Calm Before the Storm [Nako]

[carcinoGeneticist]

The storm had come out of nowhere while the boys made their way home from school. At first, they had tried to brave the weather but when little balls of ice had first joined and then quickly begun to outnumber the actual raindrops, it had been too much for Lael. The sudden flash and following roar of lightning had only further served to seal the deal. Any cover would do, but there would not be any more walking than was absolutely necessary.

Now, they were waiting under an awning, the slightly smaller of the two boys peering mournfully out into the rain and shivering.

"Mom'll be worried," he said in a quiet voice, a little frown tugging at the corners of his mouth. "But teach says if you get a chill maybe you'll get sick, and she'd be even more worried then. Same with Papa-Jak. Uncle Aw-leeey will be mad if we bring sick into the house."

It was a clear indication that the boy was starting to feel nervous. Instead of clicking his front feet like their mother tended to do whenever her anxiety levels rose, Lael would talk. And talk, and talk. His eyebrows furrowed slightly as he peered back into the rain, a low nervous sound escaping him. "It's getting dark, Vir! I don't -- ... maybe we should go inside somewhere?" Where they would go was a question that he had no answer for. It just seemed like a good thing to suggest... especially since out here, his feet were still getting wet and muddy, and he hated muddy feet.

[Nako]

Virote never had a problem with the rain; but chunks of ice falling from the sky? That was a different scenario entirely. His tail tucked between his legs as they darted for the nearest cover, the awning of an old store that had been boarded up after the scary events in the capital. Where had all this hail come from? Was it even the right weather for it? He frowned up at the sky with the utmost distasted, jerking his beak back again when a large piece of hail whizzed past his head.

"Well… maybe we can get into this building…" Virote offered, glancing toward the boarded up building. Maybe there were even scraps inside… something delicious to eat or something warm to put on their wet bodies. Or toys. Oh.. how glorious that would be! Despite himself, he whined softly with anticipation. The more he thought about it, the better it sounded. He began to sniff around the doorway, pawing at the loose boards to perhaps give them enough room to get through the partially destroyed door.

[carcinoGeneticist]

It was no small relief that Virote seemed to have the same feelings as Lael when it came to little cold balls of ice pelting down from the sky. It was unlike anything he'd seen before - it wasn't fun like snow, and he didn't have any urge to capture a single piece on his tongue, and when he tried to walk on it it hurt his feet even worse than it hurt his body when it rammed into him.

Very, very unpleasant, whatever it was. That all had taken a temporary backseat to the worry about getting home until Virote pulled his attention back to it. Right now, they needed to get out of the rain!

The boy's head swiveled on his long neck to look at the building that rose behind them. Whoever had boarded it up had done a pretty good job, but there were obvious gaps in their defenses. Especially when the people looking to get inside were little boys, rather than fully-grown adults. There was a moment when Virote felt the hairs on his head and spine stand on end. If the shop was boarded up, did that mean it was run by Selkies who were now dead? Or Lowlanders? Well. If that was the case, hopefully they would have kind ghosts that understood why a pair of poor kids needed to break in.

Lael poked his head into a hole between the boards, finding that the window behind was broken. "I think we can get in through here!" he said, even as he started pulling at one of the boards that was covering the most obvious entryway. If they got it off, getting in would be easy!

[Nako]

Great! "Oh, awesome! Here, I'll help you out." Mindful of the glass, the heron mix locked his claws around the wooden board. The board groaned heavily against the weight of the two children before giving away with a pop.

Oof! Virote fell backwards hard onto his tail end, face screwing up into a pained expression. "Owwwww…. Did… did we at least get it open?"

Alright. Big boys don't cry. Suck it up and walk it off. He got up to his feet and shook himself off.

And succeed they did, if only just. Luckily their small bodies would probably fit easily enough in the hole in the window. It's a good thing the streets were relatively empty; a pair of five year olds breaking into a building wasn't exactly a normal sight. The dank smell of a dusty room wafted into the cool rainy air into their faces. Seems like it had been sealed up for a while.