A Storm Filled Sunset

• Caleb Caswell, Grade 7, Rochedale South State School
• Short Story
• 2012

Excellence Award in the 'Legendary 2012' competition

Dimming silently beyond the cascade of green, the dying Peruvian sun began its descent below the horizon of the Amazon. The glowing crimson hue broke the skyline in an explosion of colour pulsing through the outer greens of the Amazon. Clouds shimmered in an assortment of fading oranges and rosy violets as the remaining beams of light hooked themselves across the sky in a tornado of dying sunlight. Pinking light swam across the firmament illuminating the storm clouds swimming at the edge of the hue, clouds descending rapidly to envelop the sunset. Colours poured into the sky, lighting the very corners of the heavens in an oasis of colour, giving way to the menacing black of thick storm clouds.
Beyond the stretching boughs of the evergreens and the twisted mess of the canopy, the inhabitants of the largest rainforest on Earth were preparing for another tropical storm- filled night. The storm season was beginning and it was not failing expectations. The Amazon was ready and waiting. All living creatures in the Amazon could feel the rain coming: the smell of moisture condensing in the air, the wind whistling through the treetops. The jungle was alive with a crescendo of luscious sound. Monkeys and baboons chatted in the canopy while howler monkeys bombarded the forest with calls. The very pungent scent of rain drifting in the air was enough to send the forest into a roar of seeming applause for the tremendous theatrical display that was being performed in the sky above. The menacing dark coils of cotton rolled in to engage the Amazon with tremendous speed, lightning playing within the darkness like fireflies in the night. Like ink spilling on paper, the dark brunt of the system seeped out to the corners of the horizon, an abyss enveloping all it touched. The bright colours of the dying sunset were extinguished as if a switch had been thrown. Darkness was thrown like a blanket.
The first claps of thunder rocked the sunset, the noise pulsing through the air like the sudden blast from cannon. The treetops whimpered as the sound spread, boughs twitching in the wind. Rain was imminent; it was a matter of seconds before the heavens descended. The emerald sea below was pierced only by a single murky brown tear of Mother Nature, like a trail of pollution lost in the ocean. The dominant force in the jungle: the fierce wrath of the River Amazon. A brown snake of shear torrent, the river sliced a twisting path through the jungle with absolute ease, like the carving knife of a carpenter slicing wood. The river had been transformed into a wall of white water by heavy rainfall, carving through the mountains of green that cascaded to meet its fronds. The river was bulging, its waters crashing over its many banks and islands. Rain broke arcing towards earth in a single crescendo of thunder. The rains had come and ever so slowly, the mighty river Amazon continued to rise.