I had felt my sisters’ anger. She was angry because she was afraid. Bad people had come to hurt her mama and papa, she had been a good sister and protected them. But she was still afraid. I could feel her worry that more bad people would try to hurt her mama and papa.

I wanted to help, and I had asked, but sister said no. She said my job was to grow strong. To fly and play with wind and water, in this place of world essence, but it was so boring. There was nothing to see, nothing to hunt, nothing but oceans of liquid Qi, and one small island.

A stupid island with a stupid [Dao] pillar. There wasn’t even anything to hunt on it! What use was an island without prey?

I had been sending her my feelings since the bad people attacked, I wanted out. I needed to hunt to grow strong enough to protect her. I had slept a couple of times before my sister summoned me to talk. Maybe twenty but that isn’t too much, sister said my job was to grow strong, Roc’s need sleep!

She was showing me a piece of metal that she wore around her neck. A torc she kept calling it. But that didn’t matter I thought. What mattered was that it was magic! I could fit inside that small piece of metal and there would be trees and plants and animals I could hunt. Real hunting, not the pretend kind sister and I practiced.

Sister promised that she would find more animals, fun animals that I could kill and eat. Right now, there were only ten Entelodonts, inside. But she said that was part of this new game. My job was to find those Entelodonts, and if I did, I could eat them. The space inside that tiny twist of metal was a place where I could fly, more importantly, a place where I could play!

I mean hunt, not play! I would work hard so I could help protect sister. But sister had never said there was a rule about having fun while hunting, so I would do both. I was smart, smarter than a stupid [Dao] pillar that just sat there.

Sister said I could grow strong inside. I was excited to see this magical place and agreed when sister asked if I wanted her to send me there so I could explore.

I didn’t feel anything strange. It was the same sensation I felt when sister had me enter her inside world, that place where only she and I could enter, unless you counted the stupid [Dao] pillar, and I didn’t! But this place had the trees that sister promised.

I had to spread my wings and begin beating them quickly, once I was safely inside. Sister hadn’t said that I would need to fly right away, that I would be in the sky when I entered. Maybe she didn’t know, but she had sent me inside that strange metal torc, so high that I had plenty of time to spread my wings, gaining control and soaring instead of falling.

The first thing I noticed was how lifeless the air seemed. It didn’t have the same taste to it that the world sister lived in. It was stale, there were no currents that I could find, to move that staleness. There was no wind, not even the smallest updraft or current for me to ride or play in, and I knew the stillness was why the air was carried not even the smallest smell of ozone.

Sister said this place was old. I wondered if no one had visited in a long time and that was why it was dying. The trees and plants seemed healthy enough, still green and vibrant, but did the air matter to trees and plants?

Maybe. But even if it didn’t, sister told me this was my world to play in. And I didn’t like air with no life, so I would change it.

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I was Storm. And like my name, I could call a storm. I screeched creating a primal focus with all my might as my wings beat, the wind being forced into movement with each beat. I began to circle above the trees, flying around an area that was full of life but lifeless. And as I flew, I channeled that primal energy that I had created while screeching. Power to release the wind, to gather the rains, and to summon the lightning.

The clouds began forming instantly. Water long ignored within this world grown tired, obeying the rules of nature. This was one of my favorite things to do. To make that wind and water answer to my cry, to create the lightning that I would play with. It was even better than eating and hunting!

And it helped me grow stronger just as much as good treats and food. My channels expanding a tiny bit each time I called the storm. Sister didn’t know about this. She thought tasty treats and food would be enough, and I didn’t want to make her sad, so I never told her.

But I am Roc, not an Elf. And even if I was an Elf, sister doesn’t get stronger by eating alone. She has to sit, thinking in strange ways, moving and gathering the world essence. Over and over, until it becomes a part of us. I get some of the strength each time she does this. Not as much as I get from calling the storm, but a little bit every time she sits and thinks her funny thoughts.

As the storm grew, the dead air moved, the first big booms of thunder, the first small sparks of lightning changing the dead air. Forcing it to move. To live again. The smell of ozone beginning to fill the air, to restore life. Sister wasn’t sure how big this space was, neither was I. I had been flying for a long time and still hadn’t seen an end.

I knew no matter how big it was, it was too big for my storm to move all the air. But my storm didn’t need to be too big. It just needed to be strong. I would set it free to travel around this strange world. Letting it travel, grow, or sputter out as it pleased.

Because I knew the biggest secret of all. The storm was alive, and it wanted to move and play as much as I did.

I began flying circles, channeling more of that world essence sister had shared with me, that had pooled in my channels. The lightning gained in power the longer I built the storm, the faster I flew. I was happy when the clouds opened, and rain began pouring down on the trees and plants. I was happier when the lightning barrage began creating great bursts of ozone that energized the air. I flew into the eye of the storm as it raged, trying to hover in place so that I could collect the lightning and move it in the pattern that strange pattern that sister practiced.

The lightning didn’t hurt when I got hit. How could it? It was part of me. It only tingled, sometimes fluffing up a few of my feathers. I collected the charges as they struck, the tiny bits of lighting left behind on my feathers. I gathered them making them part of me. My feathers sparking and arcing as the tiny bits of lightning following vane to take up a permanent position in each feather’s afterfeather.

Lightning elementals, born at the moment, played between and within, elementals that became as much a part of me as tail and talon. Sister would be so proud when she saw how I had grown. I was sure she would be happy that the lightning liked me and joined with me. I was Roc, but now I was more.

I’m not sure how long the storm raged, but it was long enough that the water began to collect on the ground, collecting and forming into growing pools that would be fun to bathe in. I did notice a stream growing, one near that seemed to be close to overflowing, so I decided to follow it to see where it led.

Sister hadn’t mentioned there was a lake or that there were fish. But maybe she didn’t know, she had said there were only Entelodonts to hunt. She couldn’t be here like I was, and that might be why she didn’t know about the dead air. Sister had two bodies as I did, but her real body couldn’t come inside to play, only that special body she named Dharmic.

Names were important to sister. She spent a lot of time teaching me the names of things, teaching me new words every day. It was the finest thing in that inner world, a time of play when she spoke a word and changed the water’s shape to show me what that word was.

I liked playing with sister, more than anything but calling storm. But this was fun, trying to catch a fish to eat. I finally managed to swoop down able to catch one of the larger, lazy fish that thought it could escape! I was a great hunter, and I thought about proving it to sister by saving the fish. It was so big!

My stomach was not happy about saving the fish, so I decided I would eat it to grow stronger. After all, that was what sister told me to do.