The ruins of thunder house

"C'mon!" shouted Elektra Torsson at her younger brother. "Hurry!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" huffed her brother, Thorn Torsson, crossing a rough patch of rock.

"Not fast enough, apparently." Elektra crossed the rusted gates and past a crooked weathered sign with faded writing that said: "THUNDER HOUSE. BEWARE OF LIGHTNING."

"What are even doing here?" asked Thorn, coming to rest behind Elektra and glaring at the sign warily.

"Do you remember Mr. Sage?" asked Elektra.

"Of course. He's Loralie's grandpa. Ain't he that retired judge? What about him?"

"Well, I was talking with him yesterday when I went to visit Loralie. He told me that there was an old house at the top of the hill and that a bunch of stormbringer's used to live there."

"Yeah, so?" said Thorn, not getting the point in any of this.

"So? So it means that this house used to be dads! Imagine that – dad's old house! I asked him about it and he said it was. Didn't seem to keen on me exploring though."

"Yeah, well. Not much of a house now, is it?" said Thorn, staring at the spot, which could have once been called Thunder House. He was right, for the place was very much a ruin. Nothing but blackened rubble and overgrown trees that through time had grown back in the lot.

"Still. Its something." insisted Elektra. Though she too had been hoping for a little more. As they stared at the abandoned lot, Elektra whistled. "Well c'mon then!"

"What? You want us to go in there? Are you crazy? What if the place falls down on us or something?" Thorn protested as he watched Elektra climb the rusted fence with ease.

Don't be such a ninny." said Elektra. "It's just rocks."

Thorn frowned but wouldn't budge.

"If you don't come, I'll just shock you until you do." And Elektra's hands crackled with blue lightning to emphasize her point.

Thorn hesitated, but decided that if his sister was going to be an idiot he might as well be there to save her. "At least take the normal way." he said, and opened the gate.

Elektra shrugged and bounded up to the rocks. Wind whistled around her and made the leaves on trees rustle. She stepped through the rubble, careful not to trip on any.

What happened here, anyway?" said Thorn, after almost falling on a particularly big chunk of blackened rock.

"A fire. At least that's what Mrs. Sage said. She said that cursed flames enveloped the place whole."

"Some fire then." commented Thorn.

They both crossed through the rubble and once they had gone into the place they reckoned had been were the house once stood, they stopped. "What now?" asked Thorn, running a hand through his ash blonde hair.

"We search." Elektra picked up a chunk of rock and threw it.

"Search for what?" exclaimed Thorn exasperatedly. "Rocks?"

Elektra rolled her electric blue eyes, the ones that had been her namesake. "We search for something of dad's. There's bound to be something around here."

"She's crazy." muttered Thorn to himself. "Nothing but rocks and rubbish." But, nevertheless he bent and started picking at rocks too.

After a few minutes, Elektra shouted excitedly. "I found something!" The wind around her howled and her hands crackled with energy.

Thorn, who minutes before had been searching around for a source of brilliant lights, found the shinning rock and pocketed it. "What?"

"A picture." said Elektra, waving a crumpled paper about. "At least I think it's a picture." The picture in answer, was blackened at the edges, and yellowed. It was quite a miracle that it hadn't burned. Elektra had found it after moving a very large rock.

"Let me see." Thorn grabbed the picture and stared.

The scene portrayed was one of celebration. There was a big white table with sweets and a three-layered cake. Surrounding the table were people: a small white-haired albino, a purple-haired girl that seemed oddly familiar to Thorn, a boy with messy looking hair, a boy with a sad-looking face and droopy eyes, a shiny-brown haired boy, a tall brown-skinned boy that towered over them all, and next to him - Thorn's heart thumped - a petite pale blond girl, who resembled Elektra. But what really got him, was the boy next to her holding hands. He had stiff yellow hair and electric blue eyes, and his resemblance was almost uncannily like that of Thorn's own.

After a few moments, though he had to revaluate that statement. There were slight differences - his hair wasn't so yellow, but was a shade like the blond haired girl next to him. And his eyes too, weren't so electric, Elektra had gotten those. He resembled the girl more, in figure and complexion. Both of them were petite but slim, with figures that looked ready to fly at a moment's notice. He flipped the photo over, where written in small print, read "Tancred's 15'th birthday"

"So?" said Elektra, almost breathless with excitement. "What do you think?"

"We have no way of proving that they are our parents. It's not like we've ever seen a picture of them before."

"Oh c'mon! That's got to be them!" protested Elektra. "Look!" she pointed at the pale blond girl. "I remember seeing her. She was much older, obviously. But I've always had this memory - I'm not sure if it was a half-remembered dream or if you were too young to remember seeing anything. - But I've always had this memory of a blond haired lady turning into a bird and flying away. That's got to be mum!"

"Well..." Thorn turned the picture over. "If it is them than we have to show the others. Who else are the other people?"

"Oh!" Elektra jumped up and down on the balls of her feet. "This so exciting! Imagine what we could do with this picture! We could have Bone tell us what they say! We can even communicate with them!"

"Whoa, wait. Stella?" said Thorn.

"Well yeah. Her parents are bound to be in the picture. Just have your little girlfriend tell us what they say."

"First off - Stella isn't my girlfriend." Though Thorn's face was flaming red when he said this. "And second, Stella doesn't even like using her endowment. What makes you say she'll agree?"

"Because she will." said Elektra confidently. "They all will."

Thorn could argue with her, but he saw no purpose in it. "Alright then." He passed the picture to Elektra who pocketed it.

A fierce wind sent red and gold leaves up and the hallowed place of ruins suddenly seemed to get a lot more colder.

Drawing his coat tight against him, Thorn said, "First let's get out of here. This place is giving me the creeps."

Total word count: 1,138

First part is a little short but this is just to get the story rolling. I already have two other chapters typed up and together it equates up to 6,000 words. Talk about writing! Anywho's my computer broke recently and it'll be a month before I can get it fixed. Don't worry I'll just type these up in my big computer and post them in a library. There I have to change the font to code, cuz' I really don't like people reading over my shoulder. xD

Leave me a comment please! I really want to know if I'm doing this right. Next chapter: Meet Stella Bone.

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