The storm shook through the grove and jarred the house, above them rot spat down upon them. Creaking and moaning the building maintained as the wind sent sharp knives in the form of leaves across the swift currents of air.
Thunder rolled through the heights of the skies and the air became chill as ice. About the trees wailed in the monsoons torrent. Showers drenched every exposed portion with the wind attempting to annihilate the rest. But the structure endured even as the passing rain rivers raced passed its foundations.
In the corner of the house next to the earthen pile was cobbled a small shelter of broken mismatched lumber. Inside, under the dead animal skin pulled tightly under their feet and arms, huddled Ayumi and Glei.
Uncounted mornings and nights passed as the cloudbursts advanced. Inside the makeshift shelter, the two lingered as the world was washed empty in the relentless torrents of liquid that fell from the atmosphere.
Outside clouds rolled by in varying shades of drabness, a mix of deep azures, and gray. Only the shadowy light of afternoons pierced the veil of the storm seldomly.
A morning came as the downpours lulled and the winds relinquished. The world settled in its drenched self as the wildlife peeked from its safety.
Glei cast aside the heavy blanket and crawled out. The wood creaked and groaned as the soften wood stripped at his passing over it. He made his way to the doorway all the while scratching at his forearms.
Sitting on the edge of the stoop he cast his feet into the waters about, a wave of muscle spasms shot to his head as he found himself hunching over to a shell. His clothes hung off him in heavy soaked layers stained in dirt wear and tare as his hair clung tightly to his face in small ringlets of curls.
From the pile of dead fur behind him, a grumble erupted.
Shifting under the blanket Ayumi kicked them off as she rolled out of the hut. Her hands grasped and reached over to worn box buried halfway in the earthen pile and opened it. Stench raised to her nose as her complexion soured, she quickly closed it as the sound of her stomach sounded all the more offensively.
Tears formed at the corners of her eyes as snot ran down her nose. Wiping it away she stood up and drug the hide over to a sunny part of the house tossing it across the floor she shuffled back and came up beside the other. With feet flat and knees to her chin and arms wrapped around her legs, she leaned slightly into the frame way.
Dark circles hung under her dulled eyes as they watched the water move by.
"Does that mean you could make yourself into any shape?" She smiled as a frail bit of mirth escaped her voice.
"No. Not the way you think." Glei shifted to face the other. Unfolding his hands he looked at them taking his left digit he bent it, the finger flexed backward until it was straight and strained at the further movement. Ayumi's eyes watched the show before them with pupils taking in every frame.
"I…" Glei set his hands under his arms as he looked away. "He's left hasn't he."
"Of course." Ayumi's vision trailed off and followed a floating leaf as it drifted to the tree lines encompassing them.
Glei head turned swiftly to lock gaze with Ayumi. 'What!?"
"Storm might have carried him off too." Ayumi's hand made a bird head shape as it moved about the air in attempted mimic flight with it ending in a splat on the floor.
"That…that isn't what I meant. He isn't retur--"
Ayumi head bobbed to the side as she swayed slightly in her post her hand still crumpled into the floor.
"Hey, don't sleep like that." Glei placed his hand on her shoulder gently nudging her. "You'll fall over."
"Mm…?" Ayumi stomach growled again as she continued to sway in pendulums tune.
Glei surveyed the house, empty, empty, and gone. From the fireplace to the water, his expression dimmed. The lake, a mix of copper-colored and more copper colors eeked past his legs. Standing he walked to the fireplace and looked into the cauldron; flakes of rust floated with branch, twig, and leaf. Beneath the coals, his hand sunk into the soggy ash. Beside it, the kindling, gone.
Taking the mostly whole kettle to the water's edge outside, dumping and rinsing it several times. Filling it he set it to the floorboards with a large thud. Rolling up the sleeve of his garb he paused, the copper-colored water agitated in the container splashing at its sides. Squinting as he planted his hand into the liquid.
His complexion paled as the noise of the world faded in his ears and rang loudly within his temples. His other hand grasped the edge of the bowl tightly as he clenched his jaw. The water began whirling about his arm as it's color united to clear glass with half of what once was.
Beads of sweat rolled down his face as his arms and shoulders shook. The submerged arm now nearly doubled. He slowly removed it from the container. Rolling the sleeve back down took several shaky breaths as he cradled it with the other hand.
"Ayumi..." The words trailed off passed his mouth.
Her eyes half opened and looked over to him, his hand pointed to the kettle between them. Leaning slightly forward she looked at the contents before her.
"Shiny..." A soft smile formed at the edges of her lips. She cupped her hands and drew the water up.
"Maybe we can find some food tomorrow." Glei muttered as he cast his vision from her sight.
Another night rolled on and the rains returned with only a gentle breeze to keep it company. Ayumi drifted to sleep under the hide and with only the sharp corners of the wooden box to use as a pillow. Tossing and twisting, she snored quietly under the stormy twilight.
Beside her Glei sat huddled against the wall of the house, his eyes steeled the night away in a faint glow that pierced the shadows still clutching his arm.
Echoes of the eve drifted in as the rains lulled with the wind, the leaves dripped and dropped the nights' shower into the migrated lake that besieged the house.
Ayumi awoke as she tumbled over the wooden box, next to her under their near collapsed makeshift shelter lay Glei curled upon her satchel. His arms bent to his face as his hair lay scattered and sprawling in disheveled coils.
Slowly she lifted the blanket from herself and drew it over him. Crawling from the shack she stood stretching and arching her back letting out a small outcry of stiffness. Rubbing her eyes she gazed about.
Inside the building lay all manner of twig, leaf and a few other strange manners of debris. What was strewn in the house before was now shuffled one side of the house or altogether gone.
Turning out the front door Ayumi looked at the sea that engulfed them. The sun fell sending refractions of light dancing across its surface as the heat began to rise. The path Hakk had traveled now under water, the house door now floated atop the water as it half sunk under. With the stairs vanished in the muck of earthen pool leaving only the frame of the door stopping the water from rushing in to carry them away.
One foot, then two, Ayumi waded to the well. Water flowed over its edges as it resounded in the cavern below. The drop off behind the house, rotten logs accumulated against the spindly trees in a damn as water leaked over its side. She turned and waded back, her feet struggled to keep their footing as they crushed the green growth drowned in the waters.
Birds began to call as the noon rose above, insects buzzed as dragonflies danced about with pond skippers skimming the water's surface. She made her way to the beach, before her a sea of water stared back as her foot stepped over.
The water rose above Ayumi's head as she descended, the stormwater was obscuring as her arms crawled through the muck laced water. Swimming upwards she surfaced and found herself some distance away. Paddling she waded back to the stand of trees she'd recognized.
-----
Glei feet shuffled under the heavy blanket, his eyes slowly opened as the haze of vision floated before him. An ocean of lavender blue, plum and ashen filled his senses. He blinked several times as the spectacle came to focus.
Before him, Ayumi sat squatting, in one hand a bush of leaves filled with heart-star shaped flowers dyed in deep rich colors, and the other plucking from them and arranging them on the canvas before her. She smiled setting another one near his face.
"What are you…doing?" Their eyes locked for a moment before she continued.
"Making you a princess."
"Ah what?"
"A pretty person, see, wait don't move!" Ayumi held out her hands' palms forward. She stood up in one swift motion and run-walked over behind the chimney. A few crashing sounds later she came back with a jagged piece of glass held carefully in her hands. Wiping her sleeve across it she turned the piece over to face him.
Sun danced off the mirror and blinded him for a moment as he squinted at the reflection before him. Across most of the blanket lay countless Morning Glories that buried him under a sea of flowers carefully stacked. The colors merging from the indigos to lavender to purple and melded into the milk ivory, the later a third the size as the rest, with some jade colored leaves thrown about. Atop his head was a crown, woven together with the ivory and a few of the indigos and plums.
"It's I..." Glei's admired over the spectacle as he looked to the placer.
Ayumi smiled as she set down the glass against the wall. Her face drew away as she trailed her gaze to the world breaking through the small hut.
Ayumi bounced slightly on her haunches as her vision followed a small arrow tipped barn swallow diving about calling to the others some distance away.
"Will you come with us?"
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