Chapter 3: The cloud
I stood on the street, watching the many children that passed by me. They were mostly around a similar age as me but all of them came with family and all of them would end up going to home to sleep in their permanent. I had neither. I was a street boy who earned most of his money by stealing or begging. If it was up to me, I wouldn't even care about money because I didn't need money to have anything. The birds would just bring me things without me asking. The endless gifts had seemed like a curse in the beginning but I had grown used to them and I made my living off of them. But my mother truly hated it when I brought her back something from the birds. She felt as if it was unfair that we were taking things that had been stolen. I always assured that none of the things were stolen. The birds had made sure to inform me that they steal nothing. Oh ya I can communicate with birds telepathically. It is not even like I call the birds, they just come to me. It is as if they believe it is their duty to help me. In many ways there were many more differences between me and these children passing me. I was extremely sure none of them could talk to birds. I had even asked a bird once to try to talk to one of the children but, in annoyance the child had just swatted away the bird. Then there was my mother who was the only family I had. I brought home money and food only for her because I loved her very much. She was a very beautiful person and it had been her beauty that had given us places to stay when I was little. It was only right that I make sure my mother stays happy by bring her home real money.
After collecting a good amount of money I walked towards the baker who had a stand two blocks over. My mother loved bread and surprising her would only make me happy. I approach the baker and hand him two silver drachma.
"Come for bread again, street boy, well here you are now get going your filthy clothes are causing me too lose buyers" the baker said. Now that he mentioned it, I realized my clothes were very dirty from lying in the mud all day. I would make sure to go home and shower. I took the loaf of bread and headed home. It would be a long walk to our small little shack at the edge of the tiny city. After I had walked a good distance, I made sure no one was around me. After inspecting to my heart's content I allowed the winds to push me in the air. Suddenly I felt a lot less tired and whole lot more energetic. I raised my hands and controlled the winds around me to slow down, it truly was a windy evening. I knew I had to get back quickly because my control on the wind would end as soon as the sky would go dark. I guess even boys with abnormal powers have limitations. My powers are completely useless in the night. I slowly allowed the wind to turn me towards my shack and then I burst forward. I was in no hurry to get home so I quickly slowed down the wind. The wind obeyed my every command. It was as if I were the supreme commander of the wind. As I glided through the wind I started thinking about things that I thought about a lot. The most major question I pondered was who or what my father could have been. I wanted to believe the story my mother always told me, that my father was just a lame ordinary man who chickened out from responsibility and left us, but it just didn't seem right. Whenever I'd think of my father like that the wind would whisper to me and tell me that it was all lies. It really seemed like my father was someone really important. Maybe it was him who had given me all these powers. Suddenly my train of thought was interrupted by the loudest scream I'd ever heard, it was my mother.
I sped the wind up as fast as I could, and all of my serenity that was there a moment ago completely vanished and was replaced by mortal fear. I had to get to my mother. I had to stop whatever was causing her pain. My mother was the most important person in my life, nothing would hurt her. The fear in my mind was just as quickly replaced by anger. An anger I had never felt before, a bone crushing anger. My shack came in sight and within seconds I was standing in front of the front door. I ripped it open and ran inside. The sight I saw was mortifying.
My mother was in the shack, but there was also another man, A man I had seen many times before. He would come here to trade with my mother. He was hurting my mother. He was trying to exploit her. I ran up to him and pushed him away with all my strength. He hot up just as quickly and knocked me aside.
"What do you think you're doing child, she is mine. Ever since I saw her beauty I knew I wanted her and no child will stop me. Now child watch as I make you a sibling", he smirked as he spoke. He turned towards my mother. Then, something snapped within me, something that had been hiding there a long time. I screamed at the top of my lungs and the wind flooded in from the front door. More wind splintered the windows and soared in. I raised my hands and closed them together, ordering the wind to close in on the man.
"You will not harm my mother!" I screamed even louder. The wind closed in on the man before he could even begin to fathom what was occurring. It closed around his neck and cut off his air supply. He tried his hardest to combat the invisible wind but the wind was endless there was nothing he could do. It continued to tighten until the man went limp. My mother looked at me in obvious shock.
"My..my son, how in the name of Zeus did you do that?" She asked, clearly baffled. I had no answer to her. I myself had no idea how I had forced the wind to kill the man. I heard movement outside. It looked as if many of the townspeople had heard the commotion and had come to see what had happened. Slowly the door to the shack opened and many individuals walked inside. They gasped at the sight they saw. To them it looked like I had killed the man out of rage as there was no sign of any of his wrong-doings.
"He..he has commited murder of this man for no reason" a startled towns person said. The rest of the town people realized the meanings of the words and all grew furious with anger.
"He must be given justice, he must also die." Many of the towns people spoke in anger. There was nothing I could do to stop them. I had no intention of using my powers again as they had stunned me too much. They dragged me to the city dungeon and there they would hang me for my crimes. It was the end for me, I knew it in my heart. I closed my eyes and waited for them to tie the noose around my neck. Suddenly there was a sound of materialization and I quickly opened my eyes to an astounding sight. It was another child around my age but wearing greek armor and holding a trident. He raised his hands and water flew out of the lake and pushed all the villagers away.
"Run Nimbus, I won't be able to keep them down without hurting them for a long time" the boy told me. He obviously didn't want to hurt them either.
"But who are you?" I asked.
"All in good time my friend." He spoke like we were friends which made me feel a lot better. I turned around and picked up my mother. Then I closed my eyes and let the wind take control.
I am Nimbus and my story is the most tragic in all of Greek history.