The Breath of Kyne - Chapter 8: Tornado!

  • As they walked, Fjorrod had an uneasy feeling. Everything seemed so calm, at least at the surface, yet tension rocketed underneath the veil of peacefulness. Glancing around, he noticed that above the wispy white clouds, darker ones loomed, casting a shadow on the land.

    Ma’osri didn’t seem to notice this though. After a period of thoughtful silence that began after they crossed paths with the priestess, she became more talkative. Fjorrod didn’t want to ruin her good mood, so he went along with her, nodding yes and absently mumbling agreement. Good thing she can carry on a whole conversation by herself! Fjorrod thought, almost snapping himself out of his grim inward demeanor. ‘Almost’ being the keyword.

    But Ma’osri was far from blind, and eventually she noticed his distraction.

    “What’s wrong?” Ma’osri asked, seeming to be unbalanced by his now-apparent dark mood

    “Oh, it’s nothing. Nothing at al-” Fjorrod stopped talking suddenly as he looked to the horizon. Ma’osri, following his gaze, felt a chill go up her spine, as she witnessed the once sunny line in the distance disappear, being blotted out by dark clouds. As they saw this, both of them stopped, and watched the storm as it grew at an unholy rate, before the sound of lightning struck Fjorrod into action. 

    “Ma’osri, we need to go, NOW!” Fjorrod grabbed her hand, and the pair began running to their right towards a small caravan that was barely visible through a thicket. Fjorrod only noticing it because it sat in a small clearing. Dashing madly, they both raced towards it, despite being blown by winds of proportions unknown to anyone currently alive, besides some of the oldest High Elves that lived in Hammerfell many years past. Branches whipped at their faces, stinging them, though they failed to notice in their terror. Ma’osri reached out with a hand and cast a spell, summoning a light orb that helped them on their way. Smart girl. Fjorrod didn’t know she could cast, and wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Though obviously, there was a matter of priorities, and Fjorrod was fairly sure that escaping a tornado raging across the countryside trumped a few glowing spheres, so after his initial thought, he paid it no further mind.

    Out of the blue, or out of the gray, rather, lightning torched some plant life barely two meters in front of them. The sudden bolt took them both by surprise, and they leapt backwards a good three and a half feet. If the root systems of the trees didn’t distribute the electricity far into the ground, Fjorrod doubted they would have had a chance. Shaking themselves out of their fear, they ran forward once more, going around the glowering bush that was destroyed by the bolt. The clearing was only four meters away when a frighteningly powerful wave of air swept the two up with it. Fjorrod reached out, ignoring the sensation of weightlessness that overtook him, and grabbed Ma’osri’s hand.

    “HOLD ON!” He shouted out at her. Barely hearing him, she clung to his arm like an old Nord to her ways as a tree got in their way, winding both of them, though Fjorrod took some of the hit for Ma’osri, pushing his arm out of its socket in the process. The wind was constant though, and another gust took them up above the tree line, until gravity not-so-gently reminded them of its presence. Hitting the ground, Ma’osri’s grip was jarred off of Fjorrod, and she went tumbling away.

    Fjorrod began fighting the wind, rising up, digging deep into his last reserves of strength, and biting his teeth to keep from screaming from the pain of his arm, which he luckily didn’t land on. When he could finally stand, he charged into the storm, blundering nowhere, Ma’osri, the caravan, and the forest it resided in seemingly gone in the storm. Before, Fjorrod had heard about people who had went through tornadoes saying that the wind seemed alive, and he had always shrugged those stories off as the exaggeration of country-folk with nothing better to do than make up stories, expanding the terror to tenfold of what it actually was. Now though…

    As he looked, the clouds temporarily parted and gave him the vision of a huge funnel tearing up the ground in front of them, entire trees rising up into the sky, only to be spit down again with terrifying force. Boom, boom, they sounded, seeming like the fireballs of a mage ascended into godhood. He changed his course away from the tornado, and kept on, one feet in front of the other..

    What’s that whistling sound? Fjorrod thought before his entire world was flipped upside down, pain exploding from within him, his dislocated arm becoming broken. Forcing his head up, he saw the ruins of the caravan from earlier scattered around them, a wheel moving on its side, heavy woolen cloth flapping madly in the wind before tearing off from the pole that held it.

    Wha… Fjorrod thought, in too much pain to even complete that one word that stumbled into his brain, triggered at the sight of a blue diamond shimmering in front of him. He reached out with his good arm, feeling his body protest, yet he stretched out more and more until he had it. There were at least 14 other diamonds on the ground, closer ones as well, yet Fjorrod had only the desire for this one.

    Holding it lovingly, he felt like he forgot something. Hmm… Maybe Ma’osri knows what it is... Ma’osri! Where is she?! Feeling panic clutch his gut, he attempted to get up, before falling down again, not even lifting his legs off of the ground. Oh, he screamed in pain, his voice snatched by the thieving wind. Looking down, he saw his legs pinned by a heavy wooden bench, the kind that would of been a part of the main carriage when the caravan was intact. Fjorrod’s last conscious thought was Well, that explains it, before he passed out.

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Comments

9 Comments
  • Lyall
    Lyall   ·  May 1, 2016
    I didn't recall anyone else using a tornado, so I put one in. Thanks for reading!
  • The Long-Chapper
    The Long-Chapper   ·  May 1, 2016
    Well, tornadoes suck. Interesting turn of events. 
  • Lyall
    Lyall   ·  May 1, 2016
    It gets interesting, I'll tell you that... Thanks for reading this over before!
  • Edana
    Edana   ·  May 1, 2016
    The return of Fjorrod!! :) Obviously glad to see this go up and how things play out from here.
  • Paul England
    Paul England   ·  May 1, 2016
    Good call!
  • Lyall
    Lyall   ·  May 1, 2016
    There. "Branches whipped at their faces, stinging them, though they failed to notice in their terror."
    Better?
  • Lyall
    Lyall   ·  May 1, 2016
    Hm... I think you guys are right, I'll rearrange that. Also, because none of this says "I", it's a third person perspective. I basically swap a bit between looking in Fjorrod's eyes, and saying what's going on. 
    It doesn't seem nitpicky at all to me...  more
  • Paul England
    Paul England   ·  May 1, 2016
    I think Sotek is right there - and I think it's simply that 'minor' seems too technical, or impersonal, for what is otherwise a dramatic scene - but there's something apart from the 'minor pain' issue; it's the 'they failed to notice' which seems a little...  more
  • Sotek
    Sotek   ·  May 1, 2016
    A nice chapter Lyall.
    One thing threw me though...
     Branches whipped at their faces, stinging them with minor pain, though they failed to notice.
    I don't like the 'with minor pain' part. It breaks the flow of an otherwise nice scene. May...  more