Vesper is in Lupus (as always)!
The birds had sensed it first; the entirety of Hollow’s Ruins had turned into a cacophony of flapping and startled crowing as the ravens fluttered from tree to tree, buffeted by the wind. Other animals had begun to seek shelter and scurry about too, from deer to mice and voles to the canines themselves able to sense the impending weather. Electricity in the air caused their fur to bristle, and the sharp smell of the atmosphere told them that a bigger storm than usual was coming. And, of course, the winds and rains had had started, beginning with a heavy drizzle and eventually culminating into this torrential downpour.
Vesper worried for her clanmates, especially those in the mansion. The building was already falling apart, and even the effort of the clan’s carpenter probably wouldn’t be enough. In contrast, the Grimwell Caverns were natural, made of limestone and standing the test of time, sculpted over thousands of years rather than put up by some long-dead humans. She’d huddled in the back of her long cave as the rain crashed down, confident in her safety, even inviting her raven in when he sought to avoid the rains. Nothing could go wrong in the caves, she thought.
“Boy!” came a sharp caw that startled her into consciousness. “Waking up, all water coming!” He pecked her on the head though she woke instantaneously, shaking herself to her feet and staring in horror at the water all around her. Stunned, she looked at the oil lantern floating on its side, at her soaked bow and empty quiver, and at last at the ragged thing that was her stuffed bed underneath her. Nothing looked salvageable, and so with jerking motions she scrambled to the entrance and to the outside, where the rain was louder but she wasn’t leg-deep in water.
The Centurion shook herself—for all the good that did—and looked at the territory before her. The sky was a big mass of ugly clouds, and the rain plastered the grass against the soil. Her blue eyes darted to and fro then found a pair of forms just beyond another one of the den entrances. Swallowing, she began to pad toward them, the soggy raven sitting on her shoulders. “You two all right?” she asked perhaps needlessly, controlling her voice as it wanted to shake.
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