10
Ianto stood in the darkness outside the longhouse, his eyes closed as he stood facing the township.
Ianto could see the water, a huge wall of it bearing down on the town and he felt the desperation and fear of those in the line of fire, so to speak. What to do… what to do.
There was only one thing to do.
Ianto ran for the edge of the village and Jack did not register that he was moving until he was gone. He rose and looked around "Where's Ianto?"
"I don't know" Paul looked around with surprise.
"He is watching" Tuck said as he motioned Jack to a warm looking pile of bedding "you know him, he will not rest until the dawn light shows the damage."
Jack sighed and lay with the little grizzly child in his arms and then rolled him into the bedding as he agreed.
Ianto was doing his own thing.
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..
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The doors of the store were propped open as the old man shuffled out into the street, the outside road and store fronts full of noise and bluster as more than one person demanded the bloody fire alarm that woke them all be turned off.
"That ain't a fire!" the old man said with horror "That be the dam!"
Then Ianto was there beside him "Do not stand there, get out. Go to high ground, the mountain waits!"
The old man turning to ask him where he had come from but he was staring at air, Ianto not there at all.
Just a breeze from the mountain that ruffled his wisps of white hair.
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..
Up in the nursery Elma Mercer was struggling to calm the crying baby as the faint blare of the alarm woke the household, her husband on the phone screaming at whoever would listen that he had kids asleep damn it.
Right.
Whatever person in the household the alarm didn't wake, he sure did.
He jiggled the baby in her arms as she walked over to her nurse's uniform that was hung for her next shift and she checked the time on the little nurse's watch attached to the tunic.
"Elma. The dam is going love, get your little ones up the mountain while you can" She swung with shock as those familiar Welsh tones filed the room only to find herself alone. Strangely… the faint scent of lavender filled in the air as the voice (which reminded her so much of the poor woman she had home-visited until her end) faded away.
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.
People came in groups, meeting along the way on the old goat paths and the small groups grew until there were ten, fifteen at a time being helped up the mountain by those people they feared.
Finally the rumble grew loud enough that the windows in the town rattled, hanging flowers in the rows of the walkways swung as the darkness seemed to devour the town, the lights long since flickered out as the dam gave up its guts.
Ianto urged them on. Waiting with his hand outstretched to help them up the steepest part of the gradient. Everyone recognized him, everyone felt a spark of relief and strangely comfort with his touch that left them feeling instantly comforted as they moved on without looking back at their town as it slowly prepared for war.
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In the long house there was silence as everyone listened to the faint sound of the flood as the tidal wave tore through the south end of the town like a freight train through a snow drift, at least half the buildings wiped off the face of the earth as the beast rolled through, devouring all in its path.
"Let's all be calm" Ianto said loudly, pulling everyone to him as he stood by the fire, dressed in warn clothing that was a pale natural wool coloring "We are all safe. Not a soul left behind. Well done everyone, all of you who knew instinctively to come here and convinced everyone else."
Some looked nervously at the big house and its inhabitants, unable or too scared to ask one another if they had heard that man in the village with them… or the eerie long since dead woman's voice whispering in their ear as they ran for safety. They did not know what the light of day would reveal, what would be left down there on the flat but the noises and the speculation was enough for them to all feel that deep seated dread of someone who knows deep down it is not good. Not good at all.
All they knew for sure… is that the man standing strong and welcoming in the pale cream clothing, was not the one they knew in the three piece suit and polite smile.
They all knew they saw a Brennan.