Monaco Bay Weyr - Stables
As you walk into this alcove off the feeding grounds, you see a decent sized cavern that is neat and tidy for a stable. The cavern is a semi-circle and you are in the front line of the circle. That has a wall along half of it, the other half is a series of large wooden doors. In the semi-circle ther are seperate stalls. The main one in the center is for herdbeasts and such, used to feed the dragons. On the far left is a few stables for various bovines, pigs, and even a small one for chickens. However to the right is the cleanest and most finely fashioned of them all. It contains Monaco's new pride. They are the runners of Shaun and Saravs joy. They are treated like kings and always have food and water. The office of the two beastcrafters is next to this in a small alcove, containing only a desk and cabinet.
In the dead of night the peace that usually descends on the weyr is shattered - not by a flight, not by a drunken argument, but by the panicked screams of a stablehand. The darkness is broken by the flames that lick up from the stable floor, no small fire by any means but not yet completely engulfind the building. The cried of the runners and the stablehand echoes over and over throughout the Weyr as people waken to a state of frantic activity.
Panic is in the air as the flames rise to a boil, screams echo through the night and people run amok. In the chaos, Kellanar awakens to confusion. He throws back his sheets, not even bother to throw on shoes or get dressed. He pelts out of the barracks at full speed and skids to a halt in front of the blazing fire. "Faranth." He gasps trying to cattch his breath.
Chaos! Doktah is not exactly one quick to rise either, but the general air of panic and confusion sure jolts her awake in a hurry. Spotting Kellanar darting back she follows his lead, darting after him without a second thought. "What's happening?" She shouts, as if the flames aren't an answer by themselves.
Into the chaos and activity of the stablehands comes Marzoth. The dark bronze is naturally awake through of the night and there is little that escapes the gaze of his dark blood red eyes. He stands on the edge of the clearing so as not to interfere with the work but does do something. A dark cold wind, followed by the sound of cracking and burning trees emanates from his mind as he sends the following wideband message to all dragons, « Attention. This is Marzoth. You are commanded to assist. There is a fire in the stables. Summon your riders. » The message is then cut off abruptly as he shifts his focus to the watchdragons, « No one enters or leaves. » he sends privately to them. Syd arrives a few moments later looking distictly disheveled, even most so than his usual look. He is wearing a tunic and pants but no shoes. "Here we go again.." he says mostly to himself before he moves forward, "We need to get everyone out of there…and we need buckets…" he shouts.
Awoken to screams and out of the door in under a minute from the sound of the chaos, Quinn has barely had time to dress herself in anything but a gown used for sleeping and her steadfast work boots. She's already sprinting across the bowl to the scene of the fire by herself, the smoke and light already a strong indicator of where the problem was. Of course, there's probably other people around already coming out to help but the former guard has no qualms about rushing over towards the burning building with eyes already trained for anyone injured or trapped.
Fear, fire, flames? Dashiel wasn't quite sure /what/ made him wake up, when he did. By the time he got outside, though… it was very clear. For a moment, he stared. Then he started to run in that direction, catching up with the other candidates. He's in a pair of loose trousers, the ones he was sleeping in, and… then S'dny in with orders. "…and the runners…" he adds. Not that they're making themselves easy to miss, with those screams. There's Quinn heading in, and… he follows. Trained, not so much, but… he's here, that's got to count for something!
Inside the stables the billowing smoke is parted by the frantic motions of the stablehands fighting their way inside to rescue their charges - the noises that accompany it are far from pleasant as the runners scream and kick trying to escape. One breaks free, smashing through the gathering crowd and running away. Just… away. A stablehand emerges, coughing violently but leading two clearly distressed runners. Buckets are called for, buckets are brought, but slowly. So slowly. And still the fire grows
Fortunately for everyone, Doktah at least had her nightgown on for her mad dash out of the barracks. Not the most practical firefighting garment, but better than nothing. "Buckets. Buckets. Need buckets. Where can we…" Sadly, Doktah's attempt to look for buckets ended up distracting her from one of those panicked, fleeing runners headed straight for her. SMACK. Doktah gets knocked right off her feet and into nearby mud. At least it didn't look like she got trampled.
Approached by the stablehand leading runners, Quinn makes the split-second decision to shake her head and prompt the boy to carry on leading the animals away so that he himself can catch his breath. He looks exhausted after all. In these situations, there's no time to act the hero but for the woman, she's aware that her former job lends some credibility to what she does next. She glances over her shoulder to Dashiel and motions for him to stay where he is before - you guessed it - trying to sprint into the smoking stables to assist in freeing the remaining runners and stablehands.
Getting himself together, Kellanar turns to Doktah. "Dunno, just got here but it isn't good. Quick, help me get buckets." And as she moves on to do just that, he follows at her side, "Come on, don't give up. I'm sure there's some in the storage caverns."
Syd moves forward to stop the stablehand from going back in if he can, "You. You are done. Back off and see the healers…" which just leads to his next statement, "Someone get all of the healers that are available here now!" There likely will be injuries, which oddly enough he sees when Doktah gets knocked over, "Someone tend to her…" he says as he looks back at the fire and makes another call, "I want everyone out of the stables. Better we lose the runners than lives." He shouts, "Everyone out. Form a line. We are going to use buckets to put this fire out. Where is Flame wing?" Marzoth on cue sends a message to all dragons in flame wing, « If you are not already on your way you need to be now. »
"Ow." Is Doktah's weak reply. She doesn't seem to be getting up from the mud straight away. At least she's well enough to talk. "There's wings on Flame now? How bad is this fire?" Oh dear.
Buckets! Barrels! More people arrive carrying, rolling, and transporting all manner of supplies in any way they're capable of - there's even one improvised broomstick and bucket contraption that allows someone to carry two full buckets at once. The first new bucket of water lands with a hiss and a faint cheer from the back of the crowd, but it's not enough by any stretch of the imagination.
Kellanar hurries over to give Doktah a hand, "Are you overly hurt? Csm you stand? He glances around wildly to try and catch eyes with someone and instead kneels down next to her, fussing. But as he is about to attend to her wounds, something catches his eye. Someone tossing a full bucket of water, the bucket included, into the fire. "Idiot! You're not suposed to throw the bucket too! We need that to put the fire out!"
Inside the stables, the thick black smoke conceals anything from Quinn's view. With a hand covering her mouth and nose, and her eyes stinging from the burning debris around her, the young woman staggers slightly as she's knocked into by something or someone and turns, trying to reach out to grab whoever it is. Being able to lead someone out would be something at least. Despite the sound of cracking wood and roaring flame, Quinn is still able to speak. "Come.. With me.."
Dashiel hesitates long enough for that fleeing runner to cross his path and disrupt things… which delays him enough that the buckets have arrived. A glance back and forth, a glare at nobody in particular, and he steps back to start passing buckets. Those people throwing need something to throw, right? He can dip and pass faster than they can find a place to hurl that water. And scowl at nobody in particular as he does!
Doktah takes Kellanar's hand, which provides enough support to help her wobble back to her feet. She looks pretty unsteady, though some of that might be from the fact that she's somewhat mud-covered now. "Not sure."She replies, a little dazed.
There is some semblance of order in the chaos now, but things could still go sideways, "Is everyone out?" Sydney shouts into the stables. With all the smoke inside its so very difficult to tell. He glances back toward the crowd, "We need someone to go in and make a quick sweep to make sure all the people are out before they are overcome with smoke…" Because at that point the situation would be very dire indeed.
More and more people arrive, the vast majority of the weyr awake and arriving now, even dragons have been called into service hauling buckets of water though the construction of the area makes is almost impossible for them to dump the buckets themselves - which really would have made things far easier for everyone. A stablehand stumbles out of the fire, his left sleeve on fire, and a chicken under his right arm. As he drops to the ground the chicken flutters off towards the main bowl.
"Stay close to me, I'll catch you if you fall. Lean on me if you need to, I'll help you walk. Perhaps you should take it easy until someone can have a proper look at you." Worrying about his friend, Kell takes a brief pause to assess the situation to see where he might be needed most. Though, he can't help but keep an eye on the man who threw the bucket into the fire, just to make sure he's not doing anything more silly.
Doktah takes Kell up on his offer, leaning on him to try to trudge away from the chaos. But she stops, something catching her eye. "Henhouse." Did she hit her head? Is she just spouting random phrases? No, she's actually pointing at the henhouse. There's someone there. Or someone's leg, at least, visible behind the structure. It's not moving.
Quinn fumbles more as the sound of a body hits the floor, turning to crouch and grope blindly along the ground until she feels the cloth of a stablehand's tunic beneath her fingertips. Hearing a voice or perhaps some ragged breathing, Quinn leans in to inspect the person she'd found and to ensure they were concious. "Aran?" She asks suddenly, feeling a hand grabbing at her own clothes as part of the stablehand's face comes into view - one that she recognised. "H-hold on.." She quickly replies, shielding her mouth as she starts to cough from the smoke engulfing her. With both arms she helps grab the stablehand and pulls him upright, trying to slip his arm about her shoulder so that she can lead him to safety.
Dashiel gets a bit splashed, but honestly, that's probably good. It makes him less likely to catch on fire if one of those leaping tongues of flame decides to come after him. As he works, that frown is reducing to just a blank expression. Take buckets as they come to him, dunk them in water from a barrel, pass them back to hands that will take them to the flames. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. The fire's still burning, so there's still a need for that water…
S'dny moves forward to grab one of the water filled buckets and then moves to dump the water on the sleeve of the person who collapsed carrying out the chicken, "We need to get someone over here to take this one to the infirmary. R'en is going to be busy this morning." Along with all the other healers in the weyr most likely. He returns his focus to the entrance of the stable, "Is there anyone left in there?" he shouts again.
A whoosh is followed by a sudden spurt of flame as something collapses within the stable. Though the bucket chain is getting faster and more adept it's pretty clear that anything still in there is going to be rather fried and no amount of water will be able to save the interior - though it can at least stop things from spreading. Panic is slowly giving way so a sort of resigned sadness but nobody is willing to give up yet.
"Henhouse?" Kellanar echos, following Doktah's finger and curses under his breath. "Stay here, I'll go see if there's anything I can do to help." And the youth is off towards the henhouse, panting as he comes to a stop. "Hello? Is anyone there?" They may not be able to respond, but he at least wants to let someone know he is around if someone were to be there.
Doktah continues to point and nod, urging Kellanar to go take a closer look at the person behind the henhouse. She doesn't seem to be in any condition to directly assist in the rescuing herself, so she just sort of wobbles.
With Aran leaning on her and wooden beams rapidly collapsing around them, Quinn coughs loudly as she starts to navigate her way back through the burning stables, flames thick on each side as the pair struggle to get towards the entrance. Weaving around burning debris and having to climb over some of the smouldering wreckage, the smoke finally gives way to clean air and the crowd of people set about trying to douse the burning building. It's there that Quinn finally forces herself forwards with the stablehand slumped over her and then drops to the ground with him, coughing as the adrenaline from such an exertion finally gives way.
Thunk. That's the bottom of the barrel, and for a moment Dashiel doesn't quite get it. There's no more water? Well, not much of it, anyhow. Not in this barrel. He picks up the nearly-empty container and steps forward to fling the remaining almost-a-bucket worth of it towards the flames before dragging it back out of reach of flying embers. That done… there are other barrels, but ahead of him there's an emerging Quinn and… someone. He's near enough and now he /does/ run toward them, crouching down with a cough as he gets nearer the smoke. "Come on…" This is still too close to comfort, even if it's out of the worst of the fire!
Upon seeing people emerge from the stable Syd moves forward to offer his assistance to Quinn in helping with the individual that she is assisting, "Is there anyone left inside the building?" Syd asks, since she'd be the most likely person to know. Though at this point its looking pretty bad for any living thing left in there. Shortly thereafter he gratefully accepts the assistance of Dashiel, who he will let take over his spot so he can go back to overseeing everything, "Get them both to a healer…" he says to Dashiel.
Another gout of flame erupts from the stables as another part collapses, showers of sparks dancing away across the ground. Somewhere someone screams, then apologises - they got a fright. A fright. Someone seems to find it almost comical, a faint breath of a chuckle drifting across from the rear of the gathered masses.
"I can't.. Be certain.." Quinn splutters between coughs, ensuring that Aran is helped up by Dashiel, and moved further away from the fire, before grabbing Syd's arm (if he offered it) to assist in pulling herself up. She's covered in soot and ash and her white gown is stained black, along with her skin and once-blonde hair. Able to stand now that she's had a moment to actually breathe again, the woman coughs again and follows after the other candidate with Aran, who has practically passed out at this point. "Where's.. The healer.. ?"
Upon reaching the Henhouse, Kellanar finds the person in question and he kneels down, placing his fingers upon the man's neck, checking a pulse. "I've got someone here, unconcious!" Kellanar calls out to whomever is around, moving to lift the man and settle him against his shoulder, pausing. It hits him. "How'd you get over here, why are you unconcious. There is no fire here." The whole thing reeks of suspicion, "Rider! I've a fishy guy here.He m ight've fainted due to smoke inhilation but may require questioning!"
Dashiel will at least /attempt/ to take Aran from Quinn. "You need a chance to breathe. Come on." But, he's not going to waste much time arguing here in the haze of smoke and crackle of flames, leading toward the healers who've shown up on site for first aid.
S'dny indeed had offered his arm to Quinn to help her get up, "You did good…" he responds, though hearing her uncertainty about anyone being left in there is disconcerting. It is no longer safe to go in at this point anyway, "No one else goes in. We are going to keep working till the fire is out. We don't need this spreading anywhere else…" With Aran and Quinn looking to have help he'll move off toward Kellanar's shouts, "Get them to a healer. We can't get anything out of someone who is unconcious.." Ever suspcious Marzoth continues to hang back. When he hears that someone may know something he moves away and calls out into the forest. Soon enough a bronze firelizard appears and after a short communication the little bronze lizard scurries off to 'watch' this unconcious individual. It's good to have minions.
It was something of a lucky fluke that Doktah was able to provide any sort of assistance at all in her wobbly state. It certainly doesn't seem like she's going to be offering much further assistance. She wobbles in a direction more or less away from the flames. "Think I need to lay down…"
Kellanar nods to S'dny, lifting his fingers in salute. "Right, let's get you to the healers." Kellanar mumbles quietly as he tug's the mans hand about his neck and starts escorting him to the healers, eyes flickering upwards as the bronze firelizard starts flitting above. Once the man is left. Kellanar returns to the scene of the crime. "What a mess."
Quinn is finally led with Aran over to the healers by Dashiel, giving the younger candidate a grateful nod as she's seated to one side and tended to. Her eyes briefly follow Kellanar lifting Aran and hurrying him indoors, frowning in concern. Once he's out of sight she looks back to the burning wreckage and winces, raising her hand to her mouth again in order to clear her lungs with a strong cough. "Good.. work." She smiles to Dashiel, nodding to the stables. "You alright.. ?"
At least they're to the healers. Dashiel breathes out with a long sigh, with a faint trace of smile followed by a nod to Quinn - well, the start of one. He stops in the middle of the motion, with a squinch around his eyes as he tries to look more closely out past her, where Kellanar's motion just drew his attention again. Is that the reflections from the fire, or… no. No it is not. "Shells," escapes under his breath, and then… he abandons them with the healers as he runs back toward that henhouse, to where there's a young man - more a kid, really - lying unconscious. "Kell!" he shouts as he passes the other candidate, with a 'come on' gesture. Help? Sure, he won't say no!
Hearing his name, Kellanar turns towards Dashiel, "Coming!" The youth runs over towards the other candidate, skidding to a stop. "So there's another one here, shells." He curses quietly, "here, help me, I'll help carry him back."
S'dny continues to oversee the putting out of this fire, though its likely to take a good long while till its completely out. After that a firewatch will have to be set to make sure there are no flare ups that cause the fire to spread. Then will be the nasty business of looking through the wreckage to see just what damage was done or if any lives were lost.
With the excitement (mostly) over, it's cleanup that people turn their attentions to. The crowd begins to drift off in ones and twos as they see that there's little more they can do to help, healers move amongst small groups of people, and the stables smoulder and crackle but no longer are the roaring inferno that once threatened.
Dashiel nods to Kellanar, with a grim look as he adds, "That we found…" How many more might be lost in the chaos here? But, at least they've found this one. He nods again, sliding one arm under the boy's shoulders, the other under his legs so that the two of him can carry him. The young man isn't very sooty-looking, but he's definitely unconscious, and the two of them take him toward the nearest healer.
As Kellanar helps Dashiel stand the youth up, he pauses. "It looks like he was hit pretty hard on the head. I wonder if that other guy and him were fighting or something. Better let the healers know as well as the riders once we see him off safely."
Doktah doesn't seem to have any broken bones or life threatening injuries, so the healers running triage quickly conclude that she isn't the one most at risk here. It's back to the barracks for rest for her. And to get some of that mud off.
With everything looking to be in good order Syd will make his way away from the center of activity and move off toward the main clearing. He's going to have to go home and get some clean clothes and then off to the office to find Vanessa if he can, or at the very least on of the other gold riders. There is going to be a great deal to discuss and pick through.
"Yeah," Dashiel says to Kellanar. "I don't know /what/ happened… but /something/ is definitely going on here." He glances back to the char and smolder of the stables, then back. "We should…" Oh, but S'dny's already walking away. So much for telling him about this! At least, right now. Still. "We should tell someone. Do you know who's investigating?"
Kellanar shakes his head as he walks alongside Dashiel, shouldering the lad's weight. "Something happened. Fires just don't suddenly happen. I'm not sure who is investigating." He pauses as the bronzerider heads off, "I am sure they'll figure it all out, it's mighty suspicious any way you look at it. I am just glad we managed to help if only a little bit." he glances over his shoulder, "I hope no one burned alive. That'd be a horrible death. Do you think everyone got out okay?"
"Hmm. Well… we can find out," Dashiel says to Kellanar, and nods. "I mean, they do if there's lightning or something, but…" He looks up to the night sky and the stars through the smoke, and frowns… which only deepens at Kell's question. "I don't know." There's a healer, and the boy's handed off with a gesture to the back of his head a few quiet words that include a mention, "Someone'll want to talk to him, I think." So… don't let him go wandering off? Though… hmm. He glances to Kellanar. "You think maybe one of us should… stick around? Make sure the evidence doesn't, uh… walk?" A glance between the other fellow Kell found, and this one.
Kellanar settles the youth with the healer with a brief explanation of how they found the youth. "I can stick around if you want. I'm feeling too…shocked now to go back to sleep. And I'll feel better knowing I can help the healers tend to those who are hurt." His eyes flicker over the wounded as the healers go about their business tending to wounds. "But I am sure they aren't slipping off with everyone on high alert."
Dashiel nods. "Okay. I just… I'll feel better if someone's paying attention to /that/ instead of just whoever's…" And then, with suitable dramatic timing, someone who got caught in the fire starts coughing loudly next to them. Dash smiles wryly. "Yeah, like that. I'll go see if I can find someone in charge." If he walks into the big offices and looks around, he's bound to find /someone/ responsible, right? It's like a plan! And he may even be able to get a message across before he gets tossed out.