[Gift] PT/Training 1 - Marlo/Harlowe/Babylon

“I don’t like those clouds,” Marlo said, staring high into the sky with a concerned look in his eyes. Even through the lush trees of Warrenfall’s forests, you could see the toiling of the skies as they twisted into gray clouds overhead. What little glimpse of the blue sky remained, was being swallowed up more by the moment. When clouds would normally glide across the sky, these were ever shifting, pushed by strong winds you could see all the way from here. Poor weather was inbound, rain the likely accomplice.

It had been a chance meeting between travelers, when Harlowe came running out of the trees and found Babylon and Marlo on their way through the continent. Some journey had been on, the chaser accompanying the ever curious Haedian, while th either documented the weathers and nature in his books. The puller was quick to give his greetings and introductions, with some fond impressions to share to the Haedian of his time in the beneath. Their conversation was cut a bit short when the Haedian began sniffing the air and getting increasingly distracted by the silence of the woods around them. 

Babylon and Harlowe raised their noses to see with Marlo, both vayrons pinching their brows at the sight. It wouldn’t be too long before they were showered with rain, but it was Marlo who worried the most. The breeze had begun to pick up and it was enough of a sign of the storm approaching even to anyone who didn’t smell the storm as keenly as them. Maybe it wasn’t just rain they’d face, but winds enough to topple the three of them, and perhaps the trees around them.

“We’re in the trees, surely this is enough to shelter us from the weather? Maybe it’ll pass ahead and we’ll get past with relative ease, even if a bit soaked?” Harlowe shared his wistful thinking, but the Haedian didn’t answer. “Might be uncomfortable if you’re heading the way the storm is, but a little rain never hurt nobody, no?”

With a worrying look, Marlo leapt up a tree trunk, and climbed it’s length to the top. Babylon and Harlowe exchanged glances, but awaited their companion’s return with insight on what he’s looking for.

“Doesn’t fill me with confidence, with him worrying like that,” Babylon commented, tail swishing anxiously. “But maybe it’s just him being new to all of this.” The smell of rain was getting stronger on the breeze, and the cawing of birds in the distance wasn’t a comfort either. 

Then, a flock of birds flapped overhead, passing Marlo at the tip of the tree. His long fur was being blown away a lot stronger than Harlowe’s at the forest floor, with the trees starting to sway. The Tyrian looked down after a moment of staring off, and glided down to his companions. 

“We have to find shelter immediately,” he ushered, “it’s not just a storm out there, but something more. I don’t know what exactly, but it’s as though the clouds are falling to the earth.” 

“That sounds like heavy rain,” Babylon added, “Rain falls like a big wide veil from the clouds when you look from far away. With some cover we can wait it out and be on our way again.” He was more relieved of the news, and even Harlowe shared a small smile of newfound confidence. Their Haedian companion was still new to the surface and these things were sure to worry him a lot more than the two of them. 

“Must it be wide? Spanning the lengths of the clouds? Or does that include funnels dragging the ground?” Marlo asked anxiously, eyeing the sky, then back at babylon. He wanted to be as relieved as them, but the air didn’t smell right to him, nothing really did when it was all so new.

And the relief he sought was quickly snuffed away. 

“A funnel? No, that’s…” Babylon began, before thinking to himself. 

“Sounds like a tornado,” Harlowe added and the chaser agreed. “Shelter it is!” Harlowe pepped up, and with his initiative, Babylon and Marlo picked him up into their little group to work together. Babylon and Harlowe briefed Marlo about the difference of a storm and a tornado, and Haedian seemed increasingly concerned to find cover. All these years, the storms on the surface did not reach them below. To think the Vayrons and Empyreans would go through such terrible weather conditions.

Just in the nick of time, Harlowe spotted an old nest of some kind. It was cold and dark, but deep enough in the ground that they could shelter in and wait out the passing storm. Marlo stuffed himself inside, body curled along the back wall so that Harlowe and Babylon could fit beside him and hunker down for the evening. 

The winds outside were raging, grass whipping violently as the winds howled against the trees. Leaves scattered in the air and branches cracked as they tore apart from trunks, crashing onto the ground. Visibility was low from the small den, but Marlo watched intensely at the scene outside. What about all the animals? The birds fled through the skies, but the squirrels? The deer? Did they have hiding holes like they’d found here? It had been awfully quiet for a while now, so they must have all gone already.

“Sneaky thing, touching down in a rainy guise,” Babylon muttered at the weather, “Good thing you can climb so well,” he looked over to Marlo, voice lilting a bit more jokingly. “We’d have been soaked to the bone waiting to see the thing right on top of us.” 

The Haedian smiled, although he was still tense.

“Thank you for letting me come along,” Harlowe nodded to the two of them. “I’d have been racing the winds out there otherwise.” He laughed to himself, much less shaken from the affair, which worked to relieve some nerves from Marlo. Maybe if these Vayrons are more calm, it wasn’t such a terrifying ordeal as Marlo believed it to be.