Washed Away

Chapter 3

Disclaimer- This is not mine. If it were mine I would not be writing a fanfiction about because I would own it and could do whatever I wanted with it, Si?

Altan walked along the beach, scuffing the sand with every step. His head jerked skyward as a bird passed overhead. The bird was there and gone, but he continued to stare at the clouds, as though he couldn't turn his eyes away. All he had ever wanted to do was to fly...

And he had that chance. He had been selected to attend skybax training, to soar among the clouds. Everyone seemed sure that he could do, why wasn't he?

He was a Dennision.

There. That was it. He had put his finger right on the problem. He was a Dennision. His father and mother had both been skybax riders, their fame spreading the length and breadth of the island. His sister Remora had earned her saddle gained a skybax companion years ago. Now it was his turn.

The pressure weighed down on him heavily. Not the pressure that being a skybax rider was what he had to be. Of four siblings Remora was the only other one that had become a skybax rider. His other brothers and sisters were all happily settled in careers of their own. Their parents had always been supportive of whatever they had wanted to do.

No it pressure from himself. Flying was all that he had ever wanted, and he was afraid of failing. Not because of what others might think, not because of what his parents might have thought, but because of what it would mean for him. The end of all of his dreams...

A whistle off to his right distracted him. He waved at the dolphin playing in the water, and then grinned when it rose up on its tail. He was turned away and was shocked when the dolphin called after him again, this time more insistently. As soon as it was sure that it had his attention the dolphin turned and began to swim down the coast, pausing to make sure that it had conveyed the point to thickheaded human this time.

Altan waved and jogged off down the beach in the same direction that the dolphin was taking, indicating that he understood. Rounding a corner along the beach he came upon a natural gravel cove where the dolphin stopped, squealing impatiently. A moment later he spotted the object of their concern.

A girl lay just out of the water, limp and soaked. Altan raced to her side and moved long, waterlogged red hair away from pale face. He wished she would wake up. He didn't want to hurt her by moving her if she was already injured, but he couldn't leave her here either. There were water marks on the rocks indicating that entire cove was submerged during high tide, and tide change would start in less than an hour.

He looked her over more closely. Her clothes were strange, of a design that he had never seen before. Which made her a ...

"Dolphinback." He whispered in surprise and looked out to the dolphins who were all raising out of the water, watching them. One if them squeaked and he raised a hand before looking back at the girl. "Hey..." he whispered hesitantly, shaking her shoulder a bit. When nothing happened he shook a little harder. "Hey, wake up. We need to move."

Brown-green eyes opened slowly, but refused to focus. A low moan escaped the girls lips before they slid shut again. Altan chewed on his own lips and glanced at the sun overhead. Even if he ran all of the way back to the Hatchery he couldn't get back with help before tide rose... Splashing once again drew his attention back to the ocean, and Altan almost cried at his good luck. A fishing boat had drifted into view, and was now being guided his direction by the dolphins.

As soon as the boats keel came in dangers of scraping the bottom of the cove several men jumped overboard and waded ashore, coming to stand around the girl. One of them offered a hand. "Deven Mithenport. What you got here?"

"Altan Denision," Altan answered, shaking the mans hand briskly. "A dolphinback, I think. The dolphins led me to her, but I didn't know what to do with her by myself."

"Hard to know when they're unconscious." Deven's companion agreed. "Is we get a spare sail from the ship we could make a sling and move her without jostling her too much. Just enough to get her on dry ground. The others can take the boat to the Hatchery and bring back help."

"Right," Deven agreed, "Stay here, I'll wade out and get the sail and tell the others what's going on." With that he was gone, leaving the other two to keep watch over the still figure. He returned a moment later, and together the three worked as gently as possible moving the newcomer.

Then they settled down to wait.

Soo, everyone liky? And you can stop bugging me for a little bit SJ.