Belegrade peered over his shoulder as he crouched at the trickling creek at the bottom of a vast rocky field, looking for whoever was blocking his sun. The field was, in fact, a riverbed. This time of year, or cycle—as they called it on this little moon—the river was barely even a creek, but it was perfect for sifting the small yellow stones from the sediment washed in during the rest of the year—or cycle. The river, or creek, had two states of being; a trickle during the dry cycle and a two-kilometer wide, fast-flowing body of water capable of supporting boats, ships, and various other craft that would bring goods and gear in and out of the area.


    Belegrade stood. He turned and stared at where the sun had been. He swore as he tossed the sifting pans into his hammock that he had secured between two rather large sections of broken tree washed in during the last storm cycle. Unhooking the hammock, with the pans secured inside, he draped it over his shoulder and began the trudge through the ankle-deep assortment of smooth-worn stones. The crunching and sliding sound the stones made annoyed him but not nearly as much as falling multiple times while trying to balance on what amounted to a pile of marbles annoyed him. Swearing, he stumbled onto the dirt as he climbed from the bottom of the river bed, gaining altitude as he ascended the trail up the bank.


    "Hey, bud. Mom send you to get me?"


    Jeno waited on the trailhead, the cabin directly behind him. He nodded, "She''s worried about the storm."


    "Yeah, the storms are really early, huh? Let''s get inside and check the sat-feed," he handed the clanking hammock off to his son, and they made the short hike to the cabin.


    <hr>


    Inside they found Minarin, Belegrade''s wife and Jeno''s mother, sitting at the hologram screen, watching the satellite feed of the moon''s weather patterns. She turned toward them as they shuffled and clanged through the door. Her eyes trembled, then her voice trembled, "It''s not good, Belly. Sat-feed shows the storm isn''t moving. It''s growing."


    "Well, if the flood side of the moon is shifting, there''s nothing we can do to stop it. Is everything ready to go?" As he asked, Seni came down the stairs from the loft, dragging behind her a large bedsheet that she had piled her and her brother''s clothes and belongings into.


    "We''re ready!" Seni said with a cheery smile as she stood next to her twin brother. The twins shared a look of excited apprehension. With her green eyes, set in deep sockets, above a small nose and wide mouth built for smiling, Seni was the spitting image of her father, and her relaxed posture only made the similarity more obvious. While her twin brother had their mother''s raven hair and dimples as well as her demeanor, Jeno shared his parent''s eyes: one green like his father''s, the other the same violet-blue as his mother''s.


    A frantic banging at the door broke the brief silence. Minarin took the bag from Seni and ushered the children through the back. A glance at Belegrade told him to hurry, get rid of whoever it was, and meet them at the dock up the hill. He gave her a short nod before turning back to the banging and waited to ensure they were out of the cabin before reaching for the handle. He drew the blaster from the belt hanging on the peg next to his heavy coat and opened the door, the blaster hidden behind it.


    Carden Holteff almost fell through the door as Belegrade opened it, and Belegrade, in turn, nearly blasted a hole through the middle of the man''s chest in a panic but caught himself in time to step back instead.


    "Have you heard?" Carden asked, stumbling through the door and pausing to catch his breath. "The whole place is going under! We have to get out of here! Everyone has to get..." He noticed the blaster still pointed in his direction, and his round, red face drained of color. Belegrade followed the man''s gaze and quickly shoved the blaster into his waistband.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    "Yeah, we heard. Min''s taking the kids up to the dock right now. Shouldn''t you be at your place getting your boat ready?"


    "Well, see, that''s the thing." Carden Holteff crumpled his hat in his hands, avoiding eye contact.


    "You traded it, didn''t you?"


    When Carden offered no response, Belegrade shook his head, and pity came to him slowly. In the six cycles that they''d been on this moon, he''d seen Carden sell or trade everything he owned in one bad deal after another. He wasn''t a bad man, really, just impatient and impractical, with no common sense at all, and now it appeared that Belegrade was faced with deciding the man''s fate. Belegrade stared at him for several moments while pondering his options. Could he really leave the man here to die?


    I hope I don''t have to kill this man. Belegrade thought as he grabbed the blaster belt and, strapping it on, led Carden through the back door and up the hill.


    "Hurry!" Seni waved at them from the top of the hill before turning and disappearing back over the top.


    Belegrade took another step, and a loud crash followed by a deafening roar filled the valley. Looking in the storm''s direction, his heart sank and began pounding in his ears.


    "Run!" Belegrade shouted over his shoulder as Carden shot past him. In the distance, they could see a wall of mist and dust being pushed forward by the water as it escaped the canals. The roar escalated as the distance between them and the water rapidly vanished.


    As they topped the hill, Belegrade overtook Carden once again and bounded up the steps to the dock. He took a quick peep in the hold to check on Min and the kids. He found them stowing their belongings and anything else that wasn''t already tied down. Three faces stared up at him with nervous smiles. He smiled back, equally apprehensive, before nodding to Min and turning back toward the water that would be upon them any minute now.


    "Find somewhere to--" The sound was so loud that Belegrade couldn''t even hear his own voice. He shoved his finger toward the supplies stored above deck, and Carden, taking the hint, ran over and strapped himself to the netting that secured the barrels and boxes. Finally situated, he watched Belegrade close the hatch to the lower deck. Looking past Belegrade, his face paled as his jaw hung open.


    Belegrade didn''t have time to turn around before the water struck. They''d purposefully built the deck just above the highest projected flood levels. The thought should have calmed him. Instead, he experienced a moment of doubt and dread that seemed to slow time, but not enough. The force of the impact threw him into the center mast as the boat was propelled from the hilltop and out into the valley.


    <hr>


    He woke to a soft rocking and a soft, delicate voice calling his name. After several minutes he opened his eyes to see Min''s face in the twilight, twisted in worry before brightening as they made eye contact.


    "Are you okay?"


    "I don''t know, I think so. I can move my fingers and toes, but everything hurts. How are the kids?"


    Minarin took his arm and gently helped him to his feet; he wobbled but remained upright.


    "They''re fine, Jeno''s got a pretty good bump on his head, and I think Seni might have broken a finger, but we''re all in one piece and together; that''s what counts."


    He smiled at her, weakly but genuinely, as they limped towards the cargo hatch. Halfway there, Jeno emerged from below deck, sporting a large goose egg on his forehead, and just behind him was Seni holding her finger as the last of the tears dried up. Standing on the deck, Belegrade and his family let out a sigh of relief before smiling. The smiling led to laughter and a group hug as they celebrated their good fortune. Belegrade and Min shared an extra smile, knowing that as soon as they made it to a functioning spaceport, they would be off this moon and be able to afford to raise Jeno and Seni on an inhabited and civilized world. After all, they had several barrels filled with one of the rarest and most in-demand metals in the cosmos.


    "We actually did it, Belly!"


    He didn''t respond, only hugged them tighter and smiled harder as their passenger, hidden quietly among the cargo that had collapsed into a pile, pulled an Old-Earth style revolver from his boot and checked the cylinder. Looking back out at the family, his expression hardened, and his eyes narrowed as he steeled himself for the unpleasantness that was to come. He snuck out of the pile, revolver in hand, and circled around behind Belegrade.