Blade West: Book 1

Chapter 4: Ven Spannessar

I've never been a fan of lightning. Lightning is...terrifying. Its unfathomable to me to think that clouds can generate such tremendous energy that has the power to kill anything instantly, turn sand into stone, and strike faster than a pissed off viper. I know some people who are more afraid of thunder than lightning, but thunder has never been my issue: lightning has been and it's because lightning will strike you before your ears will ever hear that you've been struck.

And yet...here I was at this waterfall, in this mysterious land, and yellow lightning raced across the sky like a spiderweb. Was a storm approaching? Then again, I didn't see any clouds. I've heard that sometimes lightning can appear without the presence of clouds, but still...something was off. Just another one of my hunches. Why now you know? Why a random arc of lightning?

I know you've heard the saying, "Curiosity killed the cat?" I'm not a feline, but I might as well have been. A skinny flash of lightning struck the ground a few feet in front of me and the ground shook. Though the strike was thin, the strike was herculean. My body sat, paralyzed, but my soul had left my body.

What in the world is happening I thought to myself. In the distance though, I saw a silhouette...and it looked like an actual person. It was hard to make out the exact location, but I could've sworn it was in the same spot as where that lightning struck.

The silhouette continued to shake and get closer and that 100% confirmed my theory that that was a person. But who? And why?

As the figure got closer to me, I was able to make out some features. The figure was presumably male; slender body, big spikey blonde hair. The biggest feature I could make out on this person, outside of the hair, was their jacket: it was yellow and was so long it looked like it was almost touching the ground. I couldn't see the intricacies of the jacket from this far off, but I did see that there were 3 chain like fixtures strapped across the left flap and right flap of the jacket that kept it closed around the chest area. Around the waistline, the front of the jacket split open revealing the person's legs but stayed connected in the back. Almost like a cloak. I've never seen anything like it honestly.

I won't lie, my anxiety kind of freaked out a little bit. I felt the ba-dump in my chest a little too strongly for a few seconds. Was I about to die here? What did this dude want with me? Was he even human? I know that last one was a little dramatic, but you catch my drift! What should I do? Should I run? But if he was the one who was responsible for that lightning, there's no doubt that he'd catch me, or worse, just strike me down. I hated being so pessimistic, but I didn't know what to expect. This had already been the worst day of my life...

After a few terrifyingly long minutes, he was finally here. He stopped at a few footsteps away from me and we made eye contact.

His skin was warm, more like apricot. His eyes were a dark brown color, similar to mine. Though I was terrified, I didn't let my face show it. His face on the other hand looked serious. It was a blank serious stare neither give nor take. But...it looked...off? His eyes had a certain look to them that made me get warm feelings from him. He looked like somebody who was usually happy but had to be serious because of the circumstances. It didn't make sense and we hadn't spoken a word to each other, but that was the feeling I got from holding eye contact with him.

To confirm my suspicions, at that moment, his face softened, and I was relieved. "Uh...hi there" was what he said. His voice wasn't overly deep, but it wasn't high pitched either. He had to be maybe 19 or 20 if I had to guess. "Hello sir" was what I responded with.

"Do you mind if I take a seat with you? I'd like to introduce myself." He said extending his hand to the ground. I noticed that his pants were a bright white and so were the cotton like gloves on his hands. His shirt underneath his jacket was an accompanying yellow and so were his nice yellow high tops. "Sure, but I'd hate for you to get your pants and your nice jacket dirty" I responded. He smiled and said, "No need to worry about me my friend."