87 Summer - 515 AV |
| The markets were crowded today, and Autumn's gathering of essentials was nearing its close. She only needed a few more things here and there, and they'd be ready to face life's troubles for another week. She had even traded with a few coin to spare for some decently rare medicinal herbs for her Grandmother Anna, which she knew she had a vibrant collection of hanging within her tent and growing in her modest garden. Marjorie was back at Grandmother Anna's learning of traditional herbal poultices and teas as part of Grandmother Anna's passing down her knowledge from midwife to midwife. Autumn didn't worry much, they'd be at it for a few hours more even after she got back to the Sanctela. A little wind caught up for a moment, cold and bracing, and Autumn knew that Summer was ending. 'Only a few more things...' she thought, and then... Crack! Autumn rose her head to the sea, and what she saw left her scared. 'It couldn't be...' Lightning coursed through the sky again, followed the chilling boom of far away thunder. Autumn watched in horror as the sky went dark across the sea, swallowed by clouds as dark as coal, heavy rain obscuring the horizon. It was a deadly storm, and it was coming to Sunberth at speed. The wind picked up, cold and foreboding, and Autumn could see the waves of the ocean growing broader and choppier with the wind. People all around were looking toward the monster storm and dropped what they were carrying and fled. Shopkeepers wrapping up their goods in their stall's awning and leaving, people screaming in every direction, and in all but ten minutes the market was bare, not a soul in the place. Autumn had fled, and was worriedly jogging towards the outskirts of town, toward The Tent City. The town grew eerily empty as people escaped, becoming refugees from their homes. They had heard the stories of what had happened the last time that a storm of this magnitude had crushed their beloved Sunberth, and people weren't going to stay to become victims. However long they had spent their days here, it was coming to an end. The wind was beginning to make Autumn worried now, she wanted to make sure Marjorie and her Grandmother Anna were safe, and to tell them they needed to flee the city at once. There were some ships still at the docks, maybe they could barter for passage to Zeltiva. In all the commotion Autumn stopped at the hill overlooking Sunberth, her streets barren, and had an odd thought; she wanted to leave the city to see the world, and it was almost as if fate was forcing her to realize her dream. She never would have thought she'd be leaving to go experience life in another place under these circumstances, and in that moment she found fate a little funny, absolute and terribly humbling, but nonetheless funny, and to find comedy in such a tragedy waiting to happen was a rare twist that Autumn rarely experienced. More thunder bellowed from the ocean, snapping Autumn out of her daydream and sent her on her way to see if her family was safe. When she finally got to The Tent City, everyone in their right mind was frantically getting ready to escape. Most of the tents had been taken down, with a river of to-be refugees walking hastily down the road away from the outskirts of Sunberth. Here and there all of them were abandoning their homes before the disaster was to be realized through a force of nature. People screaming and fighting their way away from their beloved Tent City. To see such a disheveled and terrible sight of such an exodus was painful, almost alien to Autumn. When she entered the Sanctela most every nook was abandoned, and Autumn was relieved to find no one had looted her belongings, tearing through them and making haste as she packed all her belongings in her wooden chest, bringing down her tent and tying all of it together with what rope she had. She slung all of it over her back, heavy at first, but as she walked toward the exit it started to feel lighter. She then went to Marjorie's nook and found it bare, tent taken down leaving a hole in the Sanctela where her tent had been. She was now worried that they had left without her. She found them at Grandmother Anna's campsite hurriedly helping her pack. She was carefully laying her herbs and pockets of seeds on sheets of linen, and rolling them up in bundles, which she then wrapped in more linen. "Baby!" Autumn stated,visibly relieved. Marjorie looked sad, and so Autumn put her arms around her and held her close. "Grandma Anna, are you done?" "Just wrapping up my tent dearie. The rain?" "It's not here yet." "Good, then we have some time." Marjorie was crying now, and Autumn held her tight, her sobbing against Autumn's shoulder. "It's gonna be okay babe. How much money do we have to work with?" "We have enough between the three of us, don't you worry." said Grandmother Anna. "Lets go then." stated Autumn. The docks were grossly overcrowded with people, bulging and writhing in an absolute furor. "Come on!" yelled Autumn over the insanity. "Grab tight!" They grabbed eachothers' arms and Autumn began crowdwalking as she never had before, slipping into every little opening she could find, allowing them to transverse the crowd as Marjorie and Grandmother Anna were pulled along. They finally reached the area in the crowd nearest to one of the larger boats. The f***ers were auctioning off safe passage on the ship, clearly taking advantage of the foreboding storm still miles out from the mainland. They were laughing, LAUGHING at how much money they were making exploiting these refugees. "Huh! Can I get twenty? Twenty? Going once? Going twice? Sold to this lovely b*** and her two children. That's twenty each now." "YOU COWARDS!" Autumn bellowed over the roar of the crowd, some people being pushed off the dock into the water. Autumn couldn't help it. "One hundred for six." The stupid man looked at her, then smiled a devilish smile and turned to the crowd. "One hundred gold mizas for six? Once? Twice? Sold, to the young b*** and her five others. Autumn turned and yelled "I have room for three women and children!" Two couples offered up their two daughters and the other their young son. All three were crying just as hard as their parents. "Meet us in Zeltiva if you can make it, alright!? You WILL see your children again!" she said, Marjorie and Grandmother Anna calming the children. "You're going to see your parents when we get there in Zeltiva little ones." Grandmother Anna said with a warm smile. They all got on the ship just as the rain began to hit, and the boat was overflowing with people, many others clawing to climb up the ship, the heartless bastards kicking off the dock knowing they could carry more with the knowledge that everyone else in the crowd did not have the same funds to barter passage to Zeltiva. "I'm going to take these three under, you two be safe." said Grandmother Anna. "Of course." Autumn said smiling a weak smile. Marjorie walked over to where Autumn was standing at the back of the boat, staring back at their beloved Sunberth. "Here..." said Autumn quietly, and wrapped her arms around Marjorie, her leaning up against Autumn and they both stared at Sunberth. "We're going to make it." said Autumn with a tired and weary tone. Sopping wet in the cold biting rain, they leaned against each other for warmth and watched as their seaside town all but vanished into the distance. |
