HALCYON [Minamoto Teru]

Act I : 1

MINAMOTO TERU, AGE 11

Black clouds sprawled across the sky, billowing in from the west. Their brassy glare drained color from houses and trees and burnished cars in driveways, leaving neighborhoods tinted bronze in the faltering light. The air grew heavy and the humidity pressed down, suffocating. The scent of rain was dark and heady.

A stillness fell over the town, and in the silence comes a low crackle of thunder, rolling across rooftops to the pattering of tiny raindrops.

For a moment, everything stopped. Even the wind held its breath. A streak of hot silver split the sky, and the downpour began.

Lightning came like a rip in the inky night, as if behind the dark canvas was a brilliant light just waiting to flood through any crack no matter how small.

The young boy who had known of the storm beforehand, hadn't thought that the downpour would be this heavy. At the age of eleven, out hunting for supernaturals on his exorcism routine, just about miles away from his family's compound, the storm had struck. His umbrella would be useless in the downpour.

His blonde hair was disheveled and floppy. Of course, he had begun hunting by himself at the age of seven, he knew the way back home by heart, but that was difficult when he couldn't even see which direction he was walking in. It was a barrage of grey in a blizzard of nothingness.

The droplets of rain seemed to torrent and flickered, slamming against his irises and his eyes as a whole, feeling like small prickling needles.

He stumbled through the bushes and trees with struggle. Lightning lit his way in the sky, but it only came ever so often. It was practically telling him that he was on his own.

"I promised to play with Kou today..." The blonde muttered beneath his breath, although it was hardly audible under the pitter patter of the echoing rain.

There was really nothing he could do. Of course he could just sit down against the tree and wait for the storm to blow over, or he could continue wandering aimlessly and hope that he wouldn't walk into the middle of a street and get run over by a passing by car. He chose the latter as he trekked through the soaked grass.

Barley placing one foot in front of the other, he suddenly stopped when he heard something. A hiss. Maybe he was just imagining it as he had begun walking again. That was what his brain told him; however in the back of his mind, there was a feeling of deja vu that told him to return and check what the possible sound was.

It could have been a super natural, so he took three steps backwards to where he had originally stood as the back of his heel had touched something. Something that it had registered as mud before, so stepped on it without hesitation as Minamoto Teru had realized, there was a creature in the bush.

He kept his katana ready in his hand as he hit the bush, first without lightning to see if anything would come out, since he didn't want to risk electrocuting himself in the rain, even if his body could withstand certain voltages, it would be too much of a risk.