Thorunn

1

It began as it always did, in the middle of the night.

Kenton jerked awake at the screams that came from outside and shaded his eyes against the flashes of light filtering through the shuttered windows.

"Ken?" a sleep-soft voice called. "Are the bad men here again?"

Kenton nodded and slipped out of bed, glancing towards the bedroom his parents shared. A light was on, visible through the curtain hanging across the doorway, but he didn't see shadows moving or hear their voices.

"Come," he whispered, taking his sister's hand. "Let's get to the cellar."

Annie padded quietly alongside her older brother to the kitchen, where the siblings opened the larder and lifted boxes to reveal a well-worn trapdoor.

"In you go." Kenton handed Annie a solar-powered emergency light once she reached the bottom of the ladder. He slipped in after her, using a rope attached under the boxes to pull them back over the trapdoor once it fell shut. "Can I have the lamp?"

Annie passed it to Kenton's waiting hands. A click sounded, and light filled the tiny room.

Kenton coughed. He hoped they wouldn't have to stay down here too long. He missed his bed and stuffed animals already. The cellar wasn't really more than a hole in the ground that four people and some boxes of food. The solar lamp provided some light, but there was little ventilation, and Kenton's parents had been adamant about the dangers of staying in the cramped space for too long without them.

Tonight, only Kenton and Annie had squeezed themselves into the musty cellar. Umama and Pa hadn't come down yet, and Kenton wondered if they were trying to talk to the soldiers again, pleading with them to see reason. Speaking with them had worked so far, but Kenton didn't understand why the soldiers kept coming and hurting them–hurting the whole town of Ethaba–when the only thing they'd done was befriend the forest people, but Pa had said that sometimes the only right way is the hard way, and the hard way doesn't pay much, and refused to speak more on the matter.

Kenton shivered and hugged Annie closer. They dared not speak, lest their voices carry above. After the lamp started to dim, Kenton switched it off to save power, and they sat in the darkness waiting for their parents to come and get them. They waited so long that Annie fell asleep, drool collecting on Kenton's shoulder. He drifted off as well, awakening later to find his arm trapped under Annie's. Manoeuvring around her was awkward, but Kenton managed and flicked on the solar lamp to check the time.

Five hours had passed–almost the whole night! Umama and Pa had never taken so long to fetch them before. Kenton shook Annie awake.

"It's daytime now. Keep hiding while I look for Umama and Pa, okay?"

Annie nodded, words lost in a wide yawn. Kenton wrapped their blankets more snugly around her and tugged on the rope to move the boxes atop the trapdoor so he could scramble out.

Upstairs was quiet. Too quiet, and a bad tingling began to churn in Kenton's tummy. Early morning sunlight filtered in from the still-shuttered windows, and he frowned. Usually they'd been thrown open already. If only the clasps weren't so high he could have unlatched them himself, but he had to let them be, moving on into the sitting room, which had his and Annie's beds tucked in the corner. Mister Lion still sat on his pillow, and Kenton gave him a brief hug. Mister Lion surely was scared after hearing the solfire and yelling all night. Kenton clutched the worn softie to his chest and pushed aside the curtain leading to Umama and Pa's room.

He called for them, jumping onto the bed when they didn't answer. But his now taller vantage point offered no further clues to their whereabouts. Kenton ran back to the kitchen and ducked into the short corridor leading to the front. He hadn't noticed before, intent on finding his parents, but the door was ajar, creaking as the breeze turned it this way and that. He crept up to the opening and peered out.