He was making his return patrol, back eastwards at a quick pace.
The deep, grey and black sky blocked out the golden orange of the sun that usually baked the cayon wolves on the daily.
But not on this day.
No.
He sprinted, joyful of the breeze that accompanied the dullness.
Then the rain started, which slowed him a bit. The big blobs of water smacked him in the face, between his eyes and running into his ears, and soon enough he was drenched and his legs were clumped with wet sand and clay.
He made his way uphill, towards the pass. Hoping to wind through the passage before it got too deep.
He trotted through the walls of the canyon, letting the rising water wash the clumps from his legs. This may not be as good idea as he first thought, but he still needed to finish his patrol.
That was when he heard the gurgling.
Perhaps a new spring had been ignited.
Then the rushing echoes around him, making him stop dead.
No, it wasn't the sound of him splashing through the now knee deep water. How had it risen so quickly?!
He looked up to spot the water slosh around the corner, rising up the edge of the canyon wall with force, then the rest of the wave followed, pulsing and carring everything from further up the mountain towards him.
Fuck.
Derg turned, a yelp of panic and he tried to leap away through the water, unable to run, his heart pounding his eyes showing the whites of his eyes as the water engulfed him from behind and carried him of, pushing his head under and smothering him in clay and mud.
Derg awoke, caked in wet clay, deposited on the ground with the rest of the sediment around him.
The pass yearned before him. The flood had dissipated as it reached the open ground and was swallowed. From sky to ground.
He lay there, panting and coughing for a bit.
Exhausted from his struggles.
The White Witch herself had been near Healer's Pass.
Too close, perhaps.
Nyra continued through, not minding the rising water.
Until she noticed....
It was rising.
Rising really, really fucking fast.
The earth rumbled as flooding water roared like a leviathan, towering over her already-massive frame like a mountain. She pinned her ears to her skull, whipped around, and ran for her life.
She sprinted, even hastily trying to climb up the canyon walls to escape the wrath of the water, but just as she was getting a grip to leap out of the way, the air was blasted out of her as the water slammed into her, over her head, sending her rolling and twisting, churning in the mucky liquid until open ground allowed the water to rush out and dissipate.
Nyra rolled nastily and landed within metres to
@Derg , coughing and heaving for breath, trembling with cold, shock, and fear.
"What the FUCK was that?!" Nyra gasped, shakily attempting to sit up before she fell back down.
He panted softly.
What the fuck. The only three words the rolled through his head.
Empty thoughts.
A voice. Very close and seemed to be an embodiment of what his brain was screaming.
He lifted his head, seeing an equally bedraggled and rust painted wolf.
Nyra. She was there too?
Well fuckin obviously Derg, wake up.
He groaned, flopping his head back down.
Everything hurt. Sore, aching. His body was bruised all over.
He licked his nose, getting a taste of clay and blood. Shit, where was he bleeding from? Mouth? Nose? Head?
He sat up again, looking to Nyra, "I need Dove or someone," he just managed to convey. He was exhausted.
Luckily for Derg Baptiste had been caught smack in the middle of the rush of water. It had been his own fault, the medicine...all the medicine. He only wanted to grab as much as he could uproot in the seconds he figured he had to spare but he chose wrong. The water came roaring and he wasn't fast enough to escape being swept up and slammed repeatedly against the canyon walls and ground before the water flowed away and left him laying soaked against the wall boulder he'd been slammed into and vomiting up water till he passed out.
It was the she wolf's exclamation that roused him. Senses dull he flopped onto his belly and stared around emerald eyes rolling until he spotted Derg also looking fucked up. The name Dove was tossed out. A healer. "that probably just swept out all my fresh supplies" he said stating the herbs as his...as they were. He'd been the first healer in the territory and was increasingly salty about some pretty face swooping in and taking over. He had a pretty face too...and years of knowledge. "I hid some all over the territory. There's some places on high ground. I'm not sure I can get up right now but if you can fetch them ma'am?" and then he gave a description of where they were hidden and the herbs to use for any cuts and scrapes and bruises they'd all gotten. He could feel a sharp pain in his left hind leg and he'd been smacked around enough to know that the blood in the air didn't just come from Derg. "Are you okay?" he asked the both of them though out of politeness seeing as he asked her to help them both out it was directed at the she wolf first.
Nyra's vision blurred in and out for a few moments before she registered a new face. He smelled like herbs, so..a healer, she mused quietly.
The titaness listened to Baptiste's words, mentally noting his descriptions of where he had stashes of plants around the territory.
And a question, to follow.
Nyra let out a wry, tired chuckle and heaved herself up on her feet "A little worse for wear, but I'll be alright." She herself was pretty battered, but she seemed to have been lucky enough to miss most of the smacks these two had been dealt. "Name's Nyra by the way, while we have a moment."
The titaness quirked a small smile. She had offered her name out of manners and habit, not really necessity. But, who knew? Her name might be a necessary detail in the future.
He pushed himself up, legs quaking.
Pain rushing through his ribs.
He was just bruised. Hopefully.
He swallowed, then coughed up a mouthful of water.
He could feel and taste the thick clay in his mouth. They were lucky to be alive...but who else was in the pass that he didn't know about?
He pushed himself up, ears ringing, blood running from a gash on his head. He needed to know.
He knew she was Nyra, and she'd know he was Derg.
"There may be others," he briefly explained, starting into a wobbly, stumbling trot towards the pass still leaking water.
Closing up
Derg staggered towards the pass, looking at the mass of wed sand and clay.
He didn't fancy it really. They'd all been spat out, so surely any others would have been too.
He needed his own help first and didn't feel too good.
He nodded, Nyra taking the lead back to Warriors Heart and Baptise moving toff to find some herbs.