It's strange, life is.  Fickle, riddled with chance masquerading as fate, or fate as chance.  The rhythms, currents that direct the flow of life, seem often incomprehensible, like a swift breeze that swells up with crushing force before dwindling to nothing.  We're all leaves, brittle, caught in the wind, but sometimes it's difficult not to wonder whether our paths, swiveling through the sky, aren't predestined.  
       Sudden rain padded my back and the mud caressed my fingers as I gathered several slick birch leaves into my hands from the area around the tree. With whimpering chirps, the little chick on the ground beside me wiggled about, it's tone heightening each time the gust that had knocked it from the tree returned.  Having stifled my initial impulse to immediately snatch it up and away from danger, as I knew better than to test the mother's sense of smell, I now carefully scooped the bird into the leaves in my grasp and set it onto a dry spot near the base of the trunk, protected from the downpour and slightly elevated, in hopes that it would be able to weather the storm.  So very small.  I  sat a  moment on my heels and wondered how nature could allow such a little thing to be so helpless, but soon the welling of the storm whispered to my own instincts and called me on my way.
       Such a silly thing, something second-nature, but whether fate or chance, it caused the winds to change, or rather to be changed.  From when the skies first began to writhe beneath a burden of sorrow, things had begun to shift and to transmute into something I could never have fathomed.
      
       The wind blows softly now, but it hasn't always. There were times when the sky was menacing, wrapped in dark robes of raging haze. There were times when the thunder roared through the air while brilliant flashes of light marked the paths of trees bursting into wild flames that the brutal, pounding rain could barely remedy.  The wind blew wildly, shaping spring grass into sharpened, steel blades. There were times when the earth shook from the magnitude of the tempests that rocked its core.
      But now, the sun shines. Now the clear, blue skies house wispy, white clouds. The animals no longer cower beneath bush and fallen log, but drink from the cool, clear streams, graze in the bright, ample fields. The wind blows softly now; the uproar has passed.
       He came and went with the storms. When the winds calmed and the rains grew weak he'd already begun walking. When the thunder fell to a whisper and the flames died down, he'd gone, as suddenly as he'd come.  His wind-tossed hair, the color of a moonless night, dimmed his eyes, clouds heavy with rain.  His heart was the eye of the storm. He was calm in the midst of chaos, calming in the wake of turmoil. Yet there was something beneath it all, something sad, regretful, something that invaded the heart with one glance into his eyes.
       Our paths crossed for the first time on the day the storms appeared, as the rain began to drip from the sky, and darkened clouds swirled through the heavens. I was racing the storm home, trying to reach it before the deafening thunder and sharp lightning began their chorus. Then, passing an abandoned lot as I hurried along, I saw him standing among the swaying grasses staring up at the sky.  Surreal: him standing impervious in the midst of the rain.  I was mesmerized and found myself staring as well, watching as he watched more dark clouds roll in. Until suddenly a unruly burst of wind seized my small umbrella and tore it from my grasp, forcing my chase after it.  It swung through the air and he turned as it neared him, no change in expression, as if he wasn't remotely surprised to see a renegade umbrella racing toward him. His gaze upon it, its momentum waned and he picked it up as I neared him.
       Instantly, I was lost in his eyes: endlessly deep, stretching for eternities. He handed me the umbrella and smiled. My heart jumped into my throat when he smiled, it sent warmth through my body, left me feeling dizzy. By the time I regained my voice he'd already gone and I was left alone, cradling my umbrella in the rain. I couldn't pull my thoughts away from him, lost in the chance of seeing him again, drowning in his eyes.
       The rain didn't let up.  Steady, deafening, it rose higher and higher.  Streets were blocked off and those living in the lower parts of the city were forced to abandon their homes. The river that runs parallel was flooding, rising further every second.  The news channels broadcasted a flood warning, continuing indefinitely, and called for everyone to flee the city.  
       Unfortunately for me, I wasn't home when the warning was issued. Several messages were left for me by my little brother, huddling terrified at a friend's house, on my cell phone, which had been starved of reception since the towers had crumbled, and on the landline, which was as reliable as the only remaining telephone pole, reeling with each breeze.
       The remainder of my trip home had been stressful, trudging through puddles reaching to mid-calf while attempting to move against winds nearing 70 miles per hour.  Upon arriving at the empty house, I was exhausted. Stumbling up the stairs, I crawled into my room and collapsed onto my bed. The last noise echoing in my ears was the sound of the wind and rain beating against my window.
      
       The sky had grown even darker when I next opened my eyes and rain still hollowly pounded down the roof.  Dabbing the sleep from my eyes, I trudged down the stairs without bothering to turn the lights on only to feel the icy chill of water lapping at my ankles halfway down.  Panic threw my body into automatic as I stumbled back up the steps, flipping on the switch.  Murky water obscured the entire bottom floor of my house while more water continuously swirled in through the cracked windows by the door.  I stumbled backwards, my heart crashing against the confines of my chest, fear constricting my breath.  My mind went blank as I searched for an indication of what to do, the water rising ever higher.  
       Faced with the only option I could draw into coherence, I hurried back into my room, pausing in front of the window.  Opening it, I forced out the screen, watching it tumble into the street below, made invisible by many feet of raging water. I took one look back at my room, my walls still covered with the kitty paper from when I was seven, my bed that incited a new exhaustion in me, and my brand new laptop that I'd spent the last six months slowly convincing my parents every college student needed, then stepped out onto the slippery, minute ledge.  I just needed to inch along for several feet in order to reach a flattened area near the chimney. The rain was still falling and unbearably thick; no sooner had I stepped out then had my clothes been plastered against me, as if clinging on, as utterly terrified of the water below as I was.  Creeping my way across the ledge, I  was forced to stop constantly in order to wipe the water from my nose and mouth; it would be no better to drown above the water than in the rapids that had formed below.
       There was a deafening crack of thunder, an overwhelming burst of wind, and the water seemed to gather beneath my bare feet.  Helplessly, I slipped. For an instant I was holding on with all my might to the ledge, my feet barely an inch from the mounting waters, but gravity was against me, we'd never been close to begin with, and I fell. The rapids leapt up. I could feel the water surround me, pressure from every side, the current pulling me apart.  Amid the fear and panic, somewhere in my mind, I began to wonder whether this would be the way I'd say goodbye to the world. I could still hear the rain falling onto the water.
       My mind grew numb, but as the world turned dark, I was no longer submerged. Someone was holding me, set me carefully upon the slippery roof.  I tried to open my eyes, to shower thanks upon my savior, but I couldn't move. I struggled to retain control of my body and maintain control of the thoughts that darted within my skull. Then I felt warmth on my lips and my lungs opened.  I shot forward, spitting up water, dragging air into my lungs.  I looked up and recognized his eyes. I tried to stand up but a sharp sting in my right leg sent me tumbling into his waiting arms.
       "Thank you" I murmured, far less gracefully than intended. "Again."
       He simply gazed at me, emotions gathering and shifting behind his eyes.
       I looked down from what I determined to be my rooftop, through the downpour, at what had been my neighborhood. I could make out people on other roofs, and a raft ripping a difficult path through the torrents. "So much destruction..."
       I glanced up at him and he held my gaze, then nodded, speaking in a voice that was bittersweet, lemon honey, "It's quite enough."
       At his word, the rain began to slow. The air grew more and more lucid until just a few drops remained and my vision was cleared. Astounded, my eyes jumped to his. "Who are you?"
       The semblance of a smile found its way into his expression as he placed a finger to his lips. "Close your eyes."
       My mind was throbbing with disorientation, heart pounding with adrenaline and I obeyed. Feeling his lips on mine once more, he slipped something into my hand. He pulled away and I lingered, adrift in the moment.  He'd gone when I opened my eyes and resting in my hand was a pendant. A twisted, seemingly embroidered chain led to a silver-encrusted, cerulean jewel, shimmering like water. I turned abruptly, eyes scanning the rooftops, desperately seeking the sight of him.
       "Are you all right up there?" A voice from the raft called to me as it pulled up beside my nearly submerged home.
       I held the pendant lightly in my hand and watched as the storm retreated to the horizon. "I'm fine."