Daughter of the Sky

Prologue

Thunder struck accompanied by the delighted squealing of a child that had her tiny arms raised to the sky as if she wanted to embrace the storm raging above. The wind ruffled her hair like a parent would to their precious offspring and rain pelted on her fair skin. The little girl danced with her friends of the sky as thunder's violent voice echoed of the mountains she lived in. She knew her mother would be worried about her leaving their secluded house alone and especially during this weather. She was always so protective about her, always so focused on keeping her hidden.

A lightning thundered again through the air but this time it was accompanied by an alarming growl from the direction of the house. Silence followed as if the storm held its breath as much as the little girl right now. A dark lump of dread formed in her innocent mind and she ran. As fast as her tiny legs would carry her. Her house seemed endlessly far away when she heard a scream of the only other person residing so far off with her.

„Mama!", her frightened voice didn't carry far through the wind. Finally she reached the porch of her house. In her frantic hurry she slipped on the stairs falling hard into a sizzling, green substance that trailed through the open door inside her home. Before she could recognize the burn of the goo on her skin the child heard her mother's frightened shouting from the inside. Her legs moved on their own instinct to get to her safe person as quickly as possible but when she rounded the corner to their living room it was as if they were glued to the floor.

A monster of her nightmares, the ones her mother always warned her about, a snake-like creature at least twice as high as herself slithered its way towards her mother leaving a poisonous trail in its wake. Growling it bared its fangs as long as her arms and reared back to strike. That's when her legs started moving again running towards her guardian with a cry desperate to sink in her protective embrace from her night terror. Immediately the focus of both her mother and the monster fell on her with surprise but oh so opposite intentions and in that decisive key moment her mama reacted faster. She threw her arms out. „Nyx, run! Run with the wind and don't look back!" The bad foreboding the child felt earlier now drove like a dark knife through her heart. She would remember that day, she would remember herself crying „Mama!" for the last time but as much as fate angered her that day she understood its urgency.

Her best friend storm tugged on her wrist, tugged her away from the most important person of her short life as the basilisk's hiss frightened her enough to obey and don't look back. Tears ran over her little face faster than rain could wash them away and she ran. The thunderstorm had awakened again by now ripping through the sky like teeth though flesh. Afraid and angry, not wild and playful like before. Lightning struck like a destructive, avenging arc not to connect with her but the house she ran from causing the earth to shake, the heavens to cry and the little girl to loose her consciousness.