The weather is growing moody as of late.

It started on a morning with a patchwork sky, just before the harvest season kicked into full gear, but as the day wore on the weather turned from cool to frigid and the winds picked up, wailing through the trees and ripping off piebald leaves to spit out against the muddied earth.

Most everyone was already inside, including the three of us, but we have no ditch outside to protect us, nor is the dirt sloped at the entrance to ward the water away. Instead, our hastily made hole becomes a torrent of muddy water and the rain pours into everything, attacking our feather-and-pelt bedding and scripts Rose was taking out from the library. A flower crown, still withering from the summer, is thrown against the wall and licked into oblivion by the water now up to our paws.

Rose is outside digging trenches, though the water continues to pour in. I rush out covered in leaves and bearing small articles of personal value, though there's nowhere safe to put anything. By the time Ace comes bearing help, it's too late to protect our denning material, though most of the rest makes it out fine. The sensitive ink Rose had on the wood slab on the corner is gone, a present from Alabaster just earlier that year.

Behind Ace come Anassa and Eris, Anue and Tammory, and soon the whole town is working at our ditch in the freezing rain.

We Eudican sisters huddle like puppies, all sick and spit as the cold wracks our bodies, and it is far too long before we're able to turn away. 

I try to recall the last time I had watch a home flood. I can't think of anything- somehow, in the mists of time, our childhood day has been tinged by a certain invulnerability. It's hard to even convince myself anything bad ever happened when all I can remember are carefree days of racing my sisters through forests and sleeping by soft rivers.

Still, this will pass as well. These days may not be perfect but they're vivid, like a field of wildflowers. Each day is new, different... I had no idea one place could change so much yet manage to stay the same all at once.

The rain runs its glittering paws against my pelt, tugging at me from every angle, and I turn, moving from my sisters' sides. They collapse without me comfortably wedged in the middle, and I walk away towards a solitary figure on the edges of the workforce, tracing new venues for water to travel into the earth with strong paws. I shiver as he looks up into my eyes, his amber glare piercing my heart.

Alabaster.

"I don't believe we've talked before." he tells me, his paws turning the ground. "You must be Daisy."

"I am." I confirm. "Rose certainly talks about you. She's quite enamored with your intellect."

"Is she, now?" he mumbles. His steady gaze is beginning to unnerve me. "Anassa speaks of you as well."

"You talk to Anassa?" I ask. I've never seen the two of them converse.

"Late at night. I often come in to pursue my studies."

"What studies?"
"I'm searching for something."

"That's the vaguest possible answer." I snort, another involuntary shiver rising up my spine. "Do you talk to Rose this way, too?"

"I wasn't prepared for an in depth discussion in this weather. I'm afraid I'm quite preoccupied at the moment. To be more clear, I've been researching the three parts of the spirit, as well as the psychology of Empaths. The latter is purely due to recent events, but the former has been on my mind for a long time. As for your later question, your sister is quite private herself." he tells me.

"Which one?" I joke. I crane my neck around, trying to see where Rose and Ivy have gone off to. Rose is back at the ditches, unsurprisingly, and Ivy is talking to Anassa. Neither of them look thrilled but it's so hard to take them seriously when their pelts are all sopping.

Alabaster does not answer. Apparently my attempts at humor must have flown over his head. He raises his paws from the ditch, where water is already running, and says, "The grass is going to take forever to grow back."

"Is it?" He's trailing off. "Well... I should go... talk to my sisters. Thanks for speaking with me." I dip my head, though he doesn't look up to return the gesture.

"It was my pleasure. If you'd like to continue the discussion when the weather is more pleasant, come find me at my abode on the edge of the woods."

I think I'll pass, but for his sake, I don't say so. Instead, I let the rain seep into my skin and wander off after my siblings. I sit down next to Ivy, who is still staring glumly at the den.

"Are you going to do anything?" I ask her.

"Are you?"

"We could get out of the cold." I reply. "Stocked Pantry?"

"Sounds like fun. Mind if I tag along?" asks Ace, appearing from the central Glade. "I was just checking on Asha. She and the pups are playing in the rain again. They'll catch a terrible cold one of these days, let me tell you." His smile grows sad as he looks us both over. We must look pitiful in the rain, but it's more of a soft apathy that fills my sister and an optimism that warms me. I'm hoping we'll get to spend the night in someone else's home, then bail out the house and move back in within days. Perhaps we might even get a permanent structure. "Daisy, are you well?"

I jump, startled. "Fine! I was just thinking about Alabaster! We had a conversation just earlier." It's not quite a lie, and I'd hate to place demands on him now. Better to ease into one's home than to bust in, lest we be busted back out through the back door... and anyhow, asking directly is rude.

"How did that go?" Ace asks, quiet resentment edging his voice.

"He was certainly... something." I admit. "I got the impression he didn't really want to talk to me, but at the same time he was observing me quite intently."

"'Something' might be the correct word to describe him. Rose might like him, but I've always found him a bit hostile. He seems lonely, but it's the bitter type of lonely. I think it's in the eyes."

Ivy's gaze passes over us and we decide to change our choice of topic. Ivy is no sweeter than dandelion and no warmer than the rain. Her paws are caked in mud and filth.

"I'm so sorry about what happened." Ace tells Ivy, his eyes filled with a soft warmth.

"I have to be somewhere. I'll be back before the sunrise." Ivy murmurs, lifting her slightly muddied satchel of herbs. She lopes out of the Glade and into the woods, her bright fur like the snows soon to come.

"Did you see that?" Rose asks.
"See what?" Ace tilts his head.

"She's always like that." I say. "Rose, will you come to the Stocked Pantry with us? Ace and I are going to take our minds off the mess we're in. Get something warm in our systems. Could be nice."

Rose does not move, though there's droplets streaming down her fur by now and coating the already muddy earth in a fine film of water. The ice in her eyes could freeze the river with just a sideways glance. "I'll pass."

"If you wish. Do you know where you're be staying tonight?"
"I'd be more than happy to host you both." Ace smiles.

"I'm going to speak with Alabaster about arrangements." Rose tells me, turning.

"You're just as bad as Ivy, sneaking off all the time. Would it kill you to hang out with us?" I ask.

"I am not as bad as Ivy." Rose's voice turns to a low growl. I can practically see each muscle tensing. "You take that back."

"Then come with us." I plead.

"Why do you care so much about talking to Alabaster anyways?" Ace asks. "N-not to be rude, merely curious."

"He doesn't sugarcoat things, which is pleasant. I suppose I also enjoy being talked to as an equal instead of as something fragile that needs to be protected. I'm not a mouse, I'm a Canis. I can hold my own." She tells me. "See this? We're being helped because the town knows we can't care for our own home. It's pity. Does that bother you?"

"No, Rose, we're just being helped." I reply, then I, too, head towards the middle of the Glade. "I'll see you later."

My remaining sister plods through the layers of thick rain and fog, which draw her away from my sight. I can't shake off the unease from earlier as I enter the Stocked Pantry, nor as I take a drink and chatter with Ace about the coming harvest season.

Ivy enters not much later, Anassa by her side. Ivy leans into the older Canis with an almost disdainful look on her face, a sort of amusement mixed with mild, controlled boredom.

"Found her in the forest." Anassa tells us. "Someone has to keep your sister together. She's a mess."

"Problem?" Ivy asks. Her paws are still covered in dirt, which she tracks across the floor until she goes to sit down at another table.

"Think we should join them?" Ace asks. Most of the others have come in by now, and the Pantry is crowded. I get the impression they think I've been doing much more than I have all day, and many offer sympathy of some kind. Still, Anassa and Ivy stand out from the crowd, fluffy pale fur windblown and almost dry. When I shake my head, he continues, "What do you think they're talking about?"

"I suppose something important, but I just try not to stick my head in Ivy's business too much. My sisters are like a swarm of bees when irritated."

Ace's eyes glimmer with amusement. "Bees? Have you met Necaris?"

"Necaris is an actual swarm of bees, at least socially. She's impossible to lay your paws on and can and will attempt to needle you."
"So you have."

I nod. "I still want to get to know everyone."

"So much for not sticking your head in the beehive."

"Who knows? I might find some honey."