The storm was pure raging perfection. A fury unmatched. The dark greys of the clouds swirled with the deep greens of the forest pine, fusing them together as the wind tore the needles from the treetops. A mere mile away from the rampaging storm stood a small walled city on high alert with guards staring in awe over the ramparts at the powerful brutality they were witnessing.
Hundreds of people could be seen fleeing toward the city with little more than what they could carry.
Only one of the guards was not watching the mighty storm as it approached, unconcerned with it. Searching among those fleeing, he was anxious to see with his own eyes that his daughter Charity had reached safety.
“Have you seen her?” An anxious voice sounded from his side.
Glancing at Charity’s fiancé, Dane, he could not muster the words to say no, nor did he dare look away for fear he might miss her. “I am still looking.”
Dane’s hand lightly rested on his arm for a minute before he too leaned against the wall to peer closer at the refugees approaching.
“Is that her?” Dane cried out a moment later, pointing out a tall dark haired woman in the back, struggling to carry a toddler and hurrying along two other young children. “What is she doing?”
Her father peered close in the direction Dane was pointing. “It looks to be her but it is still too great of a distance to be sure. Keep searching.”
“Where are those children’s parents?” Dane couldn’t tear his gaze away from her. She was lagging further behind. The storm edged closer, tearing up great gouges in the earth.
There was silence as both men stared.
Finally Dane could take no more. “I am going out there.”
“And if that is not her? Or you cannot find her because there are too many people jostling around out there? What help are you to her then? You yourself could be caught outside the protective barrier when it rises.”
“And if it is her?” Dane shot back. “Should I stay here and helplessly watch her fall victim to the storm? And if it is not her, should I not help that woman when we can both see that she is so obviously in need of assistance? Everyone else out there is fleeing for their lives, not looking around for who they can help. I am going.”
There was a pause of charged silence before Charity’s father nodded to him. “Charity would be proud of you.”
Dane did not wait a second longer, dashing down the great stoned steps set into the inner side of the wall and to the front gate. He was hard-pressed to fight past those rushing to get inside.
As he passed the guard at the entry he heard him holler out. “3 minutes until the shield goes up and no one else gets through. We can’t wait any longer.”
Dane picked up speed at the news. He had 3 minutes to get the love of his life safe within those walls or they would both be left to the mercy of mother nature’s latest brutal tantrum.
“Charity.” He yelled, heading in the direction he had seen the struggling woman and children. In seconds he had them in his sight and called out again. “Charity.”
This time the woman’s head rose to meet his, fear and relief flashed across her face. “Dane. Help me.”
Without pausing for a second he scooped up the two children she had been trying to tow alongside her. They looked to be anywhere from 4-7 years old, no older. The young one in her arms was barely 2.
As they ran back toward the gate he glanced over at her to make sure she was still keeping up. Her breathing was labored but she was keeping pace with him with a look of set determination on her face.
The relief on the guard’s face as they reached him was clear. “You are the last.” The man softly announced.
As he finished speaking a shimmering pale arc appeared just outside the wall, encapsulating the whole city in seconds. The wind’s howling dulled to barely a whisper as the storm was cut off from raining destruction down on them.
All around the city, outside of that shield, dirt, trees, and more flew around. It was as if the wind was tossing it all around like a toddler would when told it was time for a bath.
Charity’s face appeared before them, tears glistening in the corners of his eyes. She managed to smile softly at the children now clinging to Dane as she patted the back of the little girl she was still cuddling close.
It was almost an hour before Dane was able to pull her aside from helping out those who had been displaced.
After a heart-searing kiss he sighed into her hair. “Charity, I was scared I would lose you.”
Her chuckle was grim. “I was too. It was close. If you hadn’t come out I would not have made it with those children.”
Tears welled in her eyes as she mentioned the children she had set up in a corner of what was soon to be their home when they started their new life together.
“How did you manage to pick up children while out to gather herbs?”
“I found them.” She looked straight up at him. “I found them as I was fleeing from the storm. Dane, they had been abandoned. I am sure they had been left there to be taken by the storm. The poor things were holding onto each other, the eldest trying to calm the young one while crying herself. I couldn’t leave them.”
“I would never have asked you to.” He smiled down at her. “And it appears this little family of two has grown to five in one day.”
“Really?” She flung her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly.
“After what the five of us just went through, it doesn’t seem right to have them stay with anyone else.”
She cried into his shoulder. “I love you Dane Penrose.”
