Prolouge

 

It was a gray morning. Fog danced along the shores, curling and rolling, closer and closer. A light haze clouded the sky. The air was wet and heavy. It stuck to my skin, and pulled at my hair.  

No one was ready.

They arrived in ships the size of mountains. I remember the looming shadows that hid in the mist. The shouts and whispers. The screams. The beating war drum that may as well been my heart.

And then the fog split.

Screams erupted from all around me. Men jumped from the ships, men wearing shiny battle armor. I had never seen anything like them. I would've be amazed if I hadn't been so terrified.

I couldn’t think straight. The screams and shouts and bloodshed clouded my vision, my hearing. I was trapped in myself. I couldn't move.

A wave crashed onto one of the ships, barely half the size of the monstrous vehicles. The wave dissolved in foam at the ship's side. Only later did I realize that I had done that.

My people fought. Oh yes, they fought. They fought with vigor, bravery, valor. But there were too many. Whips snapped from the men’s armor, collecting them up, rounding them into groups, slamming them into the ships.

Standing my ground, I blasted new fallen snow off the ground in every direction. The seas roared with waves that battered the ships down. But it still wasn't enough. Soon a whip blasted me around my stomach. My shriek pierced the morning. It felt like i had been whipped with burning metal. Later, i realized that it had been burning metal. I was slammed into a hatch. It was dank and smelly. I was dizzy with pain and hunger. No one returned to my prison hatch until nightfall, when they took me away.