The voices of the crowd rose and her mother gripped her arm tensely as she steered her daughter to cross the street to be away from the commotion. It was definitely something that visibly unnerved the older woman, but Madeline turned to watch what she could see over a few heads. A tall man in uniform waded through the people towards the center where shouting grew louder and louder, but she still got a brief glimpse of his face. He looked very focused and serious to her, but he still was quite handsome. He definitely was someone she was sure she hadn't seen before, as she would have remembered someone so tall. While she knew there were often visitors to the city, she thought he might have been a foreigner. But it was very strange for her to think about a stranger enlisting. Assuming he would be breaking up whatever fight had started out in the middle of the crowd, though, she admired him from afar until a tall cart broke her line of vision.
Their walk out of the city was uneventful and they made it home without any other issues to the great relief of her mother. Madeline made dinner that night and sorted through baskets of fabrics with her mother on the porch of their home. From there, being right off the road, she had a clear view of both the city wall and the fields beyond the group of small homes around her. There, she talked and caught up with the young daughter of their neighbor, a girl only nine years-old that she was quite fond of. The girl, Carina, was like a sister to her with their bond over dress-up. In exchange for allowing the young woman to try out new designs on her, Carina and her family received new clothing frequently from the Eskridges and any mending services they required. It was a neighborly kindness that the modest family of farmers would likely struggle without as they wore through things so quickly.
The light was fading fast as the thick, dark clouds shielded them from the sunset. It was by a sliver of early moonlight that Madeline would finally bid the girl goodnight.
A few weeks later, on a similarly dark afternoon where the clouds seemed ready to drop buckets of water at any moment, Madeline was walking with Carina on the outskirts of one of the family's plots of farmland. They were looking for a locket necklace that had gotten away from the girl during the day's work, and she was worried about losing such a sentimentally valuable possession. It was not until the girl had declared the light too far gone and asked to turn back that Maddie finally caught sight of the slim, silver chain and locket in the dirt. After she returned it to her, the pair finally set out for home guided mostly by the dim lights of the city beyond.
By then neither had noticed the dark, shadowy creature watching them from the grass atop a nearby hill and it was too late to escape the beast's attention. It followed them at a distance until they reached the winding dirt road that would lead them home before it ran for them. By the time Maddie noticed the sound of strange footfalls behind them it was already so close, enough to see the flash of bright red eyes and white, pointy teeth as she practically dragged the young girl by her sleeve to run.
Fear and adrenaline coursed through her as she ran. It was impossible to keep the scared girl from screaming, which only seemed to encourage the creature to move faster, to Madeline's horror. The thing snapped at their heels and snarled, letting its presence be known. The wind seemed to respond to it, howling and whipping angrily at what exposed skin there was. As the details of the outlying homes became clearer, though, the beast didn't seem to tire at all. It was almost as if there was a purpose to this pursuit besides predator and prey, which struck a deep chord of fear within her.
As she looked over her shoulder at the loping thing, though, she was caught off guard by another burst of strong wind and stumbled to her knees. Carina skidded to a halt and screeched wordlessly in terror as she watched the beast slow and purposefully knock her friend to the ground as it pressed a clawed paw to her back. "Go Carina! Go!" Madeline screamed at her, fighting to turn over as the thing snarled, hissed, and made frighteningly wild noises in her ears. "Find your mother! Get out of he- AHH!" she cried, pressing a hand to her now bleeding side as the other gripped what she could of the creature's neck, fighting to keep the wildly snapping teeth away from her.
The girl wanted to listen but she was frozen. She didn't even notice when people started coming out of their homes until whispers turned to gasps of horror at the sight before them. Panicking, the girl cried and turned to run to whoever was closest wanting to beg them to help her friend. As she opened her mouth, though, the air suddenly changed and stilled, the wild wind ceasing. A bone-chilling crackle of thunder followed a bright flash of light in the clouds above as Carina turned to point at her friend's struggle and she watched in awe at the sight before her.
Madeline had struggled to gain even an inkling of an edge over the beast, but it was far too strong. With more deep scratches covering her body earned through her seemingly worthless fight, she was weakening. Unable to shield herself any longer, she'd reached out to pick up the first rock she could get her bloody hands on, the thing slipping from her grasp and shaking fingers as she screamed and fought for her life. Hearing the thunder above but thinking nothing of it, Madeline quickly swung her weak and bloodied arm up and started bashing the rock into the creature's head. It yowled in pain each time but hardly relented its efforts. In fact, it seemed to encourage it.
Survival didn't seem likely to her now, her eyes widening in the face of the absolutely insane creature atop her as its black blood started to flow down onto her neck as proof of her efforts. She flailed wildly, trying to attack anything and anywhere she could on the creature. It was only when her hands were directly on opposites sides of the beast's neck that it happened. A white hot flash of light from either hand and then everything was gone. The creature and bloody rock alike vaporized before her eyes and the only proof left besides her own physical marks was a light cloud hovering above her and the crackling, arching bolt of lightning that steadily stretched from the sky to rest within the glowing ball of light that now hovered between her hands.
Now terrified that the creature had taken some strange light form, Madeline attempted to throw the ball away from her as she backpedaled and tried to distance herself from it. It swung away and the lightning disconnected for a moment, but it floated back to rest in front of her just as quickly. It advanced no further, though, and she bravely reached out towards it as she trembled terribly now from her encounter. The moment her fingers made contact with it another bolt of lightning returned and shot out towards the darkness over the fields where her hand had been pointing. Screaming, she quickly withdrew it and struggled to stand with her wounds. The glowing ball followed her as soon as the light across the land had dissipated but she was running from it now.
A tight-knit crowd of paralyzed people stood before her as she fled. It was her neighbors, friends, people she had grown up around and grown fond of over the years. But now they retreated from her en mas. All but Carina.
Madeline cried out in fear, pain, and frustration as she noticed the floating ball was now following her. It was when she finally reached Carina standing alone several hundred feet outside of the gathered people beyond that she fainted from her loss of blood and utter exhaustion. Immediately the light retreated into her, causing her skin to glow faintly before fading to its normal tone. Carina stood there blinking as she looked between her injured friend and the people that stood away from them like scared cattle staring out at the pair. Madeline would not wake for another four days after being under the watchful eye and care of her mother, but it hardly took the rest of the night for word to spread of the fight and subsequent use of such powerful magic.