When the Last One Falls

[Feena_bronze_rider]

The trip would be hard, and long. Kuma had held her child tight against her through the ship ride, she wouldn't give in to her husband and ride the great dragon that flew above them. Kuma had given up her place in harper hall to marry a sea holder, Uman, She had loved her husband so much, that she wouldn't even leave his side when the plague hit their hold. The women of the hold told her that she was risking everything, her child (who was weak as it was), her fellow holders, but she didn't care. She was going to protect him, And Crimen. Crimen was a short girl with long wavy blonde hair and dazzling green eyes.
A hearder passing through had told Kuma to take special care of Crimen, for girls with eyes like hers were said to have the spirits of the majestic little Fire lizards that color.
And as far as Kuma had seen in the girls personality she seemed to fit the wives tale quite well, feisty and free spirited.
When rumor of thread reached the ears of Uman and Kuma they didn't believe it. But soon, when the riders began to summon one another about, and the searches were now becoming more and more far stretched they soon believed it. It angered Uman to think that no one else believed the rides, and people even began to replace the metal shutters on their windows for soft woven curtains. He knew he had to do something, but he didn't know what.
Then, he heard the Queen at Ista had produced a small Clutch, with hardly any bronzes and a small queen egg.
Uman called one of his Rider friends to his aid, and together they found an abandoned Weyr and hold on the Southern Continent, then they stole the queen egg! They used the riders Green to nurture the eggs they stole from other weyrs, and then found Holders for the Weyr. The Dragon had taken most of the people to hold and Weyr, but a few wished to go by Sea.
Kuma didn't believe at all what her husband was doing was right, but all she could do is watch, and he was doing what he thought was right.



Add more later... Brain doesn't want to work.

[Feena_bronze_rider]

The sun rose over the top of the waves. The voyage was now coming to an end.
"Supplies are running short!" A sailor shouted to the captain.
Kuma grew uneasy hearing this, they'd still a a seven day left to travel.
Crimen slept peacefully in her bunk, The eleven turn girl was balled up in a corner rocked by the waves. Kuma remembered the trips she'd taken with her family on the sea. She'd loved it, perhaps that is why she didn't go a dragon back to the weyr?
Calmly she made her way up to the deck to see about things.
"Lady Kuma!" The cabin boy saluted as she opened the door from the cabin.
"Malle!!" The captain called to the cabin boy.
"Yes sir?" The cabin boy replied.
"Shards boy, I told you to get me a mug of Klah!"
"I'll get it sir!" Malle informed.
Kuma smiled weakly and let the boy pass.
"Ah, the lady Holder, it is kind of you to grace our deck." The captain laughed when he saw the woman.
"I over heard one of the men, say that the supplies are running short." She informed.
"Ah, yes, we've enough for another day or two." The captain said with a pleased voice.
"But we've a seven day until we arrive!" She went on. "And with you drinking all the Klah and wine we've got the supplies will last no longer than a day!"
The captain shrugged an apology and went on to shouting orders to his men.

Below Crimen had awaken to the bustling around of the Cabin boy in the next room.
"Malle?" She called out.
"Hello, Crimen." She replied.
Crimen slid out of the bed and wrapped the sleeping furs around her.
"Oh, Did I wake you?" He said as she entered the galley.
"Only a little." She giggled.
Crimen and malle had been very close at Half Circle.
Malle's father was a brown rider at Benden and his mother was a green rider, they'd sent Malle to be fostered by His mothers sister, Kuma.
When Uman had caught the plague Malle was turned away from the weyr.
They'd nothing to do with him anymore. He was left dazed for months, an entire turn had gone by and he still waited for the day his parents would return.
He was now fifteen and his fostering time was up, they'd still not come for him, so he joined the crew of the Gabriela.

[Feena_bronze_rider]

"How could I only wake you up a little?" Asked Malle.
"I woke my self up the rest!" Crimen laughed.
Malle finished making the Klah and went above deck with Crimen.
"Mama!" Crimen said running to her mothers side.
"Hello my little flit!" She said stroking her daughters long blonde hair.
The days were long, and the sea was hard. Over the last few days The crew members began to get sick, and several of them died.
Malle came down with scurvy and the first mate did as-well. The first mate died of it with in two days, Malle died of it with the three.
Kuma couldn't bare to lay the boy to rest with out ever knowing his parents would never return. But she went out on the sea and sang their dirge, then the Captain sent them to the bottom of the choppy green sea.
Crimmen wept as the only friends he'd ever known sank down into the sea.
"Come back!" She screamed. "Come back!"
Kuma couldn't bear to think of her child suffering. She couldn't bear to think of what she'd done by refusing her husbands request of going dragon back. She'd not thought anything about it, she'd not know this would happen.
Kuma lay with her child who'd cried her self into a fever in the bunk.
"Crimmen, please." She said to the child. "Please pull through this!"
The seven-days went by. The food dwindled down, soon the crew began to come down with disease themselves. They said as far away from the lady holder and her daughter as they could. They didn't want to give them the sickness. But it couldn't be help.

"Land ho!" called an officer from the crow's nest.
"How far?" The captain asked.
"I'd say not far, a half days trip!" The man called back down.
"Good!" The captain said tying back his black hair.

It was a long half days journey, The sweltering sun beat down on those who worked on deck, and the heat and stink in the cabin's was unbearable. Sick men wailed at the tossing of the boat on the waves. Kuma and another man were the only one's that could take care of them.
Crimmen was scared out of her mind when she heard the men. She her self was sick, but she didn't make a sound. Little did she know, that was what her mother wanted, her to wail and scream, anything to know her child wasn't slipping off into death.

"We're going to moor, in this cove." The captain told what was left of the cove as they began to lower the mast.
"Yes sir!" The called back.
Kuma made her way on to the deck. Her only help had come down with sickness the night before. He'd not been as well as he though, and he'd been going down hill fast.
"How long will the trip on land be?" She asked when she spotted the captain.
"A seven day, if we use the runner beast." he informed.
"You had what live stock we brought slaughtered for food!" Kuma hissed.
"I did, didn't i?" He replied.
"What will we do? That's more than doubled the time, and we've the sick to carry." She said as her throat began to get tight.
"M'lady--"
"Just shut up!" Kuma shouted breaking off into a sob.

post more later!