Rowan Nightshade's Short Stories

Winged Storm

Lightning flashed outside as me and my sister looked out her widow. The Sahara Desert, that our father had made our home on, looked pretty depressed. The hard-baked ground was still rich with color, but the sky was gray. Storm clouds cast the land in shadows, and I could see the rain pelting to the ground, trickling down my widow. Suddenly, a boom of thunder shook the cabin. My sister stiffened.

"I've heard this kind of thunder before!" she cried, abruptly getting up and pulling her coat and sandals on.

"Wait, what? When?" I say incredulously. It has only rained twice here, in my life. 

"Once before, six years ago. I'll finally going to see him again!" she cried, running out the door.

"Ava?!" I yelled after her. "Where are you going?!"

Pulling my flip flops on, I zipped up my raincoat and ran outside, after her, calling her name. She was about fifteen yards away, desperately searching the skies for something. The thunder boomed again, and again. She ran away from the house.

"Ava?!" I hollered at the top of my lungs."What is going on?!"

"I won't see him again, so close to the cabin!" she yelled back, halted, then began running again, away from our me.

"Who?!" I yelled. "Won't see who again?!"

She didn't answer, just kept running, and I ran after her.

She ran, and I followed, until our house was a tiny speck in the distance. When I finally caught up to her, she was watching the skies, a dreamy look on her face. I wanted to double over and catch my breath, but I forced myself to stay standing, watching the skies too.

"What is going on?" I asked quietly, but firmly, rain streaming down my coat.

She inhaled deeply. "Six years ago, there was a day that was exactly like this one. You had just been born, and you were crying, so Ma and Pa were comforting you. I was eight years old. I heard a call, on the wind, so I went outside. There was a shadow, in the clouds. It was flying. I followed it, until there was a break in the clouds. I couldn't see home anymore, and I was so terrified. I thought, if I got lost for this, then I at least had to see what the silhouette in the clouds was. And so, I waited. And I saw him! Through the break in the clouds. So when he flew past, I ran after him, and guess what? He led my straight back home."

"Who?!" I cried uneasily. "Who led you-"

Boom... boom.... boom... boom. Ava's head snapped up, and so did mine. And through the crack in the clouds, we saw him.

"He's here." Ava whispered, and I gasped in terror as he passed through the break in the clouds.

A beak. Neck. Wings. Then a tail, trailing behind him. The silhouette went on past, then circled around again, and I nearly fainted when I saw how big it was. Suddenly, a huge, golden eye, the size of a helicopter landing pad, peered out of the break in the clouds, and abruptly vanished

"Thunderbird." Ava whispered, tears of awe running down her face.