Her mother named her well. The word storm is defined as a violent disturbance in the atmosphere, producing strong wings, rain, thunder, lightning, and even snow. Storm had been a violent disturbance in Jayden’s life, bring all kinds of turmoil the moment she stepped through the doorway. But he didn’t regret meeting her. Death and destruction followed her, and while she tried to warn people, they never listened. They tried to get close to her and got trapped in the floods that was her life.
She lived a dangerous one. A life, that is. Storm was hunted for being something that the earth hated. She and her kind were thought the be soulless, born of nothing but pure witchcraft. They were beautiful though, two elegant wings graced each one’s back. Yet people hunted them like animals, like they had no mind of their own. But if Jayden had learned one thing over the past few months, was that they indeed had much more than a mind of their own. They were powerful, strong creatures that could easily take down armed men.
And Jayden had just discovered he was one of these Nothingborns. Not like Storm, he was a normal Nothingborn. Storm was a hybrid, a woman with four wings powering her flight instead of the normal two. When they had discovered Jayden was one of the Nothingborns, it was shocking news, even to the boy. He had no idea, after all a lot of times people do not grow their wings at birth. It often takes years for them to unlock it, if they even manage to do that at all.
Needless to say, Storm became the very definition of her name at the news. Punches and curses flew like hail, pelting down on Jayden and making him just want to hide. But once it had past, and the winds had died down, they sat across from each other, just staring.
“I’m sorry,” Jayden muttered, holding his head in his hands. He was embarrassed, and his wings showed it. They shuttered then closed around him, like they could possibly hide him from his angry best friend sitting right in front of him. “I don’t understand ho-”
“Jayden,” Storm’s voice was it’s usual cold and unfeeling one, which made him want to just flee the room. “Nothingborns are strange creatures, with their traits being unpredictable. If you had done a little more research on it, this would be a lot easier for you to understand.”
He looked up at her through one eye, the other eye having been swollen shut from an accidental blow he had received earlier. Her eyes had softened, even though the rest of her face remained stone cold. “I hate this,” he muttered to her. “I just want my parents back, they would know what to do.” Now that was a selfish thing to say to Storm. She had lost both her parents traumatically, before she was even five years old. Everyone knew Jayden had been pampered by his parents up until their deaths a few months earlier, and while they understood he was still in a serious mourning phase, mentioning them to Storm was something no one was supposed to do.
“I know.” Storm said, getting to her feet and stretching out her four wings. “But I need you, idiot. You’re like a brother to me, and now you are one of my kind.” She laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“I’m not good at comforting people,” she began. “And I’m not good when it comes to stuff like this, but sometimes all you need is someone to stand next to you.” Jayden looked up at her, then slowly got to his feet and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. And he cried.
His face was buried into her neck, and he felt so fragile in Storm’s arms. But Storm didn’t push away, not like any other time. Instead, she held her best friend, and let him cry it all out.
