//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: Blowin' in the Wind // Story: Brightly Lit // by Penalt //------------------------------// The Pacific Ocean. The single largest body of water on the planet holding almost half of that life giving liquid and playing host to the deepest depths as well as the infamous Ring of Fire. It was named “Pacific” meaning “peaceful” by Ferdinand Magellan after it greeted him with calm seas following a tortuous crossing of the Cape of Good Hope. In the centuries since then, the Pacific has mostly lived up to that name. Not for it the sharp fury of the Atlantic, nor the steady rain filled monsoons of the Indian. Throughout the long memories of humanity, the Pacific has been a gentle mother, nurturing and providing for the peoples along its coasts. Bounties of fish, highways for travel, and shellfish in the billions the Pacific has given to us, but even the most gracious and steady tempered of mothers has her bad days. The days when she reminds her children of just who exactly is in charge of their world. The following is a special weather statement from Environment Canada. Wind and rain warnings are in effect for: Haida Gwaii North Coast - Coastal Sections Central Coast - Coastal Sections Strong winds that may cause damage are expected. Loose objects may be tossed by the wind and cause injury or damage. High winds may toss loose objects or cause tree branches to fall. An unusually intense Pacific disturbance will come ashore on the BC coast Friday evening, bringing with it significant wind and rainfall. Sustained winds in excess of 100 kmh are expected, with gusts up to 120 kmh. Rainfall is predicted to be upwards of 60 mm. Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada. To report severe weather, send an email to ec.tempetepacifique-pacificstorm.ec@canada.ca or tweet reports using #BCStorm. Wednesday and Thursday after the fight were busy days for the youngsters. As Principal Hoeppner had told them, the school district superintendent came with a small staff and gave everyone involved the third degree, interrogating mercilessly. Connie and Sharon both turned on Alice during questioning, stating that the initial encounter had been to bully Romy and scare her from ever coming into the woods again. Gary had fully admitted his part in the fight to the supervisor, only adding that when he and Nelson had approached it had only been to even the odds. Nelson had already been airlifted to Haida Gwaii so had been unable to give his part about what happened. It turned out that while there had been damage to his knee he would make a full recovery without surgery, although he would need to have his knee in a brace for weeks to come. Alice had tried to lay blame for the whole thing on Romy, saying the younger girl had thrown sticks and pinecones at her and her friends. This was shown for the lie it was when Principal Hoeppner revealed his hole card. Over the past few months, local hunters had installed cleverly camouflaged wireless trail cameras high up on trees in the wooded area the schoolchildren frequented. They were intended as an early warning system for the school in case a bear or similar large predator enter the area. The coverage of the cameras was far from total, but it was more than enough to show the entire encounter between the children, from before its beginning, clear through to the end. Confronted with the evidence, Alice, and more importantly Alice’s parents, had been forced to accept responsibility for the entire fight and it’s consequences. As a result, Alice’s suspension had been expanded to a week, and a note was made in her permanent record. Gary had also had his suspension expanded to a week, due to his bullying of a boy much younger than himself. Nelson, due to his injury, was only suspended for three days. As for Romy, Rowan, Kylara, Billy and Zak, their suspension remained at three days. Only Zak, who had caused the injury to Nelson, had received any extra punishment. For the week after his suspension was done he was to stay after school for an hour, helping the janitor clean the school after all the other students had gone home. “I can’t believe they’re making you do school service for an entire week,” Rowey fumed to her friends as the group helped haul cut branches out of the Harding’s yard and into Mr. Harding’s truck. The wind freshened again for a moment, making the shape of the clouds in the leaden sky begin to stream out as they were pushed along in the threatening late Friday sky. “Eh, they could have done worse,” Zak said, grabbing another branch in his gloved hands from the pile of cut limbs that had been taken from trees in anticipation of the coming storm. “Ya, my dad said I should have just grabbed you guys and run,” Billy said, grabbing the other end of the heavy branch. “Then he said he saw the tape and showed me how I could have made the punch better.” All five of the kids laughed at that. The first light drops of rain began to splash down on the group. “We’d better hurry up,” Rowey said, as she felt the rain hit her head. “I want to get inside before we get soaked. Where’s your mom, Kya?” “Around the back,” the red haired girl said, from where she was raking up a bunch of leaves. As if on cue the girl’s mother came around the side of the house, her neighbor Jean close behind. Both older women wore jeans, work shoes and work coats, which were beginning to be spackled with wet as bits of rain began to strike them. “Hey kids, almost done?” Lynn asked, her own red hair tucked up under a knit toque. “Just finishing up, Mom,” Zak said to his mother, as he and Billy levered the last branch onto the packed bed of the pickup truck. “Good,” Lynn said, smiling to her son. “The back is all finished and your father should be back from the farm soon. Billy, when does your father think he is going to be done?” “He had everything around our yard taken care of yesterday,” the blond boy said. “He’s just trying to get a job finished before the end of the day.” Lynn glanced over her shoulder and rolled her eyes at Arnold’s priorities. “He knows when dinner is set for, right?” Jean asked her friend’s son, who nodded in response. “And do you need to grab anything from your place before you come over?” “Just a couple of things,” Billy answered. “Can I get Rowey or Romy to give me a hand?” “Sure, Mrs. Harding and I can handle things from here,” Jean said, a grin coming to her face as her two girls eagerly dropped what they were doing to join their friend. “Zak, Kylara,” Lynn Harding said to her two children. “Go grab your stuff too and head over to Mrs. Pedersen’s. I’ll be along in a bit.” “Okay, Mom,” the two children said, scrambling for the door. “Are you sure you still want to do the sleepover party with all the kids tonight?” Lynn asked the other woman. “It's going to be a heck of a storm.” As if to punctuate the comment, the wind picked up more and things began to actively blow around the area. “Well, if something happens due to the storm, Arnold and Ernie are both going to get called in to the fire hall,” Jean replied, her long black hair beginning to stream behind her in the wind. “In which case, it’s best if all the kids are in one place and there’s no sense in you being by yourself over at your place.” “Good point,” Lynn said, nodding. “Okay, grab the other end of the tarp and let’s get this load secured.” On top of Burnaby Mountain, near Simon Fraser University, was a large nondescript building nestled in a section of woods located some distance away from the main campus. This unassuming building is known as the Remote Control Facility, and allows the BC Hydro power utility to remotely control the dozens of small hydroelectric dams across the vast province of British Columbia. “Everything buttoned down Ms. Shaushka?” the facility supervisor asked the orange haired tech on duty for the dams on the North and Central coasts. “Yes sir,” the English ex-pat said, looking up at her boss. “Everything is locked down except Carmanah Lake and Falls River.” “Why aren’t those two rigged for the storm?” the supervisor asked. “Reservoir levels are low for both locations,” Remote Tech Shaushka replied, pointing to the relevant readouts. “They should manage just fine and it will build up some capacity for summer. “All right,” the supervisor said, clapping the tech on the shoulder. “Keep an eye on them just in case, okay?” “Yes sir,” the tech replied, going back to scanning incoming data from the eighteen dams under her direct control. The wind-driven rain beat against the glass window in waves, but inside all was warm and snug. The three families had finished dinner just as the power had gone out, which had been expected. As such, there had already been a fire going in the woodstove and a candle lit. Once the power had gone, that candle had been used to spark others to life and now the inhabited areas of the house were filled with a cheery, golden glow. “Okay kids,” Jean said to the five children clustered around the kitchen table playing a game together. “You all may as well head up for bed.” A chorus of groans greeted that proclamation. “Kids, you heard Mrs. Pedersen,” Lynn said to her pair. “With it being dark and the power out, there isn’t much to do so you may as well--” She was cut off as a loud siren began to sound from somewhere outside. Up and down, the classic air raid siren warbled for a solid three minutes, then slowly faded to silence. The two men in the room were already stuffing their feet into boots and throwing on jackets as the last echoes of the alert siren were drowned by the driving rain. “I really wish they had a different way of calling the fire department,” Lynn said to her husband, as he began to do up the raincoat he had brought with him. “That siren drives me nuts every time I hear it.” “Any other method pretty much relies on cell phone technology on some level,” Arnold Kye said, wrapping his own raincoat over his massive frame. “Even pagers wouldn’t be as effective as a simple siren is and a volunteer fire department has to take what it can get. Ernie, we should take our own trucks to the fire hall, they might need both depending on what the problem is.” “Right,” Ernie said, hugging his wife and then addressing the children. “You kids all behave yourselves, okay?” All the children had stopped complaining at this point and nodded, knowing things must be bad if Brightly’s volunteer fire department was being called out in this weather. Jean Pedersen made a point of hugging her friend Arnold. “Be safe out there,” she told him, as her married neighbors shared a look with each other and tried to suppress smiles. “I will,” Arnold said, opening the door, and he and his neighbor stepped out into the howling storm to make their way to the local firehall. The two women left behind watched through the window as the men staggered through the winds to their vehicles, started them and headed off. In the meantime, the group of children had gone upstairs by the light of a couple of glowsticks, candles being considered a little too dangerous to be in their hands. “Did you bring it?” Zak asked Billy when they reached the bedrooms. “Bring what?” Rowey asked, her face oddly shaded by the green-gold light of the glowstick. “This,” Billy said, quietly, as he unzipped the top of the backpack he had left in the girls room to reveal the corner of a large electronic device. “What is it?” Romy asked, her voice loud with excitement. “Shhh,” the others hushed her, not wanting their mothers downstairs to hear and they all paused for a moment, listening to see if they conversation in the living room stopped. “Okay, but what is it?” Romy asked again, in a much quieter voice as the five children clustered around Billy and his backpack. “It’s a radio scanner,” Billy said, pride of possession in his voice. “Dad got it years back and I found it under a bunch of stuff while he had me clearing out our old storage room.” “What does it do?” Kya asked hesitantly as she rolled out her sleeping bag onto a foam mattress. “It’s really cool,” her brother Zak replied. “It scans all the radio frequencies in range, locks onto them when it finds them and lets you listen in on them. As long as they aren’t encrypted or anything.” A chorus of ooh’s and aah’s came from the group as he laid out the device. “Does it work?” Romy asked, shuddering as another blast of wind and rain hit the bedroom window. “Yup, tested it out today,” Billy said, beaming. “I could hear all the local work crews making sure the drains were clear for the storm.” “I don’t think anyone is going to be working now,” Rowey said, frowning as she looked at the chemical light and giving it a shake. “Me and Billy’s dad are,” Zak said, passion in his voice, “and so is the rest of the fire department. We can listen in and hear what’s going on.” “How are we going to listen in without our moms hearing?” Rowey asked. “They did send us to bed after all.” “Oh, they expect us to be up,” Kya said, speaking up and surprising the group as she pulled a large bag from her backpack. “My mom thought we might want to finish these off with name tags or something.” She opened up the bag and pulled out five sets of straps with attached bags. “Are those?” Rowey asked, her eyes widening. “Ya,” Kya supplied in answer. “Saddlebags and equipment harnesses for the Power Ponies. I helped finish them this week.” “So, your mom thinks we’re gonna become the Power Ponies again?” Billy asked, loading some large batteries into the back of the scanner. “You know my mom,” Zak said, smiling as he rummaged in his backpack. “Once she starts a project she’s gotta finish it.” A round of chuckles went around the group. Lynn Harding’s skill with a needle and thread was something of a local legend, as was her determination to see projects through to their end. “Here guys, if we use these earbuds we can listen and not bug our moms.” He passed a set of earbuds to each of his friends, keeping one set for himself. The group plugged themselves into the scanner at a splitter that Billy had provided and they heard a wash of static as the device was switched on and it began to scan up and down the frequency range. The scanner took less than thirty seconds to find and lock on to the only frequency in active use. “So tell me again. Why the hell do we have to go to the dam in this weather?” a voice asked. “BC Hydro needs us to manually close the spillway gates,” Arnold Kye answered. Billy leaned forward as he recognized his father’s voice. “They’ve lost communication with the dam so the controls defaulted the spillway to fully open.” “So?” the first voice shot back. “Leave ‘em open. Let the rain out of the lake.” “Flood control, John,” a new voice broke in, and the children recognized the voice of Darrell Montcalm, Brightly’s long serving, hands-on mayor. “If the water is allowed to just spill over into the Carmanah River half the town could be flooded, because it’s damn sure she’ll blow her banks if we just let the water pour out.” “Well crap,” the first voice replied, again. “Sounds like a pretty crappy design to me. Making us go up there.” “Normally we wouldn’t have to,” Mayor Montcalm replied. “But something's happened to the microwave and the remote controls have....STOP! STOP! EVERYBODY STOP RIGHT NOW!” the mayor yelled into the radio, and the sound of skidding tires could be heard. The children listening in all held their breaths as the frequency went dead and silence fell. “What’s wrong Darrell?” Ernest Harding asked over the radio about half of a very long minute later, the sound of his truck could be heard in the background. “There’s a damn tree across the road,” the mayor replied. “I need you and Arnie up here with your chainsaws to cut it into a couple of chunks. John, once they have it cut, I need you to winch it out of our way.” “Sure thing, Darrell,” John, who was the first speaker, said. “Um, how long did Hydro say we had to get up to the dam and get those spill gates closed?” “They wanted us to get there in the next thirty minutes or so,” Montcalm said, and the guttural roar of a chainsaw flaring to life could be heard over the radio. “Then they asked if we could check the microwave tower and see if it was okay.” “Welp, we might not make it in time,” John said, and the radio crackled a bit with static. “Take a look up the road while I shine my spotlamp.” The five heard an intake of breath by the mayor. “Oh hell, there must be a dozen trees across the road, just in this stretch,” the mayor said, and the despair in his voice was plain to anyone listening. “We’ve got to do something,” Zak said in a firm voice, as he pulled the bud from his ear.. “We’ve got to help.” “We’re a bunch of kids, how can we help,” Romy asked, wide eyed as the wind smashed some more rain against the bedroom window. “We’re kids, we can’t do much,” Rowey said, then smiled as she picked up an equipment harness with the tag “Shield Maiden” on it. “But I bet that the Power Ponies could help a whole lot.” Romy’s face lit up with a giant smile, which was answered by the others gathered around the scanner. “Yes!” Billy said, pumping a fist and grabbing the harness for Iron Hoof. “I bet I could drag those fallen trees right off the road, maybe even kick them in half.” “We need the book,” Kya said simply, but smiling as the harness for Skylark came to hand. “Mom‘s been keeping the book in her room,” Romy said, referring to the book that had powered their transformation nearly a week ago into a group of super powered ponies. All eyes turned to Rowan, who had accidentally cast the spell that had triggered their change. One by one she looked into the faces of her friends, each of them either smiling or nodding to her in turn, telling her silently that they trusted her to again embrace the power they had felt before. “Okay,” Rowey said, taking a deep breath. “But if we do this, we do it as a team, with me in charge. Everyone good with that?” She looked directly at Zak and Billy as she said it. “Darter is ready to follow your orders...” Zak said, putting out a hand toward Rowey, “Shield Maiden.” “Say the word, Shield Maiden,” Billy said, putting his hand over Zak’s, but looking at Rowey. “Iron Hoof is standing by.” “Seeker is ready, sister,” Romy said from the other side and covering Billy’s hand with hers, and all eyes turned to shy Kya, the last of the group. “Skylark online,” Kya said, putting her hand onto the pile. “What are your orders?” Rowey reached out and clasped the four offered hands between her own. “Thanks for trusting me,” she said to the group, smiling. “Okay, first thing to do is grab the book. I know where Mom keeps it in her room so I’ll go grab it. While I’m doing that, everyone needs to change into stuff that’s as easy to take off as possible.” The group nodded, remembering the problems they had run into with their regular clothing when they had initially transformed back in the woods. Rowan moved with the care and quiet only someone who had lived for a long time in a home could manage. Her steps fell only in places that would not cause a floorboard to creak and her hands knew how to gently twist the knob on her mother’s door so it would not make a noise. Still moving with as much stealth as she could manage, she crept into the room and pulled the magic book from it’s place on the nightstand by her mother's bed. By the time she got back to her friends with the warm book clutched to her chest, she found them all changed into pajamas. “Hey, they’re quick and easy to take off,” Billy said at Rowey’s inquiring look. “Good thinking, Billy,” Rowey said nodding, and handing him the book. “Hold this while I get changed.” Billy tried to not take the book but gave up when Rowey simply pushed it against his chest and let go. “Are you sure it’s okay for me to hold it?” he asked, then smiled. “Hey, nothing’s happening!” “Of course not,” Zak said, punching his friend lightly on the shoulder. “You’re not a unicorn like Rowey is.” “Good point,” Billy said, as Rowey came back, just finishing with her pullover top. “Back door or basement?” Romy asked her sister, finishing tying an unsnapped glowstick to each of their pony harnesses. “Basement,” Rowey said, holding up one of their already active lights. “Everyone follow me. We are going to the basement, to get extra blankets.” She made quote marks in the air as she said the last and everyone smiled. Rowey headed down to the main floor of the house, not bothering to try to hide her footsteps. ”What are you kids doing down here?” Jean asked her daughters and their friends. She was smiling as she said it over the glass of wine she and Lynn were sharing. “Just grabbing some extra blankets, Mom,” Rowey said, hoping her mother wouldn’t see through the deception. “Thought I’d take everyone down so we could get one for everyone in one trip.” “That’s very good of you, sweetie,” Jean said, relaxing back into the couch. “You kids be careful down there, okay?” A chorus of “Yes, Mom” and “Yes Missus Pedersen” flowed back to her and the kids rounded the corner and headed down the basement stairs. Neither of the two adults noticed the book in the mass of children or thought it odd that the kids closed the basement door behind them. The five children quickly reached the concrete floor of the basement and looked around in the green light of the chemical glowstick. It was a large empty space for the most part, with an alcove set aside for a laundry area and another set aside as a cool storage room. The air smelled of dust and a hundred different herbs that sat in containers on several shelves that made up the majority of the rest of the furnishings of the basement. “Okay guys,” Rowey said, taking the book back. “Once I do the spell, grab your harness and run out the basement door because I’ll bet anything that our moms are gonna notice the spell.” “We’re gonna get in so much trouble,” Kya said, worry in her voice. “Not if we do a good job helping the fire department,” Zak said. “Mom would never ground heroes.” “We still have to take a minute to get out of our PJ’s,” Billy noted. “Unless we want to...uh, get out of them now?” “Are you nuts?” Zak shot back, incredulous. “It’s okay guys,” Romy said, in a serious voice. “It’s only skin and we’re going to be changing that right away anyways.” “Doesn’t your mom do some of her witch stuff naked?” Billy asked. “Guys, focus,” Romey said, snapping the group’s attention back to her. “Clothes off and we get out of here faster. I’m in charge, so take ‘em off.” Kya and Zak weren’t happy about being told to strip, but they nodded, recognizing the need for speed. A minute later the five were naked, and laying out the book on the floor Rowey began the now familiar chant. In nomine Sol In nomine Luna In nomine Equus Orbis Terrarum Equorum Mannulus Terrae Mannulus Caelo Mannulus Magi Facti Sunt Nobis As Rowey said the last word a rainbow coloured bubble of light burst from the book, enveloping and blowing past the children as it expanded. Once again, where there had been five young children there now stood five fur clad ponies. The group took a moment to look at each other, smiles on their faces as they took in each other’s pony forms. Until a large thud came from the floor above. “KIDS! WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE?” Lynn Harding’s voice sounded from the living room. “Crap,” Rowey said, opening the basement door to the outside with her magic. “Grab your harness and go, go, go.” Within seconds all five young ponies were out the door and heading into the howling storm, the door closing behind them. Upstairs, in the living room, a snow white unicorn, half fallen off of a couch, looked over at a black pegasus with silver wings. “Those kids are in some deep trouble when they come home,” Jean said, trying to untangle herself from her clothing. “I’m going to ground them for a month,” Lynn said, trying to get her wings out from her sweater. “No, not a month. A year.”