Hey

Hey!
Windfire updated on the new site! Chapter 3 has officially begun!
Seriously, what are you doing over here? I'm just leaving this up so no one gets lost. Get over to windfiresblog.wordpress.com, or go to writergirlkait.wix.com/kaitsstoryserials for all the comics, all week long! (except Wednesdays)

You're still here. Why are you still here? Go read page 15 and 16. Do it.

Finally

We are live! For reals this time. windfiresblog.wordpress.com

Update

Still fiddling and fighting with Wordpress. I gave in and made separate sites for each story, which I think will make it less confusing anyways. Windfire site should be up as soon as I figure out where the comics are going.

Tumblr

Well that was way less painful than I expected.
Come find me at skysonglark.tumblr.com! I also have a twitter account with the same username. Probably should have mentioned that before.

Technical Difficulties

Hey,
So I've been working on transferring everything over to the new site and I, uh, ran into a little hiccup. Well, it isn't exactly little, I-
Can you tell I'm blushing? My lack of expertise in the areas of Wordpress and pdf conversion is embarrassing. I'm usually pretty techy, but Wordpress and I, well, we don't get along. I can't seem to get it to format the site to separate the four stories, and I don't really want to make separate sites for each. I might have to, though. We'll see.
My bigger problem is the fact I can't convert more than one page of each pdf at a time. Wordpress needs the files to be separate jpegs, but because I'm using iBooks Author to make the pages, I have to export to pdf and then to jpeg, and Preview for mac is not a happy little conversion machine. I can't batch convert and it's killing me.
I might end up doing everything one page at a time, but that means the site won't be up and running for a while yet. Not setting a time frame, not going to make promises I can't keep. Also I'm tired and I have a chemistry midterm tomorrow and have to get up at 5 am on Friday, so I might put the site on hold until the weekend. However, I will try to get my tumblr up and running in the next few days- hopefully that won't be so painful.
Long story short, I'm working on it, and I will conquer the technology yet!
Thanks for hanging in there.

Update!!!

Hello
I am back! Between classes and work and other things, I haven't had a lot of time for this project. Sorry to vanish without a trace like that.
I'm working on a new site and new formatting that should hopefully be up by the end of the week. I'll put a post with links when I finish. I'm using wordpress and a more comic-like format, so you'll be getting smaller chunks of story but hopefully more regular updates.
Thanks for sticking with me.

Notice

Hello readers,
I hope you're enjoying the story of Windfire so far. I honestly have no idea when I'll be able to post new chapters, so please just bear with me and keep checking back. While you're waiting, I write three other serials, all of which can be found on my website. The link can be found on the side of the page where it says "Return to Main Site". If you are reading this on the website, please disregard this message.
Thanks!

Chapter 3

Everything was still very sore and very blurry when Natalie came to, lying once again on the floor of the cell. With a groan, she tried to get up, and fell back to the ground as her legs gave out under her. Something felt off. She couldn’t tell what the alien procedure had done to her, but there was something different. The problem was, she had no idea what.

The alien spoke in a monotone to the monitors on the wall. Natalie didn’t understand what it was saying, but she guessed it was informing the other alien what had happened. She propped herself up against the wall and tried to think. The alien obviously wasn’t done with her. What fresh torture was he going to come up with? She didn’t want to think about it. 

There was a rumbling sound, and something made the entire warehouse shake. The alien turned off the monitors and ejected what looked like a black hard drive, which he tucked under a tentacle. With his other tentacles he picked up what looked like a gas canister. This he proceeded to hook up to a tube in the wall, then he pressed a button next to it. With a hiss blue gases filled the sealed cell. Natalie put both hands over her mouth and held her breath, but eventually she needed to breathe and gulped in some of the gas. Instead of knocking her out, as she expected, she felt reenergized, and the pain in her arms and legs subsided. Shakily, she got to her feet, then discovered she wasn’t even shaky anymore.

A door in the back of the warehouse opened as the gas dispersed, and Natalie saw more tentacled aliens enter. Two of them stopped in front of her cell and opened the door. She was dragged roughly by the arms towards the door, slimy tentacles gripping her arms like iron shackles. She didn’t have time to think, just attempt to keep her footing as the aliens removed her from the warehouse and up the ramp of a huge red spaceship. Why no one had noticed it, Natalie didn’t know. It wasn’t making any kind of effort to hide itself. The aliens brought her inside the ship and down a long corridor, lit harshly like a hospital room. The entire interior was white and impeccably clean. Natalie was dragged to a door at the end of the corridor and pushed inside. She fell to the ground in what looked like an arena of sorts. A booth in the wall above her appeared to have glass in it, but she couldn’t see anything behind it. One way glass, she realized bitterly. Now I really feel like a lab rat. 

On the other side of the arena, a door opened and a boy stumbled in. A metal rod was tossed in after him, then the door slammed shut. 

“Fight,” boomed an alien voice from a speaker near the booth.

“Say what?” Natalie backed away from the boy, not that she was close to him to begin with.

The boy slowly picked up the rod and positioned it in front of him in a defensive stance. Natalie waved her hands at him, wondering if he spoke English. “I don’t want to fight you.”

He looked up at the booth. “If we fake it well enough, they might let us leave.”

Natalie studied him, considering her options. He obviously knew how to fight, unlike her. She didn’t think volleyball skills would help her out here. “Come at me, then,” she said.

He took a step forward, then stopped. “You want to do this for real.”

“I can’t fight. It’d be obvious we weren’t fighting seriously.”

For a moment, Natalie thought he was going to refuse, then he nodded and took a run at her. Natalie dodged the first swing, but the second knocked her sideways onto the floor. The boy swung the rod over his head as though he was going to hit her in the head. Instinctively Natalie raised her arms to shield herself, then orange flames erupted from her hands, sending them both flying towards the walls. Natalie got to her feet and looked at her hands. “What the-“ She raised her head to see the boy steading himself, panting.

“What was that?” he yelled. “Are you some alien too?”

Horrified, Natalie shook her head. “No, I-“ She didn’t have time to say anything more as the boy launched himself at her. She pointed both palms at him and balls of flame shot out once again. He slid across the floor, giving her a moment to wonder how he’d managed to propel himself all the way across the room with nothing but the muscles in his legs. He got up and swung blindly at her. She decided not to hit him again, just duck and weave until she could figure out how to stop him. It wasn’t hard. He wasn’t the focused, calculating fighter that had first attacked her. She wasn’t sure he was even thinking at all. Finally she found her opening. She grabbed the rod with both hands and ripped it away from him, swinging it into his stomach. He crumpled to the ground, coughing.

“Stop,” she told him. “This is getting us nowhere.”

He punched the floor, his hand leaving a circular dent in material Natalie could tell wasn’t made to be easily broken. The boy knew this as well, as he pulled his hand away and stared at it, his fingers shaking.

“I guess we’re both freaks,” said Natalie.

Chapter 2

Natalie’s eyes blinked open. For a moment she thought she was just waking up in the morning, then everything came back in a rush, volleyball, and the sandman, and getting beaten up. At least she wasn’t sore, since the sand wasn’t hard enough to leave so much as a bruise. Her vision cleared, and she saw a warehouse full of boxes and strange electronics. Computers filled the wall closest to her, but beyond them it was too dark to see. She got shakily to her feet, and then she saw the glass. She was standing in some kind of cell with a clear door. Concrete walled her in on either side. Natalie sat back down on the cold cement floor. Obviously that sandman had been sent to capture her, but why? What made her so different from everyone else on the beach that had made the creature go after her, and her alone? 

Movement in the darkened end of the warehouse caught her eye. Something was coming her way. A bizarre figure emerged from the gloom; some sort of red alien with two huge eyes, a smile stretching all the way across its face, two short arms, and a mass of quivering red tentacled bunched up underneath it that allowed it to slide along the floor. Natalie blinked at it. What is that? she thought. The creature slid in front of the computers and started them up. She saw four monitors with pictures of kids, their families and a map with black dots on it. One of the photos was her school picture from last year. The other screen showed a face. The creature seemed to be talking to it, but just as the face itself was blurred, she couldn’t quite make out what was being said. No doubt she wouldn’t have been able to understand it anyways. She examined the door. Maybe there was a weak point on the hinges or something. She got up and hit one as an experiment. The only result was a clang that sounded around the room. Well, that didn’t work. She stepped back as the alien’s head turned towards her and it started sliding in her direction.

“Don’t bother,” it said, its voice sounding surprisingly human. “These are built with the latest technology in containment, using advancements the likes of which the Earth has never seen.”

“What do you want?” She backed away from the thing on the other side of the glass. The alien stared at her without blinking. 

“Only your cooperation in a small experiment.”

“I think I’d rather not.” Natalie's heart pounded in her chest and she struggled to control her rising panic. You’ll never get out of this if you start freaking out.

“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice in the matter. Your cooperation is requested, but not required.” The alien studied her, making Natalie’s breath catch in her throat. “Not this one-I’m set up for the energy subject.” It slipped along the floor out of Natalie’s field of vision, then reappeared dragging a black-haired girl towards a door in the far wall. Natalie sat on the ground, watching the closed door. After a few minutes, screams filled the empty space. Natalie put her hands over her ears, her elbows resting on her bent knees. Don’t think about her. Don’t think about yourself. Think about escaping. You’ve got to get out of here, somehow.

Natalie watched as the alien returned, the unconscious body of the girl wrapped in a tentacle. It returned to Natalie’s cell and opened the door a little. Natalie fought the grip of the tentacle that closed around her arms and waist to no avail. Cold, helpless fear replaced panic as she was carried into the little room. There was a complex array of alien machines and equipment positioned around an operation chair. The alien strapped Natalie’s arms and feet down in the chair and picked up a pair of tubes, which it proceeded to insert into each shoulder. Natalie yelped as the needles went into her veins. Something cold invaded her body, making her limbs numb and heavy. Then the alien switched on the machines, and all she could feel was pain. Her own screaming drowned everything out until she passed out.

Chapter 1

Sand sprayed up in all directions as Natalie Sawyer, arms outstretched, dove for the volleyball, getting there just in time to bump it back to her sister Bryn. 

“Eat my dust!” she said, laughing.

Bryn jumped and slammed her fist into the top of the white leather sphere, her face twisted into a frown of concentration. Natalie slid across the sand, stopping just short of the ball. It sat on the edge of the lines they’d drawn around their court, its blank face taunting her.

“Yes!” Bryn pumped a fist in the air. “You eat my dust, slowpoke!”

Natalie picked up the ball and twirled it on the end of her finger. “I demand a rematch.”

“If you insist. Not that it’ll make a difference. I’m just better than you.” Bryn examined her outstretched nails.

Natalie backed up behind the line in the sand, her tongue protruding slightly from the corner of her mouth in concentration. She pressed one yellow sneaker into the sand, focused her eyes on her wrist, stepped and swung. The ball flew in a perfect arc over the net. . . .

The ground shook as the sand bubbled upwards, making the net slide down off the side of the rising mound and sending the ball flying down the beach. Natalie stumbled and fell on her behind. The sand rose above her, growing arms and eyes as it did so. Natalie was aware of people screaming behind her, and of Bryn yelling, telling her to run. She scrambled to her feet and took off, heading towards the road. The sandman’s arm stretched around her left side. She dove out of the way, turning a cartwheel before veering off towards an empty stretch of sand. The sandman’s other arm appeared in her peripheral vision, speeding towards her. It knocked her off her feet before she could react, and as she rolled out of the way, she felt the other arm grip hers. Now she screamed, trying to wrench her arm away. The creature’s grip was considerably strong, for something made of sand. It brought its other giant hand on top of her, and everything went black.

Jake Ellis stretched out his hands to his little sister. Taylor toddled towards him on chubby, unsteady legs. She reached him, grabbing his fingers and smiling in triumph.

He swung her into the air. “Atta girl! Who’s my favourite sister, hey?” She giggled as he tickled her soft baby cheek.

The clatter of pots and raised voices floated out of the kitchen window. His mom and brother Kurt were fighting again, probably over the new car Kurt wanted but they could never afford. Jake directed his attention back to Taylor, who was busy exploring the taste of grass in her mouth.

“Hey, that’s not food, silly.” He pried the grass from her closed fist. “Here,” he said, offering her one of her rubber ducks that was floating in the wading pool beside them. The fireflies blinked on and off in the cool of the evening. Jake put both hands behind him on the back porch and watched Taylor splash in the lukewarm pool. . . .

The water rose into a spout in Taylor’s face. She blinked, reaching out to grab the spray. It twisted and bulged into a crude imitation of a human, with big clumsy hands and empty holes for eyes.

“Taylor!” Jake sped across the lawn, lifting Taylor out of the way before positioning himself in front of her. He heard Mom scream from inside the house, and the front door open. He focused his attention on the creature, shifting his weight onto his toes. He raised his hands in a basic karate stance. The water-monster’s hand spiralled towards him, and he ducked and dodged, trying to draw the creature away from Taylor. It wasn’t that hard; it only seemed to notice him. Its other hand came at him from underneath, he jumped out of the way and backed into the porch. Kurt yelled at him from somewhere to his left, telling him to come inside before he got hurt. Jake stepped up onto the porch and started to walk towards the door. The creature’s arm wrapped around his back, cutting him off. He tried to duck under it, but the other hand hit his feet out from under him, and he fell hard on his back. He was dimly aware of Taylor shrieking, then the water closed over his head and he knew nothing more.

The lamp over Mina St. Claire’s desk gave her just enough light to read by. She’d immersed herself in the world of knights and magicians to try and forget her conversation with her mother just that afternoon.

“I signed you up for a youth camp next week,” she’d said. When Mina protested, she’d added, “No buts. You can’t just sit here in your room all summer. You have to get out and talk to other kids. Make some friends.”

Mina bit her lip, trying to control herself. She didn’t need friends. She was perfectly fine just the way she was, thank you. She reached down to stroke her cat, June, who was sleeping beside her chair. “They just don’t understand me,” she told her. June rumbled under her fingers, as though she understood, and she agreed with her. Mina twirled a strand of her black hair around one finger and went back to her book. . . .

The lamp flickered on and off, before sparks began to swirl around it, forming a shape with jagged arms and spiky hair. Mina’s book fell off her lap as she slowly stood up. She backed away from the thing in the middle of her room, throwing yellow light on the purple walls and the white drapery above her chair. It shot one arm towards her, and she dodged gracefully before making a run for the door. The electric creature blocked her way, propelling both arms like javelins rushing at her chest. She dropped to the floor, and rolled as it tried to hit her with first one spike, then the other. Mina scrambled to her feet and jumped at her chair, diving behind it. 

She knelt there, breathing hard as she tried to make sense of the situation. There was a creature made from the electricity in her desk lamp trying to hurt her. It lifted the chair and threw it across the room. Mina winced as it hit the door, and through the floorboards she heard her dad yelling something she couldn’t quite make out. At any rate, she had bigger problems. The thing threw its arms at her in quick succession, forcing her towards the wall. Mina felt her back hit solid plaster. An arm was thrust towards her shoulder, she ducked only to feel the other one hit her legs. She screamed as it sent a jolt up her body, then her vision blurred and everything faded away.

The sound of electronic gunfire filled Zeke Herman’s room as he shot at the zombies on his computer screen. The screen went black and Game Over flashed across it.

“Aw, c’mon!” he protested, tossing the controller carelessly onto his desk. He flopped back in his chair and spun around just as his brother walked into the room. 

“Zeke? What’s the average water retention of a camel’s humps?” David asked.

Zeke groaned. His gifted little brother always made him feel dumb, even when he was asking him for the answer. “Camel humps store fat, not water. They do drink up to 20 gallons at a time, though.”

“Serious? Then where does all that water go?”

“Into his bloodstream. Now go away. I need to pass this level, or I’m gonna explode.”

“Okay.” David left the room. Zeke turned back to his computer and hit reset. . . .

Instead of his video game, the computer screen was filled with numbers. They raced faster and faster, and it almost looked like they were coming out of it. Suddenly a stream of numbers shot past Zeke’s ear. He shoved his chair across the room, shooting off to the other wall. He grabbed the basketball sitting on his bed and aimed it at the creature that had formed out of the zeros and ones from the computer. With a careless gesture, he launched it at the head the thing had formed. It ducked, launching one tendril of numbers at his legs. He jumped over it, throwing himself sideways towards the wall to avoid the other arm reaching for his head. The creature grew another tentacle, and all three came speeding to where he stood with his back against the wall. He ducked, sliding downwards just in time. The number-thing’s tendrils dug themselves into the wall instead. He ran for the door, but another tendril reached around him. He sped right into one of the arms that had just been pulled out of the wall. The tentacles closed around him, and he could remember thinking, What’s Dad gonna think of the holes in the wall?, and then nothing.