The strong, healthy wailing of the two newborn twins could be heard by everyone huddled on the ship even above the howl of the wind and the pelting of hail on the deck. The midwife wrapped the two boys in hides and gave them to their mother, the wife of one of the sailors, who was looking deathly pail.
"Two beautiful boys," she murmurred, holding them close. Even her voice was weak, the midwife noticed glumly. She had lost too much blood and would probably not survive the storm.
Without warning, the ship gave a sudden jolt, hurling everyone in the small cabin to one side. The babes wailed louder and for a moment the midwife as afraid that one of them would fly out of their mother's arms and and hit a wall. Even in her weak condidtion, the young mother had the strength to keep both babes in her arms, and they both survived their first big wave.
As the night wore on, the storm got worse and worse, and so did the condidtion of the mother. She continued to lose blood and when the midwife changed the red-dyed sheets the woman barely even acknowledged that she was moved.
Another wave hit the side of the boat, this one stronger than any of the others. Without the strength to keep herself in one place, the mother, clutching her babes, was thrown hard against a wall. Her head hit it with a sickening crack and she slumped to the floor.
Knowing already the condition of the mother, the midwife crawled, for the boat was still rocking too hard for her to keep her balance, over to where the babes were still clutched in their mother's arms. She found both still very much alive and, removing their dead mother's arms, pulled them closer to her, hoping she could protect them from the storm.
At some point during the night, the midwife dozed off. When she awoke, the ship was rocking so hard she could barely crawl to the door of the cabin. As she crawled into the next cabin, where the dead woman's husband and a few of his sailor friends were huddled, the ship seemed to jump out of the water before a the sound of something grinding and then a loud crack pierced the air.
Water rushed into the boat seemingly from all sides. People were in the corridors, running in all directions in panic and confusion. The midwife struggled to her feet so that she would not be trampled and then started running for the deck, where she knew she would be able to find a small boat. To her dismay, the boat was already crowded with people. She would not make it off the ship.
"Someone take these babes!" she yelled desperately to the women and children crowded into the boat. Two women, one the wife of a Lord Holder and one the wife of a transport ship's Captain, took the babes from her just as the boat was lowered off the ship.
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Because they were adopted by two very different people, Larotir and Casan grew up very diffrently. Read their separate stories (set 18 turns after they were separated) which led up to their being Searched at the same time.