Immaculate
Copyright© 2025 by Daelyx Len Auphydas
Chapter 15: Spring Showers
2892 P.C., the twenty-second of Spring, Hylicia’s Vale.
The first clear sign of the approaching storm, before the rain starts, is the distant rumble of thunder in the clouds above. The storms in the vale are seasonal; There aren’t always thunderstorms in spring, but it is not a rare occurrence, either. That was good, since the lightning and rain were beneficial for the planting of new crops in the growing season.
Alunya stares out the window at the flashing lights and arcs of lightning occasionally echoing out, his eyes wide in wonder. The rain was picking up now, complete with howling wind. The center of the village often flooded during storms like this, but up on the slope where they live, Alunya’s family’s house is fairly safe from such danger.
Antares throws an arm around Alunya’s shoulders, squeezing up to be beside him and watch the spectacle unfold. There is a devastating flash and crashing sound, as a bolt of lightning strikes a tree not too far distant from the house, momentarily illuminating the valley, otherwise dark and dusky from the heavy clouds overhead. Inhaling deeply, he can faintly detect the scent of ozone from the nearby lightning strike.
Antares closes his eyes and focuses on the feeling as the rumbling thunder passes through him. “You feel the thunder in your bones, too, right Alunya?” Antares asks, smiling. Alunya looks up at him, tearing his gaze away from the thunderstorm for a moment to nod, before quickly looking back up at the sky in rapturous enchantment.
“It feels so powerful, like how I always imagined a dragons roar would feel!” Alunya comments, as another twisted arc of lightning branches through the sky, highlighting the dark and light contours of the stormclouds above. There is something mystical about the experience, it felt like so much more than just pretty lights and rainshowers.
“You know, mom tells me that you were born on a day like today.” Antares affirms. “She told me last time there was a storm. You were probably too young to remember it.”
“Do you remember when I was born, Ari?” Alunya cocks his head to the side curiously.
Antares scratches the back of his head. “Um, sort of. I remember holding you, and being there. I remember Mom freaking out about something, but I was really young, so it’s really blurry.” Antares explains.
Alunya nods in understanding. “Oh, I have memories like that too! Like I remember waking up with you on the top bunk one time when you were still taller than me, but I don’t really remember anything else about it.”
While the two of them were talking, Reia came up from behind, frowning as she stares outside. “I hope the storm lets up soon. It’s going to keep us from planting until it does.”
Alunya frowns. Is that all she ever thinks about? Good thing she doesn’t control the weather, it’d be so boring...
“But we’ll have Alunya to help us out this year, right mom?” Antares points out. “So we don’t need to rush as much!”
Reia looks unsure and shrugs. “I suppose ... I just hope it clears up by tomorrow.”
As it turns out, Reia’s prayers would be answered, and she would not need to wait long. By an hour or two after midday, a gap in the stormclouds had appeared towards the west, and by dinnertime the sun had appeared in the western skies.
“Antares, look!” Alunya points out the window eastwards. Where the eastern side of the valley was still being hammered by rain and illuminated by infrequent tongues of lightning, the sky was illuminated by multiple crescent bands of colors above the mountain peaks, contrasting with the dark stormclouds. “What is it?” The young boy asks his older brother, looking at him in ecstatic amazement.
“What, you’ve never seen a rainbow before?” Antares asks Alunya incredulously. “Whenever there’s rain and sun together in the sky, Hylicia weaves them together for us into a rainbow.” Antares explains.
“It’s so pretty!” Alunya whirls around to face Antares and takes his hand in his, beaming eagerly. “C’mon, let’s go for a walk! It’s such a nice day! With the rainbow and thunder clouds and sun in the sky, it’s just perfect!”
Antares looks to Reia, who shrugs noncommittally. “Go on ahead, you two, it’s too late to get to work anyways. But watch your step out there, the rain will make it muddy and slippery. And do try not to get too messy.”
Not needing any further encouragement, Alunya tugs on Antares’s hand, leading him out for a romp around the village, the effervescent scent of petrichor in the air. Their moccasins quickly beome clogged with mud, so the two remove them before they get far, and continue on barefoot.
Alunya lets go of Antares’s hand to prance up ahead, leading the way up the large hill near their house, the same one that the two of them go sledding on in the winter. The crown of the hill some ways above is rocky, poor soil with few trees, giving it a view of the valley second only to Antares’s favorite boulder on the far side of the village. But the slopes here below are covered in a light cover of underbrush, birch trees, muddy slopes and rocky outcroppings.
Alunya smiles, spreading his arms wide like soaring wings as he runs up the slopes, feeling the loose mud and gravel under his soles as he scampers uphill, toes digging into the fresh mud. Given the slippery, potentially treacherous terrain, it was a good thing that he was barefoot, where his feet could feel the ground beneath and maneuver to find purchase on every bit of rock, root, or firm soil he can navigate.
Alunya glances back to see Antares jogging up after him to try and catch back up. “Oy, Alunya, wait up!” Antares calls out, hiking up towards him. But Alunya just waggles his head from side to side, grinning ear to ear, and winks back at his brother.
“Nu-uh, just try to catch me!” Alunya shouts back, springing back up the hill at full sprint. Narrowing his eyes competitively, Antares gives chase, half-running, half-climbing up the slope wherever he can find purchase.
Alunya ducks through the underbrush as he runs past another stand of white trees, bark scarred by myriad holes from woodpeckers, the leafy green of new shoots starting to poke through the scraggly bare branches from winter.
While Alunya has a good head start, and maneuvers the rocky terrain with finesse, Antares was not one to back down from a challenge, pulling himself up by the root of one tree and then, as soon as he has gotten to his feet again, taking off in pursuit of his white-haired quarry. Alunya’s attempt at going up one muddy slope fails him as the ground slips back down underneath him, and he is forced to attempt to go up another way, affording Antares a precious few meters of gain on his target.
Antares pushes through the pain of his lungs struggling to keep up with the strain he was putting on his body, coupled with the discomfort of running on the occasionally rocky ground, as he gains on his target near the top of the hill. He was right in his sights, now, there was no way he wasn’t going to catch him.
Even Alunya is a bit tired- sprinting full-stop uphill for a prolonged pursuit had that effect. But seeing that he was basically at the summit of the hill, where a small indent in the poor soil of the hilltop had allowed the ground to turn into a soft bed of mud, Alunya suddenly pivots on one foot, forefoot digging into the mud as he whips around, sloshing to a halt in a crouch, and then springs back into motion in the opposite direction, pouncing on Antares just as he enters range.
Antares lets out an unearthly screech just before Alunya suddenly collides with him, knocking the wind straight from his sails. The sudden impact makes Antares’s posture fail him, and his feet lose their grip on the ground, slipping up from under him as he lands on his back on the thankfully soft, squishy ground.
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