The Avril Storm
By: Star of Atlantis
A storm was coming. There was no doubt about it now. The wind had dropped the sky onto the ground with crashing force. The clouds of thick black churned as if a blender, and the moon like a brilliant silver penny floated playfully in the rolling tumbles of the restles sky. The waves beneath her crashed into the cliffs as though they could not wait to get into bed with the shore, and in doing so their love making was fierce, and charged with passion. Thunder rolled along, but without lightning yet...
There was only one watcher out on such a night. The others had long since boarded their shutters, and burrowed into their blankets, with their feet up to the flames of their hearths. There was but one who waited anticipating the storm she was as charged as Saint Elmo's fire. There would be magick tonight, a magick so powerful that the Gods would have to stop and take notice of what was being done below them. Most of the time they ignored the lowly humans, but evey once in a while, there came a child of such power that they were forced to pay attention. Avril waited.
She had climbed to the top of the clifts. Black glass like stones ragged and hungry and slippery even when dry, they were precarious at best when the storms of this magnitude came, yet the rains had yet to start. Avril had made the climb just as the sky had told her that the storm was coming. She stood there as it built from it's infancy. She had streached her spirit out, becoming one with the energy of it as it formed. Now it played with her long brown hair and pulled at the deep blue cloak she let fly like a kite behind her. Her snow white dress billowed out, but still hugged and carressed her, showing the curves of a perfect body, the kind of body that made every man in the village hard as the standing stones on the fairy island not far off the coast from where she stood. Her eyes, an intense blue like that of a pirates jewel could drown you in a glance, watched the sky as the first lightning crashed through the foaming clouds spreading out like a tree. Now was the time...
She had brought none of the usual tools of magick. The elders would have called this foolish, but she was wiser then they were. The traditional tools of staff, or sword, or even crystal wand were nothing to the power burning inside her soul! Her heart would be the beacon, and would slice the night with a powerful lightning of its own!
When the first tree of lightning cracked open the sky ripping at it with its teeth till the rains poured from the heavens, Avril closed her eyes. She lifted one tiny white hand placing the delicate perfect alibaster fingers over her heart and began to tap softly to the rhytm of her heart. Thump... Thump... Thump... then the power came, and she let it carry her up with it. Her hair and dress stuck to her body so tightly by the rain almost choked her, but she kept on, there was no turning back now! Thump... Thump... Thump... now her feet were not on the ground... the wind had begun to listen to her calling it, and had lifted her with the gentleness of a mother picking up her sleeping babe. It carried her light as a feather, out over the unruly sea. Thump... Thump... Boom... Boom... Boom... The storm was listening to her now. Her heart and soul had a voice, louder than the thunder that competed with her calling.
Magick filled her till she glowed with the radiance to rival the Goddess Moon, who was at the height of her power, but she didn't give up, and she didn't open her eyes. This had to work, or she would be lost, and the storm, and the Gods would swallow her, and she would be lost even to the world of the dead!
Boom... Boom... Boom... her consistant tender fingertips tapped out the beat of her heart. Avril knew she was now above the clouds, and that a zillion stars were gazing down on her, but she did not risk opening her eyes. Now she spoke her words to the stars watching her and the storm carrying her. No more than a whisper from her lips, but echoing with the breath of all the storm and its power, it bounded off every house, and ever ear, till all were forced to silence, and need.
"Kale." the single word froze the chaos.
"Avril is calling!" Boom... Boom... Boom...
There was a faint whisper but it reached her ears any way, and she tilted her head to listen... It was still undistinguishable from the wind, but it melted into here like the warmth of the sun, and she realized she was shivering, and almost faltered in the tapping that would have crashed her into the sea where the storm would have ground her body into a bloody pulp against the cliffs of black glass far below her. Avril caught herself just in time and the tapping remained strong.
Boom... Boom... Boom...
"Avril..." the whisper a bit stronger now but pained... strained... streatched to close to death, But she was listening!
Boom... Boom... Boom... "I am coming, Kale!" her whisper replied with the magnitude of the storm which was now her voice.
All of a sudden, in her minds eye, she was spinning dizzily out of control. The magick taking her way beyond her abilities. Instinct saved her. Avril reached out her other hand,it was grasped tighly by a strong, large, calloused hand, and she clung to it with her life! Her eyes were tightly shut, but the hand pulled her to him, closing around her till she was cradled against the heaving chest of a man. The tapping stopped when her arms automatically intertwined around him holding him close to her as tightly as she could. Avril didn't need to open her eyes to know where she was, and in whose arms she was now protected and cradled into. He kissed her hair. They crouched together, as the anger of the storm raged against them. They Had defied the Gods, and now the storm was their punishment. Hours, and hours, it raged, but the couple did not let go of each other.
When the storm had spent itself Avril was asleep.
Kale held his most sacred treasure to him. He would have died without her but her love had healed all his wounds. He had been lost to everyone, but the light of her soul had brought him back to the cliffs of his home land. This tiny woman who now slept cradled against him, had risked it all to save him. His love poured over for her. There would be no stopping him now! His father, the King, could banish him now, and he still wouldn't change his mind about this. When Avril woke up, he would marry this little peasant witch, who had brought him home, and he would love her with his soul for the rest of his life, the world be damned!
Avril smiled as she slept in her lover's arms. Kale smiled knowing her dreams were sweet.
The end.
Honorable winner
Adding your comment:
One of the most important elements of a story is its theme, or underlying message. If you have a good idea what that is, it makes writing the rest of the story much easier. We do ask (it's a rule, in fact) that you put your theme and "SOW contest" in your author notes...so a slight deduction there, but something I'm sure you'll remember next time...and I really do hope we'll see you again in these contests!
Grammer snob lol 
