The Lightning At PetraBy Benjamin Chen

PrologueThere is a house, outside the ancient city famous for being carved into a

wall of rock, called Petra. It’s been awkwardly silent there for years and

years, decades and decades, centuries and centuries. Outside it stood a

ginormous ring of impossibly tall and forbidding mountains. The mountains

are only climbable in the pitch darkness of the night, as a strange gale of

wind blows any daytime mountaineers trying to get past them straight off the

almost vertical side of the mountain, making them fall straight to their

deaths. Those who made it into the ring were never seen coming out again.

The house was abandoned, the locals of a village outside say, but they

said they sometimes saw a thick, cylindrical streak of lightning flash within

the ring. Even more strangely, it makes not a single sound, and no rumble of

thunder follows. A flock of unknown flying creatures took off after a

lightning streak. Then, roughly an hour later, it would drizzle above a

villager’s house. Not rain, but strange smithereens of pink-yellowish peels,

incredibly short strands of soft hair, and some roof-staining blood too.

More than once the military, SWAT teams and police helicopters

attempted to sweep out whatever’s causing this mayhem and all those

disappearances, but they never came out of the ring either. In fact, an hour

after a team of these security units entered the ring, villagers would hear

rounds of explosions, firework-like explosions. Along with them came fiery,

violent, thinner and shorter-lasting streaks of lightning.

Yet after centuries, the mystery remained. No one came out of that rocky

ring alive to tell the other villagers about the mystery.

Part I: The entranceOn the other side of the mountain ring, a bunker lays, a thousand miles

off the village. Jade Pearl X (the tenth), a girl born of the unsocial clan of

forceans, has finally convinced her mother to let her go explore the inside of

the ring. It would be the first time she stepped more than a hundred meters

out of her home, where she was stuck for her previous nearly 13 years of

life. Her mother made her practice with her magic powers intensively before

she left so that she could protect herself.

So, sticking her hand out downwards, she allowed her magic to flow out

of her hands. A gale of force pushed hard against the ground as she rocketed

at full speed upwards, then flew towards the ring of mountains.

It was a long, rough flight. The unbearable wind up in the clouds caused

lots of air resistance. Petra was nowhere to be seen, though Jade knew for

sure she was going the right way, as she had seen it on a map before and

studied that map for ages. She almost had the map printed at the best

resolution in her brain. Jade got tired, her eyes grew heavy, and the magic in

her hands got weaker and weaker…

She awoke with a thud. She would have been killed if she went down

headfirst. But she didn’t, thanks to her luck.

Jade had crash-landed on a grassy field, somewhere within the ring.

Trying to pull herself up was a challenge. Bruised and battered all over, Jade

could but crawl. She didn’t know where she was, so she decided to take a

bird’s-eye view of her surroundings.

With difficulty, she got into a push-up position so that her hands were

facing the ground. She squeezed out as much magic as she could. She was

gaining altitude again. The welcoming entrance of Petra slowly got in sight.

Jade was delighted. She flew straight there. It was getting a bit dark by now,

so she looked for shelter. She found a little straw house next to the entrance.

She landed herself and, using her vacuum-force magic, pulled the door right

open. The door didn’t give in easily, which was weird. It creaked, very

loudly. So loudly that Jade had to cover her ears just to prevent becoming

deaf. But putting on a brave heart, Jade convinced herself that it was just

because the hut was ancient. Which is true.

But it still creeped her out a bit at the bottom of the heart. It was pitch

black inside since the torches weren’t lit. So Jade opened her headlamp.

It didn’t seem scary at all. No, definitely not one of those haunted

houses, Jade decided. A comfy little straw cottage it was, though it wasn’t

very clean. While Jade was marching up the stairs, the ancient mahogany

stairs creaked dangerously, as if it could collapse any second. But Jade got

through it just in time.

Upstairs there was a perfect, modern bedroom. The bed was so large and

comfortable that Jade decided it would be fine to sleep here for the night.

The night got black as Jade settled down her gear and went to bed.

Part II: The cityIt was in the middle of the night, specific time unknown. Jade awoke to

three cracked voices’ cackles.

She was alarmed and terrified at once. In front of her hovered three

ghost-like figures, each having a humanly stature. They looked like angels,

in fact, and they had wings and could fly.

“The slaughtered shall slaughter,” chanted the first.

“The detectives shall be detected,” added the second.

“And the skinned shall skin them!” finished the third.

That got Jade confused as she tried to make out what they tried to say.

Meanwhile the angel-ghosts faded out.

Soon it was dawn, and Jade didn’t fall asleep since the haunting of the

trio of angel-ghosts. But the good news was, her wounds were somehow

healed completely. She felt perfect and energized. Jade was off to Petra now

after some packing.

She stepped into this abandoned ancient city, dug into rocks and thus

mostly made of rocks. She opened her headlamp and decided it would be

good if she could bring back photos of her amazing adventure back to her

mom. Capturing pictures of dug-in houses, stone pillars, ancient writings

and bumpy stone streets with her camera, she was so excited that she

literally forgot to be scared. She was so busy snapping away that she

bumped into a stone wall.

Giggles were heard drifting on the air.

Putting her camera down and aiming her hands at the direction the

giggles came from, she watched out for the giggler, ready to knock the

giggler away with her shockwave magic if the giggler looked like it was

about to attack her.

“We got a careless detective here!”

“Really?” answered a more distant voice.

“Yeah, now’s your chance! C’mon! Give it a shot!”

Cold sweat leaked out of Jade as she continued trying the track down the

giggler.

Suddenly, a feathery creature wrapped her in its wings and instantly

kidnapped her.

She did all she could to get the winged creature off with her shockwave

magic. The winged creature was a peregrine falcon, an abnormally large one,

with a saddle and a steering handle. With her nicely practiced magic, she

knocked the falcon into a wall, where it collapsed and fell unconscious. She

knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to stay, so she dashed out of Petra. Another

flock of falcons awaited her outside Petra, with riders on them. The riders

were farm animals, and they looked quite scary --- many have bloody slits

all over their body, while some are terribly burnt.

She felt sorry for the pilots, but now was obviously not the time to offer

mercy. The pilots made their birds take off, and all dive at her. She was

quick in delivering her shockwaves and yet very accurate too. With her

expert magic skills, she quickly knocked them out.

Suddenly, she saw something bright in the sky coming down at her. It

was a thick, cylindrical streak of lightning. Before she even tried to use a

shockwave to knock the lightning away, the lightning pierced right through

her brain, her throat, her heart, her stomach, her whole body.

Her last thought before she blacked out was how much she hated herself

for bringing herself into this horrendous place, and not reacting quickly

enough to knock off the lightning.

Part III: The museumJade regained her conscience feeling very dizzy. She found herself

trapped in a misty glass container. Her surroundings were cold, and a strong

scent of salt and iron dust could be smelled within the container.

She desperately wanted to find out where she was, so she started

absorbing the mist off the glass with her vacuum-force magic. She found

that there were many other cells around hers. Then a chicken with his wings

cut off and his breast sliced off walked in, with a remote controller floating

in front of his chest

“Hey, little fool, let me help you with that mist-clearing!” he said with a

chuckle.

A button was somehow pressed and all the mist in Jade’s cell instantly

disappeared.

“So you’re ready for display for our almighty king, is it?”

Jade was horribly confused and shocked. “Wait, what did you say?”

“Our king Billy is going to love the museum that I put up under his

command! You will be a new addition!”

“Wait a sec. Are you saying I’m going to be a museum artifact for your

king?”

“Ha-ha! His majesty will love the big project I’ve made so much

progress with!” The chicken marched off happily, ignoring Jade.

A moment later, the chicken returned with the most disfigured, injured

and scary pig Jade had seen in her whole life. The pig walked on two legs

and looked dead serious. Looking closely, a relatively tiny gold crown sits

on the beast’s head. Jade figured that it was the king, Billy. She watched the

king from inside her now-transparent cell.

A button was clicked and the mist disappeared in another person’s cell. It

was a handsome boy around Jade’s age with styled electric-blue hair. Jade

fell in instant crush with him. He was still sleeping in his cell when the mist

was cleared, which only made him look better to her. But seeing her own

green hair, which was now as dirty as an old car’s tire, brush past her eyes,

she remembered that she wasn’t the average human child. She was a

forcean, a member of a clan that the normal humans wanted to get rid of and

had to hide away from normal humans since nearly 300 years ago. It started

when a young man and woman were mutated somehow, and they discovered

that they were supernatural soon later. The humans considered them a threat

and wanted to get rid of her, so they ran far away to form their own clan. So

now, Jade knew she couldn’t be the boy’s crush. She still watched carefully

what was to be done to this boy.

“You majesty, this human boy was brought in last night. Display or not?”

Billy regarded the boy for moments, from all angles.

“Yes please.”

A button was clicked and a rod rose, and several tubes lowered until they

reached his altitude. To Jade’s horror, the boy came under a huge layer of

mist, after the mist parted, the boy was now raised in place by the rod, and

he was naked and skinned and frozen in place --- and most definitely not

alive. Jade turned pale with shock and could not help having tears well up in

her eyes. The chicken and Billy soon approached her cell. Jade was suddenly

more filled with grief for herself than for the boy.

“You majesty, this girl was brought in this morning. Displa-”

“HALT!” The king snapped. He seemed to be looking at Jade straight in

the eyes.

“Is this girl the person you told me that could absorb mist with her

magic?”

“Yes, your majesty,” the chicken replied. “What’s the problem?”

Billy slapped the chicken sideways with all his might. The king was

absolutely furious.

“You dumb, useless chicken! Are you blind? Can’t you see her green hair

and rainbow eyes?”

“Well probably she got her hair dyed and she’s wearing iridescent

contact lenses…”

“You are a born fool, by no mistake! She’s a forcean, OK?” the king

kicked the fallen chicken with all his might, straight to the guards. “Guards,

take this blind, stupid taxidermist to the detainment ward!”

Cow-guards did as they were told.

Part IV: The historyMeanwhile, with the chicken’s remote controller, he vaporized the walls

of Jade’s cell. He grabbed Jade in the hands and took her to his personal

study.

He made her sit down at a table and he sat at a chair opposite.

“I sincerely apologize for your capture and your state right now. It was a

mistake of my pilots to have captured you. Soon they shall receive their

punishments too. I can’t believe that they can’t tell normal humans and

forceans apart.”

“But why?” asked Jade. “I’m a human, am I not? A forcean I may be, but

still, we’re very close in genes with normal humans, aren’t we?”

“You have lots to learn.” The king sighed. “Humans have slaughtered us

farm animals since nearly 20,000 years ago. Ever since the invention of

farming in around 6000 BC, humans have started killing us for our meat.

They are just so greedy. I’ve actually lived here since 6000 BC, since I was

the first poultry to ever be killed.” Tears welled up in the king’s eyes.

“I’m sorry,” replied Jade, kind of empathetically.

“After I died a very painful death, I came to up here. It’s like this place

was heaven to me. Soon many more farm animals joined me. We decided to

plot against those humans that are just so evil. Peregrine falcons started

getting killed by human-made pesticides in the 1950s and 60s, which was

about 11,000 years ago. They came up here too, and we used them as our

personal aircrafts.”

“And so our technology developed further and further, until we made

those cylindrical lightning-strikers; and those even harsher fire ones to

instantly blow up vehicles’ engines; and they were made just for us to take

our revenge on them.”

“And why didn’t you guys just attack towns filled with human civilians

with your lightning technology?”

“Because we feel that no matter how evil someone is to us, we always

have our morals to limit ourselves. We never go over the limit. We chose the

location of this base to be above the mountain ring where Petra is because

barely anyone would dare to enter the ring, which is such a hard climb in the

first place. And those people who make it in are our targets of revenge as

their bravery and skills make them the “good essence” of humans. We want

to demolish the “good essence”, which are the hope of social development of

humans, so that the human society never improves and we will always be

able to take revenge on humans without revealing ourselves.”

“But we thought only normal humans would step in the ring. We didn’t

know that forceans would be brave enough: They always hide, don’t they?

You forceans are also afraid of being killed by normal humans. But you

forceans never killed poultry in history. We can see that through our

technology. So I apologize again for your treatment.”

“Thank you,” Jade replied. “But can’t you guys, us forceans, and the

humans, all be friends? I can just tell the villagers in my village that you

guys don’t want to be slaughtered.”

The pig hugged Jade warmly.

“My greatest pleasure to have met you, forcean girl,” said the pig, who

looked very touched. “You are about to bring a peaceful and wonderful end

to this raging feud that’s lasted for such a lot a centuries. You are truly a

hero.”

“Before I go, one last question,” Jade cut in, “Why is it that you animals

understand me and I understand you?”

“Ah, yes. The cell that held you, it had iron dust in it. That dust is

universal transcoding dust, allowing you to understand every single

language in the universe, and also allow everyone in the universe to

understand you. By the way, do you need one of our pilots to fly you back

outside the ring?”

“Uh, no, thank you, I can use my magic. Goodbye, your majesty.”

“Safe journeys.”

Part V: The returnAnd so Jade bid farewell to the pig king Billy, and flew all the way to the

human village. It was an hour’s flight, but this time Jade didn’t grow tired.

She was right above the human village now --- hovering at an altitude of a

hundred feet.

As she hunted through the village for the village head’s house, people in

the village spotted her and started throwing rocks at her.

“Stupid forcean!”

“You guys have evil spirits!”

“Forceans deserve to go extinct!”

Jade had to weave skillfully left and right to dodge all the rocks. A

considerable number of rocks did get her and she was pelted relentlessly.

Though battered and injured, she told herself she would pay anything to get

to the village head.

She finally found the village head’s house. She started knocking on the

door.

The village head’s butler opened the door and gasped in surprise at once.

“It’s a forcean!”

The butler quickly called the police on her. Jade couldn’t stop him --- the

tall, sturdy man was too strong for her.

Soon the police came and Jade tried fighting them off. But she soon got

exhausted and one officer shot her. She fell to the ground and the police

captured her.

When the police found she was terribly injured but still alive, they

reluctantly brought her to the paramedics for a brief treatment. Then she was

tied up on a chair at the police station.

When Jade awoke, she was tied to a chair, with the police chief there,

interrogating her.

“Why did you come here?”

“I have an important issue to discuss with the village head here.”

“You forceans have no business here.”

“But do you want mountaineers to end up in lightning again, and get put

up in a museum and-”

“Wait a sec, wh-what did you say?!”

“After someone enters the ring, a flock of falcons piloted by slaughtered

farm animals would go after him/her. Then, if he/she manages to fight off

the pilots, a streak of lightning would knock him/her unconscious. Then the

person would find himself/herself in a cell, ready to be skinned and frozen

and put up for display.”

“Who would do all that?”

“Slaughtered farm animals. They developed their own technology to take

their revenge on humans for them being slaughtered by humans for their

meat. So if humans stop slaughtering, the slaughtering of explorers of the

ring will stop getting slaughtered.”

“OK, thank you. I shall tell the village head soon about all this.” Only

now did Jade notice that the chief had been taking careful notes of

everything she said.

Jade was released, and she flew straight home, taking another hour-and-

a-half. Her mother, Jade Pearl IX (the ninth), was at the door to greet her.

“Happy birthday dear!” Her mom hugged her.

Jade just realized it was her birthday.

She told her mom about her whole adventure. The news of the heroine

who ended this ever-lasting feud soon spread all over Earth. Because of

Jade, the normal humans and forceans reunited and promised peace to each

other. King Billy never punished another explorer of the ring again. Even

centuries after the adventure, Jade Pearl X was still remembered as that girl,

that heroine who saved future generations of explorers and brought peace

between three sides, never to be forgotten. With her great compassion and

courage, and just a little help from magic, she became the icon of peace and

compassion.