(January '18) Prompt #3 - "Worthless promise."

[.Karma.]

January's 3rd prompt is "Worthless promise."

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[ArtisticVicu]

He let his hand ghost over her large belly, giddy with happiness. He kissed her temple, muttering against her skin, “You ready to be a parent?”

She laughed, pushing at his shoulder but not with enough force to truly send him away. “About as ready as you are. You forget I have to push the damn baby out.”

He hummed as if he was thinking about it, nuzzling her hair. “True. There is always the option of a c-section.”

This time her laugh was sharper. “Yeah. Not if my doctor has any say in it.”

He smiled against her hair. “We could already change doctors.”

“When I’m due any day now?” she asked in disbelief. He grinned but she couldn’t see it. She must have felt it, though, because she slapped his shoulder again. He felt her ready to speak but their little moment was broken by the shrill sound of his phone going off. With a heavy sigh, he pulled away and reached over for the device.

They both sat upright in the bed. Or, at least, as upright an expecting mother looking ready to pop could. He accepted the call and held the phone to his ear, running a hand through her hair. “Morgan.”

Her expression closed off. He only answered like that if it was work related and he shot her an apologetic smile.

“One last job for you and your boys, Captain,” the voice of his superior spoke, regret heavy on the line. “I know you’re wife is expecting but this is coming from over my head. They chose you and I did what I could to fight it.”

“It’s alright, Sir,” he lied. “What’s the job? How long?”

“Retrieval mission, in and out in two days.” He looked to her, her gaze curious now. He turned the volume up on the call just a bit more, pulling the phone from his ear so she could hear more clearly. “It’s more of an escort, really. You’ll be retrieving a personnel and bringing them home.”

He frowned. “One of ours, Sir?”

“No. Someone important from nearby. All we know is that they had gone out as a scout and got stuck near us.”

He cupped her cheek, ghosting his thumb over the ridge of her cheekbone. “And you said no more than two days?”

“Should take you less than 24 hours in all honesty but the boys up top wanted me to give the buffer.”

“The due date’s next week,” her soft voice whispered, drawing his attention.

He moved the receiver away, offering just as softly, “But the doc said you could be early. If I leave, I may not be here for you.”

“But someone has to be there for whoever is lost,” she urged, his superior’s voice calling out to him from the phone. “Take it and I’ll see you in two days.”

He returned the phone to his ear, asking as he held her gaze, “Where are we being sent, Sir?”

“Southwest near Mournant Peak.”

He caught his dismay being echoed in her face. He pressed a bit more into her cheek. “Sir, that’s all forest and canyon. Unless we’ve got specific coordinates, it’s going to be a search and rescue mission that’ll take more than a day.”

“There is an approximation of where this person’s location should be. I’m told they shouldn’t be hard to find. Besides, they’re giving you the green light to take whatever tech and creatures you want.”

He was shocked to hear that, as was she, apparently. He turned, almost as if he could see his superior through the device against his ear. “Are you sure, Sir? I’m just a lowly park ranger. I don’t have–”

“You get clearance for this one time, Captain. Apparently it’s imperative this person is brought home safe and alive.”

She was nodding at him; for what, he wasn’t sure but he moved his hand to her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Alright. I’ll be in in a few. You calling my crew for me?”

“Already have men getting to it. Tell the Missus that I’m sorry for this.”

He smiled when she waved his superior off. “She says she’ll be ok. Take care, Sir.”

“You too, Captain. See you in an hour.”

The line went dead and he put the phone down. He captured her lips for a chaste kiss, asking, “You sure you’re ok with this?”

“Yes I’m sure,” she chastised, though her expression was soft. “Besides, gives me an excuse to go see my brother. He’ll be less likely to fret about me and my health what with two kids of his own.”

“Alright.” He kissed her forehead. “You gonna call him soon, then, or do you want me to drop you off?”

She gave him a gentle shove with both hands, smiling. “I’ll call as soon as you leave. Now get going. You have a job to get to and a wife and unborn child to get back to.”

He laughed. "Alright, alright." He kissed her cheek. "I'll be back before the baby's born."

"You promise?" she asked, sounding to fragile, so timid for an instant.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I promise."

He arrived at the station to see that most of his team was there and nearly ready to go. He changed into the more durable ranger uniform, checking to make sure his tracking chip was undamaged and secure. He checked through the gear they were given and went through the secondary bag he had brought from home. It was much smaller but he had learned that sometimes a backup that wasn’t going to weigh you or others down was better than having to decide what to ditch later down the road.

A spare thermal blanket, spare clothing in a waterproof bag, emergency rations, a water purification kit, and a tarp with rope were tucked into the waterproof, mostly tear-proof bag that he put on before throwing his actual pack onto his back. With where they were going, the gear they had was meant to keep them for 72 hours through the terrain they would be dropped in. With the canyon and the mountain range they were in, he had requested climbing gear and grav-repels. As much as tech was useful, he and his team kept to the old ways of climbing and repelling even as they used the grav-repels. None of them were taking the chance of a grav-repel going out and they subsequently lose their grip and fall to their death.

It was also why he was taking several enlru. An enlru was a primate that looked like a cross between a snow cat and a lemur. They were highly intelligent and easily trained if done correctly, and they were far more in tune with the mountains he and his team were about to enter than any other trained animal they had at their disposal. Not even search canine would be of use and there was the chance that they would have to traverse terrain that creatures with hooves would not be able to climb. Enlru had retractable claws and prehensile tails, making them excellent climbing partners and able to keep close to whoever was their handler without added rope.

There were three going with them. As they flew towards the location, he looked over the file and frowned at how little was in it.

“We gonna be alright, Captain?” one of his rangers asked.

He looked up, the sound of the shuttle’s quiet hum registering in the lack of voices. He nodded. “Shouldn’t be too difficult. We’ll set up camp at the pickup location and send out the five drones we have. We’ll start a foot search once we’ve found signs of our person.”

His squad nodded. They were used to this, though probably not to the level they were doing it. Animal and technical support like this was so rare, he had only ever been on one mission and that had been as a rookie so many years ago. Hopefully this one went far smoother than that one did.

They were at the pickup location and sending drones out within the hour. It took them less than that to find their person. Apparently whoever was stuck out there hadn’t wandered far from the initial location they had been given, not that they had much of a choice. They had a clear visual on the person stranded on a cliff side on a ledge a shy too low from the walking path to get back up to. He took a few with him, telling those that remained to keep an eye on both the weather and them.

They got to the spot rather easily and he helped the young man up onto the walking path. While he was a young man by age, he looked far more like a kid than an adult and he patted said kid on the shoulder.

“You alright there?”

The kid nodded. “Yeah. Thanks.”

“How long were you stuck there?” one of the others asked as they started the trek back.

“Just over a day,” the kid replied, shrugging. He frowned. Why was a kid acting all nonchalant about being stuck on a cliff ledge for over 24 hours? When he had been the same age, he hadn’t been on nearly half as long and it had traumatized him.

He caught sight of the kid’s long ears through the messy, dark curls and took in the outfit the kid was wearing. “Agir?” he asked, curious. The file hadn’t said anything about their person being an Agir.

“Yeah, from Meca.”

The entire group looked on in awe. Last he had heard of the Mecan Agir was that they had gone underground. Not literally, seeing as Agir were known woodfolk in the surrounding areas, but one could never be too sure.

“Is it true you’ve guys gone underground?” the only rookie asked.

He smacked said rookie but the Agirian laughed. “Not completely. We live in the cliff sides as our ancestors did.”

Aw, so that was why the kid was so nonchalant about the whole matter. Being stuck on a cliff side truly was no big deal.

“You knew help was coming?” he asked, drawing the Agirian’s gaze to him.

The Agirian nodded. “I had been out exploring on my own and had given a time when I would return. I figured it would take longer than the day, to be honest.” The smile that graced the kid’s face was serene. “I’m glad it didn’t take longer than a day. There is a storm coming.”

He glanced at the two enlru with them. Both were alert. Something was definitely coming as his phone blipped with a message, repeating the Agirian’s words.

The storm came out of nowhere.

They had know it had been building but not even those watching the weather could have anticipated the storm coming in so quickly. Even the Agirian was taken aback by its swiftness.

At first they were managing just fine, tying a rope between all the personnel, but the sudden storm was dropping too much rain and the ground gave out beneath him and the Agirian.

Their decent was jerked to a stop as the three above found footing against the pull on the rope. They started pulling the duo back up but the rope snagged, frayed, and snapped, sending him and the Agirian into the raging river below. Tied together, they were thrown this way and that through the roaring water.

It was the Agirian that caught purchase on the cliff walls. His hands were already bloody from attempting to do the same.

They had lucked out. The Agirian had caught the edge of a small cave that barely fit both of them. Soaking wet and with little room to do much, he pulled out the two thermal blankets he had and tucked them around the both of them hoping their shared body heat would warm them up beyond the cold spray of water and wet clothes. He pulled out some bandages and wrapped his hands before digging out the pair of gloves he had for climbing and shoved his freezing fingers into the leathery fabric.

They did warm up a bit but their clothes were still damp when the water rose high enough to start flooding their cave. He set the Agirian to folding the blankets as he worked to get the climbing gear ready. He had a second harness that he helped the Agirian into. It was awkward with the tight space but the harnesses were necessary. He clipped a grav-repel to the back of his harness before securing one to the back of the Agirian's. The Agirian frowned at him but he shook his head. "I have four, which would be the proper number for us to have two a piece, but the weather it too turbulent for us to be weightless. One grav-repel will make it so that we don't weigh quite so much but won't be swept away with the storm."

"Then I lead," the Agirian stated, determined. "I grew up on the cliff side. I know how to find the route of least resistance."

He nodded, offering his hand with a smile. "Then I guess it's time we were equally aquainted. Zander Morgan."

The Agirian took his hand grinning. "Petra Ischyrós."

Petra went out first, hands finding purchase as Zander pulled on his newly packed pack. He followed right behind Petra, noting where the other's hands and feet went. Sometimes Petra would do some feat that Zander knew he couldn't do so a second grav-repel was added to his harness and he let Petra pull him upward in those instances. They made good distance before the storm became too much. Petra changed their angle of ascent and found a ledge that held both a cave and what looked like some path. Zander deactivated his grav-repel and felt odd having so much weight again. It quickly grew too dark for them to even progress and Zander started undoing his larger pack. The lantern was turned on and the pair huddled under thermal blankets around it after laying out their wet clothes to dry in the back of the cave.

"So how did you end up so far from home?"

Petra shrugged, watching the storm outside. "I was part of a group asked to come share knowledge with the Agir of these lands at a sort of council. While most other races don't care to know about the Agirian culture, we as a culture find pride in sharing what we learn in the different habitats. You would be surprised how often the knowledge is useful in some way despite the habitat differences."

Zander smiled. "I'm sure."

His phone beeped and he blinked. He had forgotten he had it on him as he pulled it out of a pocket of his still damp clothes. He was rather surprised it hadn't died yet. "I'm impressed this thing's lasted. I would have sworn the dip would have done something to it."

"The tech nowadays is made to be elemental resistant, right?"

Zander hummed. "Most of the time, but I've never had much luck with tech."

He tapped the screen awake only to stare at the date and time displayed.

"Zander?"

He looked up, meeting Petra's confused gaze. "We're going into day two."

"What?"

Zander passed over his phone as he clarified, "It's midnight. We're going into the second day of your rescue."

Petra passed the phone back, offering, "You also have a message."

He swiped at the screen and found his way to his messages. He paled. "My wife's gone into labor."

Petra perked up at that. "You have a kid coming?"

Zander nodded, changing to a different screen but the message wouldn't send. He lacked the needed reception. "Yeah. Was due a week from today but my wife looked ready to pop a month ago." He tossed the phone into the nearest pack, continuing, "She made me promise to be back before the baby was born." He buried a hand in his tangled hair. "So much for keeping that worthless promise."

"Unless we make it back in time."

Zander looked over at Petra, the kid's gaze determined. Zander smiled at him. "If the storm lets up, sure. But I don't think we'll get that chance. Besides, she had her family with her. While we both would have been happy for me to be present, this job comes first." He looked to where he had tossed is phone. "Whatever signal the thing got to receive that message, it's gone now. I can't contact my team without it so hopefully the rest of our party made it back and the others have a game plan on where to start looking."

Silence fell over the cave but it didn't last long. Petra asked, "Will they be able to find us?"

He hummed in assurance, though he himself didn't feel the confidence he was trying to display. "I have a tracker chip in my uniform as does my phone. They'll find us and we'll get you home, whether that's somewhere in our nation or back in Meca. I promise."

Petra nodded but didn't look all that convinced. He couldn't blame the Agirian. There was all the chance that they could be stuck out here for another 24 hours if the other three hadn't made it back to camp.

24 hours turned into three weeks and it turned his words into a worthless promise, not that it was anyone's fault. In the following 24 hours after he had made the promise, Zander's wife had given birth to a healthy baby boy and rescue had been sent out for them. But then his phone had died, there was a rock slide that had not only crushed the tracking chip but had also broken his collarbone, and the storms kept forcing them to take shelter. As much as the pair knew where they were going, it seemed they were getting nowhere.

He attempted to redo the splint and sling for his right arm after a lovely dip in a clear lake only to fail miserably. Petra was there just as his frustration reached a boiling point, deft hands careful and caring as the nimble fingers did the knot, fingers ghosting against skin as the Agirian checked the tension and where it sat. Zander watched him, watched him till Petra wandered back over to their campsite and continued working with the fish they had caught.

Three weeks. Zander rubbed at his face. They had another cliff to face before they were within sight of the pickup location. There was no sign that anyone had been out looking for them, no drones or rescue animals to meet them halfway and in that time Zander had come to know Petra far better than he knew himself yet he didn't know the Agirian at all. As ageless as they seemed, Petra was still young and had a lot of life to live. Zander.....he was losing hope. As much as he wanted to see his wife and son, there seemed to be no end to any of this and he had come to terms with that. He had lived a good life.

A day later the same thoughts echoed through his head as the ground gave out from under his right foot and his left hand lost purchase with the rock face. He saw Petra scream, watched the young man grab his arm and hand on, but there was no sound, none until his side collided painfully with the wall.

The ground gave out from under Petra as well.

He came to on his back, everything hurting so much that it made it impossible to focus. He could see Petra. Or, at least, he thought it was Petra. There was too much distance between them for him to be sure.

But from one blink to the next, Petra had moved from the ledge so far above him to his side and Zander wondered if had happened to have passed out. Petra's hands were shaking, his entire body looking like he had tumbled down the side of a mountain.

"Everything's going to be alright, ok?" Petra was choking out, tears clearing paths down his dusty face. "Just hang on."

Zander couldn't keep his eyes open. Even as he tried with all his might to smile and reassure the kid, his eyes started to close.

Petra made a strangled sound, words rushing passed his chapped lips. "I've got you. Just don't let go, ok? Stay with me." Zander managed to , not sure if the noise he was hearing was other voices or the sound of Death approaching. "Come on. You're going to see your son, your wife."

His eyes slid closed once more as Petra's words echoed in his ears, "You're going to make it out alive. I promise. Just hang on a little longer."

Was that just another worthless promise, too?