Zed

• Coco Brown, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2018

The rain protected me like a blanket, my hair dripping down my back, catching in the hood of my bright yellow rain jacket, which gave a light to all the dark colours surrounding. Wet socks are never comfortable, but it's kind of hard to notice when your whole gumboots are filled, like a pool. Although, the weather surrounding me, isn't usually the weather considered as a "beach day," or even a "swimming day," in general.

A rabbit appears from a bush, revealing its self to me. How stupid. He could have stayed dry and clean in his bush, but of course not. Not that I cared. If I cared, why would I make the decision of making the rain heavier in the exact spot he lingered. His eyes showed utmost regret of his choice, the mousy brown fur of his switching to a dark hazelnut colour in no time at all.

A car drives by, the window wipers going at a rapid speed. Let me tell you now, it is incredibly funny to just make it worse. I hover a rain cloud right over the top of the car and giggle to myself, the humans inside so oblivious of the causation of their dilemma. The cloud follows the car out of sight, the joke continuing, even out of my grasp. Well, a joke that is most likely only considered funny by me, and not the humans in the car.

I sigh heavily, and over dramatically. No point to doing that really, as no one is in my presence, that I'm aware of, at least. I look around. The miscellaneous objects around me intrigue me, however, I would never look normal enough to ask a human what their purpose was. Thankfully, I have picked some words up, from signs and the like. If I didn't know English, I really would have no hope down here. I have had a great opportunity to learn from my father though, as he has spent a lot more time down here than I have in my whole existence, which is about to reach 14 human years if my translations are correct.

I command the rain to pour heavier, holding my hand out, and slowly clenching it into a fist. I smirk myself and see a reflective object down the road from me. I believe it is a hole that humans use to dispose of their waste. My own reflection would give anyone quite a fright. My raven hair falls off my head in wet strands, and my eyes flash into a bright red, like a rose in a garden, standing out in the crowd, different from all the perfect white roses. A drip of dried blue blood runs in a line down my nose. My tall, gangly figure staring back at me.

I look away suddenly and stare deep into a tree. Lightning strikes it quickly in a large yellow bolt, the tree now in a pile of ash, on the ground. I look down and feel the water from my hair drip into my hood once more. "Hello Father," I whisper. "Hello Zed," replies Zeus, in a booming voice coming from the sky, only I can seem to hear, the sound of thunder apparently replacing it with humans ears. I float into the air, leaving the humans reality below me, and sinking into my own one, in a place where I am special, and not an outcast; Where I can be Zed, Daughter of Zeus, and controller of the weather.