Just like the one I had seen the other night. Again it seemed to be heading to the stables. This time I didn’t let go of it with my eyes. I followed it closely as it kept running toward the white buildings. As it reached them, it seemed to be slowing down a little. It came to the door and, in the light from the stables, I could tell that it looked like a huge black panther. It turned its head and when it did, its yellow eyes lit up, like two small stars in the night. Its mouth was halfway open showing its white sharp teeth. I felt a chill up my back. This wasn’t an animal that normally lived around the castle. This was a creature of the night—a creature of the darkness.
I held my breath as the panther scratched on the door. Slowly it opened and Adahy’s face showed in the light from the building. He let the creature inside and afterwards looked to see if anyone had seen them.
Then he closed the door behind them.
Chapter 15
The Easter holidays turned out to be anything but relaxing. As a second-year student, I had piles of homework to do. We had never had this many essays to write and pages to read. It was overwhelming and almost led Acacia to have a nervous breakdown.
“Wasn’t it supposed to be a holiday?” Mai asked as we sat in the library, each of us with our noses stuck in a book.
I had even signed up for some extra classes in transition and healing, in order to stay busy and not miss Mick too much and to not think about Jason. But I was beginning to think that I had gone a little overboard. By the size of my to-do pile I was never going to have any time off this holiday. I sighed at the thought of it and opened my history book.
I hadn’t told anyone about what I had seen that night by the stables. I had given it a lot of thought but came to the conclusion that maybe it was none of my business. I liked Adahy and I didn’t want to bring him any trouble. Maybe he was just feeding the animal and that was all there was to it. He was known to have a tender heart for all animals.
The final lessons in flying during severe weather conditions took place the first week after the Easter holidays. Professor Grangé waited for us at the lawn outside and once again he had put his head on. We lined up while he gave us a pep talk.
“Today we are going to fly through some of the utmost extreme weather that you will ever encounter out there. First, we will go through a severe tropical thunderstorm, and next I will show you how to handle the worst condition of them all, the tornado.”
Nigel, who was standing next to me, gulped while professor Grangé continued with grand gestures.
“It is with the tornadoes as with the hurricanes. If you do not relax, if you try to fight it or let panic get the best of you, then it will tear you apart, as it happened to our chéri Nigel here.” The professor put a hand on Nigel’s shoulder. “His body was torn to beads. Just think what would have happened if one of those beads had been taken by the wind. Then our precious Nigel would be missing a part of his body. What a mess that would have been! Winds like that are totally unpredictable. How were we supposed to ever find that part again?”
Nigel gulped again.
“You have every reason to be respectful. But …” the professor lifted his forefinger and turned to look at all of our faces, “never ever fear the storm.”
We followed the professor into the air and I enjoyed feeling the hair flying back off my forehead. We flew with great speed and I could really feel that I was in better shape than ever, since I had no problems catching my breath. The anticipation of what was ahead gave me an adrenaline boost that I felt going through my body. I glanced around and saw Mai right next to me. She was smiling. Like me she was looking forward to the thrill.
We heard the rumbling in the distance and soon we saw the pitch-black clouds in the horizon. Like a flash from a camera, the clouds were illuminated by the lightning.
I felt the nervousness creep into my stomach. But it also made me determined. I had read the textbooks before today’s class: The Handbook of Flying through Severe Weather and The Tale of a Spin: A Study of Tornadoes and Their Brutal Nature. So I did feel prepared for this. I had done fine through the hurricane, but by my reading, I had also come to understand that both the thunderstorm and the tornado were far more dangerous to us than the slowly moving hurricanes. The thunderstorm was dangerous because of the lightning that could leave us unconscious. The storms could appear out of nowhere, unlike the hurricanes that developed over longer periods of time and moved far slower. The worst were the tornadoes, since they appeared suddenly and moved with such a great speed that it was often difficult for spirits to avoid being sucked into them. And they would lift a lot more debris from the ground and spin it around, such as cars, trees, and boats that could hit us like the one that had hit Nigel.
“Is everyone prepared for this?” The professor shouted as we came closer to the heavy black clouds. His shout was lost in the roar from another clap of thunder. Heavy thick curtains of rain pelted the earth from the clouds.
One by one we nodded.
“Nigel?” The professor said.
Nigel hadn’t uttered a single word since we left the castle. He stared down at the houses being pelted by the rain. He looked up. “Yes, professor?”
“Are you ready for this too?”
Nigel swallowed hard before he answered. “Yes sir, I am.”
“Great. Remember, you never know when or where the next bolt of lightning is going to appear, so you have to move all the time through a thunderstorm. You can never stay in one place or it will surely hit you. And never move in a straight line. Always from side to side.”
“Like zigzagging?” Mai asked.
“Just like that,” the professor answered. “And if anything goes wrong, if you panic, there is one thing you might do. You can try to soar through and go above the clouds. Up there you will always be safe. But it is very dangerous because you get so close to the center of the storm and the risk of getting hit by lightning is much higher as you come closer to the clouds. Are you all with me?”
Everybody nodded.
“Then let’s try this,” the professor said. “Follow me and keep close.”
Like ducklings following their mother, we followed the professor through the heavy rain, zigzagging between the lightning bolts that struck from the clouds. It was a lot tougher than I had expected, because we had to react so fast. And we had to stay in line. At one point I tried to make one little deviation and —Zap—there was lightning right next to me almost touching my right ear.
Mai was right in front of me, her eyes fully focused, fixated on the path the professor made for us. I kept my eyes on her back and followed her closely. Suddenly she looked back and smiled at me like she was really enjoying this when—Crash—a lightning bolt hit her leg. Her face was torn in pain. She screamed and held her leg. Before anyone could react, she started to fall out of the sky.
“Mai!” I shouted but it was lost in the noise from the thunder.
The professor continued without noticing. So I had to go after her. I started to descend, trying to catch up with her. As I came closer I noticed her eyes were closed and she was no longer holding on to her leg. She was unconscious.
As lightning buzzed behind me while I flew as fast as I could toward Mai. If she hit the ground from that high, she would be broken to pieces like Nigel had been. I reached my arm out, trying to grab her but wasn’t quite close enough. I sped up and was happy I had so much training in flying that I was able to control my speed and direction so precisely. I reached out my arm again and this time I managed to grab her leg. I pulled with all my strength until finally I could grab onto her whole body and hold it close while I soared back into the air.
When I looked up, I saw that the other students and the professor were far away. They hadn’t stopped, and I understood why. If they did, they were sure to get hit themselves, so they had to keep on going. I pulled Mai with me while I zigzagged through the storm.
Zap!
One lightning bolt struck to my right and a second later another one to
my left. I had no idea where the next would come from, but I had to go on. But flying with Mai was exhausting. It was one thing to have to fly myself through a storm, but having a body in my arms, even though it was a spirit, was tough. My arms were sore and I could tell that I would have a hard time getting through the storm with her. So I made a decision. I wanted to go above the clouds. If I succeeded I would be able to meet the others on the other side of the storm.
I looked up at the heavy black cloud above me as lightning struck from it toward the ground and was followed by a huge clap of thunder that almost hurt my ears. I grabbed onto Mai tightly and took in a deep breath. Then I started soaring. As fast as I could, I flew toward the black cloud avoiding another lightning strike before I felt the soft moist feeling of the cloud against my face. It was pitch dark in the cloud and it seemed endless, until I finally reached the other side. I sighed as I put Mai gently on top of the cloud and rested my arms for a while. It was true that above the clouds the sun was always shining. It was so quiet up there that I felt a great relief.
After a few minutes of rest I heard voices behind me. I turned and saw my class flying toward us with Professor Grangé in front. I smiled and waved at them, as Mai suddenly grunted from the cloud. I knelt beside her.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Where am I?”
The class was now approaching while cheering and clapping for me.
“We were in a thunderstorm and you were struck by lightning,” I said.
She didn’t seem to understand.
“Very well done, young lady. Très bien,” the professor said. “How is she?”
“She seems fine, but I am afraid she can’t remember where she is.”
“That is perfectly normal after being struck by lightning,” the professor said. “She will get everything back in a couple of hours. No worries.”
“But we can’t let her go through a tornado in that condition!” Acacia said.
The professor looked speculative. “You might be right.” His eyes searched the class. “Nigel, come closer.”
Nigel had been pale all day and the very thought of having to face a tornado today as well seemed to be too much for him. He had that look of utmost terror upon his face again. Luckily, the professor was aware of it. As Nigel approached him he put his hand gently on his neck while he talked.
“Now listen carefully, Nigel. I have a very special task for you. Are you up for that?”
Nigel nodded, looking a little less scared.
“Could you fly our friend Mai back to the castle and get her to the school nurse? I want to be sure she is all right. This is an important task.”
Nigel looked up at the tall professor with a small smile of relief on his cherry-red lips. “I can do that,” he said while nodding eagerly.
“And you know the way, right?”
Nigel nodded again. “Yes, sir.”
So we said goodbye to Nigel and Mai as he held her hand and they flew back toward the school. She was still very confused but made no resistance to follow him. Nigel saluted the professor and had a very proud look on his face as he escorted Mai. We watched them as they disappeared through a big cloud.
“Now. Are you ready for the next step?” the professor said.
Those of us who were left looked at each other. Then we nodded a little nervously.
“Great! Now, we have had two accidents and I certainly don’t want any more of that kind. So please promise to be very careful. Tornadoes are not toys. They can be very dangerous. While most tornadoes have a wind speed of around one hundred ten miles per hour, the most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than three hundred miles per hour and stretch more than two miles across. Those are the most destructive ones that tear down houses and throw cars in the air. Those are the ones that will make porridge out of you if you are not careful. And luckily for us, I have located one exactly like that just a couple of hundred miles north from here.”
Acacia raised her hand a little shakily. “Why can’t we just practice on a smaller one?”
“I want you to be the best you can be. I want to teach you to get by in the most extreme situations and therefore you need to have tried the most extreme conditions under my supervision. If you can ride one of these monsters, then you can fly through anything.”
No one spoke for a while as we flew. Fields of land and spacious farms swept by beneath us. I swallowed hard when I spotted the tornado far away on the horizon. It was like one huge pillar of cloud that kept circling and moving fast across the ground, throwing trees, cars, and even parts of houses around. It seemed to be sucking everything out of the air and the ground and devouring it. The funnel itself was like a dark gray tube reaching from the cloud to the ground, growing bigger as we watched. The lower part of the tornado was surrounded by a translucent dust cloud, kicked up by the tornado’s strong winds sweeping across the surface of the earth.
“A tornado is defined as a violently rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often—but not always—visible as a funnel cloud,” the professor said. “That, mes enfants, is what you are looking at here.”
We stared at the huge pillar for a few seconds in total silence. Then the professor continued, “Now, a tornado is very different from a hurricane. Why?”
I raised my hand.
“Yes, Meghan.”
“It spins faster, it moves faster, and its winds are much more destructive but in a smaller area.”
“Correct,” the professor said. “The rapid rotation is what we must be aware of. Now, occasionally a single storm will produce more than one tornado, either simultaneously or in succession. Multiple tornadoes produced by the same storm cell are referred to as what?”
I raised my hand.
“Yes, Meghan, once again.”
“A tornado family."
“Correct again. Now tornadoes normally rotate cyclonically in one direction. That means counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere, clockwise in the southern. We are now in the northern hemisphere. The winds always move from the ground into the air. Therefore we approach them from the bottom and let ourselves be sucked into them and shot out in the air at the end. It is quite a fast rotation and you will feel a little dizzy afterwards, but that will eventually wear off. The most important thing is to avoid all the flying objects inside of the rotating funnel.”
The professor took an instrument from his jacket and looked at it. He pointed it at the storm and did some calculations. Then he turned a handle and measured some more.
“It looks like … the wind speed in this one is about two hundred miles per hour at this time. It is perfect.”
He put away his instrument and looked at us. Then he smacked his hands together so hard they were still wobbling long afterwards.
“So … are you ready?” he asked with great anticipation.
Chapter 16
The first to go in was the professor. He asked us to wait until he was gone before we followed him and then he said he would wait for us at the other side, ready to grab us.
“It will be like being shot out from a canon,” he said with a wide smile the second before he started descending toward the beginning of the funnel.
The last thing we saw was him waving at us, the second before he was sucked up into it like he was dust being removed with a giant vacuum cleaner.
When we were sure that he was gone and we wouldn’t crash into him, we looked at each other and, since no one else seemed to want to go, I went first. I didn’t look back until I was almost at the bottom end of the funnel. I was struck by the huge noise it made as it moved toward me. It sounded like a combination of a freight train approaching, rushing rapids or waterfall, and a nearby jet engine. Identifying the noise didn’t make it less scary.
When it was close enough I turned and smiled at my classmates before I closed my eyes and stretched out my arms. In a split second I felt a strong pulling in both o
f my arms. It was like the wind wanted to rip them off entirely but luckily they stayed on; they were only stretched out to double the length of what they normally are.
I heard myself scream as I entered the rotation and started centrifuging around. It felt like I was in a washing machine while it was spinning. It pressed my body against the wall of the funnel. My body shook all over and parts of my fingers dissolved in the wind, only to return seconds later.
My entire body was stretched as far as possible as I was being spun around and around. It made me dizzy and sick to my stomach. And it seemed like it would never stop. I couldn’t see the top end of the funnel yet. Beside me was the top of a magnolia tree getting the same treatment as I was, and above my head I saw a kayak and some patio furniture. None of it threatened to rip me apart if it hit me.
In the beginning I was extremely tense and scared, but eventually I found a technique to make myself relax. I spoke to my body and told it to just go wherever the wind took me. And that made me calm. From time to time, I closed my eyes and tried to enjoy it. At one point I was actually laughing out loud.
It wasn’t so bad after all. The huge noise had turned into a sort of rhythmic sound, like a harmonic whistling, humming, or the buzzing of innumerable bees. It was almost as if it were whispering my name.
Meghan … Meghan … Meghan.
The sound was loud. Soon it became louder and clearer and I opened my eyes. But nothing was there, nothing that could whisper like that. I closed my eyes again. A few seconds later it was back.
Meghan … Meghan … Meghan.
It was much louder than the first time and I felt a pinch in my stomach. What was that? It was like a small distant voice whispering from inside the storm. Like an alluring little voice singing my name.