Dreaming of a White Nightmare (pm to Join)

[Alexander Faircroft]

53rd Winter 515AV

06:22AM

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

Alex had arrived in the Mythrin outpost the prior day. A week long stretch scheduled to spend time there. One week. He’d signed in with the current master of the outpost, left the horse in the stables and then retired to bed. A long day of riding through the almost chest high snows was tiring, and he needed the rest. He’d had a very…Unsuccessful night of sleep. Four hours of sleep all he’d managed to claw into him before an ear piercing scream echoed throughout the outpost. He bolted upright and heard a loud rumble and creak. A loud crack followed it as he watched a pile of snow just slump into the ground. Oh no, not again. He was reliving the events of the past. The events of the first of spring three years ago. He left everything this time knowing that the squires quarters were alright. He stuffed his pants and boots on and just ran outside. The blood pumping through his body from the adrenaline pushing him to go on. The lack of a shirt snapping some attention into his body.

He took off running to the building he’d watched collapse, a farmers cottage had just caved in on itself and he could hear screaming from within. He glanced around frantically searching for something anything. Another loud crack echoed out in the distance. Dammit Alex, find something! He glanced around gripping the symbols at his chest for guidance the bitter cold biting into him. There! He grabbed a hold of a random shovel just out in the open and began to dig and dig and dig. Burrowing harder faster. “Stay calm! I’ll get you out!” he called out a few loud voices echoed out around him. Many neighbours not noticing what was going on. He didn’t even pause just digging and digging for dear life. If not his own than theirs. He grit his teeth the strain starting to burn into his arms, he pushed on and pressed forwards. His teeth clenched and he just muscled through. The screams of small children within snapping his attention. He ploughed through reaching the edge of the front door. He kicked it. No movement.

Murmurs, small sounds, people were wondering what he was doing. “Don’t just stand there help!” he dug faster deeper jamming the shovel against the door and hauling the snow away. He finally got some room. He grabbed the lower half of the shovel the sheer adrenaline coursing through his body melted the snow in his grip as he slammed the butt of the shovel into the door like a battering ram. “Stay calm I’ll get you out!” he pounded and pounded. The crack of wood splintering hit his ears. No. No, no, no, no, no! He slammed the door in and in the distance another building cracked snapped and gave way. People around him began to get the picture the snow was too heavy and their houses had begun to sink. And Alex was trying to rescue the family trapped within the house. He found a few people coming to help still dressed in sleeping clothes and not having time to change raced towards him shovels in hand, they helped him burst down the door.

With a resounding crack the door gave way. But that wasn’t the only crack. Ten more followed behind it. Some louder some softer, the whole of the outpost was starting to give way. Right now that wasn’t the issue he reached his hand in. Nothing. Stillness. Blackness. He paused a moment frozen in fear. Was he too late? Was he not fast enough? Had they been crushed? He started to withdraw his hand, and felt a small one grasp a hold. His heart rose, that bead of hope was there he called out. “They’re alive!” He pulled, the small hand lightly and was rewarded with a small girl handing her off to someone else he reached in again, a woman’s hand this time. He pulled her out too. Looking in his heart sank. Tears streamed down her face. He looked into the darkness to see why.

A fragment of leth-light illuminated it. A hand sticking out from beneath the rubble. Flecks of snow atop it. The father pushed them out of the way, and in the process…Met his own end. Alex felt his jaw tighten and the hand reached to his throat. Dira…You’ve many arriving this night…And Kihala, I’ll save as many as I can. Priskil, yahal, give me the hope and the belief that they still live. I’m praying to you. Keep as many as you can alive until I get there. “Right! Grab as many as you can. Men, grab a shovel and help me dig! Women too. Those who can’t dig help the wounded.” He paused a moment as another loud creak and snap punctuated the event one of the emptied houses gave way and crashed in itself before bursting into flames beneath the snow. “Now get moving! People are dying every moment we wait!” His usually soft voice rose in volume, the quiet calm now a radiating tone of command. The crowd darted off in random directions hunting houses that had collapsed, and rallying people from the ones that hadn’t yet. The only knight awake thus far he was the first into action.

CreditMassive thanks to Fire for this awesome template.

[Dove Brown]

There was a dull roar, yells and cries intermingled, as the riot rolled towards her. Her brother shoved her towards safety and then there was a scream and a crack as if something had broken under the mob's trampling weight...

Dove opened her eyes with a gasp, but the screams and the cracks continued even now she was awake. She lay for a moment, unsure what was happening, then another scream rang out even closer and she flung herself out of bed into the cold pre-dawn air. She'd slept in yesterday's shirt for warmth, and it only took a moment to pull on a pair of discarded pants, belt them in place, and stuff her feet into boots. She grabbed her shovel from against the wall almost out of habit after multiple times of having had to dig out through nightly snowdrifts, yanked open the door and scrambled out into the snow. Rows of cottages that should be even stood gaptoothed against the sky, and somewhere not far away someone was yelling directions to dig and to help. As she turned to follow a stream of running figures, a cottage on her left collapsed with a deafening crack.

So that's what the noise was! Dove skidded to a halt and turned to dig that cottage. If the door wouldn't open, there was a window near it, higher up... If it was like hers it would have a shutter but no glass, and it was big enough to crawl through. She heard someone come up beside her and help dig, but didn't look round. There were cries from inside and she heard hands scrabbling at the inside of the shutters. She ducked, and the shutter on her side flew over her head and thudded into the remains of the wall. A woman leaned out, clinging to a blanket wrapped baby, and Dove dropped her shovel for a moment and grabbed both of them, pulling them out. The woman landed in the snow, blood trailing down her bare arm and lurched up again to help two older children out. Their father loomed at the window, but he was big and broad shouldered and hardly fitted through the hole. "One arm forward," Dove yelled to him, remembering her brother teaching her to squeeze through tight spaces. She'd never asked why he'd learned those skills. "The other arm back! We'll pull!"

[Saul Sticks]

The sound of a scream was a quick and easy way to wake most people, and Saul was not one of the fortunate few who were unaffected by its power. He rolled out of his bed and on to his feet, the sudden disturbance of his sleep causing his heart to pound. Waking this way made Saul ready to hit something. He looked to the window, but the light that was coming from it was not the light of day or even that of early dawn. Shit. It was way too early for him to be up. Why couldn’t people get into trouble during decent hours? Not that Saul was responsible for anyone’s wellbeing, but as a laborer, he would definitely be expected to clean up whatever mess was left behind. He was about to sit back into bed when the unmistakable crack of timber cut through the cold winter stillness. “Shit.” Saul muttered it aloud this time, and it took on a different meaning. That’s why he liked the word. It was versatile. Whatever had caused the crack couldn’t have been good. Already up and certain someone would be coming for him soon to have him join in whatever work was needed, he slowly put on his socks and boots, pulled his shirt on over his head, and picked his coat up off the floor where he had left it the previous evening. Stepping out the door, he looked about, and in the weak light of the moon, it was easy to see what had happened. Where last evening there had been a house, there was now just a pile of snow. Only a few pieces of splintered wood breaking the surface remained to show that it was once a building. If that wasn’t enough evidence as to what happened, the young man shoveling away the snow doggedly and shouting reassurance to those trapped within was. Saul began to move toward the house when a loud crack sounded behind him. He turned to watch the small hut he had been assigned to board in collapse in on itself. “Shit.” It was a sigh of relief and an utterance of disbelief that he should be so lucky. Turning away, he jogged over to the young man who was now beating the door with the handle of his shovel. The young man was going to wear himself out before he made any progress at the rate he was going. As he neared, Saul realized the young man was barely more than a kid, though he stood several inches taller than Saul. As well-built as the young man was, Saul was more heavily muscled, a little denser. The young man made room for others to help him attack the door, and Saul took the opportunity to step in and help. Lowering his shoulder, Saul crouched as low as he could, then drove his body forward, his legs serving as springs to cannon his full weight into the door. The collision sent a bitter shock through his muscle and into the bone, but Saul stepped back and readied himself to do it again. With a few more heavy blows and the assistance of other residents of the outpost, the door finally gave away. The young man reached in and, after a few moments, pulled a young girl out, handing her back to the nearest person. Saul cursed his luck that that person was himself. This wasn’t the kind of heavy lifting he had intended to do. Still, he had the girl in his arms, and something had to be done with her. Wandering a few strides away from the house, Saul set her down. He was about to return to see what more needed to be done when he realized the girl was shivering. She had had no time to dress fully or, for that matter, put on any shoes. Saul stared at her for several moments before an idea came to mind, one he didn’t like. He took a few more moments to resign himself to the idea and take action. Removing his coat, he lied it over the snow and lifted the girl up on to it. She was small enough that the part of the coat she wasn’t standing on was long enough for Saul to pull up and around her shoulders. He did so and returned to those gathered around the house. With a militaristic efficiency and calm, the young man was now instructing everyone to take action, and Saul realized the man was a part of the Knights. Whether he was a knight or a squire remained a mystery, but Saul recognized the unmistakable confident bearing. The Syliran Knights didn’t train those in their ranks to be humble, and the pride they often bore was well-earned. Cursing, Saul took a shovel from the hands of a young woman who looked like she had barely enough weight to put behind the shovel to break the surface of the snow and took off for a collapsed house farther out than the rest. He wasn’t sure what he was cursing but decided everything would do. He cursed the cold. He cursed his luck. He cursed the fact that he had been recognized as an excellent worker and had been sent out to the outpost to put his efficiency to better use for the week. And he cursed the girl for taking his coat. The cold was already beginning to bite deep into his fingers.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

Alex leapt off of the snow mound he’d been standing on, the sound of crunching beneath his feet at the edge of the building. The sheer adrenaline in his system pushing the cold out and keeping it at bay. Still he could see his breath pushing out of him, the clouds of white being swept away in the soft winds. Before he could move he found something tossed over his shoulders.
“Thank you…Take it…Please.” The woman he’d saved from the house had tossed a thick fur lined coat over his shoulders. Apparently it was her husbands and she wanted him to have it for saving them. He looked at her and nodded slowly and spoke in a much softer tone to her. “I’m sorry for your loss, and I’m sorry I wasn’t faster.” An edge of sorry to his voice but with a ring of determination. He’d save as many as he could. Stepping away and putting his arms through the thick coat, a little big for him but still.

He raced through the snow, clapping the man who’d taken the little girl out of his arms on the shoulder he gave him a look of thanks. With that he took off at pace towards another collapsed building in the distance. People had scattered and the loud creaks and crashes now echoed all around. Shovel in hand Alex came up to a building where a woman much younger than himself was working on digging people out. Seeing the woman crawl out he slipped his arms under hers and dragged her a little further away from the house before running and sliding across the surface of the snow and offering his hand to help pull the remaining kids out. As the first one came out with The young woman’s help Alex reached into grab a hold of the older of the two kids peering in he gave them a small reassuring smile. “It’s going to be ok. Grab hold.” With that they did and followed the motions of their younger sibling pushing through the window. A loud crack followed and the rest of the house buckled. From behind the father of the family rushed up and dropped to his knees hugging his now rescued family. “Thank you!” Alex nodded. And opened an arm towards Dove. “Wasn’t me who saved them.” The father smiled widely tears budding in the corners of his eyes. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Alex turned and ran now, another house needed his help and he couldn’t stand by for too long. He could feel the chill burning his lungs thankful for the coat now as the cold air crept through him, and a chill ran down his spine. He felt like he was back in that storm three years ago. His bare hands clenched the shovel tighter as he ran. I’m not having a repeat of the last time tragedy struck. His manner steeled as he chipped in with a group digging to pull away the snow from the door of another cottage buried up to the windows and whose roof had caved in. He just dug and dug and dug. The edge of the door now in sight He smiled and pushed.

A loud crack filled the air. Oh no. He picked up his pace the others around him too digging and digging and then the snap. Followed by a scream, brief, short, but soul piercing. He didn’t make it in time. He grit his teeth and felt his shoulders slump. Dammit! He turned, full of steel and determination. Until the other knights and squires arrived he had to be a point of strength. He had to be the one to stand tall and lead otherwise who would? No matter how it crushed him, no matter how it broke his heart every time someone lost their life. No matter how soul crushing each scream of their final moments were. No matter how it killed him inside to see families broken. He had to stand tall, and give people hope that they could be saved. Who else would if not him?

CreditMassive thanks to Fire for this awesome template.

[Saul Sticks]

Saul took the clap on the shoulder with a feigned smile of determination. If the idea of comradery wasn’t enough to sicken him, the fact he’d been dumb enough to give away his coat to some girl he didn’t know was. Saying something wouldn’t help the situation though, and neither would being irritable. If there was one thing Saul despised more than idiotic sentiments, it was inefficiency, and he refused to contribute to that. Besides, the young man was already running off to another building. Continuing on to the house he had picked out from the others, he made the journey at a swift jog. He had to do something to warm himself, but he didn’t want his exertion to sap his strength. When he made it to the telltale pile of snow and timber, he stayed at its edge. Clambering around on top of the house would only cause further shifting, further endangering the people trapped inside. If they had survived the imploding snow and timber and weren’t being crushed by it, then crushing was the least of their worries. Also, the tight quarters and the snow would actually hold their heat in. Freezing wouldn’t be the issue either. What they needed now was air. Testing the snow ahead of him with the spade, Saul found a trail of solid footing up on to the house where he estimated that a door may have stood. With a cautious step, he moved in a little more and began to dig the snow away. Steadily but with a sense of urgency, Saul dug the snow away until he was rewarded with dull sound of metal striking wood. It only took him a matter of a few more moments to clear the snow away to see what he had found. It was some part of the house but not the roof. That was all he could really determine, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was this spot would do. Raising the shovel high above his head, he drove it down as hard as he could against the wooden siding of the house. Again and again and again, he tried with no success. Lifting the shovel up one last time, he slammed it down, contracting every muscle that would help and throwing his full weight with it. The tip of the spade struck, and the unpolished handle slid through his hands, leaving several nasty splinters in the palm of his hands and one particularly ugly one in the webbing between his thumb and fingers of his left hand. “Shit.” He threw the shovel down, found the splinter with his teeth, and pulled it out. Work smart, not hard, Saul. Bending he inspected his handiwork so far. Where the shovel had struck, there were only small chips out of the wood. It wasn’t getting him anywhere. The area he had cleared was made of three planks of wood running side by side. All he needed to do was pull one of those up. If people were beneath, they’d have air. Standing, Saul picked up his shovel and set the tip in the crack between two planks. Driving his heel down against it several times, he lodged the spade into place. Leaning back and pulling the handle toward him did no good. Saul tried several powerful, short jerks, and on the last one, the plank shifted, lifting slightly. Driving the spade deeper into the crack, he pried the wood apart even more. Working his way down the plank, the nails holding it in place eventually pulled free. Saul kneeled, tossed the plank behind him, and called into the dark below him. “Anyone home?” A relieved voice responded. “Yes.” “Is anyone trapped deeper in the house?” Saul hoped not, he was already beginning to fatigue from the digging, but he would keep going if he had to. “No.” “Good. Can you get up to this space in the boards?” “Yes, but we won’t fit through.” “You don’t need to fit through. You just need to breathe fresh air. Besides, you’ll be warmer where you are.” Three faces appeared beneath him. There were smiles of gratitude on their faces that did nothing to strengthen Saul’s weary muscles or revive his flagging energy. “You’re safe for now. I’ve got to go dig others out, but I’ll send help back when people become available.” He could see an uncertainty in their faces, but he didn’t care. There was more work to be done, and he wasn’t a liar. They were safer and warmer than most everyone else at the moment.

[Dove Brown]

Dove just nodded at the father's thanks once the whole family was out. He obviously cared about his family, and that made her throat close up with envy. Her father had never treated her that way, no matter how much she craved it or how hard she worked. He probably never would. She took a deep breath of icy-cold air, then headed for the next cottage, and the next, and the next. She dug briskly, with the efficient speed of a farmer working all day on a field, and did her best not to toss the snow she shovelled anywhere where it would have to be shovelled a second time. She hunted for windows, not doors, not that it made much difference with the snow piled high under them. Her belt knife had come with her, still on her belt from yesterday, and she used it to slide through the crack between shutters and lift the latch. It became a rhythm, like the digging. Put the knife in low, slide it upward until it clinks on the metal latch, then lever until the latch unhooks. Sheath the knife, open the shutters, pull people out, move on to the next house.

At the fourth house, she found herself again digging alongside the man who'd helped at the first house. In the moonlight, he looked only a few years only than she was, but over a foot taller, and wider to match. She was stronger than she looked, and tougher, but even so people overlooked her often enough. Not that she didn't prefer being overlooked sometimes...

There were children crying inside this one, and his digging seemed more frantic than useful. "Pace yourself," she growled at him, as she tossed a shovel load sideways onto a snowdrift. Weary experience guided her words. "If you wear yourself out this fast, you'll end up losing more than you gain - there'll be more to do and you with no strength left to help." There was always more to do, always more tasks piled on small shoulders, and you couldn't, she'd learned, let an aching heart guide your pace. His borrowed coat and state of dress gave her no indication she was talking to a squire, or she'd have bitten her tongue to hold the advice back. She stooped and thrust her shovel in for another load of snow, scraping against the door he'd started to clear.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

The woman from before started digging at the next house as Alex bit pace into it, her words cut through. Pace himself? How could he pace himself? He grit his teeth and slammed the shovel into the shows the edge of it bit into the door way between the door and the resulting force slammed the shovel into it. He pushed his weight on the shovel and the door frame. Not attempting to push the snow out of the way but to break the wood holding the hinges in. Two ticks passed and with a resounding crack the wood gave way, a spill of snow pushed the door in as another small family crawled out of the wreckage. Her voice called out again. If he wore himself out? He looked her in the eye now. The bitter determination behind them said more than he ever could but still he spoke.

“If I don’t push myself and do as much as I can, I can’t say I’ve done anything.” Alex spun on his heel now knowing the family was safe darting off to the next house. An almost inhuman determination pushing him. A feeling of not duty, nor obligation. But of a deep need to help these people driving him. He clenched his teeth starting work on the next house. Pace himself? Alex stared digging through the snow and found a window at the edge of the house. The snow pressed up into it. Instead of cracking it through with the shovel he dropped to his backside and braced himself with his arms. Three hard sharp kicks and the slats of the window snapped into the house. He looked around him at the people struggling to dig people out. He reached into the house as he did helping people as best he could helping haul people through the broken windows.

He spoke in a calm tone. Commanding but not insincere. “It’s a bitter truth…We won’t reach all of them in time…But we can at least try.” He heard the sound of hoof beats behind him trudging through the snow as a group of knights rushed over to him.
“Squire Faircroft. Report. Why are you out at this time of night?” The older looking knight stared at him, Alex gave a small salute and immediately burst into report. “Ser. I awoke in the night to the sounds of loud snapping and the sight of houses collapsing in on themselves. I rushed off to help. And all due respect ser but every moment I’m telling you this is another moment I could be helping these poor folks out of this mess.” The knight smiled. Looking over his shoulder he sent a glance towards the rest of the outpost. “Squire. We’re already helping.”

Alex peered past the knight to see a good amount of knights and squires working out in the distance digging and pulling wounded from the wreckage. Alex couldn’t hold back the smile on his face. “Ser. Thank you.” The knight looked at him and gave a dry but heartfelt smile. “Thank you Squire Fiarcroft. First of us onto the scene. And you started the first relief effort. Now back to what you were doing I’ve squads to co-ordinate I leave the group here in your hands. You seem capable.” Alex saluted and span going straight back to digging. His body starting to flag but his spirit alone kept him driving on. He was visibly starting to tire form the exertion but he kept pushing.

CreditMassive thanks to Fire for this awesome template.

[Dove Brown]

Dove sighed through her teeth. "Fine," she muttered, "but if you make yourself another casualty, don't look at me for sympathy." She called after him, "Windows are faster than doors and less likely to stick," then turned away to another house to follow her own advice. She was helping a lanky man out when she heard the hoofbeats and froze, just for a moment, when the knights called to a squire and the other digger answered. She'd scolded a squire? She half expected punishment on the spot, but only the cold caught her through her shirt. She winced, and shivered, and went back to digging as much to keep warm as anything. These were her neighbours, her workmates, her colleagues... she couldn't say friends. They shared work, not experiences.

Another house cracked behind her and someone shrieked wordlessly. She turned to see two other diggers pelting for it as screams emerged from the wreckage - and kept coming, rather than being cut off. "Sayra! I left her there for safety while I came to help," one of the diggers - a solidly muscled woman - wailed. "And now..." Snow flew towards Dove and she ducked, then ran to help. The doorframe itself had broken, leaving only a narrow triangle available, and the screams came from well inside. Ah petch it, she had always survived when others didn't, why else did her father hate her so much. She set the shovel down and snapped, "I'll go, I'm smaller." She didn't wait for an answer, but slithered through the narrow hole into the remnants of the cottage. Beams and wreckage made a maze and she grazed herself more than once in the darkness. "Hey," she called softly, "where are you?"

The screams slowed, and turned into sobs, "Here, under the table. I was playing knights and castles and then..." the words trailed off into more sobs.

Dove followed the sound, and found herself crouching with one hand on splintery wood, reaching in to the little shelter formed when only one end of a table broke. She felt cloth under her fingers, and warm flesh, and her hand clamped down and pulled. The girl screamed something about a leg, then went limp. Dove swore under her breath, then drew the girl closer and ran her hand down their legs. One ankle was bent at a strange angle, but broken or not, painful or not, she wasn't about to linger here until the roof fell the rest of the way. She scooped the child up into her arms, noted with relief that Sayra was still breathing, and began to retrace her path to the door. Once there, she passed the child out, then slid out herself.

[Saul Sticks]

Saul was getting even bitterer about the cold. It was just enough to bring that deep dull ache but not enough to make his fingers go numb. Someone asked if he needed help. What he wanted was his damned coat back, but he knew better than to ask for that. He had just finished helping dig a house out and had no idea what needed to be done next. He shrugged. The other individual shrugged back, and both started to walk toward the next pile of snow. As they passed by a still standing house, it gave a long groan, its ancient wood protesting the cold as much as any arthritic bones would. Saul heard frightened voices begin to whisper inside. Running to the door, he pushed it open and shouted inside. “Get out now.” A family remained inside, and they all stared at the ceiling as if it was some great predator waiting to descend should they make any noise or sudden movements. They were petrified by fear, but Saul wasn’t about to step inside to grab them, especially with the roof making the noise it was. He held his position in the doorway. “OUT! NOW!” Two of the family members looked at him while the rest kept watch on the growling roof. What Saul was saying wasn’t getting through to them. Another long compression of timber swept through the house, and it was difficult to identify exactly where it came from. The single beam composing the door jamb Saul was leaning against cracked and bowed inwards. “Shit.” The pressure shoved him forward, but he caught himself. Bracing one leg against the opposite jamb and his back against the breaking one, he shoved out and backward as hard as he could. The timber stopped shifting, but the pressure remained. The house was old and tired, and it wanted to give up. A back corner of the roof sagged, and one of the children shrieked. Parental instincts kicking in, the mother and father grabbed their children and pulled them to the door, instructing the children to duck beneath Saul’s leg. The door jamb behind him began to twist, seeking out a way past the dam in its path, and Saul was forced to twist his back and reach an arm back in a feeble attempt to hold the wall still. A muscle in his back was pushed too hard and strained, and searing pain caused him to cry out. Still, he pushed while the mother crawled under his leg. His strength was not enough, and the steadily building exhaustion of the day overcame him. Slowly, the timber began to push inward, the colossal weight of the snow piled atop the roof too much for a man to hold, no matter how strong he was. The father slid under Saul’s leg and scrambled away. Saul twisted outward, hoping to fall clear of the falling house. Fortunately, he did. The house was already trying to collapse inward, and it continued in this fashion with one more long groan and a crash. Saul tumbled, his back spasming, and fell face first into the snow. Rolling over so the screaming muscle was immersed in snow, Saul stared at the sky and took the opportunity to curse everything and anything once more. He cursed it all silently to himself. He cursed the cold again. He cursed the girl for taking his coat. He cursed the coat for abandoning him. He cursed the young woman passing an unconscious child out of the collapsed doorway of the nearest home. Mostly just because she was there.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

In the midst of the snow and the falling and the sounds of crashing and screaming Alex paused a moment. He thought back on what he’d do in these situations. The sighs of people risking their own lives to rescue people was something. He thought back to the time in Sunberth when it was everyone for themselves. This was different. Better. He steeled his resolve further and took off running. A loud creak sounded from his left. He changed course and ran over, the snows hadn’t crushed the building yet. He kicked the door in. “Everyone out!” The command in his voice snapping them from their stupor and they ran. All managed to get out except for the daughter who as the house crumbled got her foot stuck in the rubble.

Alex started to pick through the debris, her family next to him keeping her calm the father chipping in whilst the mother comforted her. The slates of wood and the snow shifted to reveal her leg pinned beneath a thick oaken beam. He could feel his arms burning at this point but he couldn’t stop. He dug his fingers beneath along with the father. The bitter cold biting into his very being at that point. “On three. One…Two…Three!” he and the father hauled the beam up both straining with everything they had puling and groaning. The mother pulled her daughter from the wreckage and the beam slammed back into the earth. Alex heaved out a breath, hands on his knees he was drained he needed time to recharge. But he didn’t have it. A sudden clap on his back. He spun his head to the side to see the smiling face of a thick bearded man. “Thank you…For saving my daughter.”

Alex exhaled slowly smiling and nodding. When he could finally hold down a breath long enough he spoke. “It’s alright. I’m just doing what I can to save who I can.” He sighed slowly as the night broke with the glint of Syna on the horizon. Morning was upon them…had they really been at this for two bells?!

CreditMassive thanks to Fire for this awesome template.