It was an odd day when it happened.
It was a weekend, so I didn’t have to attend Academy at that time, but I did have a few errands to take care of that have me going around the city. There were only a few clouds when I first got out, but as the day wore on, they blanketed the sky. Before I knew it, Cirian was showered with rain, and it had me running around town to finish up so I can finally escape the foul weather.
But then I came across something that ended up halting my busy schedule.
It was something I didn’t expect. Actually, it was something crazy, but I saw it:
There was a boy standing out in the rain by his lonesome self like it was nothing.
And that boy was my friend.
Prophet Destiny: Magical Quicksilver
-Rain-
“Gades! W-what are you doing outside like that?! You’re drowning yourself out there!” I cried out.
My drenched friend’s ruby eyes were covered by the heavy bangs of his soaking wet, raven black hair. And his loose maroon robe looked really dark while it was covered in rain.
He raised his arms in the air, but other than that, he didn’t really motion towards me. I guess he didn’t hear me the first time.
“Hey, it’s me! “Miss” Rose! Please, you have to get to shelter! You’ll get sick if you just stay out there!” I warned him, but he still didn’t budge.
As I said, this was a very strange sight, especially when the person in question I’m dealing with is Little Gades. The two of us go to the same academy, actually, and I’ve been his acting mentor since he moved from the forestlands. Sure, he’s a country boy, but from all the time I spent with him, I can tell you that he’s really quite smart. If anything, common sense is one of his strongest points, too. So seeing him being hit hard by heavy rainfall without any cover really confused me.
I figured the sound of the pouring rain was also drowning out my cries, no pun intended, so I felt it was up to me to get him back to his senses and drag him to safe shelter. I can’t help it. He’s like a brother to me, so I tend to be protective of him.
So I headed out to the drenched fellow, ready to fulfill my goal. But when I was finally close enough to get a better look at him, I was able to notice his expression, too. That relaxed stance, and that face… was he smiling? He looked so calm and carefree in this dark and damp weather. It was as if he was greeting this depressing weather with open arms.
“Hey! Gades!” I cried again.
This time he heard me for sure. He dropped his arms and lowered his head to look around where my voice came from. When he finally spotted me, he wiped away the hair in the way of his eyes.
“Oh! Hey Miss Rose!” he greeted me back.
His smile told no lie. It was the most carefree smile I’ve seen on his face yet, and it was while the rain was pouring on him.
“What are you doing out here?” I demanded.
“I’m enjoying the rain, of course! Isn’t it great?” he answered casually, as if it was like everyday weather.
“Great? Are you crazy?! You’re just standing out here in plain view while being hit with endless streams of water!” I shouted.
“Well, so are you, Miss Rose.” He pointed out frankly.
“Yeah, but at least this cloak of mine is giving me cover!” I argued. “Your clothes are soaking in all the water, and you don’t even have a hood!”
“Oh, I don’t mind at all, really. I have plenty of spares at home. Besides, this feels so refreshing!” he insisted.
“Refreshing”? He calls relentless heavy rainfall “Refreshing”? For heaven’s sake, he’s going to get a cold at this rate!
“Gades! Please, come on! We have to get out of the rain, and fast!” I shouted.
Sadly, this handy cloak of mine isn’t the best against weather as bad as this, and I was really starting to loathe sogginess that’s slowly seeping into my clothes.
Suddenly, my friend’s peaceful expression changed to disappointment.
“Why? Do you not like how the rain feels?” he asked.
Frankly, I don’t. In fact, like days like this, I am really frustrated when the rain decides to come. It keeps me from enjoying the outdoors I love so much without being moist-free, and I’d really prefer having the outside terrain when I do my swordsmanship training. Just seeing the daytime go dark like this is bad enough. It’s why I prefer pleasant sunshine and just want to avoid days like this whenever possible.
To Gades, however, I merely shook my head. I didn’t want to bother him with all the details, anyway.
“Really? That’s too bad. Quite honestly, though. I really do find the rain refreshing.” He grinned.
He then closed his eyes and raised his head towards the restless rain, ready to once again embrace it.
“It’s one of nature’s greatest gifts offering the plants their fill and the animals one big shower. It’s wonderful!” he explained.
Come to think of it, there are a few places that need the rain. It can be a big blessing in the dry desert, and it helps sustain springs. But it still isn’t so pleasant where water isn’t a big concern.
“And you know what else? It’s really different. It gives a completely new atmosphere to familiar places, and it brings some variety to weather. It wouldn’t be all that fun if you can expect the same kind of weather every single day, don’t you think?”
Actually, if the weather were up to me, I’d prefer to find a way to have fair and sunny weather all year long without having to worry about the trees and plants becoming parched. The only skies I really like are sunny ones and starry ones; that way there’s always some form of light shining high above me. Then again, the only other weather I can handle is snowfall: everything looks so beautiful all covered in snow during the winter.
But I’ve got to hand it to him; he tends to see some things differently from others. That’s how he keeps surprising me like he did at this moment. As his friend, there are times where I felt like I’ve finally figured him out, and then he just hits me with something completely unexpected. Serena once told me Mitalins are usually seen to be mysterious people by those around them, but I’m slowly starting to see Gades as more of a complicated puzzle. And I guess that’s one of the things I really like about him: there’s always something new to understand. Though, if there’s anything crystal clear about him, it’s his craze for my people’s culture, and his shyness around other girls he may like. I must say that I enjoy having fun with the later fact when I can.
“I’m not too cool with rain, to be honest. Something I miss in my old home at Nonalie is that the whole city was especially built to keep the bad weather from touching us. Even when we were faced with cloudy skies, we’d just unleash stored sunlight throughout the sheltered city to keep everything lit. That’s how it became recognized as the “Land of Everlasting Light”, actually.” I explained to him.
Come to think of it, I don’t understand why a Magical City like Cirian hasn’t tried using a system like Nonalie’s to improve things around here. Then again, that sort of thing requires a heavy mass of Elven Magic, and a whole lot of surrounding natural forest wildlife to sustain in. This IS part of a human-ring kingdom, after all, and they are rather notorious throughout history for making their biggest settlements out of nature’s reach. As far as we’ve come from racial issues, it seems a lot of us are still stuck in our more unusual habits.
“Ah, yet another wonder of Elvish know-how…” he replied in awe.
I figured that’s how he’d react.
“That really does sound convenient…” he continued, “Being able to move on with your day without having to worry about the rain messing things up. It sounds like you really did live the privileged life back home, Miss Rose!”
“Well, uh, life back home wasn’t exactly paradise, but a lot of it was really convenient compared this, you could say.” I answered.
True. As well as some things have been, I also had my responsibilities for the position I’m in. I usually had to look after my cousin Irillia, and I had to meet Ms. Willow’s expectations when she trained me in swordsmanship. At least the one I really had to measure up to, my own father was really lenient in his own standards of me. He’s regarded as a champion of my people, yet he was always understanding as a father. Thank goodness for that.
“That’s interesting. But then, I guess this means you haven’t dealt with rain much back in Nonalie, huh?” Gades asked.
I shook my head.
“Ah, that’s a shame! I remember back in Sithro we had a lot of fun every time the rain came around! One of my friends can make a really vivid rainbow in the air with her psionics, and another would find puddles to play in! Okay, so I’ll admit that I worried that the puddle player would have the biggest risk at getting sick, but honestly! Most of us who went outside rarely got sick from it!” he shared with me.
His head was always filled with many memories of his old hometown, and he’d end up sharing a bunch of them on a whim like this. It’s sort of like Nonalie with me, but he got to live there a whole two years longer than I got to in my home before moving to Cirian. Unlike me, though, he told me that his hometown was destroyed right before he left. Maybe that’s why he’s more prone to talking about his old home than I am. He can never return…
Funny. I just remembered a girl who stayed in Cirian for a week with similar stories. She wasn’t as talkative as Gades about her past, but she did speak with the same kind of fondness. I don’t remember name, though. Well, I’ll just hope wherever she is, she still has a place of her own to come back to. She was very nice…
“Did you use to just stand out there and take in the rain like you just did now, too?” I asked him.
“Oh, sure! But more often than that, I’d relax myself and clear my mind. Obtaining focus under any situation was an important part of my psychic training with my Mother, and trying to do it with the constant sound and moisture of rain around you makes it a chore! But it’s really funny… I think I actually think more clearly when there’s rain. Maybe that’s why it’s so refreshing to me.” He explained to me.
“Yeah, that is really strange. Your affinity in magic is fire, isn’t it? So shouldn’t water be your polar opposite?” I asked him.
“Actually, I’ve noticed I’m really good with ice and water spells, too. I think water is my second strongest affinity. Which reminds me: this kind of weather would strengthen my water spells by a lot, wouldn’t it?” he told me eagerly.
“Um, yes. I believe so. But I don’t think---“
“Don’t worry, Miss Rose! As exciting as it might be, I would rather not risk doing it in the middle of the city. But maybe when it’s raining during an after-school tutoring day, we could try it somewhere safer?” he proposed.
“That sounds like a plan. Looks like you found something else to look forward to on a rainy day.” I told him with a smile.
He really does catch onto a lot of interesting opportunities for magic. As fun as it has been working with him, it makes me wonder what sort of things he can pull off once I don’t have to tutor him any longer.
“You bet!” he agreed. “You know, I’ve also noticed that people around here don’t consider what you get after the rain. All they look forward to is that ray of sunshine to make the clouds part. But, I guess it’s because this place isn’t Sithro. You see, back at my old hometown, the day after the rain, most of us would rush out towards the field to see the morning dew on the grass. We couldn’t help it: it always looks so beautiful.”
“Come to think of it, Father would always take Mother and I to the outer fields and we’d see something like that. The grass looks very sparkly, right?” I asked.
“Yeah! That’s it! I always liked how it looked that way!” he cried.
“Maybe it doesn’t have to just be a memory after all. We have school again, tomorrow. Maybe the courtyard will have that sparkly dew look when we get there!”
“That is a really big yard Cirian Academy has! It should be a big sea of dew by then! Now I really look forward to it!”
“You won’t have much to look forward to tomorrow if you stay out here and get sick, though. Come on! Let’s get you home! Or at least somewhere dry…” I reminded him.
“No, really! I’ll be fine! We have a special way of keeping from getting sick when caught in the rain. But if you insist, it is starting to get late. I assume you’re heading home, too?” he asked.
“I have one more thing to take care of before I do, but I think I can afford this small detour.” I told him.
Gades looked back at me with a grin even wider than before.
“Okay! Thanks, Miss Rose!”
So after all of that, I ended up taking him home in the rain. But as much as the rain falling down on him didn’t bother him one bit, it sure was bothering me. A lot. I decided to offer him what little cover I could and share some of my cloak with him. The weather still bothered me at first, too, but then Gades started humming a cheerful tune right by my side. I didn’t know if he was doing it to help lighten the mood, or if it was just some habit of his, but it helped me feel better while wandering in the rain.
That’s another thing I appreciate about him. With his different way of looking at things, he also knows how to find the lighter side in the most unlikely of circumstances. Ever since we met, I just keep finding more and more things to appreciate from him, especially at times like this. It makes me glad to know him. He’s an amazing friend…
 Chicken Yuki · Fri Aug 29, 2008 @ 11:32pm · 0 Comments |
