Young Writers Society

The buffet of wind against his ears were only lessened by the occasional whip of water rushing by him and around him. He couldn't tell what was around him, or whether or not he falling feet first or head first. The only thing he knew was that he was no longer holding onto Railyn, which meant the boy was free falling somewhere around him but unconscious. Ryun was afraid to flail around him in hopes of finding Railyn, because he didn't want to accidentally crush his hand against something much harder than Railyn, like rock. A flash of light revealed Railyn who was right outside of his reach; it looked like he had started falling just a moment before Ryun did.

"Railyn!" he shouted. The water and the walls somewhere around him absorbed his words and sent them spiraling into the descent alongside them, vanishing underneath the roar of wind and wet. Did Railyn even hear him? Did Railyn even...

No, he refused to think anything more. Instead, he tried again. "Railyn, wake up!"

He heard a groan in the midst of the roar of them falling. He was alive!

"Railyn, wake u--"

His words were cut off as he submerged completely underwater, the shock of the initial impact ringing his ears. Instinctively, he held his breath and immediately started flailing, trying to get back above water. Thankfully, he, like all babes of his home town, had learned to hold his breath underwater. As a port town, it was necessary.

He surfaced above the water, gasping for air. "Railyn!" He struggled out. He didn't know if that instinct to hold your breath still happened if someone was unconscious when they went under. He searched around wildly, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the darkness, but it was useless; there just wasn't any light. Thankfully, he didn't need sight to hear Railyn struggling for air not far from him. He swam over to the source of the noise. "Railyn!" He shouted. But, as soon as the word escaped his lips, he was sucked back under the water as the current quickened, like it was tugging at him. He could tell he was moving much faster now, no longer falling but instead being led down some kind of water current. All of his focus now was on trying to keep his head above the water just long enough to gasp enough air into his body before he was taken back under.

His feet drug along the rocky floor and he flipped around, his head diving deep into the water. He closed his eys, squinting hard as his skull knocked against the rocks. The black in his vision swirled with white as he struggled to keep himself awake and his breath held as his head screamed from the impact. He no longer knew which way was up nor where the air he so desperately needed was. His one focus was keeping his mouth shut and his breath in his lungs.

Thankfully, he didn't have long to struggle, as the current slowed and the water deepened. He could see a faint blue light in a direction and swam to it. Bursting out, he gasped in breaths as his body was led down a river bathed in moonlight, with the pitter-patter of slight rain greeting him and the water around him. Railyn erupted out of the water moments after him, coughing out the liquid in his lungs as his head rolled around on his shoulders. Before Railyn could pass out once more, Ryun hooked an arm around him to keep them both above the water. Ryun glanced around, trying to make out his surroundings. While the moonlight peered through the black stormclouds to shine down on the small river they found themselves in, it did little to light up anything else.

---

However, it was just enough for Ryun to see the edge where the land met the water. Using his free hand, he paddled his way to the rocky shore and dumped Railyn onto it first before he crawled onto it first. The rocks on the shore were much smaller and less jagged, and almost a joy to be on, like the straw and down bed as compared to the wooden floor he would fall asleep on next to the fireplace on cold winter nights.

After a moment of catching his breath, Ryun wearily turned to Railyn. "Rai." He muttered out. "Railyn." A long moment before thickened the air before Railyn choked out one last trickle of water before he wheezed in a breath. He rolled onto his side, coughing out the last remnants of the water. Railyn's sleeve up to his shoulder was singed off, and there was a darkened handprint in its place.

"Ryun?" Railyn squeaked out between huge drinks of air. "What happened?"

What did happen? Ryun didn't know. All he knew was that they were now outside. The beginning of soft pattering that both shocked and caressed his cheeks. And he let that happen for a while. Just him laying there on the small rocks, allowing the rain to patter on his skin, pooling into larger droplets and then trickling away, onto and through the cracks of the rocks.

"Ryun?" Railyn said again, this time in a lower pitch. This caused him to open his eyes, wearily shielding his face from the light rain so it wouldn't get into his eyes. He looked over to Railyn. "Where are we?" Railyn asked Ryun when he saw he was looking at him.

"Somewhere near the coast." Ryun said, his voice weak, feeling like it hadn't been used for too long. He wanted to say more, like he knew it was somewhere close to the mines and mountain they were just in, down-current or something like that. Maybe they were even close to their home. But he was too exhausted to say anything more. He had just hoped that this information was conveyed to Railyn somehow, maybe from the details on his face that were highlighted from the moonlight.

"Is that our village?" Railyn asked, which prompted Ryun to sit up, glancing in the direction Railyn was looking.

There were several flickering red lights, dancing in the distance and struggling against the rain's attempts to douse them out.

"Maybe its our parents?"

The dancing lights gradually got larger, the dance of the flames wider.

Ryun stood up, struggling not to slip on the wet stone underneath his feet.

Shouts cut through the sounds of the wind and rain, then a splitting boom overpowered them all. It sounded much like a goat horn, something Ryun would hear in the mornings to signal the mass movement of the herds of sheep and cows. But this was deeper, more insidious, more menacing.

The feeling in his stomach returned, the one that that caused him to flee into the mines.

The intense sensation to run. 

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AN: Thank you for reading this chapter part! I know that this prologue is dragging along a bit, I believe the next part will be the last one. Also, I have been debating making Ryun and Railyn teenagers for the prologue. So, while I will not be going back and editing them, I am retconning them as teenagers from this point forward. Thanks! ^^