Kurago ran around in the rain. The rumbling was getting harder and the silent hymn of electricity was heavy in the air. His home was not safe anymore. Each night the rage of the storm was getting worse, the Nar’shil¹ were ignored and more men went missing.

They had to leave the islands, but the speakers were against it. They kept demanding sacrifices to appease the Storm. It started with burning incense, but soon it became blood. In the end even lives as the males of the tribe ran around the fields and groveled not to be killed.

It was not always like this, in the past the Storm sheltered the islands from enemies. Not even Dragons dared enter because they were no match for the fury of the Storm. Some days he walked among us. Picking fights with and taking part in the lives of the tribe. Then he stopped visiting and the weather worsened. The speakers beseeched him and they were killed as a message to us. A message that our friend, the Storm was no more… A new name had taken his place, Eranika².

Therefore, Kurago kept running and moving, hoping that his prowess would somehow appease the Storm. He knew better than that, Eranika did not care about him or the other males running around. We are just target practice he thought. As another shock reverberated through the night, he knew another one of his brothers died. He just kept running, what other choice did he have. At least none would know that rain was not the only thing running down his face. He ran towards the place that was hit by lightning, hoping to see a glimpse of who was taken. Before he reached the smoldering remains, he felt the air around him getting heavier. His skin started prickling and that was the only warning he got before the lightning struck.

Everything around him turned white, while he felt himself flying away. All sounds disappeared and he felt serene. He heard the rushing of the wind as if it muffled a song in the background. Static was humming around as something was drumming in the distance. The humming turned into an awful ringing noise. He tried to shut it out, tried to block the pain when something struck him in the chest. An image of his friend Gormen burned into his mind as the drumming became louder and droned everything out.

Kurago opened his eyes and saw a trailing wisp disappear into nothingness as a barely audible tune was playing in the back of his head. The storm had stopped after weeks upon weeks of unrelenting wind and lightning. Yet, he did not care to take in the sight. It was as if he did not even notice. He just ran home, he needed to know that Gormen was alive. That another one was taken, even though he knew, he would be wrong. The tribespeople were al outside and waiting for him, the rest had already returned. Kurago was taken aside by one of the elders who told him about Gormen.

“We have appeased Eranika. Still, in doing so, she has claimed Gormen. Everyone else has returned now that you are here.”

Kurago only reacted with; “We need to leave the islands!”

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¹Nar’shil, a fusion of the word for ‘spirit’ (nar) and ‘speaker’ (shil). Can be written with or without the apostrophe.

²Eranika, Primordial entity of calamity. In this story, she has killed a former storm deity to supplant him with one of her own. In the present timeline she has claimed wind (Sairan³), water (Aylana³), storm (Gormen³) and she is aiming to claim ice (Fenrath⁴) as well.

³Sairan, Aylana and Gormen are the three ‘children’ of Eranika, some have been mentioned.

⁴Fenrath is the Primal of survival, ice is his domain, he is also the deity of Orva.