Cloud Tempest

Cloud

The place where I lay was slightly hard, but someone had taken the time to give me something relatively soft to cover the area and prop up my head. I could feel that, for some reason unknown to me, I was naked, but the realization of something more pressing took over my thoughts. I felt like shit. My body was in a substantial amount of pain, and a groan bubbled up inside of me that I couldn’t suppress. I attempted to shift my body and see if that would make a difference, but my muscles were so stiff that I could barely even lift a finger.

“I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck,” I commented and I slowly began to open my eyes. Surprisingly, I was met face to face with a very shocked–and beautiful–woman. Her eyes were a shining honey and her long brown hair was parted down the middle and cascaded down her back.

“Usually I only wake up naked next to an attractive woman in my dreams,” I said to her–a flirtatious smirk presenting itself–and I winked at her.

The moment was shattered by the sound of a booming voice calling out to the girl. That seemed to be enough to shake off her shock and replace it with a stern, indifferent look.

“Is the boy up yet?”

The man who entered was a tan, burly man with dark black hair and light eyes that seemed to express only negativity. A similar man who was slightly more slender and had black eyes that pierced into my soul accompanied him. An eyebrow involuntarily rose at their open and uncalled for hostility, but I said nothing. The girl stood up and quickly walked away from me, moving towards the side of the small room.

“He just woke up,”

The smaller man began to approach me, while the larger moved to stand beside the girl. He and the girl’s stature was tall and rigid, reminding me of a soldier in a possibly dangerous situation. This was curious to me–a harmless wimp–but I reasoned that they didn’t know how pathetic I really am. Even if I wanted to, I probably could do no damage to their toned bodies. Honestly, I would probably do more damage to myself if I tried to attack them.

As the man approached me, his beady eyes scanned my form where I lay–observing my every movement as if he were a hawk. I almost imagined him swooping down and clutching me within his sharp beak to eat for dinner, and I didn’t doubt that is exactly what he has planned. Slowly, as to not frighten him, I moved to sit up. Instantly, I regretted it as sharp stab of pain shot through my entire body. I visibly winced, my arms threatening to give way beneath me, but I forced myself to persevere and prop myself up against something hard beside me. I would have turned to see what it was, but I was spent from that simple movement. The man approaching me seemed to notice, but his demeanor failed to relax.

“State your name,” he said, his stern, cold voice sending shivers down my spine.

“Cloud Tempest,” I said, my voice scratchy. I felt like I would cough, but I lacked the energy to do so.

“State your business in our territory, Cloud Tempest,”

“I didn’t know I was in your territory,” I said evenly, looking the man directly in the eyes. I wanted to convey that I wouldn’t back down from him, no matter how much I felt as if I should. Some would probably say that makes me strong; I say it makes me stupid.

For more than a few beats, we said nothing. He stared at me–assessing my truthfulness–and my eyes leveled with his own. The more I looked at him, the more familiar his face became, as if I had seen it before. A small thought popped into the back of my brain, and As soon as I recognized it, I knew it to be true. This man’s name was Menas. He is the Lead of this village of people. What a Lead is and who these people are, I couldn’t be sure of, but that that much seemed to be true.

“How is it that you ventured this far into the forest and didn’t know you were in the territory of my people? Every Siren is aware that the Moon People live deep within the world of nature.” I shrugged slightly, my face giving away my lack of knowledge.

“I’m not a Siren, so that should be enough of an explanation.”

“Do not lie,” he said frighteningly, his eyes beating down into my skull, “we have checked your body, and while you bear strange marks, none of them are the mark of the Moon People.”

“I’m not a Moon Person either,”

“What are you then?” said the larger man in the back with curiosity. Menas shot him a look, and he stepped back into his place.

“I’m,” I hesitated, thinking of what I would call to myself to make them understand, “an American.”

“American?” Menas questioned, disbelief lacing his words. “I have never heard of such a thing.”

“You’ve never heard of Americans? Like, people from the United States of America?”

“There is no such place, so stop attempting to deceive me into thinking you are not a Siren.” I ignored his accusation, and looked towards the larger man. He seemed to be a much nicer person than Menas.

“Can you get me a map?” I asked. Uncertainly, he looked towards the smaller, angry man, who seemed to nod only after much hesitation.

Quickly, the larger man, whose name I now know to be Mika–another message from the depths of my questionable mind–exited the tent through a large slit. He reappeared mere seconds later with a scroll of parchment in his hand. Upon the unspoken command of the Lead, he handed it to me personally. Lead Menas was too “valuable” to put himself in such “danger”. I felt badly for Mika in that moment, but I didn’t dwell on it too much. Instead, I unrolled the scroll and examined the picture before me.

The map was not the one I had grown up with. There was no sign of any of the continents, let alone the U.S., and it seemed to be much smaller. On this map, there were seven countries–or territories, or states, or whatever they were called here–two of which were islands. The sight made me realize that I was definitely not in my own world, but I didn’t seem to be surprised. The recognition that I was not surprised struck me as being odd. What was even more odd, though, was the fact that this too seemed to be a familiar piece of knowledge.

“Explain these items,” the Menas said–changing the subject–as he picked up a brown bag–which I recognized to be a gift I received from my mom for Christmas–and dumped its contents onto the floor.

The sight before me caused me to roll my eyes and shake my head slightly. On the floor below me lay a composition notebook, pencils, a sketchbook, a romance novel–that I unfortunately have read before–and a lavender scarf.

“They’re from my family. Apparently they decided to give me things that they would use, and nothing I would,” despite the slight bitterness in my voice, I couldn’t help but to smile. Though I was different from them, they always had what they thought was best for me in their hearts. The Lead seemed to be out of responses, and he sharply turned away from me.

“Mika,” he said, calling the larger man to attention, “come,” and the two left.

Soon after they exited, another woman entered. She was beautiful, but nothing compared to the girl in the corner of the room. The second woman seemed to be prepared to treat my wounds, and I noticed for the first time that I had a long gash on my left leg. No wonder it hurt so badly.

“Are you going to come help her clean my wounds?” I asked playfully, smiling brightly at the girl in the corner. She didn’t so much as look at me before turning to follow the men out of the room. For some reason I couldn’t resist calling out to her as she left.

“Sleep well, Solana!” She didn’t so much as hesitate before letting the flap close behind her.