Tempest

1 - Run Tempest. Run!

1963
She was running.

The fires around her burnt her skin and she could actually smell burning flesh as she ran. Screams resounded all around her, piercing her ears and her heart. She wanted to stop and help but she could not. Then, her heart overrode her brain and she stopped to help a mother who was being attacked by a large werewolf. She growled and jumped onto his back, twisting his head quickly and breaking his neck. She quickly jumped off him and rushed over to help the young lady and her child up off the ground.

"Run, Tempest," her mother said to her through their mind-link. Her head whipped around as she searched for the source of the voice. "No matter what you hear or see, don't stop running until you are out of danger. Don't look back. Don't ever look back."

Tempest whimpered, her throat burning from the harsh smoke and acrid smell of death around her. She had been separated from her parents when they had been attacked. Her father's guard had been sent to protect her but he had been attacked by a large group of weres and he had screamed at her to run.

She ran past bodies, pushed past people who were equally scrambling for safety. 

"Run faster, Tempest. And remember, we love you." That was her father's voice. Then, just like that, she lost them. There was no warning, no heads up. The link went quiet so suddenly it took her breath away.

"Mom? Dad?" She whispered this through what should have been their connection but there was no response. The loss she felt within her being almost dropped her to her knees. She felt the emptiness within her and she knew they were dead. Gone. There was no other plausible explanation for the absolute void that was left behind after the break of their bond.

Terrified, she ran faster. She ran so fast that the people around her seemed to be moving in slow motion. She wanted to turn around and look but she knew they were probably behind her. Besides, her parents had told her not to look back. It was one of the last things they had told her.

We love you.

They were gone. Severed from her consciousness.

She ran.

Within moments, she had run over a kilometre. She ran so fast that the wind seemed to have moved aside to let her pass. When she finally slowed down, she did dare to take a look behind her, in spite of her parents' warning. In the distance she saw the flames, smelt the damage caused by the fire and heard the roar of those who had attacked her kin. Her keen eyes looked for her family. Her ears, attuned to their voices for so many decades, listened for them.

There was nothing for her to reach towards. It was almost as though they had been moved from where they should have been, from the places in her heart and mind that they had been housed in her whole life. For many heartbeats she listened for them, reached for them within their link but there was nothing. It was as though they had been removed from existence.

With her heart breaking within her chest she looked towards the new moon and howled. The sound was loud and long and it sought comfort. There was no response to it yet she waited for a while. Then, she heard a snarl and it sounded like it was heading towards her. It was then that she turned and ran. She ran for seven hours straight, not stopping until she could no longer move. Finally, her strength abandoned her and she fell face first onto the ground.

*

When she came to she was lying in a warm bed. Her clothes had been changed and the soot and dirt had been cleaned off of her. She sat up abruptly and almost head butted the woman who had her hand on her forehead. She was greeted by warm brown eyes and a soft smile.

"I was wondering what colour your eyes would be," the woman said softly. "I didn't expect them to be that colour at all."

"How long have I been out?" Tempest asked. Her throat was dry and her voice came out sounding like a toad had taken residence there.

"Almost forty-eight hours," the soft voice said. "You need to rest."

Tempest shook her head and slowly got out of bed, her legs wobbling as her feet touched the ground. "They will find me. They already —. My family." She shook her head again and then looked around for her clothes.

"They already passed this place. You are safe here," the woman said.

"How?" Tempest asked, afraid to believe her.

"My name is Aida, by the way," she said, not answering her question.

"How?" Tempest asked more urgently, wanting to believe that they had passed but afraid to do so.

Aida sighed. "Let's just say that l know a thing or two about hiding from beings that I don't want to find me."

"You're a witch?" Tempest ask.

Aida laughed, the sound melodious and making Tempest want to laugh with her. "Call me what you want. It doesn't make a difference to me," she said. "But you. You are not like the others I have met." There was a puzzled frown on her face now. "You're a were, yet not a were. That's why they were after you. They need something from you."

Tempest stood up and headed to the door of the small room she was in. She reached for the handle but stopped when Aida spoke behind her.

"I can teach you." Her voice was hesitant. "I can teach you things that you could use to protect yourself. My husband and I have lived here for a hundred and three years and we are yet to be discovered."

Tempest's hand touched the handle. "At least stay until you're fully recovered," Aida said.

Tempest closed her eyes and a tear squeezed itself out from beneath her lids and rolled down her face. Where would she go? She had no one left. She had nowhere to go. She was alone.

She had watched her home burnt to the ground by unknown assailants.

She had lost her mother and father, along with all the people she held close to her heart.

Her tribe was gone and she could not link any one of them anymore.

She had nothing left.

What choice did she have? She could stay. But only until she was strong enough. Until she was physically stronger and able to move on. She noted the weakness in her limbs and knew she would be a sitting target if she went out like this.

She turned to look at the tall slender woman who still sat on the bed. Her brown hair was left loose to cascade down her back and her brown eyes held nothing but curiosity and warmth. If she had been living here for more than a hundred years, she was clearly a supernatural. She was not offering anything that Tempest did not need. She was afraid, however. Recent events were an indicator that she could bring the people who had killed her family here. More innocents would be killed. She could not live with that.

"No one will ever know you are here," the woman, Aida, said softly as though she knew her thoughts. "You are safe here."

War waged within Tempest. She knew she should leave but she was unable to right at this point. Her trembling body finally convinced her.

She would stay a few days and then she would leave.

"Ok," she said, trying hard to mask the tears. "I will stay for a bit."

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30 August 2020
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