SHENLIGHT is a story about four kids who discover that their home, Sandshadow City, is in extreme danger and it's up to them to learn how to use their special powers in order to protect the innocent people from the Peaceguards--a ruthless robot police force that patrol's the alleys of the desert city.
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I cursed.
That one hurt.
The blast of sharp, needle wind had nearly knocked me over. I held my hand up to the right side of my face that now throbbed and stung.
It had only been four days since the last storm. And even though it seemed like the storms had been coming that often for years now, it wasn't always that way. Sandshadow used to see a handful of sandstorms a year, and maybe some two or three flurries in between each one. But anyway, that was ancient history. We got used to big storms twice or three times a season, and then they were once a month, and now people just expect them to come any day. And they accept the fact that they'll have to close down their business or stop whatever they were doing until the storms subside.
That's life now, I thought.
Storms come, and everyone takes shelter.
And of course, I have to do what everyone else doesn't do.
I cursed again as I stumbled and nearly fell down. This storm wasn't like the last one. The last storm poured the sands down on the city like a pot of hot soup being poured into a bowl. A huge amount of sand fell from the sky at a fairly constant speed, covering everything in the canyon. It had put a layer of sand as thick as a hand on every upward-facing surface and even turned the river red-or, at least a reddish dark-brown-for a few hours.
But this storm was different. Running in this storm felt like someone had thrown me into the river, right up against the north wall where the water shot from the concrete.
The winds pushed me left and right, and running on the rooftops, exposed, I felt like a feather.
But I had decided to find the kid-in-black and find out what he ran from--or ran to. And I had already left my district and crossed a good half of the next one when the storm started up, so I had decided not to turn around.
I didn't know exactly what I was looking for, but I figured, if there were trouble somewhere, he might be there.
I had seen the kid twice more in the last few days, and each time he had been running suspiciously away from where guards had sounded an alarm. I always turned around and avoided areas where alarms were set off, and that was where I had seen him. Always running from them, too. And the storms didn't seem to bother him too much. And since that's what mother always said about me, it made sense that I should be chasing him in a biting sandstorm.
And Mother and Father were currently in one of their discussions, so it seemed like a good time to get some fresh, err… fast-moving, painfully stinging… air.
I was currently somewhere near the fabric markets in Centro where they sold clothing and rags and towels and other things you made with fabric. At least I thought I recognized the tent roofs a few blocks back. Centro was the part of the city that sat in the middle of the river on its own little island. It was the most densely populated section of the city. There were multiple bridges of different shapes and sizes that connected it to rest of Sandshadow on both sides.
The district on one side of the fabric markets was heavily packed with buildings of all shapes and mostly all five or six stories tall. Since I was so high up, visibility through the sandstorm was always difficult--I could usually only see four or five steps ahead of me as I ran--and most of the vendors pulled down their tent booths during the storm anyway, so it was hard to tell. But from the size and spacing of the buildings, I was pretty sure that's where I was. I made a mental note to work on my brain map of this area. I had been lazy. I was ruler of the rooftops! I needed to know my city.
After slowly crossing buildings that were adjacent-or at least close enough to step across without a running start-for half of an hour, I sat down with my back against the short rim wall of a roof and put my head between my legs. I wiped the goggles on my face once more, but it didn't help. If I couldn't even see anything, there was no use looking for some crazy kid. A kid who probably wasn't crazy enough to be out in this storm like I was.
So I waited and listened to the howling winds as they threw sand against stone all around me.
The whir finally softened and it seemed like a slow point had arrived. Sometimes the storms would rage for hours, and then there would be still and calm for a few minutes, and then the storm would intensify again for hours more until it finally stopped. I though this may have been one of those times, so I stood and tried to get my bearings. If I hurried, I could be home before it got ugly again. Even wearing all the clothing that I did, it wasn't safe to be out in a terrible storm for very long.
As I paced the roof of the building and tried to look out over each wall to get a feel for where I was, I saw something.
Something that I had never seen in my life.
Through the tan and orange blur of the sandstorm, I saw a cloud of purple light.
It was so strange, that I looked away from it and back again several times to make sure I wasn't imagining it, or that the storm wasn't playing tricks on my eyes. I finally decided, that there was something about four rooftops away from me that was emitting a purple-toned light that I could easily distinguish, even though it was midday.
My heart was thumping.
I obviously had to investigate.
The first building was touching the one I stood on, so I easily crossed while keeping my attention on the strange cloud of light. The purple glow slowly pulsed brighter and less bright, but never moved. As I got closer to the light and the cloud grew larger, I crouched lower and began to swivel my head left and right, watching for anyone else on the rooftops that might be setting a trap or something. The storm kept blowing, so even though it had dimmed, nobody dared to venture outside.
At the next street gap, I climbed down one floor to where there was a small balcony big enough to hold two small chairs side by side. Standing on the balcony, I looked over the railing to see how high up I was and to gage the distance to the next building. The square-cut stones of the cobblestone street here would be completely buried in sand in a few more minutes, but I could still make out the perfect rectangles below. Their size told me I was in the general area of the main plaza. The closer you got to the north wall, the nicer the streets and buildings became. This was the oldest part of the city, and the most important, so the builders had built it with a lot of care.
I hopped up onto the outward wall of the balcony and jumped across the gap to catch the bottom of a staircase bolted to the opposite building. I pulled myself up and over the staircase, and used the last few steps to reach the top floor of the building. I balanced on one foot on the door knob of the door that sat at the top of the staircase, and hopped up onto the roof. I crouched behind some crates that were stacked unorganized in a pile, and craned my neck to look up and over the top.
The purple cloud was still there, one building over. It was almost a perfect circle and it was much brighter than before.
It was also so dim that it became invisible.
I rubbed my eyes and tried to make sense of what I saw.
The cloud was stationary and obviously unaffected by the swirling wind and sand around it. It didn't move at all, but at the same time it seemed to flicker in and out of existence. I wanted to think it was a cloud of steam coming from some chemical that was leaking or something, but again, that didn't work. The winds of the storm weren't moving it at all. It couldn't have been smoke. It was light!
And even weirder, it seemed like if I tried to see the light itself, it wasn't there. But when I looked around it, or behind it or through it, I could clearly sense a circle of purple light. I turned around and got up on my knees to see a little higher over the crates and the purple light still flickering in and out. And then I noticed two things instantly.
First, where the light was blinking, there was no storm.
There simply wasn't any sandstorm inside the circle, which was really a sphere. The storm-calmer at the moment, but still going-raged on all around the building and the entire rooftop. But the spot where the light cloud was, sat calm and still and there was no sand swirling in the air above the rooftop.
The second thing I noticed was that where the storm didn't exist, in that protected sphere that covered the rooftop and extended maybe ten feet above it, there were two people. One-a short boy with dark skin and dark hair-stood in the middle of the calm with his eyes closed. He wore rags that were so tattered and dirty that I was certain he was a trasher-one of the children you saw begging for food in the main plaza. The kind that didn't have a real home.
The boy stood on bare feet, blackened with dirt, and held his arms out to either side.
I turned my head to see the other person and let out a gasp.
The kid-in-black himself sat watching Dirty-rags-kid with his arms crossed. The two of them there, not moving, not talking, just sitting in that silent non-storm within the storm was the strangest thing I had ever seen.
I stayed hidden behind the crates and watched the two of them for a few moments. They seemed to be meditating or something. The kid with dirty rag-clothes continued standing there with his eyes closed, motionless, in the center of the sphere where there was no sand, and black-clothes-kid simply watched him, opening his mouth only to say something I couldn't hear every few seconds.
I watched them both for a minute. Finally, I decided they probably weren't a threat and weren't armed. Then I stepped out from behind the crates. I walked to the edge of the roof, and stood there next to a wooden plank someone had stretched across the gap.
Eventually, the kid and black saw me through the sand and looked my way. They were only a few yards away now, and I could see the details of his face clearly. His eyes widened as he realized that he had seen me before. He stayed that way for another few seconds in silence, and dirty-rags-kid lowered his arms and opened his eyes wondering why kid-in-black had stopped talking to him.
Dirty-rags-kid saw me and opened his mouth as if to speak. He turned his head towards his companion, who only lifted his arm and held out his hand, signaling not to speak or move.
I became suddenly aware of the fact that they were standing there waiting for me to say something. The words stumbled in my mouth, and I did not know what to say.
The storm howled softly around me.
I open my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. After seconds of silence, I finally let out the words, "I don't know what you did that night. But I could turn you into the Peaceguards!"
Then the kid in black only laughed.
Had I said something funny?
The kid with dirty rags turned to his companion, saw that he laughed, and began to laugh as well. I started thinking that maybe they weren't as afraid of me as I was of them. And for some reason, that made me less afraid.
All-black replied to my comment, "You won't turn us in friend. Because you want to know what we do." He spoke clearly, and well-pronounced. He looked to dirty-clothes, and they shared a smile. He was taller than dirty-clothes, and seem sure of himself. I decided he must have been the leader. He continued, "And you want us to know what you do too."
So he knew.
I nearly turned around and ran away that instant, never to return. I had kept my ability a secret my entire life. I had vowed to never tell a soul.
But something held me back.
This kid knew I could do something incredible. And they obviously had some unique ability of their own.
I looked down and realized I had crossed the footbridge without really noticing. I was now standing on the same rooftop as them.
Just inside their bubble of calm.
Instantly, the sand stopped pelting me and I looked around in shock. It was still windy, but there was no sand. The two boys only watched me.
Something told me these two understood what it was to keep a secret like that. They were out in a blowing sandstorm-with no one else around-for goodness sake.
I took a couple breaths, pulled the goggles off my eyes and said, trying to sound confident, "Then show me what it is you do."
Instantly the sandstorm fell into us. It came in with such force I had to hold my arms up to shade my eyes and my face, and I cursed for having forgotten that we were still in the middle of a powerful storm.
And I was balanced on a wooden plank over a thirty-foot drop!
My heart skipped a beat as the storm threw me off balance. I started to teeter to one side, and in a panic I jumped from the plank to crash and roll onto their rooftop. I stood up in fight mode, and then, as quick as it had come, the storm receded again.
We stood again, in a sphere of calm air while the storm raged on, seemingly bumping up against some invisible wall that protected us on the rooftop. I was too shocked to say anything. I stood there with my mouth open and looked at the boys again.
Dirty-clothes was smiling.
It can't be, I thought.
All-black nodded to him once more, and instantly the storm closed in again. I raised my arms up to brace myself this time, but the storm stopped one foot away from my body. I was then standing in a bubble that was only as big as my body while the sandstorms pummeled the floor and the crates of the rooftop, and everything else around me. Through the blowing winds, I could see that they stood calmly, in a bubble of their own.
The storm stayed that way for another few seconds, and then receded a final time. I again stood on a calm rooftop with all-black and dirty-clothes. The sandstorm continued to rage around us.
The one with dirty clothes lowered his head, furrowed his eyebrows, raised his arms to either side, and said in a loud voice, "I am ruler of the storms!"
The kid in black put his face in his hands and turned away groaning.
"It's okay. I expect most people to be jealous of my power," said dirty-clothes.
The one in black lowered his hands, faced me again, and said, "His name is Yanco. He sort of thinks he rules the world."
Yanco's hands fell to his sides and he looked deflated. "Way to kill the moment."
All-black took a step forward, and offered me his hand. "I'm Switch."
I looked into his green eyes, and didn't know if I should trust them.
Switch said, "Look, I know you do something with light. Either you join us and we help each other, or you keep running around in the storms like a crazy."
I gulped.
He held my gaze for a moment more, and I said finally, "My name is Ketcher."
Just before I said it, I shaded myself. Switch pulled back in surprise. Yanco gasped, and the calm bubble around us flickered as the storm pushed inward, as if taking advantage of the moment its controller wasn't watching.
I held my position for three more seconds, and became visible again.
"Whoa," said Yanco.
"Impressive," whispered Switch.
"I make things disappear," I said, shrugging my shoulders.
They shared one more look, and Yanco said, "I move sand." He held his arms out, motioning to the sky, or sand. He smiled again, pleased with himself.
"And I take charge," said Switch quickly. "We have to bolt, but we will be here tomorrow at midday. Be here. You can train with us."
And before I could say a word or ask what kind of ability 'taking charge' was, they wrapped up their faces in scarves, walked to the edge of the roof, and jumped into the winds. As they did the calm sphere faltered and disappeared and I was plunged alone into the blowing sands, raising my arms to cover my exposed face.
Left with no other option, I pulled the cloth over my own face, pulled my goggles on again, turned around, and headed home.
In chapter 4, I introduce more elements of the magic system. I wanted there to be a couple chapters of Ket working on his own, so it would be clear that once he meets other kids with their own powers, it would make sense to the reader that he would want to join them. It's lonely to be the only magic user in the world!
So, Ket finally meets the kid in black (who he's been tailing for a couple of days) and finds out that there ARE others with powers in Sandshadow City. The reader gets a look at Yanco using his power to move sand with his mind, and how he uses it to create a bubble of air inside the storm. This is a unique, intriguing ability, and we'll see it a lot in the story since the characters can use it to explore the city during the storms without getting pounded by sand all the time.
Switch is an interesting character. It's clear already that he's been around the block a bit. Ket doesn't want to trust him, but he does, since the kid seems to know things. He's mysterious, and confident, and a little bit shady. But Ket decides he wants to know more.
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