Tempestas {l.h} || Wattys 2018

Prologue

Friday, 4th of March.

Harper sat by the window, watching as various rain drops fell from the sky and landed on the ground below- which was illuminated by lightning every now and again. She listened to the loud sound of the thunder and the rain against the roof of her house with a frown on her face. She didn't like storms.

She huffed and continued to stare out the window, waiting for the storm to pass so she could go out to the forest- which was one of her favourite places in the world. She loved the forest for many reasons; the calm atmosphere, the abundance of different plant species, and the way the shade of her eyes matched that of the grass and trees.

She felt at home, like the forest was her family, since it brought her that sense of comfort and happiness.

Harper stood up from her window seat with a sigh, knowing that the storm wasn't going to stop anytime soon much to her disappointment. Her fingers fumbled with the strands of her light brown hair as she waited for her laptop to turn on.

She found it hard to keep her attention on the laptop that had finally turned on and was now loading the weather radar, she just wanted to know how long it'd be till she could go outside and not get hypothermia. With a frown on her face, Harper shut her laptop and set it on her bedside table. She laid down on her bed and let out a large breath she didn't know she had been holding in.

There was no information on the radar about the storm. Apparently, the bureau of metrology had no clue this storm was going to occur and that just made Harper even more frustrated. How had they not seen a storm of this magnitude approaching?

So, as time went on, Harper found herself aimlessly drifting around her room as she tried to find things to entertain herself with, which so far, wasn't working. She had even scrolled through her tumblr, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter- which were rarely used- feeds until she had gone several days back.

Next, Harper found herself in her reading chair in the corner, reading a book from her bookshelf. She was so engrossed in her book that she didn't notice the loud claps of thunder and the lightning that struck the tree only ten metres away from her house. It was fun while it lasted, because an hour later Harper placed the now finished book back on her shelf and walked to her wardrobe, deciding she would try and organise it as best she could. She had been meaning to do it for a long time.

Harper pulled her clothes off their hangers and her shorts and shirts off their shelves before she started trying to find some sort of order to put them in. She decided to place her shorts on shelves together near her skirts and long pants, before walking to the other side of the wardrobe that had her railing, which was covered in hangers for her clothes to go on.

Harper already regretted this as she hung the last of her clothes up and glanced around her wardrobe, grinning in triumph. It had only taken her two hours to complete this task. She now had a few garbage bags full of old clothes sitting outside her wardrobe, and she made a mental reminder to drop them off at the homeless shelter or the Salvation Army the next time she went into town.

She didn't know what to do anymore. Feeling exhausted but unable to sleep, Harper sat back down on her window seat with her chin placed in the palm of her hand as she looked outside, a sad expression on her face as she realised the storm was still raging on and seemed to be getting worse.

Her eyes wandered to the window and widened in surprise as she saw a boy- who looked roughly her age- standing out in the storm with his arms spread wide and what looked like a smile on his face. She wondered how she had missed the boy before- he had obviously been out in the storm for some time since his hair and clothes were drenched.

•

Luke stood out in the middle of the street with his arms opened wide as he welcomed the storm. He had a content smile on his face as he felt the power of the storm inside of him. Of course, there was no rain forecasted today, let alone a storm, but Luke couldn't help the urge to use his power.

Luke had had the power to control and create storms ever since he was a small child, he was called a Tractatori. He was part of an ancient species of people who could manipulate the elements. Of course, he had learned that each person could only manipulate one element.

Luke could manipulate water- which meant storms. Luke loved storms.

What Luke didn't love was his people's sworn enemy: the Potestas. They were pure evil and controlled fire, similar to the Tractatori, except they used their powers for evil and didn't connect with the fire, instead they controlled it, bending it's will to match their own.

Luke was at one with his element, they were connected.

Luke's fingers curled in on themselves as he stared up at the sky, not caring as the rain dropped into his eyes, which were the same shade as the storm that was raging on. He let the storm do as it pleased, only manipulating it when it started to threaten the houses on the street.

He just wanted to let loose, but that couldn't happen, not unless he wanted to endanger the entire town's life. Sometimes it sucked to not be able to reach your full potential.

His friends were able to control their elements and reach their full potential, but Luke always had to refrain and pull back his power. It felt unfair to him, he should be able to do what his friends and colleagues did, but instead he could only reach his full potential when on an assignment.

He didn't know what his full potential was anymore.

Luke closed his eyes as he felt another rush of power surge through his body. His body was drenched by now, but all the boy seemed to do was make it storm harder, not caring about the consequences- he just wanted to reach his full potential.

He knew what he was doing was wrong. Maybe not the part about making it storm, but to make one of this magnitude- he knew that was wrong. He should stop while he was ahead, but Luke couldn't bring himself to do it. He loved the feeling of the rain running down his face like a river, how it calmed his senses, and the way it matched his eyes.

The rain made him feel at home.

Luke had been lost so deep in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed the curious girl staring at him from her window, only a few houses down from where he stood.