Torn From Hope
Chapter Two: The Great Tempest
by starzsong magick

A/N: Review review review... etc.
Also, this occurs... I dunno when. A year or two after The Realms of the Gods. I'm not sure though because I can't remember if Daine's 16 or 17 in it. Oh well.

By the way, this is the *fixed* version! I'm sorry to whoever read it before I redid this. This should be a LOT easier to read.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters below, except for the weather-mage boy. All is copyright of Tamora Pierce! Plot is mine though; don't you dare steal it! :)


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Daine's last words echoed around the ship's small cabin. She looked around, and was surprised to see that everyone was gone. Numair remained, though, and his hand was still gently clasped around her own.

Numair jumped slightly after she spoke. "What?"

"I'm afraid."

He shifted slightly. "Magelet," he began, but his voice cracked and he stopped. Daine looked away, and uneasily began to study the floor. It had an interesting pattern to it.

"It's stupid, I know," the wild mage said, "But the fish - underwater - said that," she gulped, "It'll be awful. And you know how fish under-exaggerate."

Numair didn't, but he chose to keep it to himself. Daine heard him sigh, almost sadly, and then she felt his arm come to rest on her shoulders. She pulled herself over so that she was half on her chair, and half over the gap between, and leaned on Numair's chest.

Trying to make conversation, Numair asked, "Were the fish... interesting?"

Daine laughed despite her sense of being nervous. "Not exactly. They were fair stupid, if you ask me."

There was silence for several moments. At last, Daine spoke again. "You know how the weather-mage said the storm is like a barrier?"

Numair nodded.

"Aren't you wondering if they're somehow part of it? Some of Tortall's most powerful people are aboard this ship."

"They? Who's they?"

"Dunno." Daine suddenly felt like she'd just heard a hilarious joke. Feeling crazy, she began to giggle, then suddenly, she burst out laughing. It felt right. It felt... natural. Maybe if she laughed enough, she could cure the world and all the Divine Realms. Of what? Daine had no clue. She just laughed, for an insane reason unknown.

Numair tensed behind her. "What in Mithros' name...?" he muttered, and gently turned her head toward him, so he could look her in the face. Noting the dread in her eyes, the mage realized what was wrong: Daine was stricken with a bad case of anxiety.

Daine stopped short, and looked around with a look of full-fledged panic on her face. "I've gone nuts!" she cried, "Horse Lords, I'm—" Numair put his free hand to her mouth.

"Shhh," he murmured, "You're not nuts, you're just nervous. It's perfectly—"

"NERVOUS?! IS THAT ALL?!" Daine burst out, as Numair cringed against her loud yell. "YOU'RE WORSE THAN A FISH, THAT WAY!" She stopped, and replaced her outburst with a more quieter tone. "I'm sorry. It's just... I don't know. Do you think this ship can survive the storm?"

"I do not know." As Numair brushed Daine's brunette curls back from her face and placed his lips on hers, a rumbling sound could be heard in the distance. She stiffened and Numair released her.

"I thought we had several hours." she said.

"The weather-mage was wrong." Numair remarked simply, and after taking his arm off of her, he stood. "We ought to go to the room below. It might be safer."

Daine nodded, and followed him out of the room where she had first learned of the ill-fate to come. The short flight of stairs to the ship's front deck were straight ahead; instead, Numair turned to the right, where a dark hallway beckoned. A heavy weight, like a pound of lead, seemed to settle in her stomach as she walked onward. It would not go away.

After what seemed like eternity, they found the room where the rest of the passengers were, getting ready to wait out the storm. A few people looked up and gave a weak smile; most chose to ignore them. People had been coming in and out for the past half hour, reporting the latest news, or joining for safety.

There were no seats left - after all, there were nearly sixty people in there already - so Daine chose to sit on the ground. Numair found Alanna, whispered something to her causing her to frown, then sat next to Daine. The wood floor, scratched from years of hard boots, seemed solid and comforting.}

Murmurs of half-hearted conversation could be heard around the room when thunder sounded a second time. A few looked up in alarm; they hadn't heard it the first time. Daine simply sighed and stared at the floor, thinking of her animal friends at home. It worked. She actually took her mind off the storm for awhile.

Soon after the second, a third noise rumbled, though it didn't sound as far away as the former. Daine shivered.

After the thunder faded, sounds like pellets hitting metels were heard from above. Everyone looked up in alarm, the brave defiances on their faces gone at last. It was raining. The storm had begun.

People stirred and the whispers went up in volume. Thunder became a regular occurance, and the sense of electricity in the air annonced the presence of lightening. Numair, who'd been silent for the past five minutes, turned to Daine.

"D-Daine, I just wanted to let you know..." He trailed off.

With amazement, Daine realized she'd never heard Numair sound this scared before. It was eerie. "Yes?" she asked, goading him on.

Thunder crashed, and the rain pounded harder.

"Ellie's shoe." he said. Daine shook her head. She couldn't have heard right. The rain was drowning everything out.

"What?"

"If... if this ship sinks, or... something happens to me," Numair paused for a brief second. "I just want you to know that... I love you."

Daine was taken aback. He thought he was going to die! "I...I know, But you're a black-robe mage. You... can't." It was more like a command than a statement.

"But just in case." Not caring about the tens of people around them, Numair kissed Daine again. She did not care either. Everyone already knew about them, so what did it matter if they saw them kissing?

"I love you too, Numair." she whispered, and kissed him back.

Suddenly, a feeling like a thousand bees stung them all. Daine cried out as she and most everyone else writhed in pain. Then, as quickly as it had come, the feeling left, though everyone still tingled with it. Feeling her hair, she noticed in alarm that it was sticking straight up, with an extreme static feel to it. Panicking, she tried brushing the frizz down with her fingers, but it didn't seem to make a difference. If anything, it made it worse.

"Lightening..." murmered someone across the room.

"Dear Mithros..." muttered another.

Daine decided to try to make a deal with the K'miri god of lightening. If he wasn't in charge of this storm, who was? "Please... I don't know what you're called, but might you please take the storm elsewhere?" she called softly to the sky above.

There was a change in the pressure, like someone was pressing a large weight on her.

A low, hoarse voice responded in her mind. "I am not in charge of this. I did not create this. So I cannot help you mortals." It faded, and Daine shivered as there was another crack of thunder.

"Thank you, anyways."

Again, another bolt of lightening streaked through the air above. This time the feeling of electricution was agony; everyone cried out their pain. It seemed to be so much closer.

It was present for less than a second, but the lightening seemed to have left something behind. A slightly bitter smokey smell filled the air—

"FIRE!" someone yelled, and suddenly Daine found herself in a milling bunch of people, desperate to escape... but where to? There is no refuge, no place to get away, Daine realized, and grabbed Numair by his arms.

"Numair! What's going on? What do I do? Can I help? Are there..." Daine didn't realize she was babbling until the mage pressed a trembling hand to her mouth.

"You... you stay here." he commanded, voice shaky. "I'm going to help put the fire out."

In a flash of a second, he was gone through the crowd of people.

Daine sank to the floor, in a corner out of the way of people's feet. She felt useless. What if she transformed into an elephant and sprayed water with her trunk at the fire? No... that wouldn't work. Where would she get the water from, anyways?

Gray wisps of smoke fluttered around the ceiling. The fire must be really bad, if smoke is in here! Daine thought, and jumped up to run out of the room. She didn't care if Numair wanted her to stay put. She had to make sure he was still safe, first.

Slipping through the gaps between people, Daine finally made it to the deck. What greeted her nearly made her step back, but she held her ground. Where she'd been standing an hour ago was now totally covered with flames, along with half of the deck. Several passengers who had the Gift — Numair included — were desperately spraying it with water, but for some odd reason it refused to go out. It would be better if she didn't interfere. Daine backed up, and stood in the stairwell, watching the flashes of multi-colored magic flick around above her. If only she could do something!

The floor beneath her sloped downward. Daine realized this, and stifled a scream. The ship was sinking. And she was going to sink with it, if she didn't do anything.

"That's it!" she cried angrily to herself. Her elephant plan had to work. It had to. Taking a deep breath, she filled her mind with the gray, tough skinned mammals, and felt the railing beside her collapse as her new form filled up the entire stairwell, her cloths dropping to the floor beneath her. She climbed up and out, then turned to the side of the ship. The dark ocean lapped up against the ship beneath her. Daine the elephant dropped her trunk down into the water — it wasn't very far, since the ship had sank several feet — and brought up gallons and gallons of it.

Turning to the raging fire, which was uncomfortably close to her now, she sent out a blast of water... in vain. The fire danced evilly in front of her. Daine made up her mind. She would put the fire out, if it was the last thing she would ever do!

Suddenly the floor beneath her elephant form collasped, and she fell to the storage room below. She hadn't thought ahead about her weight; the floor obviously couldn't hold two tons of elephant up.

She cursed, and shrunk back to her human body, pounding the floor in desperation. She hadn't planned out what she'd do when she was back to normal, either: her cloths were still up on the stairs, and she now wore nothing but the silver claw the badger god had given her.

Daine looked up and realized the ship had sunk up to its deck. Water poured down on her, and she began to shake madly. Why was this happening?

The only way she could get out of her trap would be to transform. Water was a foot deep when she replaced her human self with a large seagull. Taking flight, she flew up to the deck, but it was now completely underwater too. Little remained except for the two pitiful sails, waving out of the sea. Where had everyone else gone, then?

Looking around, she found a cluster of people clinging onto a gigantic crate as the sea thrashed around them. She descended, and landed on it. Alanna looked up to her right, and Daine opened her beak in a gasp. She had never, ever seen Alanna like this. Ever. Her fiery hair was flat with water, and her eyes had a hopeless glaze to them. Wow, she thought.

She examined the people around her, but none were Numair. Please no... she thought, whirling around. Alanna cleared her throat.
"I don't know where Numair is, Daine." She answered Daine's unvoiced question.

She doesn't know? Daine sagged inwardly. Maybe he was on another piece of debris. The wildmage thought of her human form, this time clothed, and transformed back.

"Gods." Daine whispered, "Gods. This is not good."

A gigantic wave rose up behind them, and as Daine gasped, it swept the crate over. She transformed again, this time a dolphin, so she could swim. Then, she shaped herself a human voice box. "Grab on to my fin!" she cried out, for anyone still alive. She felt several hand on her back. At least someone was still alive.

As she was about to call out again, another wave struck her, this time with a piece of driftwood in it. It hit her head, and Daine literally saw stars. Ignoring the intense pain, she concentrated on holding her dolphin form. It didn't work. The water around her grew dark, and then black, as she sank into unconsciousness.

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