Nature plays many tricks, yet none is as cruel as the calm before the storm. On this ordinary Saturday afternoon, the sky stretched overhead like a pristine sapphire dome. Not a single piece of cloud marred the blue expanse, and not a single gust of wind stirred the crisp air.

Nobody could sense the deadly atmospheric perturbations brewing thirty miles away, not even the few Fraxians wandering in and out of the bustling market.

Suddenly, a few loud blasts echoed through the market, catching everyone off guard. To their relief, there were no gunshots. Instead, orange and blue confetti rained down amidst the melodies of trumpets and fiddles, and soon a huge crowd of forty gathered around the spectacle.

In the middle stood a newly built restaurant, the walls still thick with the smell of paint and plaster. On the roof was a gigantic sign that read “Bert’s Brewery”, accompanied by a mural of two men walking side by side — a Valerian and a Fraxian, as revealed by their eye colors. In the heart of the mural were bold chalk letters that proclaimed “Love Everyone!”.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for being here,” the restaurant owner, by the name of Albert, seized the podium.

“I have dreamed of opening a restaurant since I was a kid. After saving up for over ten years with my loving wife, I am so pleased to announce that Bert’s Brewery is finally open!”

The crowd broke into applause. Amidst the cheers, Albert spotted a familiar face. He quickly approached his old friend.

“Hey Samuel, thank you for coming today. Why don’t you come up here with me?”

Samuel looked a little nervous. His large orange eyes darted between Albert and the crowd around him.

Albert glanced around and understood. Samuel was the only Fraxian in the crowd. Although laws of segregation had been recently abolished, most Fraxians still felt uncomfortable coming here. However, the prejudices of ignorant Valerians should never overshadow the celebration, especially on such a calm, beautiful day.

“Don’t worry,” Albert laughed, leading Samuel on stage.

A few Valerians noticed Samuel’s orange eyes and instantly recognized him as a Fraxian. Most in the crowd kept their opinions to themselves, but a few gasps flared up here and there. Samuel simply ignored them, as he did for all his life.

“As I celebrate the fulfillment of my childhood dream today,” Albert took over again. “I’d like to introduce you all to my friend Samuel. His daughter just graduated today. To celebrate that, I will get a round of free drinks for everyone!”

The crowd clapped, and most put on a smile, though the enthusiasm was a little weaker.

“What’s a goddamn Fragger doing at this place,” a middle-aged Valerian in the crowd whispered.

Albert fell silent. He stared at the man. The sudden silence caught the crowd’s attention, and they all stared in the same direction.

“Excuse me, sir,” Albert said in a slow staccato. “Why don’t you repeat what you just said?”

The man looked a little embarrassed but not at all remorseful. He somehow gathered up his guts and projected his voice.

“I said, what’s a goddamn Fragger doing in our place.”

The crowd silenced at the palpable tension in the air. Samuel’s face was flushed red, but he did not speak back. He turned to Albert and whispered.

“It’s fine, Bert,” Samuel said quietly. “Today’s your big day. Don’t let me ruin it.”

However, Albert was buying none of that. He took a step towards the man.

“I’m going to ask you to leave, sir,” Albert said firmly.

Samuel pulled at Albert’s sleeves, apologetic that his friend must endure this dilemma on the first hour of business.

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“I don’t want any trouble for you. I’ll just leave,” Samuel said, starting to walk away.

However, Albert reached out and stopped Samuel with a firm hand on his shoulder. He stared at the man with a gaze as cold as steel, and he took another step forward.

“What?” snickered the man. “You are gonna ask me to leave for a Fragger?”

“Precisely, sir, and I won’t ask twice,” said Albert coldly. “In case you can’t read our posters, we have no room for hate or discrimination here.”

They stood like rock hills in a storm, unmoving amidst the restless atmosphere. After a few too many seconds, the Valerian man finally gave in.

He snickered, spat on the ground, and walked away. A few more Valerians left with him, but most stayed in the crowd.

“You okay Sam?” asked Bert.

However, Samuel’s eyes were hollow and his expression dreadful. Compared to his earlier composure against the verbal abuse, right now he looked as if he had seen a ghost.

“Something feels off,” muttered Samuel.

“Of course, they had just -”

“No, not them. The air felt off.”

Unfortunately, Albert was too slow to understand what Samuel’s words meant.

Suddenly, a few loud bangs erupted behind Albert, far louder than the confetti blasts earlier. With each bang, the earth tremored violently. Screams erupted from the crowd, and they ran in every direction.

Albert slowly turned his head. The fine brewery he and his wife had scrimped every cent to build — with the nice Gothic lamps, white marble floors, and oak wood countertops — now became a pile of rubble. In its place, a few giant boulders the size of stallions stood half buried in the wreckage, as if claiming a brutal victory against human civilization.

Albert was too shocked to be horrified, but others were quicker to realize what was going on.

“A storm is coming!” the crowd screamed.

As soon as the words were spoken, a thick curtain of sand rose up on the horizon and blocked the sky, shrouding the sun in thick veils of darkness. Only a few thin strands of sunlight penetrated through, dimly painting the buildings with a faded golden edge.

Within a few seconds, another volley of rocks was hurled right at the marketplace. A mother quickly put her toddler child on her shoulder and broke into a run. However, the fist-sized shrapnel impaled her lungs with the speed of bullets. She fell quickly with a thud, gasping uselessly for breath in her leaking windpipe.

Another man beside her stared in disbelief, and his hesitation cost him his balance. He fell hard on the ground. The strong winds lifted hundreds of gravel pieces into the air, spinning and accelerating them into a deadly maelstrom. Soon enough, the spinning air also lifted up the man, who kicked and struggled to no avail. The moment his body got sucked in, the hundreds of jagged stones tore up his body like a meat grinder disassembling a cattle, leaving him as a bleeding, lifeless pulp of flesh that continued to spin lifelessly in the air.

“Follow me!” Samuel yelled at Albert. He seized Albert’s arm and plunged into the storm. Winds lashed their faces, and shrapnel whizzed past their heads. Torrents of gravel shards sliced through their skin, leaving streaks of blood along their tattered clothes. They squinted their eyes open against the clouds of dust, desperate to stay alert as they dodged the large pieces of debris.

Thanks to his Fraxian genes, Samuel had a natural acuteness for thermodynamics. A sandstorm was made of clashing air pockets of different temperatures, and a safe passage could be found in the chasms in between. For an ordinary person, navigating a storm would take immense calculation, but for a Fraxian, this was a survival instinct hardwired in the genes.

However, knowing the right way to go did not equate to making it out alive.

Without warning, a canister of natural gas from some marketplace restaurant was catapulted towards them. At this speed, the impact would create a fatal explosion.

Albert closed his eyes and waited for his fate. The impact came. A wave of heat. A series of scorching burns. Surprisingly, it was less painful than he imagined.

Albert opened his eyes and expected heaven, but he was still stuck in this inferno on earth. He turned and looked at Samuel.

Samuel’s eyes blazed with a ferocious orange glow. Sweat poured down his face, mingling with the dust and ash on his skin. The entire left half of his torso was burnt to a black char, which crumpled into brittle pieces under the ravaging winds. His leg quickly buckled under his weight, and he slumped to the ground.

Albert understood immediately. Samuel had somehow managed to redirect the heat energy of the gas explosion away into the surroundings. So this was the power of thermal transfer. Albert had always thought it was just a Fraxian myth.

However, Samuel was only able to redirect a portion of the heat energy. Albert was still badly burnt in many areas, but at least he was still alive. Samuel, on the other hand, was burnt to half a crisp. To make it worse, pulling that move had drained the last bit of his energy out of his body.

Samuel struggled to push himself up off the ground, but his legs would not obey. He felt so tired. All he wanted was to close his eyes and sleep.

“Leave me, get out of here…” muttered Samuel.

Albert hesitated. He tried to carry Samuel on his shoulder, but he was in no physical condition.

“Leave me, Albert,” said Samuel quietly as he tried to push away Albert’s arms. “Head north for fifty yards, then turn east for twenty, then northeast for another fifty. You will be safe -”

Before Samuel could finish, the “Bert’s Brewery” banner fell from the sky, decapitating Samuel in one clean cut.

Albert felt nauseated and weak, but adrenaline kicked in. He had to get back to his family alive. So he walked on.