The Contest

I perched above the city, hiding amongst the clouds. The sky was black, the kind of black that only comes with a storm. My brothers and sisters were with me, hiding here and there among the clouds. It was nights like this that we lived for.

“I will throw the first bolt to start,” Aryana announced, pulling a lightning bolt from the pouch at her waist. “Once it has hit the ground, then you may begin.”

The rest of us grabbed bolts of our own, fingers and arms twitching in anticipation. We watched as she held the bolt lovingly, then tensed her arm and let it fly. BOOM! The bolt hit the ground below us, shattering a tree in two. With that, we were off, throwing bolts of our own. Down and down they came, hitting everything from mail boxes to cars. Some of us threw them quickly, trying to hit as much as we could. Others took their time, trying to land their bolts on the smallest targets.

After about twenty minutes, Aryana stopped us. On our honour, we counted up our scores. Ten points for every small target hit, five for every large one. Zero points if we missed and just hit the ground. Of the five of us, I had the highest score.

“Congratulations Eva, it looks like you’ve won tonight,” Aryana said with a smile. The others grumbled as they handed over their left-over lightning bolts. With a big grin, I started launching them down, three at a time, until there were no more. Then we launched ourselves into the sky, off to collect more lightning bolts for the next storm.