SLEN
"What are you doing?" Mar asked.
Mar dodged a leak under one of the drapes that were surrounding the now empty market of Slen. He returned to look at her whirling in the rain. Small random glows from lit homes revealed her grinning face. Despite the weather, she could still be seen in the city lights. Rain shadows danced with her eyes.
Chloria embraced herself and laughed. Mar raised an eyebrow from under his drape. He recalled Kaelin enjoying the rain, but this furre appeared to worship it. As she twirled again, he watched as her hair flowed gently around in circles. He blinked.
"How did you do that?" he asked.
"Do what?" Chloria squealed.
"You're dry."
Mar looked out into the rain again. Indeed, it was still pouring. He extended his paw out into the night air. Within seconds, his arm was soaked. He glanced back to Chloria, puzzled.
"Dance with me," Chloria demanded.
"I ... I beg your pardon?" Mar stammered.
Chloria's orange eyes shone with renewed intensity. She stared at him. Mar could easily distinguish the rain shadows bouncing off her clothes as she approached him. The all-green furre reached for his extended arm and clasped paws. She leaned against his body and whispered into his ear.
"Dance with me."
She pulled him out. Mar could feel the wet rain slamming into his hair. She took him into her arms and danced lightly on the city square. The shimmering lights faded as the rain intensified. She blinked and smiled at the drenched furre before her. She gently brushed his matted cheek with her paw.
"I'm getting wet," he gasped, "But you're completely dry! How is that possible?"
"I can do that," Chloria shrugged, "I'm probably the one who makes it rain here in the first place."
"How?"
"Weather comes and goes at any given place," she whispered as she rested her head on Mar's chest, "But it's consistent every time I visit those places. It rains here; it's dry in Meovanni; it snows in Linde. But with my breath, I could change all that."
Mar listened to her. He paid no more attention to the droplets running down his nose. The two furres slowly danced in unison as the weather looked on. Chloria smiled and lifted her face from her resting spot. She leaned closer to him, her eyes ran down his face as if she anticipated something.
"With my breath," she whispered, "I can make you dry."
She tilted Mar's face and touched his lips with hers. His tail quivered and twitched as he felt her lingering breath inside of him. She pressed her lips once more and lifted her head. She glanced at him again.
"Is that better?" she asked with a sly grin.
Mar patted his hair. It was completely dry!
His eyes grew with wonder and his grin was wider than it had ever been.
He still felt the rain, but it was no longer wet to him. She laughed
at his expression and took his paw again. She never took her eyes
off of him as she lead him down the square.
"Amazing thing, ginger ale," Gorian noted, "It seems to take away all the sorrow, but eventually reality will seep in and you're tempted to have more."
Espio glanced suspiciously at his drink from the other side of the bar, "I'm pretty sure there's no alcohol in that."
"Same effect," he said, "Without the staggering, the mumbling, or the hangovers."
Espio knew a furre did not have to be a bartender to realize something was on his mind. She looked at Cyiet beside him. He too looked concerned with Gorian. The poet finished his drink and paused, as if trying to feel for the same effect. He swallowed.
"You sound like a poet, Gorian," he said.
"You know why I'm here, don't you Cyiet?" the blue furre asked.
"Yeah. You're with the vamp hunters."
Vamp hunters? Espio studied Gorian with a new perspective. She found it hard to believe that he was associated with their activity. But it sounded as if he did not really want to be involved in it.
"A group of vamps destroyed Mar's village when he was small," Gorian explained, "He's the only survivor. He never really seemed that angry growing up, but when Chloria showed up at the bar a few days ago, he seemed determined to help their cause."
"And you joined him?" Espio asked.
"And I joined him," he nodded, "He's my best friend. I have to help."
"Do you?" she asked, "Or is there something more?"
Gorian shrugged, playing with his empty glass. He seemed completely oblivious to Cyiet and herself now. It was a familiar habit, she noted. She recalled an earlier customer who was distracted by the bar's glasses. She shrugged it off. If he wanted to say what was really on his mind, he would have done so already.
Espio looked at the other two visitors, seated at a table nearby. The ice blue explorer was snoring, while his companion was wide awake ... or so she thought. The black feline just sat and stared at the fire. The bartender sensed that she was on edge for some reason.
The sleeping furre mumbled something in his sleep. Espio pondered about what kind of dreams he was having. Were they the dreams of an explorer? Were they of uncharted lands or places he had been to? Espio smiled at the last question. If he only knew where she had been.