Bad magic," he said "don't want this..." He looked as scared as I felt. "...mountain spirits...chant a prayer of protection for Uzzen...tried to steal my guitar." He sounded almost incoherent at first but then I realized it was my own fear that made him sound crazy. He was telling me something. "..not over...chant the prayer of protection you learned from Na Na...stand..." I couldn't hear him.
There was some kind of noise building, a roar that blotted out all other sounds. I spun around and looked back towards the ragged hilltops where the coyote and the little black boy had disappeared. Angel grabbed me from behind and tried to turn me around. He was yelling something but I couldn't hear him. It didn't matter. Something else was happening of much greater importance.
There, at a point directly above where each spirit guide had disappeared, shady swirls spun lazily towards the sky, spinning faster and faster as they climbed into the darkening sky. The burgeoning roar came from the heart of each of the spirals. Angel and I looked at them in horror. "God help us!" I screamed "Twisters!" It was true...and impossible.
Locked in this embrace, I lay my face against the body of the tree. The ropy bark flayed my cheeks as it flapped in the screaming wind. I could see the twin tornadoes moving slowly towards us. The tempest increased in intensity, throwing large branches around and stripping the countryside. The air was moving so fast I could barely breathe. It was like the breath was being ripped from my lungs. I held onto Angel's wrists desperately as the mindless gale tore at my body, actually lifting me occasionally from the ground and slamming me back down. As the massive funnels drove down upon us, I felt myself lifted into the air, my legs pulled out from under me and out into the crazed cyclone. I wrapped my arms around the safety belt and held onto Angel as the wind began to swing us round and round the great tree like junebugs on a string.
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