Noctisardor Bypass It's a blessing and a curse.

Her afternoon nap stretched for several hours and she woke as evening crept in, tucked up alongside @Averie at @Heda's flank. She blinked her sleepy blue-grey eyes and yawned widely before unfurling herself from her sister to step away, intend on begging their guardian for a regurgitated meal.

Something distracted her, however, a sound in the direction if the hollows threshold. Kikimora twitched her ears, at once appreciating the continuous pattern of falling water. Curious, she moved to investigate.

She'd never seen rain before, but the sight, sound and scent enraptured her.

"that's rain, kiki," heda said, using her sister's nickname for the growing girl. "it's water that comes down from the sky. the grass and the bushes and the trees love it and need it to grow," she added before falling quiet to watch the storm as it swept over rivenwood.
heda lost herself in the patterns for a moment, held to a trance which envisioned caracal's face glimpsed in and out of the falling drops.

Heda took notice of her staring, and gently provided a word for the falling water beyond the dry warmth of their hollow. She glanced up into the Den Mother's lovely pale features, wide eyes blinking, before she turned her attention once more to the way the grass glistened wet beneath the day's dying sunlight.

Rrrr, she attempted, liking the way the letter rolled from her tongue.

Rain was a good thing, her guardian explained. It helped make things grow, nourishing the earth. Kikimora had already decided that she liked the way water fell from the sky, but with this knowledge she found she loved it all the more.

Rrrain! came Averie from behind.

When her sister's warmth had sprited from her side, she'd roused to seek Kiki again. When blind paws had not found her, and Heda's voice began to glow around them, she'd opened her eyes, reluctant- but was she ever glad she had!

Where her sister watched the raindrops fall, and Heda too, Averie broke cover with the wallop of a laugh. Unafraid and unashamed, dancing into the streams of sky.

Kiki! Auntie! she called from under the rain, dance wit me! her paws hit a puddle and splashed mud up along her already sodden underbelly.

kikimora attempted the first syllable, and little averie finished the rest. as the baby girl frisked out into the falling droplets, heda rose to join her, prancing in a nearby puddle, mud soaking her white coat at once.
they wouldn't stay long, and she'd see them thoroughly dried afterward, toweled with a skin and then cleaned by herself and druid, but the rain! the rain! it was too welcoming not to dance, and a laugh encouraged kiki to join she and averie.

The peace she felt in watching the rainfall was short-lived, as was often the case when there were so many siblings involved. Kikimora's eyes widened in surprise as Averie loped forward, out into the dull evening, then more so as Heda crossed the threshold to join the rogue child.

Kikimora lingered, unsure. The laughter beckoned her, tempted her, yet her paws felt rooted to the dry floor of the den.

Puddles splashed and the sky appeared to open further, depositing the pair with fat droplets. How swiftly they'd been soaked! At last the littlest girl pressed forward, allowing herself the chance to feel water seep into the thin layers of her coat.