Winds of Change: Rising Storm

Chapter 17

The door that they had escaped through led right to the one exit. Prodigy found Kai waiting with Tempest at the exit.

"Why didn't you leave?" Prodigy asked as he stopped by them.

Kai grimaced. "Unfortunately my code says no man left behind." Prodigy rolled his eyes briefly looking over Tempest. Her skin was very red, but the shaking had stopped.

He looked up at Kai. "We should leave."

"No kidding." They turned and ran through the dark tunnel, the temperature falling as they made their way up and out of the mountain. It was sunset outside, and snowing. Winds blew every direction, making the snow a wall of shifting white.

Prodigy had taken two steps out when a sound reached his ears. It was like a scream, echoing around them. No, it was a wail.

"Back inside!" He grabbed Kai by the shoulder, dragging him back inside. A huge gust of wind blew all the snow forward, spiraling it up and around while the wind continued it's cry.

"We can't leave while it's blowing like that!" Prodigy yelled, trying to be louder than the wind. "It will blow us off the mountain!"

"Why did you guys build here!" Kai yelled back. "We're stuck now!" It was true, there was no way of knowing how long the wind storm would last. It was one of the dangers of building there that had been ignored. As far as Prodigy knew, there was only one person who had successfully stopped a gust. He went over to Kai and shook Tempest.

"What are you doing?!" Shouted Kai in his ear.

"She's the only one who can get us out of her!" He tried to explain.

"No!" Kai stepped back from Prodigy. "She can't use them! You saw what happened!"

"It's our only option!" Kai hesitated, then set Tempest down. Prodigy moved closer again and shook Tempest harder. Her eyes opened, and she gasped, nearly falling backwards. Prodigy placed a hand on her shoulder and caught her gaze, steading her. "Tempest, you have to stop the wind! Your uncle was able, so you can too!"

Her eyes widened. "No! I can't!"

"You can, and you have too!" Prodigy helped her stand up, positioning her arm around his shoulders to help her move.

"I hear guards." Kai yelled.

"How?" Prodigy mouthed. The ninja shrugged and went a couple feet back into the tunnel. Prodigy refocused on Tempest, who looked like she was going to be sick.

"You can do this!" He knew it wasn't helping, but that could hardly be blamed on him. He never tried to encourage anyone if he could help it. Tempest took a deep breath, and stood straight, closing her eyes.

She pulled her arm from Prodigy, holding out both with her fingers spread wide. Her face tightened. Prodigy swallowed nervously, glancing back at the tunnel where Kai had disappeared. He wished he could help Tempest, but he hadn't a clue what was going on inside her brain.

Agony was what Tempest's brain was being occupied with. If generating wind was hard, controlling it was a thousand times worse. She knew she had caused a burst of wind back in the hallway, but this was different. The winds out there were, for lack of a better word, insane. They were moving at high speeds, shooting up, then down, then spiraling into mini tornados. It was chaos, chaos that she had to calm. Tempest gritted her teeth, pushing against the wind's power.

Suddenly she wasn't in the cave anymore. She was on the side of the mountain, with piles of snow up to her knees and flakes falling from the sky. In the distance she could see a giant circle of black clouds, spinning and moving towards the mountain. For some reason she needed to beat it to the top. Tempest could feel the need in her bones. A wailing gust of wind started blowing her backwards, and she planted her feet, pushing both hands out to try and stop the wind.