Chapter 9

Another short chapter that I probably need to expand, although without revealing too much. I like that it shows another side of Lenara. I'd like to have her think back to her past and do more in this chapter.

E4, Chapter 9

Lenara was a far way from the ice and cold of Russia. Compared to that, Tempest in the fall was feeling pretty balmy to her.

She leaned forward from a pillar of the Antebellum porch she was sitting upon and squirmed her arms out of her white jacket. A calm, brisk gale immediately embraced the flesh of her stomach and arms that her bronze-colored tank-top left exposed. Lenara stretched out her taut arms in front of her and watched the dragon tattoo on her left shoulder dance as she flexed the muscle underneath. It was a temporary fixation. She leaned back against the chipped pillar and dropped her hands between her thighs. Looking up at the starry vacuum above from between the locks on her face, Lenara let out a sigh. She was alone out there and she wasn't sure how it felt. The sky that evening made a formless, blue mesh with the fields around her and it looked vacant. Lenara gently closed her eyes and a faint tune came to her lips, one she hadn't heard hummed in a long time.

"Hey," interjected a teenage voice from behind her. Lenara shot up like a bolt and reprimanded herself for not hearing the girl's approach. Jen was not one to be concerned about, though. In fact, Lenara's expression warmed into a smile at seeing her.

"Did I startle you?" asked the girl. Jen was almost 20, but her petite size and nervous, quiet voice subtracted a few years, perceptionally. She wore her black hair in a ponytail most of the time and had wide, blue eyes. She reminded Lenara of her younger sister. Jen was cautiously toeing the division between the mansion's front doorway and the porch.

"Nah," said Lenara, sleepily and shrugging. "I heard you coming."

Jen laughed as she walked forward and perched herself on the porch next to Lenara. "Oh yeah,” Jen said, “I forgot that you're trained in that kind of thing."

"Yeah," Lenara said guiltily, looking away. "Where's your father?" she asked, changing the subject.

Jen pulled her oversized sweatshirt over her hands and folded her arms in against herself. "The Colonel's in the barn, still trying to fix the Echelon. He's been there for hours."

"Has he made any progress with her?" Lenara inquired.

"If his curses are any judge, I'd say no," Jen said, and they shared a smile.

"She just won't fly," Lenara mused regretfully.

Jen nodded. "So, what were you thinking about out here?"

Lenara averted her gaze. "Nothing."

"Oh," said Jen, turning downcast. Lenara felt bad about Jen's reaction and met her eyes.

"Home, Jen, I was thinking about home," she quietly confided.

Jen nodded with understanding. "You want to go back?"

Lenara cracked a grin. "The funny thing is, not much at all. It's more like a feeling I'm missing."

"Huh?" said Jen, looking apologetic. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"I'm not sure either," Lenara admitted. The two giggled and Lenara thought back again to times with her two sisters, singing childhood nursery songs, long before things became like they were at the present.