The Names Our Children Will Know

Nathan - Draft One

When Martha woke up, warm sunshine was streaming through the windows of the warehouse. She was curled up in a tight, warm ball of blankets in her hammock, purring softly at the dream she had woken up from.

Happy voices came from upstairs. It sounded like Easton and Tessa were talking about their trip and where they were planning to go.

Martha padded up the stairs, sniffing out breakfast. Porridge again, it smelled like. She pushed open the curtain at the top of the stairs, still trying to decide what a second smell was–

And tripped up the last three stairs, just like she had every day for as long as the curtain had been up.

Easton snickered. "Following your nose always gets you into trouble, sis."

Martha picked herself up again. "Why didn't we fix the curtain while Mark was away?" She lamented. "We had plenty of free time–"

"And no motivation," Easton finished. "You'd trip even if there wasn't another stair there."

Tessa tried to hide a grin and failed. "Come on up, Martha. Mark got lesonid berries."

Martha padded up the remaining few steps and stood up. "Is that what I smelled?"

Easton held up a handful of the pale orange berries. "They're fresh, too. Wonder where he got them."

Martha sat down at the table and took a handful of the berries herself. Just as she was about to eat them, however, Mark appeared behind her and said, "Don't eat all of them, Martha. Save some for the trip, yeah?"

"When do we leave?" Easton asked.

"Whenever the notebooks are ready." Mark started packing up the food that no one had eaten. "I want to get outside the city so Tessa can put the spell on everyone in Magonalt."

"Can we do it sooner rather than later?" Tessa asked. "Better to get the plague out and then get the notebooks. Safer, too."

Mark nodded. "Good idea. You want to go on your own?"

"I'll take Easton with me. You want to see me do some big magic?" She asked the younger boy. He nodded vigorously, a smile already spreading on his face.

Outside, the floodwaters were already receding. The streets were the cleanest Tessa had ever seen in a city before. All of the sewage and garbage had collected in the lowest parts of the city and flowed to the edges. Tessa managed to say hello to several startled old friends, but many of the local werians knew Easton on sight.

They walked out to the edge of the city, where Tessa told Easton to wait and watch. As she wrote out the spell, she translated each word for him, explaining as she went what each phrase would do.

Easton watched in fascination as Tessa's spell took up first one, then two, then three pages in her notebook. When she tore the pages in half, a thin haze soon formed over the meadows around the city. After only a few moments, the haze thickened and solidified into a heavy, dark grey cloud. A few panicked screams echoed through the streets when the inhabitants of Magonalt noticed the cloud.

Easton watched as it shrunk into itself again, solidifying even more and darkening almost to black. When it burst into a fiery cloud, the screams intensified, pouring out of the city.

All of a sudden, the plague was gone. A few lingering cries were heard, before the city fell sharply, suddenly, chillingly silent.

Easton watched the city closely for any sign of life. When the chatter of a hundred confused citizens rose up from the inhabitants, he jumped up in triumph. He turned to Tessa and cried, "You did it!" He ran halfway back to the city and returned crowing, "Tessa did it, she did it!"