Vengeance

(Prologue) The Wind And The Shadow

The wind sighed softly, swirling and dancing across the grass. Twirling around tree trunks and tickling the leaves on their branches. Unable to hold still the wind continued its graceful dance over fields through forests until it came to a barely there road and a lone farmstead. Laughingly the wind ran to the window of the small house and tried to get in, but no seam could be found, no crack that it could squeeze through. So the wind twirled and danced to the door, but again it could not find a way in.

So the wind danced its way away, spinning and twirling in a dance of its very own making. A beautiful dance, yet invisible, never to be appreciated as it should. But the wind didn’t mind, the only care the wind had was to dance, and dance it did. Spinning and twirling in the middle of the yard, until a shadowy figure slowly crept from the darkness. Then the wind laughed and sprinted over, trying to get the small dark shadow to dance with it.

But the shadow wouldn’t dance; it only wrapped its arms around itself a little tighter, silently wishing the wind away. But the wind did not pay any heed to the shadow’s wishes, and continued to dance in a circle around and around, laughing joyously the entire time.  The shadow slowly made its way across the yard, careful not to make any noise. But the wind made up for both of them, laughing and giggling, howling and making a downright racket. Though the shadow did not seem to mind and continued on its way around the house and into the backyard.

It was nighttime in Falendar, a country of forests and fields, towns and cities, farmers and gentlemen. The moon was hidden making light very scarce, something the shadow was using to its advantage. Ignoring the wind who was tugging and pulling at its ragged jacket and cloak, it crept up to where there were clothes hanging on a line, also being tugged and yanked by the wind. The shadow only gave each article of clothing a quick glance before moving on down the line. Until at the end it found what it was hoping for, a young boy’s coat of relatively good quality.

Shrugging the jacket full of holes off from its skinny shoulders the shadow gave a shudder as the wind tried once again to get it to dance, tugging on the slim shirt that was all that covered the shadow's shoulders. Quickly pulling the coat from the line the shadow hastily pulled the cold fabric on and buttoned it up. Then yanking a sheet down, it rolled the cloth into a ball and crossed the yard, heading towards the cellar. There was a lock on the door but that was taken care of by a well-placed kick that slammed the door open with a bang.

Not knowing if anyone could have heard the crash from the kick, the shadow didn’t waste any time. Quickly entering the cellar the shadow unfurled the sheet and placed it on the ground, and then it began tossing vegetables onto the sheet. Carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, beets, radish, corn, tomatoes and a whole lot more. Any edible thing it could eat was tossed onto the sheet. Then it bunched the pile of edibles in the center and folded the sheet corner to corner making a triangle. Then tying the three remaining corners together the shadow stole back to the door, peeking out to make sure no one had awakened, and then it ran. With the wind laughing and dancing along with it the shadow ran.

Then for the first time that night the moon peeked out from behind its bed of clouds and shone down on the shadow, causing the shape and features of a teenage girl to be revealed. Her face was filthy; hardened from years of hardships and her eyes were dark pits of despair, anger and pain. The moon did not shine upon her hair, as it was matted with dirt and grime. And still the wind danced and sang, twirled and laughed, while the moon turned and hid itself in its blanket of clouds.

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So if your reading this thank you! And please tell me what you think, comment, vote and the like. This is my first story, but its a rewrite of a rewrite, because I'm so critical of my writing I have a hard time reading my work without wanting to start over again. Oh well, this prologue I am happy with and that is all that matters. Hope you enjoyed it!