Printed Post issue 23 | Page 25

Mother Nature Takes A Break “Wehttam! Bet you can’t make a couple of Red Sprites,” dared Yelhsa. “No more! Wehttam; no more!” she begged. Wehttam was sick with power. He realised that he would have to stop but sucked in one more enormous breath. Wehttam thought about it for a moment. Red Sprites, bursts of red lightning shooting upward and outward were harder to create than Blue Jets. Traditionally only older workers would be able to produce a Red Sprite long enough and red enough to be worthy of the title. Wehttam had only done the theory work on this type of lightning. He had only just mastered the Blue Jets. Yelhsa’s challenge was too tempting to resist. He tried to remember what he had read in the text books. There isn’t a name for the lightning that ensued. This gush was different to anything anyone had ever seen or made before. It rushed out in a long purple streak, branching and snaking out of control. The heat was so intense that Ellechim belched sonic boom after sonic boom. Yelhsa was nearly rent in two with the power of the light and sound. On and on it went, upward, outward and downward out of control, until Wehttam had exhausted the energy within. “You’re on.” he said. Wehttam turned to Enyahs. “I need you to spin clockwise as fast as you can. You need to whip those water particles into a fury. You’ve got to spin them so they stay in formation, don’t let any escape. I’ll grab them all in one swoop.” The subsequent silence was eerie. Shattered, the group floated in the air. Breathing hard, laughing, crying and talking over each other in their need to explain their exhilaration. All were oblivious to the smell of smoke, slowly rising into the cloud. He then turned to Ellechim. “This is might hurt you. The resulting lightning will be hotter than the sun and the exploding air could cause