Rialdian
The first thing he was aware of was beeing drenched to the bone. The second thing he noticed was that a small army of harpers seemed to be using his skull for a drum. The fact that the boat chose that moment to lurch to the side, throwing Rialdian against a wall, did not make his awakening any more pleasureable.

He looked frantically to where the door of his cabin had been, it seemed long gone, not even a hinge left to show that it had been there. "Rialdian?" a tired voice called through what Rialdian could now distinguish as the roar of wind and the slap of waves hitting the side of the boat. "Rialdian are you alright?"

"I'm here! I'm here!" Rialdian called back, pulling on his soaked boots and an over tunic as he stumbled towards the doorway. "What's happening?" he asked Rennia, who stood shivering, hair plastered to her head beneath her cloak. "What in Faranth's name is happening?"

"Obviously," Rennia drawled, indicating the horrific scene around her, "we're in a storm. Any other genius questions for me?"

"Don't yell!" Rialdian yelled back, "I've got the worst hangover ever to strike a poor, storm-lost harper. Where's the Captain?"

"At the helm, trying to steer us back on course and cursing everything every other word," Rennia shrugged. "C'mon, let's go meet up with everyone else. We've been waiting for you, and I decided to come after you since you didn't wake up."

"I'm glad someone cares," Rialdian drawled as they picked their way along the wrecked boat. The storm, it seemed to Rialdian, must have been happening for some time now for so much damage to have been done.

"Stop with the wise-cracks for a few minutes and help me move this peice of wood," Rennia commanded him. Rialdian bent and they shoved together, finally suceeding in moving the blocking chunk away from the door of the small room at the front of the ship. The other three harpers, looking just as drenched as he and Rennia, were huddled inside.

"Finally," Thrin exclaimed. "Rennia! You look cold! Come over here, I'll warm you up." Rialdian couldn't help a grin. Here they were in the middle of a storm and Thrin was still flirting.

"I'm plenty warm over here," Rennia shot back, glaring across the room at the drummer and moving closer to Rialdian.

Rialdian grinned and flashed a look at Thrin that said "hah, she likes me better". "So," he began, looking around at the tired ensemble. "What do we do now?"

"What can we do?" Yazin wondered, staring bleakly out a window at the churning water. "Unless the Captain's steering us off course, we'll just have to wait this out."

"If that's all we can do," Kamino asked with huge yawn, "can't we do it asleep? I'm so tired and I have the worst headache."

"Well if you hadn't downed so much wine last night," Rennia snapped, "you might not have that now would you?"

"Lighten up, Ren," Rialdian suggested. "We're all a bit scared by this storm, but there's no need to attack eachother as well."

Rennia was about to reply when the boat gave another lurch to the side. Rennia fell into Rialdian, who struggled to remain upright but ended up on the floor with Rennia in his arms. "Get off of me," Rennia snapped, shoving Rialdian aside and standing up. "Men," she scoffed.

"Next time," Rialdian told her, rubbing his leg, "I'll just let you fall."

"Hopefully," Thrin remarked, sounding a more than a little shaken, "there won't be a next time."

The chance of there being a next time, however, was looking increasingly likely. The boat was swaying back and forth so violently that Rialdian had to sit down and the rest of the harpers soon followed. "Well," Kamino piped up, "at least we'll have a good excuse for being late."

The boat gave another sudden lurch and all the harpers were thrown to one side. There was a thud on the outside of one of the walls and then more little thuds.

Rennia scooted closer to Rialdian and rested her head on his shoudler. Rialdian looked down at her for a moment before loosely wrapping his arms around her wet shoulders. "You're shivering," he observed.

Rennia smiled up at him. "You're warm."

"Rennia, Rialdian, this is no place for that sort of thing," Thrin told them. "Save it for a cabin."

"If we ever get back into cabins," Yazin added. He had drawn his knees up and had rested his head on them, looking as glum as the spirited gutarist ever did.

From out of the roar of the wind, Rialdian heard a sickening crack. The next moment, there was a loud thud on the top of their little shelter, which was usually used as a map room, judging by all the various maps in it. "Watch out!" Yazin yelled , scrambling away from where he'd been sitting and grabbing Kamino by the wrist.

Rialdian looked up in time to see what had once been a mast come crashing through the roof. Grabbing Rennia, Rialdian ran for the door. He tried to open it and found it blocked. "Thrin!" he yelled over the sounds of the storm. "Help me open this door!"

The drummer was already ramming his shoulder against the door. Thrin was a pretty muscular man, but evidently whatever was on the other side was too heavy to be moved. Rialdian rammed his own shoulder against the door, gritting his teeth against the impact. Then Kamino and Yazin were there too, all four ramming up against the door.

"Stop hurting your shoulders and come help me with this window!" Rennia yelled. She had a chair and was busy smashing it against the thick window. Rialdian took the chair from her and banged on the already weakened glass. It shattered almost the moment the chair legs touched it. "Gimme a leg up!" Rennia demanded. "I'm going out."

Yazin, however, who could have been a messenger had he not become a Harper, had already hurtled himself through the window and was outside. "It's part of the mast!" he yelled back to Rennia, who had poked her head out of the window. "I'm gonna try to move it!"

With Thrin, Rialdian, and Kamino pushing from the inside and Yazin pulling from the outside they managed to move the mast. They all exploded out onto the deck and into one big heap. No sooner had everyone gotten out than the roof gave way and the maps room was reduced to rubble.

"Is everyone out?" Rennia asked in a shaky voice, looking around at the bedraggled group of harpers. Everyone was.

Rialdian wasn't sure why he happened to turn around. He just did. And when he did, he saw the most horrifying thing he'd seen in his eighteen turns. A wave, white and foamy, reared up behind the boat, looming over them like some gigantic, writhing mountain. "WATCH OUT!" Rialdian yelled at the top of his lungs. His throat ached horribly, but that was the last thing on his mind. Someone yelled to hit the deck, and Rialdian dropped to the deck, pulling Rennia down with him.

The wave hit the boat with what felt to Rialdian like the force of an entire wing of dragons. He could feel it wash over the decks and over him. He held his breath and hoped Rennia was holding hers. He heard another crack like the one when the mast broke and tried not to think about what it had been.

Something hit him in the head on its way down the deck. He reached up and thought he felt blood. A blackness was closing in around the edges of his vision. He shook his head to try to clear it, but it kept pressing in on him. Slowly, Rialdian slipped into unconciousness. � � �
When Rialdian regainedconciousness...