Title The storm breaks

Author Stana, Kit

date 4/29/00

Stana stared at the sword angled at her throat and let
the bow slide down to a rest position. She heard Clip
behind her, pawing and shifting angrily atthe ambush,
but as of yet, he was making no move.

 "What are you doing here?" asked one. "You aren't
wearing the native dressof-"

Stana heard the words but it suddenly stopped making
sense. Their meaingwashed through her like some
unrecognized melody. The earth took a turnunderneath,
and she felt herself falling to her knees. She miht
have made asound, but she couldnt tell. The world had
suddenly became a dark miasmathat slid, slippery wet,
through her senses.

The Earth trembled violently underneath, and the trees
around the groupbegan to sway angrily, leaves swirling
like furious tears around and around.Clip screamed a
warning as the dirt underneath shifted, and he leapt
away assharp spikes of rock pushed upwards, stabbing
at the sky.

 Around all became confusion as the earth continued to
shake violently, caving in and bursting around them
all. Tufts of grass and sod rained over them, and the
treeboughs weaved ominously overhead.

The Unicorn faltered, losing his footing, he fell,
shifting into human formlong enough to have the
lighter frame absorb the impact before he was
back,Alicorn blazing like a distress beacon. He
struggled to get his feetunderneath, only to have his
footing snatched away as another tremor smackedinto
him. A frustrated snort was his only concession as he
scrambled againto get up.

Suddenly a burst of light split the sky, ripping it in
half. Stana screamed,as if unison with the follwoing
wave of thunder. The clear sky of moments ago had
turned overcast, and those clouds released their
burden. Clip was nearly flattened again as the water
pounded him from above.

 This was not just rain, but a bombardment of water
from the heavans. Another stroke of lightning slashed
across teh sky, striking a nearby tree in aspakling of
light and fury. No fire resulted out of it, but a
smoulderingcorpse of wood.

If Stana screamed, it would have been lost in the
primal fury of Earth and Water.

The Unicorn leapt forward, tossing his horn up and
rearing, admonishing theelemental betrayal. A Tree
limb shattered beside him, and rumble of thundernearly
deafened his hearing. With a burst of energy he
reached forward,struggling against the driving deluge.

 He saw the dim figure of the still crouching girl in
the halo of his Alicorn's glow, and another, dimmer
shadowbearing over her. He saw her look up, and reach,
and Clip saw a dimillumination, an echo of light spark
at her fingertips, before the shadow vanished.

The earth stopped trembling, but the barrage from
above doubled in fury, andthen inexplicably tapered
off. Audion found them minutes later. Unicorn standing
protectively over herprone form, defending Stana
against the nearly frenzied group that stared at them.

  The elementalist sighed inwardly, annoyed that
anyone had interrupted the journey so soon.  He'd
watched the other two go, and had checked briefly on
the ambassador before following.  His eyes narrowed
and he watched from the cover of the trees as the
figures moved around his traveling companions.  He
prepared a spell, a fire wall, to go off as he
commanded it.  The elementalist stepped from his cover
behind a few of the hostiles.  "Startling enterances
are not usually appreciated by strangers..."