I couldn't make out what my father was doing. I'd never seen him do anything like this before. He was standing on top of one of the rubbish heaps. The one they never let us play on. Well, they didn't let us play on any of them if they could help it. But they were especially particular about this specific one. The spear head had been thrust into the ground. The black belt was wrapped around both of his wrists. It was long enough to allow him to manoeuvre without serious impediment. He kept using the feathers to dip into the container over and over again. Splashing the contents into the air flamboyantly. I could tell he was chanting something the whole time. It looked so cool I wished I knew what he was saying. A light drizzle had been falling which I had not noticed over the awe of watching my father. When I did notice, I was confused. There were no clouds to be seen for miles so where was it coming from?

Without warning a lightning flash caressed the sky in a straight line before crashing down towards my father. He crossed his arms just before it landed. Causing the bolt to split in two and hit the ground on either side of him with a tremendous bang. I ducked down in reactive shock. Believing I was hit, I felt my body for injuries. Relieved that I was unscathed, my attention fell back to my father. 'What if he's hurt. That strike hit him directly.' I was expecting the worst.

Discretion fell to the wayside as I pried the curtain open. My father looked like he was laughing as he stood strong while embers smoked on both sides of him. Seemingly taunting the sky or at something in the distance. His body was facing away from me so I couldn't pinpoint exactly where his head was looking. Placing the feathers down in front of him, he proceeded to pull the spear out of the mound. Pointing the tip to the heavens, he began shouting something with conviction. Just as suddenly, a beam of light formed around the spear head for a split second. A lightning flash shot up towards the sky thereafter. It moved the same way as the lightning flash before but now in the opposite direction. I watched it stop in midair somewhere in the distance then shoot straight down. A distant grumble could be heard.

This is when I remembered something important. There was a settlement around the area where the lightning strike had landed. My location at that current time restricted me from seeing more than I wished. Not that I was wishing to be anywhere near what was going on. Curiosity would most certainly kill any cat at that point in time. Black or white. But that lightning strike certainly landed on a populated area.

Was Josias house located there perhaps? If yes then that meant Josias was a powerful magician just like my father. Perhaps he was the reason my school buddies and I were forbidden from exploring past the red gorge. This not so neighborly settlement was on the other side of it. All the parents in our community would have a fit if any of them heard we had even gone close to the gorge. I was finding out why.

My father was dipping the feathers again. The drizzle was back. It had stopped after my father's lightning trick. There were still no clouds. Something was telling me to close the curtain and return to my mother and siblings. The other part of me wanted to see this through to the end. Spectraman was with me so I had nothing to fear. I gripped him tighter than I ever have before.

My heart had just found its beat when another flash hurtled towards us in the sky before coming down on my father once again. This one sent a sonic boom that caused my body to jolt backwards. Rolling off the bed once before crashing to floor. Spectraman bounced off the tiled floor. Losing an arm in the process. My body loosened up after recovering from the shock. I immediately felt a banging headache in the area where my skull had made impact with the floor. I felt my nerves crawling under every inch of my skin. There was a ringing in my ears and a need to crawl away. Spectraman was just a toy. I needed to save myself before another lightning strike hits. But what about my father? Did he survive that hit? Three times as powerful as the one before. If I just ran away like a coward when I could have helped him, I would never forgive myself if he died. I had to check up on him.

Vertigo attacked me half way up the bed. The assault continued as the mattress rocked my body from side to side as I advanced towards the window on my knees. The headache was making me feel sick. But my father had no time for that. Every second was of the utmost urgency. I pulled the curtain to the side. The force from the pull brought on by my inebriated state caused the railings to unhinge on one side. The railing guillotined toward me at a left angle. My fathers defensive manoeuvre inspired me to do the same. My crossed arms stopped the momentum in its tracks but my elbow was injured in the process.

This was war and I was prepared to take all the hits. I threw the railing over my head in fervent bravado. Causing the other half to unhinge and the entire structure unceremoniously clanking against the wall. I crossed my arms over my head once again as the railing swung at me a second time after ricocheting against the wall. The curtain drape wrapped around me once the railings landed on the bed. Frantically, I tore them off of me and was finally looking the through the window at last.

My father's clothes were in tatters and his body was steaming. The trees within the vicinity of the lightning strike had all lost their leaves. There was a full out bonfire around the mound my father stood on. But he was steadfast. Chanting and splashing with possessed enthusiasm. The drizzle came back once again. But now it grew into actual rain coming down from nowhere. The sun was still up. The clouds were but thin wisps with no capacity to hold any form of worthy precipitation. But the rain kept falling. Dowsing the bonfire around him.

I placed both my hands on the window in order to balance my face against the glass. The streaming water was blurring my view and I didn't want to miss a second of this. "Go father. Show him what you're made of. Blow him to smithereens," I growled. By now it was clear to me that my father was fighting an opponent with magical powers the same as he had. Someone was throwing lightning at him and he was throwing his own back. This … Josias, whoever he was, was our mortal enemy.