• Legends of Eterra

    CHAPTER I: The Calm Before the Storm

    Albion, Oklahoma, August 15th, 1993

    Ellenore Hensley was on her way home to eat dinner with her family for the last time.

    In her father’s old ’78 Ford F100 Ranger, she traveled down an old, dusty road at dusk, the engine softly growling as it rolled across the desolate cornfields belonging to the small farms that were scattered across the small town of 134 people. In the back of the truck, a german shepherd barked at a two boys riding their bikes on the side of the gravel road. The truck’s windows were rolled down and in the driver’s seat, Ellenore smiled widely as the summer’s warm air infiltrated her blonde locks. The truck was kicking up dust and debris that created a fine brown mist, billowing from behind the truck as it rumbled across the dusty trail.

    The summer of 1993 in Albion had been more dry than usual. There hadn’t been a thunderstorm in almost four months; it was leaving the crops dry and lifeless and the livestock hungry; something that families in Albion couldn’t afford to lose.

    Ellenore turned her head slightly to the left. She could see the sun setting behind a giant crater; all that was left after a meteor had hit almost five years ago.

    It had become a huge conversation piece when it had hit, and it still was. No one was supposed to go near it, but it certainly didn’t stop the two boys, who were now sliding down the sides of the large depression into the center of it. They had carelessly left their bikes in the wake of the last rays of twilight. Ellenore shifted her glance between the crater and the road, something she often did as she was driving on this lonely road towards her home.

    ∞

    The smell of potatoes and gravy were filling Ellenore’s nostrils before she even laid her hand on the handle of her front door. Max, the german shepherd, was quick to jump out of the truck and stay behind Ellenore. When she turned the handle to open the door, Max slipped past her and dove in before she did, quickly trotting to the kitchen where the source of the fine smells were. Ellenore shut the door behind her.

    “I’m home,” she announced, placing the keys in a small bowl on the table off to the side, casually walking into the kitchen, where her mother and Max were waiting. Max was sitting now, looking patiently at the bowl of mashed potatoes and asparagus sitting on the counter. His bushy tail swished back and forth happily, and he cocked his head, in hopes that some small morsel would drop to the ground. Ellenore’s blue eyes scanned the room as her hand rested on the side of the threshold. Her mother turned around.

    “Elle,” she said, a disappointed look passing over her face, “You’re late.”

    “Sorry,” she muttered half-heartedly, grabbing a plate from the cupboard and returning to the counter to dish some potatoes from the bowl. Max let out a soft whimper.

    “Where did you go this evening? I was expecting you back by seven,” she added sharply, “You weren’t off by that crater, were you? You know your father doesn’t want you around there.”

    “No, Mom,” Elle rolled her eyes, “I wasn’t by the crater. I went to go fill Dad’s tank up,” she finished, taking a bite out of her asparagus, turning on her heel to sit down. Max was immediately on his feet and followed her to the table.

    “Elle,” came another low tenor from the far corner of the room. Emerging from the other room was Elle’s Dad, who looked like he had just come from outside. His shirt had a hint of dirt and other debris on it. It was fairly common to see him walking around their house with soiled clothing; as a farmer, he often worked long hours in the hot Oklahoma sun in the summer time, tending to the crops, which were suffering because of the four months they had gone without any rain. He sat down, his hand reaching over the scratch behind Max’s ear, which made his tail swish back and forth happily.

    “How much was it to fill up the tank?”

    “$16.00 even, I think?” she replied, eating another strand of asparagus. Elle’s dad reached forward as if expecting something.

    “I gave you a twenty, lady.”

    Elle grumbled and reached into her pocket to retrieve the remaining four singles she was hoping to keep from her dad. She slapped it in his palm and he retreated, just as her mother came around with the rest of dinner to put on the table. When she took a seat, she cleared her throat and started to talk as she broke off a piece of bread. Elle starred quietly down at her plate.

    “When do you move in your dorm?” Elle’s dad nonchalantly asked. Elle looked up from her plate. Her eyes were almost sullen. She had suddenly forgotten that she was moving out in less than a week to start her first semester of college at Oklahoma State. Though she had reminded him dozens of times, Elle obliged to answer his question again.

    “Next week, Monday,” she answered. Her dad nodded approvingly, “Thought about anything you’d like to do?”

    I don’t know. I don’t know what I want to do with my life, Dad.

    “I don’t know yet,” Elle shook her head. Her mother piped in quietly.

    “She’s got plenty of time to think about it,” she reminded her father, “Right, Jim?”

    “I suppose,” he replied reluctantly. Elle fell silent. It was a subject she struggled to avoid; talking with her father about her future was often heated, so Elle was careful not to bring it up. However, she couldn’t control what her father was thinking, so when he brought it up, the answers were often short until he would eventually change the subject. Elle, however, was just as worried as her father. It was such a huge change in such a short time; the only thing she was sure about was that staying in Albion was not an option. The phone suddenly rang, cutting through the tension of the subject. Her mother pushed herself away from the table to answer the phone.

    Max was grumbling again from underneath the table. Elle sneaked him a strand of asparagus when her father looked casually over at his wife on the phone. Max lapped it up with one gulp. Satisfied, he trotted off into the living room to look out the window.

    “Want to see something cool?” her father chimed in, getting his daughter’s attention.

    Elle’s eyes fell on her father, who was reaching inside his pocket to pull something out. She watched him with curiosity as he withdrew a pendant from his pocket, handing it to Elle. Elle, in turn, raised her eyebrows at the item in her father’s palm, carefully lifting it to examine it herself.

    “Where did you find this?” she asked with a small smile on her face. Her father reclined back in his chair. Elle examined the treasure that her father had found. It was a jade pendant with dragons that were carved into the sides. It’s intricate pattern surrounded a small mirror that lying in the center. Elle’s mystified expression was looking back at her and she looked into the mirror.

    “Ben from across the road found it near the crater. Said he didn’t want it, so I took it. Wonder how much it’s worth?” he wondered absently. Elle clutched her hands around the pendant.

    “N-No, don’t sell it!” she protested, “It’s too pretty.”

    Her father laughed, “Alright, Elle. You hang on to it for me. Don’t lose it now, you hear?”

    Elle looked back at his twinkling eyes. She smiled, nodding and looking back at her new-found treasure.

    “Don’t tell your mom I was over there, though,” he added, “She’ll kill me.”

    Just then, her mother rounded the corner. She had finished her telephone conversation and sat back down to finish her dinner.

    “There’s a large storm coming in from Missouri. That was Laverne on the phone. I can’t believe she’s still living in St. Louis with her husband; they were talking about moving to Chicago. We were talking about the big storm they just had, so I forgot to ask,” her mom rambled on. Elle wasn’t paying attention. She as looking at how beautiful the pendant was, lying in her hands.

    ∞

    The wind had picked up significantly. It was rustling the trees outside of Ellenore’s bedroom. Max was curled up at the foot of her bed, fast asleep. Elle had fallen asleep on her side with the pendant still clutched in her hand. The trees had been rustled so violently that they were scratching up against the window. Max lifted his head suddenly, awakened from his slumber. He looked out the window, eyes carefully scanning for anything out of the ordinary. His eyes moved upwards to the sky; the clouds were moving more quickly now, and rain began to fall, softly, than progressively more hard as the clouds moved in. Max leaped off of the bed and began barking at Elle. He was circling and whining before sitting down and waiting for her to wake up. Ellenore stirred, sitting up to look at her dog, frustration written across her tired face.

    “What,” she hissed in the darkness at her dog, who whined again, “What’s the matter with you?”

    Max’s whining progressed into loud warning barks, twice, three times in a row, spaced out by a few seconds, then coming in doubles and triples again. Elle looked out the window as the rain hit her window pane in hard droplets. It wasn’t long before the hail started raining down on her entire house, creating clanks and clicks and loud rattling noises that rattled on every window in her house, including her own window. Max’s tail was flippant; it swished back and forth with urgency and he barked a few more times. Elle rushed to her feet and downstairs, where her mother, frantic, flew around the corner and bumped into Elle by accident with a short yelp before grabbing her daughter’s arms to steady herself.

    “Elle, I-I was just coming to wake you,” she said through breaths, “it’s the storm, I was just getting up to close the windows!”

    “Where’s Dad?” Elle asked, eyes falling into a spell of anxiety.

    “He’s outside, we went to go cover the crops,” her mother said, walking around her daughter and reaching for the nearest window to shut it. Her father came bursting into the door. His presence demanded silence; Elle and her mother both looked at him.

    “There’s a tornado that just touched down, it’s headed this way. We have to get to the basement. Now.”

    Though he wasn’t loud, there was a sense of urgency that was intertwined with each word. The windows began to rattle maliciously with the wind, rain, and hail, raiding anything it’s path and coming down at full force. The entire house rumbled and vibrated as the sound of thunder roared above them, flashes of light that shone through the windows beckoning more forceful sounds onto the house, and the land above it. With another rumble and loud clap of thunder, the wind thrust the door open, and the gusts of wind that came barreling through the significantly smaller passage way knocked over books, dishes, and lamps without mercy. When her father opened the door to the basement, Max was the first to plow through and rush downstairs. When her parents rushed in and reached for her hand, there was a low, ominous rumble.

    It wasn’t thunder, they noted, but something much larger.

    The wind tunnel that had terrorized the small town of Albion ripped off the front wall of the Hensley home, with resulted in the screaming of Elle’s mom, but for Elle, everything went silent.

    Elle’s hands slipped from her father’s powerful grip. The pendant that her father gave to her was still clutched in her palm. It twinkled brightly before Ellenore completely disappeared into darkness, whipped away into the malevolent winds.

    Within seconds, Ellenore was gone.