One shot dump

Thunderstorms

The trees crack and sway as the unforgiving wind whooshes. Thunder rumbles the air and lightening ignites the sky. The thin, frosted glass rattles as two young kids watch, one in awe and the other in fear. Blankets are wrapped around both of their shoulders to them warm since the air is too humid to start a fire. Old scrolls and ancient books long forgotten on the desk. As the thunder explodes in the sky, the young princess jumps up in the air and latches onto her friend next to her.

     "Kei, it's ok. It's just a little thunder and lightening. It can't hurt us as long as we stay indoors." the boy hummed quietly, still watching the sky in wonder.

     "I know but, it's so loud and bright and scary! How are you so calm?" She whimpers, still  hugging the boy. As a flash of lightening lights up the sky again, she whines quietly and puts her head on his shoulder.

     "Because it's a really cool thing to see! Sure, it's quite loud and yeah it's bright, but come on! Look at it. It lights the kingdom up in a way that a thousand lanterns can't!" He sighs happily, bringing his hand up to massage the princesses head. She hums and slowly looks up at the window timidly. The boy chuckles quietly and now moves to rub her shoulders encouragingly.

    "It's ok to be afraid, just don't let that fear control your life." He mumbles, rocking back and forth slowly. Thunder rumbles and he grips onto the girl a little tighter

    "Here it comes." He warns, watching the clouds. Lightening flashes and the thunder booms, making the princess jump and yelp before hiding in the boy's shoulder again. The boy finally looking away from the show outside looks down at his friend, his eyebrow raised and looking unamused. He looks around for a distraction, something to get her mind off the sky that erupting. What to find what to fi-

     "Are you cold? Do you want anything?" he murmurs so he doesn't startle her anymore so he could go back to looking at the shining moon through the angry but beautiful storm. The light rain patter against the glass and the freezing wind whistling through the cracks of the balcony door.

     "Anoth- another blanket would be ni-nice." she whispers, her eyes closed and her hands balled into fists. Nodding to himself, he pries her arms off his shoulder and stands up. He sighs as he steps off the old lamb carpet and onto the ice cold stone floor. His small feet pitter- patter as he walks over to the princess' bed.

"Which one do you want? The lamb or the bear fur?" He asks, hopping from one foot to foot, trying to keep his feet at least a little warm. He hasn't lost feeling in them yet which is a good thing he supposes.

    "Bear fur, please." He hears a small, quiet voice from behind him. Grunting to show he heard her, he grabs the brown bear fur and pulls. It took three pulls to get the huge blanket off the bed. Wrapping it around his small body, he runs back to the window where his friend is.

    "Remember when you first got this blanket? You wore it like the cape your father did but you almost fell down the stairs so you made me carry around the rest of the day with my magic?" He laughs, sitting down and leaning against the chair.

     "You barely had time to react to me falling down the stairs so you grabbed the fur and yanked back, almost breaking my neck if your magic hadn't balanced me, then I was addicted to the feeling of your magic and how warm it is so I made you carry me around? Fun times." She giggles quietly, grabbing all the blankets around her and crawls over to the boy, leaning against him and laying the blankets on both their laps then cuddling into him as he closes his arms around her, covering her in the blanket.

"You warm?" he sighs as he looks out the window.

"Yeah, finally." she sighs back, closing her eyes.

"That's good. You're kinda of needy, do you know that?" He laughs quietly

"Yeah laugh it up." She growls, lightly smacking his arm "why can you be so calm during a storm?"

"My dad used to take all the blankets and pillows in the house and put them in front of the biggest window in our cabin, he told us that mom loved them and she would sit outside and watch them. He wasn't that extreme though, he just made us watch the storm until it was done. He brought meat in and would start a fire in the pit. We would stay up for hours watching the storm, and he would tell us stories about mom..." He trails off looking at the window intently, grimacing a bit. "anyway some of my first memories where of thunderstorms so I'm completely with them. Oh there was this one time where he was bringing in elk for us to snack on and while he was dragging the elk he dropped it and looked at the moon just as lightening struck. Him being the Lord of Luck and all.... the bolt hit the deer and cooked it perfectly. He boosted for months afterwards of his great cooking skills, he would NOT shut up about it." He smiles as he remembers the smile on his fathers face as he boasted about his cooking as he held up that dead deer.

"Your dad sounds like a goofball." She mutters, half asleep.

"He was, he really was." He sighs and sniffs as his eyes glazed up. Thunder rumbles and the lightening flashes but this time the girl was too far asleep to be frightened. The boy sighs again and looks back outside. This was going to be a long night.

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"Orin hun. You're spacing out. Are you ok?" Jasper asks, placing his hand on Orin's shoulder. The thunder outside booms and the soft tap of rain outside surrounds Orin.

"Yeah.....yeah sorry just... brings back memories." Orin smiles sadly and wipes his knuckle with his other hand sadly.

"Don't like thunderstorms?" Jasper asks, tilting his head to try and check Orin's face.

"Used to. Heh, used to love them"