River Sentry Takes the Black. (Part Three)

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 “I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realm of men”    

-The Nights Watch Oath / A Song of Ice and Fire/ Game of Thrones / George R.R. Martin


In weeks, the black sentries will assemble on the Guadalupe. Adorned in black armor, the orders are clear. The watch begins; it never ends. Stand before the protected. Form the line, guard it!

It is tragedy that summons them, to prevail against her monsters in the night. Others have tried and failed. Employing all method of water flow sensing gadget and incantation, they watched the rivers and the skies. From a safe perch, the mages of data, radars, modeling, and predictive software claimed to know her, to understand, and worse; to predict her.

She rewards the overly familiar with brutal lethality, sending the worst of her demons in the night. 50,000-foot mesoscale horrors; flashing in white rage, they arrive to take you in your dreams.  Volatile microburst minions unleash rain bomb torrents only to disappear in moments. She’s a capricious adversary, consistent only in her cruelty. You will never know her.

Amid the destruction, the unapologetic oracles refuse accountability and proclaim the unknowable. “It was unprecedented, a micro probability, or the most beloved, extreme climate change! We require more resources, more technology!”  Such deliberations are blasphemy to the black order. Their sole currency is results-never effort or excuses. Their duty is the line.

For all of this has happened before, in 1910; Thrall, Texas experienced 38 inches of rain in 24 hours, 215 perished. This rain record was held for 69 years until Alvin, Texas experienced 43 inches, a record held today. 

The flatter topography tempered these monsters. Such a meteorological event in the hill country is apocalyptic. The narrow rock canyons would fuel and enrage the leviathan. Those encamped above perceived lines of safety…simply are not. Asleep and unaware, her beast will find them in the darkness. They’re not scared enough.

The black sentries stand in cold defiance of this. What has occurred before will occur again. What has happened there will happen here. To understand is discouraged, to anticipate is forbidden. The sentry is only ready. The monster will come and it will be met. The horns will sound, the sleeping will awaken, and the torches will alight. The distant realm will be warned. They will hold the line.

Defeat is assured. The fight is for time, not future.  Amid the vicious rapids, the black armor will defend, the concrete will hold. Every second is precious to the protection of the fleeing. The quest will be achieved. With their charges safely away, they’re released to the murky waters that overcome them. The watch is over and in honorable silence, they will rest in the dark depths. The line was kept.

 

 




 

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