Blood Rain

1 : Lina

1
Lina
High Ice

There's a storm brewin out there, out on the high ice plains. It en't often there is a storm up ere. But one's comin. A big one. I can feel it in my young yet weary bones. I can sense it. It's bin hangin in the air all day. It's in the humid, hot air. An I can tell ya, it en't hot up ere much neither. Only when a storm's comin. Like now.

I stare up at the familiar ceilin, the pattern of beams an straw a pattern i could trace like the back of my hand. I study the hole in it, covered by a sheet of metal. It en't been there long. I said that I wanted a way to see the sky, an Braden thought of this.

I fling the covers back, the rough blanket feelin soft to my callused fingers. I stand, my feet slippin easily into my worn leather boots. I make my way over to the hole, an i push the metal sheet back, exposin the night sky, alive with lightnin. The stars are sprinkled over the black night like the chicken feed I spread across the ground each mornin.
It's one of the rare times when I can see the beauty in somethin. Braden thinks there en't no time fer beauty in the world. Beauty en't gonna feed you, he says. Beauty en't gonna keep the crops from dyin.

An I believe him.

Beauty's like love. You don't need it an it gets in the way of survival.

That's what Braden says. Braden en't wrong much.

I climb onto my bed, an then I scramble out the hole in the roof. I often do this. I sit cross-legged on the thatched roof, starin out on the black plains of high ice. This is my thinkin time, if I can say that without Braden jumpin down my throat. He's a practical man, Braden is. He en't the sort who believes in anythin less than hard work.

At least, I though that until he brought home Trya. I would say he's besotted, but he en't the type to get besotted. He... likes her. A lot.

He said she was a street urchin. That he'd found her curled on the ground in the market, starvin an homeless. He was gonna ignore her but she grabbed his ankle, beggin fer food or somethin. He took pity on her an gave her some bread. The next day he saw her bein dragged off fer stealin. He vouched fer her an brought her home. Dunno why, he just did. An now we're stuck with her.

Now I'm not sayin she's not nice or anythin but she en't a hard worker. I'm surprised Braden hasn't turfed her out yet. I would've.

I stare up at the sky some more. I love this time of night, where I feel I'm the only one alive in the world, an no one else exists. Of course, it's not hard to think that up here. The High Ice en't very populated. En't many people here.

The High Ice is a huge desolate plain, stretchin as far as the eye can see. It's made of cold, solid packed black soil, but rumours are there's ice under all that. A thick, frozen sheet of ice. Imagine that.

As I watch the sky, the blackness lights up with a green glow. I watch it as it trails across the darkness, an sinks to earth, spreadin a green flash over the horizon.

I frown.
That en't somethin you see everyday.