Rain

“What is this?”

I woke up to the sound of heavy raindrops drumming over the locomotive. I rushed to one of the windows to see that our footprints all around the train had turned into small puddles, and that the land around us was slowly morphing into a marshy mess.

The puddles grew where the sand was too coarse for the water to carry, and little streams of yellow mud were already flowing down the sides of the dunes.

The raindrops were large and sparse, like someone had put a storm in slow motion. I ran to the front of the cab, where the overhang offered me some protection from the rain.

< Faulty equipment detected.>

My shoes turned into rubber boots, and my armour fell over me into a bright green raincoat. A strong odour of azote hit my nose, and I felt like I was tasting the air itself, free of microscopic dust that had given the desert its emblematic textured smell. I shivered and rubbed my shoulders. It was an uncharacteristically cold morning.

“Rain. It’s water that evaporates from the sea when it’s very hot, and falls from those clouds when it aggregates enough.”

I nodded, agreeing with Danayr’s definition of rain.

“I didn’t even think it could rain here, in the desert.”

When I looked up, Danyar’s surprised expression told me that he hadn’t thought so either.

He extended a hand and let a few raindrops fall onto it. He then smelled them before carefully licking them.

“Fresh water,” he confirmed.

“What else could it be?”

The corners of his lips twitched in a mouth shrug.

“Blight. If it’s sipping from the Cielese sea, then the water that evaporates from it should taste of salt.”

“Rain can’t have salt in it; the NaCl crystals are too big to evaporate,” I replied. “But that aside, don’t drink it if you think it’s poison!"

Danyar gave me a strange look. Before he could say anything, though, a green light illuminated the clouds. The flair flew up and through the clouds, leaving behind a barely visible trail, but the clouds scattered its light, creating a large glowing aura over where it’d been shot.

Danyar and I exchanged a look.

“Let’s go,” I nudged him, as he was yet again blocking the way into the locomotive simply by taking up most of the space in the doorframe.

He frowned and looked at me, then at the glowing part of the cloud, which was getting further and further by the minute, as if thinking of how to convince me against it.

Then, he stepped aside, moving back into the living area of the locomotive. I rushed to the throttle. The train did not start right away, like a manual car that was being started in second gear; it jerked forward, and the machinery that made the wheels turn complained under our feet. Then, the whole train jerked upwards and forth, before rolling ahead, as if nothing had happened.

Surely the magic rails don’t care about water.

I wondered, as we rushed forth at a bit of a slower speed than I would have set on dry ground.

As we got closer to where the flare had been fired, the dunes grew bigger, and the valleys in between them were incrementally fuller of water. After the train stalled again, I glanced outside to see that we were sinking into a stream just under half a meter deep.

Danyar was already standing by, spear in hand, with his metal leg-plating traded in for bandages tightly wrapped around his shins, and all but the inner-most layer of outerwear - a beige shirt and brown trousers - abandoned, perhaps for the sake of having something dry to change into upon return.

We nodded, silently agreeing on a plan of action.

I moved the train back, ignoring what I now knew as nonsensical dials that the god had just put in for aesthetics that were spinning all frantically, or blinking red.

When we jumped outside, into twenty or so centimeters of water, I could feel how strong the current was, and I was very glad we hadn’t decided to leave the train in the deeper part. We struggled to climb onto a dune. Danyar was having a harder time than I, as he constantly tried to keep his tail above the streams of sand and mud, and his clothes were getting more soaked by the minute.

The top of the dune opened up onto a mixture of greys and dark oranges. The rain was so thick now that we couldn’t see more than three or four dunes ahead, and the constant streams of moving sand, moving clouds, and vertical ropes of rain made it hard to focus on any one part of the landscape.

Yet, it was so raw; nature at its purest, with no asphalt or skyscrapers to give the rain that thick urban smell, and no blinking red lights to warn the airplanes that they’re entering a city - no artificial lights at all for that matter. There was nothing but us, and the freezing droplets pounded on us a dozen per second. Nothing but water scarring the dunes with repeating braided patterns.

Oh how I wish I had my camera …

Another pillar of green light rose up and burned into the clouds. It was quite a bit to the left, but we wasted no time.

We slid down the side of the dune, ran up the side of the other, and -

The rear of a truck-sized caterpillar greeted us. Its bright, almost fluorescent, blue fur was covered in clumps of sand, and it was digging through an overturned wooden cart. Besides it, three more carts had already been rummaged through, and thick, sand-coloured threads were covering them.

“Help!” A cry came from within the overturned cart. “Did someone come? Help!”

“Distract it, its weak point is on its belly,” Danyar told me.

I rushed to the side of the caterpillar and punched it. Clumps of sand and fur stuck to my fist, and I felt a tingling sensation in my hand.

I pulled back on reflex. But it seemed to pay no attention to me.

I swore under my breath as another cry for help came from the cart. Then, I punched the caterpillar again.

It toppled over, and heavy rain droplets hit the sand inside its body, where I’d punched clearly through it.

< Creature slain: Camille la chenille.>

< EXP: +250>

Danayr looked at me incredulously.

“That works too,” he said, before rushing to one of the web-covered carts.

“Are you alright? The centipede is dead,” I called out as I pushed against its body to free an access point to the cart.

Inside, a man in his late forties was struggling to cut himself free from webbing that pinned him to the side of the cart.

He raised his eyes at me and lit up with a mixture of hope and renewed enthusiasm.

“Help me, please, sister! Before the eggs hatch!”

“Could you put the knife down?” I asked as I came closer.

The curved silver knife he was carrying was dented along the blade, where he’d tried to cut through the webbing.

He moved it to the side, not wanting to drop it.

I can’t blame him. But I sure hope he doesn’t stab me.

I grabbed the webbing, and it stuck to my gauntlet. Now that I was observing it more closely, I could see hundreds of small beads clumped at irregular intervals, all that same wet-sand-brown. Inside some of them, I could make out a faint blue bioluminescent light.

Dinosaurs wouldn’t have been as gross. I should have gone with the dinosaurs…

I yanked on the webbing, anchoring my foot against the wall of the cart. It came off, and I regained my balance just in time to catch the merchant as he toppled over.

“Thank you, sister,” he caught his breath, “I don’t know what I would have done without you and your crew. The storm came so suddenly, I thought … Alyssa! My wife! Is she alright?”

He grabbed me by the collar, panic in his eyes.

“My companion is checking on them,” I replied.

At the sound of that, he rushed outside, and I followed. Then, realising that the webbing with the tiny eggs was still attached to my hand, I picked up his knife and scraped it off my gauntlet. It didn't come off cleanly, but at last, my main weapon was usable again.

“Dad!”

“Ines, Niels, you’re alright!”

“Darling!”

“Alyssa!”

“Brother-”

I came outside to witness a truly sweet family reunion. Two kids, a boy and a girl, were hiding their parents, who’d gotten on their knees in the wet sand. A man stood by, arms half-crossed. With one hand, he was supporting his left wrist, which bent at an unnatural angle. He had bright-red blisters on his face and hands, and an empty scabbard on his belt. The sword that he would have carried in it was no doubt long buried in the sand.

He saw me come out and gave me a wink before returning his attention to his family.

Danyar emerged from one of the carts some time later. His coat was covered in bits of webbing and tracks of blue fluorescent goo. Without much hesitation or consideration, he took it off and threw it to the ground. Then he looked at me expectantly. When we maintained eye contact for an uncomfortable long amount of time, he discreetly pointed at the caterpillar and nodded at me.

“You can have its core, it’s the least we can offer,” The man with the broken wrist replied in my stead, smile on his face. “Right, Lucas?”

“Oh, yes,” Lucas, the merchant, seemed completely uninterested in the matter, as he started checking his children for injuries, while Alyssa ran into the cart.

She returned, folding up her skirt to carry several potions and a fist-sized canvas bag.

Satisfied that everyone was alright and accounted for, I climbed over the caterpillar. It took me a little bit of time to find its core, but I soon reemerged, covered in fur and sand, with a small white gem in my hand.

“Here, sister,” Alyssa approached me. She handed me the canvas pouch. “It’s not much, but it’s all we have. Where is the rest of your crew? I’d like to thank them, too.”

I glanced at Danyar, who gave me a stern look before discreetly sliding two fingers over the inside of his forearm.

What does that mean?

“It’s just me and him,” I replied. The bag she’d given me contained green coins, and I promptly handed it back to Alyssa. “I can’t take this,” I shook my head.

We’re not mercenaries.

“Just you and the demon, huh? Against a chenille? Well, I guess you must be one good mage then,” The man with the broken wrist, who’d since wrapped his wrist in a scarf that he’d slung around his neck, said.

Despite the words he used, I could feel apprehension in his tone.

Why does everyone hate me? No, really, I just saved these people!

The two merchants exchanged a look, as if having some sort of silent conversation. Even the children picked up on it, as the little girl tugged on the trouser leg of the man with the broken wrist, and asked:

“Uncle, what’s going on?”

“Nothing, sweetheart, nothing,” her dad patted her head, before getting up. “Right, well, be as it may, it’s best you be on your way. There’s nothing much of interest to see between three merchants packing up shop…”

The uncle nodded solemnly, and Alyssa sighed.

“How are we going to get to Schwanwal, daddy?” The boy, who had only just seemed to have realised what was happening, suddenly asked.

“It’s only a two-day walk from here, we’ll carry what we can and hire adventurers to get the rest of our wares, don’t worry, darling,” Alyssa patted the boy’s head.

“That’s right,” the man with the broken wrist intervened, “And your uncle will protect you on the way.”

“Uncle isn’t very good at fighting, though,” the little girl replied.

They continued bantering, and Danyar joined me by the dead caterpillar.

The rain hadn’t subsided in the slightest, and both he and I were wet messes, with hair sticking to our faces, and clothes sticking to our bodies, although with nothing but a short-sleeved shirt, Danyar was once again worse off.

I should offer them a ride. I think the train would be able to get past these dunes, and presuming there are no more flooded valleys, we should be able to get a good distance away.

I looked at Danyar, who was staring into nothingness, clearly no longer paying attention to anything around him.

No counsel from his side, it’s my call…

“Excuse me,” I called out to the group.

They’d already gathered some supplies, and the kids had been put under a web-free part of the cart to shelter them from the rain. Six pairs of eyes turned towards me.

“I can get you and your things to the nearest town, if that’s alright with you.”

“Why wouldn’t it be alright with us?” Lucas asked, squinting at me.

“Well, you seem to not like me very much, but I can’t just leave you out here either,” I replied.

The three adults exchanged another series of looks.

Maybe they’re just on edge because their livelihoods just got destroyed, and at least one of them is in a lot of pain from a broken wrist…

My train appeared right beside the caterpillar.

The kids screamed and took shelter inside the carriage, while the uncle reached for the blade on his belt, and blue sparks appeared around Alyssa’s hands.

“That’s my train, it’s all safe,” I hastily said, raising my arms up.

A carriage with the number 5 appeared at the end of it.

“You can put all your things in there,”I pointed at it. “I’ll be at the front, and when you’re ready, we can leave.” My tone sounded so unsure that I almost cringed. Danyar had already walked off towards the locomotive. “Oh, one small thing,” I said, just as the kids and the uncle approached the locomotive to examine it closer, “Would you happen to have some dry clothes we can borrow? I promise I’ll return them when we get to a city!”

“So you’re a mechanika mage then?” Lucas asked as he approached me. “Is that how you defeated the chenille? I’ve never seen this kind of magic before.”

As much as I hated lying, this seemed like the time to do it.

The tension didn’t fully vanish from his, Alyssa’s, or the uncle’s tone, but they shared some linen and some food with us. They refused any help with moving their things or even watching the children, so Danyar and I spent the better part of the afternoon and evening waiting for them to finish under the rhythmic sound of droplets on the roof of the locomotive. The kids seemed like they had several questions for us, but their adults wouldn’t let them anywhere near the cab. I couldn’t tell if that was because the cab was atop a big series of moving, mechanical, and scary-looking parts, or if the parents were still wary of me.

The tracks sank into the sand, and the wheels made a slushing sound under the rising moonlight as we set off towards Schwanwal.