A Case of Catastrophes

II. Make friends with the Storm brothers

"Be a good girl, Spark. I have to head into town. I'll be back before sundown, okay?" Dad told me with a kiss on my forehead.

I wasn't listening to what my dad said. I was busy playing on the improvised swing beneath a tree my dad had made for me. Off he went after getting a nod from me. He seemed to be busy, I didn't bother asking questions. I was still eight then. It had been two weeks since we transferred to this new home. There was a war going on. It was a rough time for my dad.

It was just after lunch, around the twelfth hour of noon. The back and forth, up and down motion of the swing gave me such a thrill that I wanted it to go higher, high enough till I could reach the sky. Every time the swing went down, I kicked the ground beneath me so I could go higher. However, just as I had reached the limit of which the swing could go, I saw something new to my eyes. I saw water coming from a dark cloud that poured down onto the ground. Brille was desert-like. It was warm and dry and it never rained.

I got down from the swing and went out of our wooden backyard fence. For the first time, I saw a clear piece of grassy land to my right and to my left was a forest, but little part of it was green and lush so I was intrigued. Brilliant forests are never green. There was a force that seemed to have called me, pulling me towards the forest. My legs kept on moving, dragging me to the forest.

The next thing I realized was that I was already in the dark dense woods. I panicked. I ran as fast as I could away from the darkness. I knew it wasn't good for me to stay there. I didn't know where else to go, so I stopped and cried. "Was this the way I would die?" I rashly thought to myself.

I sat down on the ground so that I could calm myself. I looked around and observed the woods around me. I could hear rustling leaves and some insects. Suddenly, a swift black entity flashed in front of me. I panicked again, I stood up and ran as fast as I could. I heard something swooping back and forth behind me. I didn't know what it was and I didn't want to find out. I ran and ran until I reached a dead end. I was now facing a large granite wall that I assumed was the border of Brille and Nimbus. Something was after me, I just knew it. It had cornered me, I was scared. The adrenaline rushed inside me. I faced the wall and punched it twice in frustration. The third time, my left hand was consumed with fire and had bombarded the wall with so much power that a hole had materialized, or rather, the wall de-materialized. I hurriedly went through the hole and continued running. I jumped over some rocks and tree roots that were in my way. Incidentally, I felt stinging in my right hand. When I took a look at it, blisters and burns covered it up until my forearm. Due to my freaking out, I tripped on a large tree root and fell to my knees. It started to pour water again, like as if it couldn't get any worse.

Now, I liked this peculiar happening, water pouring. But when you're lying face down on the ground, you have to be kidding. I started hearing footsteps coming toward me so I flipped over to see what it was. It seemed to be coming closer and gradually a large shadow came to surface. It was nothing but pure blackness in the shape of a man. As it came nearer, I scurried backwards. My arms and feet were shaking because I was so afraid. I grabbed a rock and threw it at the shadow but it just went through his body. I crawled backwards only to feel the pain my hand was feeling as I leaned on it. It came closer and closer until it bent down to take a look at me. All of a sudden, a boy came and quickly sprinkled some dust onto the shadow, but this time the dust didn't go through its body. The boy waved his hands and a wave of water materialized out of thin air. It swept the shadow deeper into the forest.

"Prism powder, works every time" he said as he shook the tiny bottle with sparkles inside it. He signaled me to stay where I was and then ran after the wave with the shadow.

I had no choice but to wait there patiently. I didn't know what I would do anyways. I was scared and dripping wet with water.

By the time the water stopped pouring after a few minutes, the boy came back. I recognized him by his sleek dark hair and grey eyes. He gave me a goofy side smile. He seemed to have a stately feel about him. I stood up and examined him, so he stopped walking towards me. We were about three meters away from each other. Water showered again.