Storm Warning
It is the biggest storm in over a hundred years.
Waves crash and roll, reaching well over the tallest trees and hills on the small island below. Thunder and lightning crash down, splitting trees and cracking stone. Freezing rain and sleet buffet the ground from above, while tremors rock the land from within. A unearthly, keening wail echoes around, the sound of war, pain, trauma, anger. It seems to come from everywhere at once, setting teeth on edge and making eyes open wide in fear, trying to see where the horrible predator lurks, trying to see where to run. This is not a place to see, hear, notice. This is hell on Earth, the result of centuries of battle and anguish. No one could live here.
Well...
A small figure can be seen on the rocks, peering out onto the ocean. The silhouette is odd—it walks on 2 legs, but it has claws, and…wings?
A different sound can now be heard-
The figure starts and suddenly turns around. It runs—no, glides down the slope. There couldn't be anyone who could move quicker than this wraith, as he makes his way silently down the ice ridden rocks. A normal man would have fallen twenty times by now, but the figure moves easily, ghosting over the ice patches and cracks in the earth like they aren't even there.
It stops suddenly and cocks its head to listen. Now it has stopped, there seems to be a strange sensation-a low pitched huummmmm that rumbles through the ground as much as it travels through the air. The sound warbles and undulates, crackling with intensity. The pitch is always changing-its impossible to tell what it is. However, one thing is for certain: it is steadily growing higher-and louder. The figure starts sprinting up the rock pile he has just reached.
With his speed, he quickly reaches a small cave, high on the rocks. It is the only thing higher than the monster waves outside. It seems to be in between the atmosphere and the ground; with the storm and the tremors, it seems like the Earth and the Sky are battling for control, causing the horrible noise and disasters.
This is actually closer to the truth than seems possible.
The figure looks quite small, now that he is silhouetted against the faint flickering light emerging from the cave. Without it, the cave would be lost among the uniform grey of the storm, completely invisible.
He doesn't pause for breath when he sees the cave. The sound seems to have reached a fever pitch. The light is extinguished quickly as soon as he enters.
The hum impossibly grows louder and louder and higher until...
A explosion of crimson rocks the ground.
The noise is unbelievable-like the entire power behind the hum for the past half hour was released in a millisecond. The shock-wave from the blast expands to cover half the island. Even the tremors stop to listen, and the wind seems to quail in fear in the wake of the horrible blast. Wispy steam and vapor clears, and the once-solid rock pile in below the cave is now just several feet of shifting dust, already disintegrating in the wind. The cave teeters on thin air...
Then, with an almighty crash, the crude shelter falls, and lands (thankfully right-side up) on the dusty ground below. There is no movement from inside.
The remaining stone on the outskirts of the blast glows and flickers impossibly with an eerie red flame, and, just visible in the sky above the thunderclouds, a dark shape swoops into the trees...
A/N: OK, this has gotta be a record-a rewrite that actually made the chapter shorter. Honestly, I like it the way it is: it conveys the horrors of the Island pretty well. Woohoo! I'm so excited for the next one! Hope you enjoyed!