Dauntless: Moirai's Course

Chapter 1.3: Upheaval

Aiko suddenly awoke to the sound of an unknown explosion off in the distance. At first she did not know what to make of the unwanted alarm, but any theories she had were quickly halted when she saw her mother, who frantically tried to piece herself together. Aiko sat up placing her feet on the ground and instantly could feel it rumbling beneath her feet. As shadows of people streaked across their tent walls, Aiko picked up the stone she held last night, and quickly began pulling herself together as well.

Aiko, with her tired body, forced herself to move and asked her mother what was going on, but Naomi only respond with a tremble in her voice saying, "I-I don't k-know, honey, b-but we need to find your father, NOW."

It did not take long for Naomi and her duaghter to finally emerge from their tent, but one thing they did not think of was the morning light. The sun relentlessly shined down and temporarily blinded them both. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust but they soon could see multiple men rushing towards the dig site. As Naomi's eyes adjusted more she could see a large black cloud appearing above the tree line. Naomi yelled for her husband, but no answer came, making her worry even more.

Richard had been in complicated situations in the past that raised some concerns for Naomi. However, fact that he did not come back to bed the night before which was also accompanied with the rumbling of the ground, brought on new fears. She clenched Aiko's hand and ran to the dig site yelling for someone to give her an answer, but none of the workers seemed interested in helping them.

Naomi could not help but have a hundred reasons flood her mind as to why her husband was missing. She pulled Aiko behind her, who had high hopes in her heart that everything would be okay. Amidst all the chaos, Naomi and Aiko weaved through the mass of panicked workers' that were coming and going from the dig site. The workers uncoordinated attempt to control the situation unknowingly cuased a bottlenecking to the dig sites elevator.

Naomi weaved around a man going to slow for her, but did not realize that her sudden change put Aiko on a collision path with a woman running to opposite direction. This woman collided with Aiko knocking both of them to the floor forcing her to lose her grip of her mother's hand and Naomi disappeared into the crowd. Aiko quickly sat up to see a woman wearing black jeans and a buttoned-up black shirt to match. She was covered in dust as her short brown hair draped partly over her face obscuring Aiko from seeing her entirely. However, from the one visible eye, she could see it was an unusual color of gray.

The woman furrowed her brow, squinted at Aiko with irritation, and quickly stood up, then disappeared from her sight. A moment later, Naomi reappeared, finding her daughter on the ground, confused. She grabbed her daughter's hand, helped her to her feet and asked if she was ok. Aiko gave her a small nod, firmly grasped her mother's hand once again, and continued running, all the while wondering who the mysterious woman was. She glanced back to see if she could find the woman, but soon quickly returned her attention to their destination.

They finally broke through the line of men surrounding the elevator shaft to the temple and could see that the thick could of smoke was spewing from the shaft. Most of the workers around them chattered amongst themselves in their native tongue, but not one of them wanted to step forward to give assistance. Naomi abruptly approached one of the men for an explanation, but he held out his hands, keeping her from moving forward.

Without Lou or her husband to translate, they were unintentionally kept in the dark which frustrated Naomi but made Aiko even more worried. It was clear that something had happened below and the one thing that Naomi thought was that another cave-in must have happened. Aiko let go of her mother's hand, dropped to her knees, and crawled through the men's legs. She emerged from the line and rushed to the elevator where she was stopped by three men waiting for the elevator to return. A stream of black smoke still trailed out of the shaft and was accompanied by random rumblings beneath their feet. Her only thought now was the well-being of her father. The sound of the elevator coming to the surface gave Aiko hope that she would see her father one more time.