Land Down Under (KJDarKnight & Treasure)

"Come on!" Mathias called over the group "Lynna take upthe rear make sure nobody falls behind!" He added as he took off at a run.

Running was not Misty's strong suit af the heavy bag of equipment didn't help and Mathias was mich too fast for her to keep up with, no doubt she would fall behind quickly.

Already the sky was getting dark
 
Lynna trotted along, her powerful legs driving her along at a quick pace. It was a struggle not to overtake the rest of the group, and her natural competitiveness chaffed at being stuck in the back. Nope, this was not a competition! But it felt like one. She spotted Misty slowing down and came up beside her. "Can I carry something?"
 
Misty was panting already and sweat beading on her face. She spent a lot of time at computers and equipment and tended to skip out on exercising all together.

"Could you? Gotta be careful with it though" she said, carrying delicate but heavy instruments for reading the weather plus the other research equipment
 
Lynna took the bag, grunting at the weight, but she shouldered it a good deal more easily than Misty did and charged forward. "Come on, Misty! Keep up! You can't die. You have to scold Gray when we get back for faulty communications," Lynna tried to encourage Misty. In truth, she had no idea if Gray had anything to do with the weather fortune-telling machines (no, that was not what they were called, but Lynna preferred that name) but he did seem to know all things computer, so it had to be his fault somewhere. Right?
 
Misty laughed a bit between her heavy breathing as she continued to run after Mathias and the rest. With the weight lifted she was keeping up better.

Mathias was leading them directly down into the woods where most of the animals lived. The place he had just said they avoided for a reason.

Behind them they could hear the wind rushing up like a giant fan spinning to life
 
For a moment, she couldn't tell if the noise she was hearing was her own heart or the wind. She had never heard such a wild racket! It was low, roaring, and almost animalistic in nature. Her very core begged her to run, to get away, to hide, but she had to stay with Misty! She didn't even think about the forest. That fear would come later. One fear at a time.
 
Misty glanced back and wished she hadn't. It was one thing to see these stoems sweep over on a screen and another to see the real thing coming at them like a sheet of pounding rain. That give her the last burst she needed to get under cover of the trees.

"Quickly!" Mathias bellowed over the roaring wind and pounding rain that would be on them in a second.

The others were quickly climbing up into a cave, the entrance a crevice really, barely big enough for them to crawl inside
 
Lynna was the last one inside, the rain literally on her heels as she scrambled into the crevice. Her heart pounded, blood roaring in her ears as she hunkered down, gasping, her eyes wide with panic. So. This was a storm. It was well worth the scary bedtime stories. The humidity weighed down on her, making her feel as if she were trying to breathe underwater as the real water plummeted down. She couldn't look. She felt if she turned her head and looked outside, it would snap her fragile hold on sanity, and she would truly flip out.
 
Misty on the other hand stared out of the entrance, still panting from their run and eyes wide.

"Misty how long will this storm last?!" Mathias called over the sound of wind and rain and thunder starting up too.

Misty quickly pulled out her tablet again, staring at the screen a moment, she shook her head and turned it for them to see.

The map was pretty much red with a tiny green dot indicating where they were.
The little gauge along the bottom showed miles. The storm was raging for miles around them. Could be anywhere from hours to days. For now though, they were stuck in a cramped cave all together
 
Jonah snorted softly. "The animals knew something," he grumbled quietly, the closest he was coming to an "I told you so." He went to the mouth of the cave and unrolled his thick blanket used for sleeping on and carefully hung it up. It did not cover the entire mouth, but it was enough to keep out most of the rain. Then he went back and started examining the crevice they'd crammed themselves into.

Lynna kept her back to the solid rock, closing her eyes and breathing slowly. She was fine. Everything was fine. The world was not actually trying to destroy them, personally. Right?? She was absolutely fine, and she was certainly not shaking like a leaf.
 
"And what makes you an expert on the animals?" Misty asked as she put the tablet away again "Mathias has basically lived up here. What are your qualifications?"

-
A heavy hand rested on her shoulder "Lynna?" Mathias said gently "you alright?"
 
"The fact that even down under anything that's even slightly sensitive to nature runs to hide any time there's a disaster," Jonah pointed out. "If Mathias would get his head out of the wistful fog, he'd have seen that, too, instead of codling his newest disciple."

~

Lynna nearly jumped out of her skin. "What?? Yes, yes, I'm fine," she stammered, staring up at Mathias with wide eyes. Heat flushed to her cheeks as she realized she was making a fool of herself in front of her hero.
 
"But not everything did. Like Mathias said. Rabbits and birds is all that is in the grasslands normally and we saw and heard them both" Misty defended "the fact of the matter is this storm came on so suddenly not even the animals could have known any sooner than us"

--

"Relax Lynna. Just a storm. It will pass" Mathias said, sitting down beside her "we sre perfectly safe in here. A bit cramped but safe"
 
"Yeah, and where do you think they were going? We didn't see any for the last ten minutes or so, meaning they knew something was coming," Jonah argued. "If they couldn't sense the storms, they would have been wiped out almost immediately."

~~

Lynna nodded jerkily and tried to smile, although it came out more as a baring of her teeth. ""Of course we're safe! I never thought for a second we weren't safe!" she said a little too quickly and a little too hyped up.
 
Misty sighed "you're determined to be right" she noted "so there is little point to argue and anyway it doesn't matter. We are safe now and thanks be to Mathias for that." She reasoned.

"Enough arguing" the leader spoke up. "In the future you speak your concerns the moment you have them rather than wait. It never does good to to place blame and never hurts to be cautious. That's the last I'll hear of it. Goes for all"

(I can't remember what I named him...I'll go back and find his name lol)

--

Mathias kept a comforting hand on her shoulder "you know I was just a boy first Storm I ever saw. Thought it rather sounded like a monster come up from the depths of hell to eat me up" he said "my father had me clothes my eyes and find and identify the sounds that made up the roar" he closed his eyes then "the rain cutting the air and striking the ground, the tree's and the stone" he paused to pick out that sound hoping she would follow suite. Focusing the mind like this was a way to quell anxiety, distract it and calm the nerves.

"The creaking of the tree's against the wind pushing against them..you hear it?"
 
Jonah just snorted in disgust at them both and walked away. As much as one could walk away in this cave. To his mind, he wasn't arguing, he was pointing out their mistake to not repeat it. Plus, reminding them that their precious Mathias was not perfect or infallible anymore than any of the rest of them.Jonah had spoken up when he thought something was wrong, and he'd been waved away. He was still being waved away. He didn't want to be right all the time, he wanted to be heard, and he wanted to not die.

~~

Lynna closed her eyes, shifting uneasily as she did so. After a moment of trying to be still, her eyes popped open. Nope, she couldn't keep them closed. It was too suffocating! "All I hear is a roar," she said a bit flatly. She started to stand. "Why aren't we making certain nothing else has taken shelter here?"
 
Mathias sighed "look around. You can see all the walls" Mathias answered. The cave was quite small. Enough for everyone to find a spot to sit but Mathias couldn't stand up straight.

Seeing as he wasn't helping her calm down really he moved his hand away again and looked over at jonah and the rest. He had been distracted he knew but tracking the weather wasn't his job. His was keeping the top dwellers and the more vicious animals from killing anyone. Everyone played a part. He didn't say so however as Scott had said to leave it. Scott was the leader not him and he would respect that.

"May as well rest while we are here" Scott said "remember to ration your food and water. We don't know how long we will be stuck in here" Scott said as he settled down with his pack on his lap, not much room to put it anywhere else
 
Lynna nodded jerkily and paced around the cave a bit under the disguise of trying to find a place to hunker down. Jonah glared at her, and she finally sat down in another corner. She tried again to close her eyes again and listen, but it was hard to focus on hearing anything more than a roar.
 
The storm of course was not showing signs of letting up so they had to get comfortable.

"I'll take first watch. Unless you'd like to Jonah?" Mathias spoke up again, looking over at the other man
 
"I might as well rest until you're ready for me to take over," Jonah grumbled. "No point in two people watching when one screamer is enough."

"You're kind of jerky," Lynna pointed out with a huff.

Jonah snorted as he sat down in the far corner. "Sure, but it means I'm not surprised very often, and surprises get you killed."
 
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