A single drop of purple water struck the wooden handle of a heavy iron wheelbarrow. The thick timber hissed violently and dissolved into a cloud of foul yellow smoke. Eamon dropped the handles and stumbled backward just as the sky above Willow Creek Farms opened up entirely. The afternoon sun vanished behind a thick blanket of bruised purple clouds.
"Get off the fields," Eamon shouted to the surrounding workers. He grabbed Jarek by the shoulder and shoved the young Valorian conscript toward the paved road. "Leave the harvest. Get under the stone arches."
The unnatural drizzle escalated into a torrential downpour of concentrated corrosive acid. The toxic rain struck the cobblestones of Harvest Avenue and filled the air with the stench of burning sulfur. A wooden grain cart left abandoned
