Written for the International Wizarding School Championship
School: Ilvermorny
Year: 1
Theme: International Wizarding Schools
Main Prompt: Thundering [Weather]
Second Prompt: "I can't believe that you did that!"_ exclaimed. "Have you gone completely mad?" [Dialogue]
Word Count: 2055
I own nothing you recognize. Please read and review.
Ania couldn't believe what Chihiro had wanted her to do. Her sister had insisted that she come and help her practice Quidditch. Chi was perfectly aware that Ania was afraid of heights. Sometimes she thought that her sister just liked to see her trembling on a broomstick. And still, Ania had said yes. She had borrowed her roommate's broomstick and come along to where her sister liked to practice. And now here she was, far higher than she'd ever be comfortable with, trying very hard to keep her eyes closed.
The weather didn't help either, marking its presence with ominous thunder ringing over the island. Flying was stupid. Why would you ever want to risk falling just to play a game?! It was almost as if-
Ania screamed as a flying projectile nearly hit her, it's path disturbing her careful hovering. She could barely track her surroundings as she careened away from the Quidditch pitch. There was a faint scream of "Ania!" as the wind took hold of her broomstick and she held on even harder than before.
The greys and blues of the clouds and ocean blurred together as the wind pulled her over the cliff and her broom flew out to sea.
Ania's heart felt as though it had taken up residence in her throat. The broom had spiraled out of control and was now drifting violently where the wind took it.
Thunder boomed and she looked up at the dark sky.
Isamu stared at his sister.
"You did what!?" he shouted, "You know that Ania is afraid of heights and can't fly to save her life!"
Chihiro rubbed the back of her neck and looked to the side. "I needed to practice." she murmured.
"I can't believe that you did that!" Isamu exclaimed. "Have you gone completely mad?" Chi looked away from him. He grabbed her broom from her hand, drawing her eyes to his face. "I'm serious," he shouted, "Ani literally cannot fly to save her life! Do you see that storm!?" he pointed over a small rise towards the edge of the island.
The sky in the distance was dark grey and blue. In the pause of the argument, both of the siblings could hear booming thunder. The sea looked extremely angry from their perch on the cliff.
Chi looked sick, "Do we have a plan?" she said.
Isamu looked over his shoulder at the jade palace that housed Mahoutokoro, and the angry clouds gathered above the school as well. "I think I do," he said, "Stay here, I need to go to the petrel nesting grounds."
Ania gripped the neck of the broomstick tightly. The thunder had increased in frequency, but at least there had been no sign of lightning yet.. She knew from class that being the highest object in the sky meant lightning would be likely to strike her.
She winced as the sky boomed, louder this time. She tried to urge the broom to the left slightly, but it refused to budge. Not that it would be helpful if the stupid stick would listen to her, she couldn't even see Minami Iwo Jima anymore. The wind had disoriented her for sometime as well, so she didn't even have the slightest inkling where she had come from.
The water itself was a strange deep navy blue color, but also frothy with enormous whitecaps. She normally loved looking at the sea that surrounded Mahoutokoro, on the days where it was calm and still, but even looking at the ocean today made her think of drowning. The sky was a bluish-black color, and very bulbous looking. They were moving very fast in the strong wind.
She was freezing, despite having worn her warmest clothing, even in one of Chi's Quidditch jerseys, one that her older sister had shoved over her head as soon as she had reached the Quidditch pitch that morning.
Ania suddenly felt a wetness on her head. She craned her neck so she was looking at the clouds, and was rewarded with a big, cold drop of water in her left eye. She called out in surprise and blinked rapidly, as sheets of rain began pouring down.
Chihiro looked out to sea in the direction that Ania had flow earlier. She could barely make out the horizon. This would be bad. This sort of storm was every Quidditch players nightmare. High winds, extremely poor visibility and the high chance of getting struck by lightning. She had no idea what Isamu was thinking. What use would the petrels be! They were just giant birds! She clutched at her broom nervously. Where was he?!
She was jerked from her brooding by a loud squawk. She turned to see her twin brother walking next to one of the school's giant storm petrels.
"Asuka has agreed to help us." he declared.
She between him and the bird incredulously. "What help is a bird, you idiot! The conditions out there are terrible and you want a bird to help?! Are you insane?"
He crossed his arms. "I learned in Creature Care that storm petrels can fly in some of the worst conditions at sea for days on end, and have a wonderful sense of direction. She'll be able to help us. This is my plan. You didn't have a plan."
She glared at him. "Fine. But only because we need to go rescue Ania. And I'm riding my broom."
"I never said you couldn't," he replied, "Now, which way did she go?"
Asuka was the most helpful petrel in the school's flock, in Isamu's opinion. She always helped him when his class was charged with taking care of the flock that week. The bird was always willing to carry around the basket of feed for him. So when Chi had told him what happened to their little sister, he had known to go find Asuka.
The silver colored bird took off from the edge of the cliff, not weighed down by the teenage boy in the slightest. Chihiro was hovering above them on her broom, struggling to stay in one place, buffered by the winds.
The petrel's wings were well suited for flight in this weather and that was displayed as they flew in the direction that Chi had pointed out. The weather was truly terrible. Isamu had no idea how Chi was still flying in this weather, much less made the sister that she know couldn't fly come out and try to play in. His twin really had gone completely mad.
He glanced up at the sky as the first few raindrops hit his jacket, staining the leaf green cloth dark. He glanced up at Chi's own green robe. At least they would be visible to Ania.
The few raindrops quickly turned to sheets of rain, slowing their progress somewhat.
Chihiro's robe was becoming waterlogged quite quickly. She was concerned for Ania. She had been out in the rain for far longer than she had been, and they were wearing the same clothing. If she was this wet than Ania must be soaking. Her little sister must be so cold.
Isamu's storm petrel turned sharply to the left. She followed it, trusting that her brother knew what he was doing.
The petrel had helped somewhat, as Isamu wasn't the best flyer around and could have slowed her down. However, it was still a stupid bird. Chi knew that it wasn't very nice of her to be thinking of that when Ania was in danger, but she had hated the petrels as a little kid, coming to Mahoutokoro during the daytime. They had always bothered her, with their size and how threatening they could seem. She had also never enjoyed how you couldn't see anything when they were flying. That just took all the fun out of it. Ania had never liked the rides either, but for a very different reason. Chi should have never asked her to help practice. Or at least not with the Bludgers. Yeah, Chi really had gone mad. Letting Blugers fly when an inexperienced player was on the pitch. True madness.
Ania was absolutely freezing. The water had run down her neck and under her clothing, soaking her to the bone. The sheets of rain had discouraged her from continuing her attempts to control the broom, so she just held tightly to the thin stick while the storm made its best effort to down her.
She hoped that the wind hadn't taken her far enough that she was close to the non-magical air base near Minami Iwo Jima. They were always told to stay far away from the non-magicals so they wouldn't break the International Statute of Secrecy. Besides, they were dangerous. Ania knew that much from the times she had gotten close to the nearby island.
Other than being close to the airbase, she must be really far away from Mahoutokoro now. She had no idea how she'd find her way back, with the thunder storm as bad as it was, and a unwilling broomstick.
Isamu could barely see Chihiro and her broom through the weather, and could only make her out due to the green color of her robe and the shape of her on the broomstick. Even then it was quite hard. Asuka was holding up very well, she hadn't slowed even once. Isamu was hopeful that there would be no problems finding their way back to school when they found Ania. Storm petrels were very good at finding their way home again.
He glanced down at his watch. It had been nearly an hour since they had stated searching, and a good half hour longer since Ania had left the island.
When he looked up he could see two blobs of green through the rain. Was the storm making him see things? One of the blobs looked like it was closer to him and the other seemed farther away. He urged Asuka ahead towards the blobs. As they got closer to the near blob, it became obvious that it was Chihiro. He waved to get her attention.
She turned around. "What?" she shouted.
He pointed towards the second green blob, that was still hovering in front of him. Chi turned to look where he was pointing and her eyes lit up.
"Ania!" she screamed as she shot towards the green blob, Isamu and Asuka following close behind.
Ania heard a faint shout that sounded a lot like 'What!'. She turned frantically from side-to-side trying to see where the shout had come from. She spotted a pair of indistinct figures to her left. One was much larger than the other. She strained her eyes to see the figures better, but one of them suddenly rushed towards her, closely followed by the other. For the second time that day, she heard a faint cry of, "Ania!" that got louder as the figures drew closer.
She screamed as one of the figures collided with her. The thing was quite soft but also very wet.
"I'm so, so sorry Ani! Please forgive me!" the figure said. The larger figure had pulled up next to the precariously floating tangle of Ania and what was obviously Chihiro. The larger figure was Isamu riding on one of the school giant storm petrels. The world had gone absolutely mad.
Isamu held Ania's broom across his lap as Ania wrapped her arms around his waist.
Chihiro looked at him. "How are we going to get back to the island?" she asked.
He leaned forward and rubbed Asuka's head. "Can you take us home, girl?" The storm petrel let out a squawk and flew off in what seemed like a random direction. Chihiro followed the speeding bird closely behind.
Soon enough, the dark shadow of the Minami Iwo Jima cliffs fell over them, and Asuka turned sharply upwards. They skimmed the cliff face and Ania squeezed him tightly to avoid falling off.
They touched down at the edge of the cliff, and Isamu pulled Ania down from Asuka's back.
He rubbed the birds head again. "Thank you so much girl, I'll come visit you tomorrow with treats, ok?" Asuka chirped and bumped her head against his before flying off.
He turned to his sisters. "Let's go inside to dry off, ok?" They nodded and started up the path to the obscured Mahoutokoro.