The Glass Blower's Daughter

Unwanted Company

Main character-Aura (Oar-ah) wind/air

Older Brother- Ember –fire, burning low

Younger brother- Finn- water

Younger sister-Briar- Earth

Parents- Grady and Ahyoka (ah-YOH-kah) Lawson

Chapter 1: Unwanted Company

The thunder rolls in the darkness of the night, shaking the small shack of our little house at the bottom of the mountains. The windows rattle to life on the verge of shattering with each deafening echo of the thunder. I should be asleep in my bed but the thunder ricochets within the walls of the mountains; the lightening startles me each time it strikes jolting my body to stay alert. I know it's just another summer storm passing by but I can't stand nights like these. Nights where the tethering trees sway high above us; just waiting to snap and tumble down crushing us to death.

When I was a little girl and storms would come along like this, I always thought that the mountains would crumble around us and swallow us whole right into the mountain and to never be seen again. My parents swore to me that it was not possible. However at that age, I thought anything was possible. I have heard many tales about the mountains and for some reason a lot of them stuck to me like glue.

Even now as I lay here wide awake listening to the storms I have a feeling something is going to happen. I sit up in my bed and look over at my little sister sound asleep. I wish the storms would let me sleep like that but no I can't get that lucky. I throw the covers off of me and get out of the bed to walk over to the window. Drops of rain pound on the window and I just know if it keeps this up the window is sure enough to crack. These windows are over a hundred years old. This house has been here for centuries, handed down to my pa by his pa, by his pa and so on.

This is where my pa grew up with my grandfather. This piece of land within the mountains is where generation after generation lived and honored the land. It's not that they had a lot of money or if they ever did they never bragged or acted like it anyway. I mean hello if we had money why would we be living in the most run down place ever. I refuse to bring anyone here. I know what you are thinking that I should not be ashamed of where I come from but peers talk and I don't want to be the main gossip of the area. I already get enough crap at school due to my skin. My mother is full Indian while my father is considered a white man, so that leave my siblings and I somewhere in between. My mother side rarely has anything to do with us and my father's side we have grown up around them but I see how they look down on us.

The one thing that the family did own though was this land and on this land is where they made the finest pieces of glass. Glass that is sold at our shop in the small tourist town not too far from here and pieces that my pa happens to ship all over the world. Several of the pieces are worth hundreds of dollars. I never have asked where all the money goes but if it was mine I would for sure rebuild this house that seems to be falling apart with each step that I take across the floor. I don't know why I bother to tip-toe it's not like it makes a bit of difference.

I reach up to pull the curtains tighter together hoping that it will take out most of the light from the storm and as I am pulling them closed I notice that the barn door is cracked open. I'm sure my brother forgot to close it all the way. I shake my head in annoyance and grab my robe and my slippers. I open the bedroom door and slowly creep down the steps hoping not to wake anyone up. Each plank beneath my feet moan and creak with each single step. I pause here and there, trying my best to be quite as possible. Once on the bottom floor, I reach over for my raincoat that is hanging on the back of the door. I kick off my slippers and step into my rain boots.