two hours of
sweepriding to do, but he knew a cothold not far up that would be happy to
see him. There wasn't anyone particularly attractive at that cothold, a
large family of herders, but they had a good granny cook and she always had
a pot of stew and strong hot klah on the fire.

}:I see smoke.:{ Larweth broke into his planning, concern heavy in his
voice. }:Alot of smoke:{

Y'nub refocused, aware that his bronze was intelligent enough to know when
something was worth mentioning. When he couldn't see what Larweth's long
eyes could, he had him jump /between/ briefly so that he could get a better
look. He could see it this time, a tower of dark smoke billowing up from a
small hold nestled into the base of the mountains. He knew this hold too,
it specialized in lumber as well as herding.

One more jump /between/ had them hovering over the hold and Y'nub could take in the whole scene. The large storage barn was ablaze, sevendays worth of lumber fueling the fire. It had spread to two near smaller buildings as the wind did no favors. There was easily a dozen people running frantically across the court, some with pails of water, others with shovels full of dirt. All were flinging their contents as fast as they could on to the smaller buildings in the hope of saving the rest.

**Larweth, call back to the Weyr for help.** Y'nub wiped at his goggles as
the soot started to filter out to their position and obscure his vision.
**Let's go down to the barn, it's starting to hit the grasses. You can dig
a ditch to stop the spread.**

************

"He says what?" The call was unusual enough that Teseada spoke aloud to
Onnyth.

}:A fire, Larweth says that a cothold is on fire and people could get hurt.
He and his rider need help from the Weyr,:{ Onnyth told her. }:He says we
need to get there soon.:{

**Ask him to check with his rider what is needed,** she said getting to her
feet and pulling boots on. **Tell him if this is a joke, he'll be bounced
/between/ harder than anything he's ever heard of before.**

"A Joke!" Y'nub cried as he waited for Larweth to land before sliding down
his side. He started to shuck off his riding jacket and helmet, for despite the cold, it was sweltering so close to the blazing barn. "Why did you even call _her_! Never mind, just tell that pretentious trollop that I need at least half a wing and all the big fellis kettles she can find to dump water."

Fortunately for Teseada, Onnyth censored part of the message, just informing her that half a wing and the kettles were needed. **Tell him we're on the way, then call our wing and ask them to be ready to get the kettles. Stress the importance of speed.**

Teseada flung her flying jacket on, and got Onnyth's straps, working fast to get the gold ready to go. Before she knew it, her wing was assembling in the weyrbowl. **Ask Larweth for the visual please,** she told her as she settled in place on the gold's neck and fastened the buckles that linked her to the straps.

Larweth showed Onnyth the hold with the large barn ablaze, thick black smoke rising up with bits and pieces of embers floating freely in the air on the breeze. He also showed her the two smaller buildings as well as a third larger building across the court that had started smoking as well.

"Got that?" called Teseda as Onnyth shared the visualization with the rest
of the wing. There was a murmur of assent, followed by the sound of wings
beating as dragons took to the air ready to go /between/ once the signal was given. Which it was, Teseada and Onnyth led the wing through the cold
darkness to emerge over the hold, flames evident from the air.

Y'nub saw the image in his mind as Larweth relayed it and whipped his head
around when he noticed the new building addition. "Hey!" he called as he
ran up to the nearest man, "You've got another one starting up." and he
pointed to the building that while smoking from the roof, had yet to emit
the bright flames that would catch one's eye.

"Shards!" The man cried, sprinting towards the building, Y'nub in tow.
"Taffid, Dalasy! The breeding stock!"

The fire chose at that moment to reach the hay stack and where moments
before had been but smoke, dancing orange now flicked back and forth from
the roof. Y'nub heard several cries as more people realized the fire's
spread and he found himself pulling and heaving and shoving at the various
herdbeasts that were within the building as he as several others tried to
bring them to safety. He felt Larweth's concern as the bronze relayed
images of the outside of the building, but he ignored everything but the
animals. He knew with their lumber supply gone, the only thing keeping this hold from starving were the beasts inside, and he had to save as many as possible.

**Tell Larweth we are here,** Teseada told her dragon, **And have the others here go fill those kettles and dump the water on the flames, lets see if we can get this sorted quickly.**

**Tell Teseada to keep the dragons away from here, they'll scare the
herdbeasts and they're already frightened enough.** Y'nub gave in
acknowledgment of Larweth's update. They'd cleared the front of the barn
and were working their way backwards, probably not the best way if he'd
thought of it, but this certainly hadn't been planned. There weren't as
many of them moving the livestock now, some had been unable to handle the
smoke, and others had been injured by stray hooves and horns.

"I'm not stupid," she muttered. It would take the wing a few moments to get
enough water in anyway, and she'd already told them to make sure they came
at the hold from a direction that would keep the already frightened animals
from smelling them. The sound, nothing she could do about that, but
hopefully if their handlers had them well away by then they could calm them down., This wasn't the Weyr where to some extent the beasts there were acclimated to the presence of dragons.

Y'nub saw a young man, more boy once the bronzerider got a better look,
pulling futility at a stout runner. It was braying so loud he could hear it over the crackling fire and refused to budge out of it's stall. It was
panicked with a large beam overhead hissing and popping as the flame
consumed it, but the boy was not giving up. "Come on now, help me with
these, that one's a goner!"

"No!" the boy cried, his pulling of her lead becoming more frantic, "She's
my responsibility, I've got to get her out!"

The bronzerider heard a snap and looked up in time to see the heavy beam
break off over the boy and crash down on him, knocking him unconscious. The ground around the boy immediately caught fire as Y'nub rushed over to him. Without thinking, Y'nub threw his shoulder into the burning beam, and
jostled it enough to create a gap between it and the boy. Ignoring the
searing pain that flared on his face and neck, Y'nub hefted the boy over his other shoulder and stumbled out of the barn and into the fresher air.

Last updated on the August 29th 2009

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A Call For Help 1/2