Living Rough (Coltyn)

[Sam Oakfield]

1st Day of Spring, 512AV Sam's stomach grumbled. He was hungry again. No matter how much he tried not to think about it, food was still on his mind. Looking at the amount of money he had, there was no way he could afford something luxurious. There was no way he could afford something at all. That meant there was only one other option, leftovers. He dug through his backpack looking for any scraps of food that might have broken off into his bag, even crumbs sounded good right now. After minutes of vigorous searching, he could only find half a loaf of dried up bread. However, it was food, and Sam had scoffed it down in seconds. With plenty of water to wash the bread down, he was sorted for the next couple of hours food-wise. Sam was originally planning to spend the day out begging or something, but it was starting to get chilly. It was somewhat weird, after all, Ravok wasn't too cold during the spring. It was probably a change in the weather pattern or something, and Sam didn't pay much attention. Seeing as begging out in the cold wasn't really a choice, he had to find something else to occupy himself with. He figured that he could either go back home and rest, or just have a little walk around Ravok. It was a beautiful city, and so, Sam decided that walking around was the best choice right now. He didn't feel like travelling through canals right now though, so he set out on foot. The whole city was connected by bridges and whatnot. Walking around was fine and all, but Sam felt as if the weather kept getting colder. This seemed incredibly weird. Five more minutes passed, and it was as cold as the winter. Something was REALLY off. Figuring it would be best to just go and hide in his house, Sam started to walk to his place. His pace was fast, but not fast enough seeing as the rain started pouring down seconds after he started heading home. The wind had picked up now too, it was bitingly chilly. Just then, another temperature drop. Water began to freeze, and the wind got even stronger. This was no time to mess around, something was horribly wrong. Rhysol's magic was supposed to protect Ravok from stuff like this. Sam was beginning to panic, he knew he shouldn't be panicking in these situations. People were beginning to run around like headless chickens, it was chaos. Looking out onto the lake, Sam noted the huge waves that were crashing into Ravok. Building were starting to crumble, and Sam only hoped that the temple was holding out fine. Right now was no time to be inside, his cottage was nowhere near the edges of Ravok, and so he figured that it would be the best place to hide for the moment. Sure, there was a risk of being trapped in there and drowning, but it was a hell of a lot better than being caught out in the open. Sam wasn't walking any more, he was sprinting. A sense of panic and urgency in every movement.

[Coltyn]

The moment Coltyn stepped from the safety of his housing unit, he knew something was not only wrong, but horribly, unnaturally, you-better-run-for-your-life wrong! Even during the worst of storms, the sky never turned this black. Moreover, the wind...what...what exactly was going on there? It seemed to be coming at him from every direction at once, which was impossible, unless something or someone was causing the perplexing disturbance. Then the rain began to fall, which swiftly turned to sleet, and then hail, and, at this point, Coltyn immediately understood one thing and one thing only... All bets were off! Turning to head back inside, his attention - oddly enough, through all of the chaos - was drawn to a single individual who appeared to be running for their very life... Right at him! Bracing himself, he instinctively threw open his powerful arms, hoping that he could capture the runner, instead of allowing them to continue on their haphazard path to personal harm. If he was unable to stop them, they would both most likely end up either slamming into the rough, stone wall behind him or crashing to the icy ground below. In Coltyn's humble opinion, both options seemed bone-breakingly bad. In addition, avoiding the incident altogether was clearly not an option. He had to stop the...adolescent? Yes! He had to stop the young man from harming himself. "STOP!" he shouted, rather futilely, inwardly knowing that there was no way the runner would ever hear him over the roar of the storm. The poor kid had to be as deaf as he was blind, his senses hindered by the spontaneous maelstrom. Here goes nothing, Coltyn thought to himself, right before their bodies made contact. Then, an instant later, just as he successfully brought the kid's mad dash to an abrupt halt, an image of his younger brother, Antho, flashed in his mind's eye. "INSIDE!" he barked in the kid's ear as he held him in a bear hug and proceeded to drag him back toward the heavy, wooden door, which would take them inside to the foyer of his housing unit.

[Sam Oakfield]

In the midst of Sam's insane run for cover, he realised one thing. One tiny little thing. He couldn't control himself! His body was now in full auto-pilot mode, panic and all. That situation wouldn't be too bad normally, after all, his instincts were guiding him. Then he realised another thing. Another teeny, tiny thing. His so called 'instincts' were now leading him straight at someone. The man that Sam was running towards seemed to be sort of panicking himself, not body-wise, but the man looked like there was thousands of thoughts racing through his head. Sam wanted to shout. He wanted to tell the man to get the hell out of the way, but it was no use. The man, some sort of genius presumably, decided to take Sam's run full force. The man's arms were fully extended, almost as if to say "Come to papa!" Sam found all of this quite unusual, but the man looked to be built like a bull. No matter, it was too late to do anything now. He was mere meters away, impact was inevitable. Suddenly, it felt as if someone had tackled Sam without mercy. His whole body stopped instantly and the change in momentum wasn't the most pleasant feeling as I'm sure you can imagine. Before Sam could regain his thoughts, a loud roar filled his ears. "INSIDE!" The man shouted, dragging Sam towards the door of a house. "Alright man! Let go of me so I can actually move!" Sam responded, trying to not seem too aggressive. As the man dragged Sam into the house, Sam used his feet to kick the door shut. The storm was more than easily heard outside, it was like the house was being bombarded by tornadoes or something. Sam got up off the floor as fast as he could. "Uhhh, thanks for catching me back there, I owe you one." Sam spoke once again, this time with a much calmer tone. Sam wandered around the inside of the place that he had been dragged into. It wasn't too shabby, kind of a basic place, just like his own. "City living, 'eh?" He said with a wink. Sam then looked around for a chair and sit down, his legs were aching from all that running that he had done just moments ago. Sam was careful not to make himself too much at home, he didn't want to insult the host of course, although the host didn't really seem to be the type that got insulted that easily. That was as much as Sam could guess from his looks, anyway.

[Coltyn]

"Don't mention it," Coltyn replied as he made his way along the narrow hallway set out before them. "You can stay here," he added with a quick gesture over his left shoulder toward the single, wooden chair that occupied the main foyer of the multi-roomed, housing unit, "or you can join me upstairs and we can wait this storm out in the comfort of my modest home. My hearth is rather small, but it works well enough." Pausing at the foot of the stairs, Coltyn turned to face the young man. Once again, he was reminded of his younger brother. He couldn't help but feel a pang of worry...no...it was regret he was currently feeling...for not knowing if Antho was safe and sound at this very moment. He had already lost one sibling, not too long ago, he wasn't ready to lose another. "Are you coming?" he now questioned, just before his eyes darted to the bottom of the door they had just rushed through. "Uh...you may want to decide sooner rather than later," he quickly added as a pool of water began to form, consuming the threshold rather rapidly. "Uh, yeah," he suddenly snapped as he came rushing back to get a closer look. "You better come with me!" he then barked as he once again grabbed the poor kid by the scruff of his neck and propelled him toward the stairs at the other end of the hallway. "I think this is going to get really ugly before it gets any better!" Coltyn lamented as he bolted up the stairs two at a time. "I've never seen anything like this in all my life," he shouted over a roll of thunder. "Have you?" he questioned as he raced toward the door to his flat, glancing over his broad shoulders several times to ensure that the kid was still with him.