Rain (The Quest Trilogy-Book Two)

by Iram Dana

  Earth gave him another soft blow on the chest. “Who would have thought? My boyfriend, a desperado.”

  Rain laughed. “Truce!”

  “Accepted.”

  Earth led Rain by the hand to the very rock on which she had sat when first confessing her feelings to him.

  “Please remove all your …”

  “Already?!” interrupted Rain mischievously.

  “Please let me finish! All your personal grooming items from your belt!”

  Rain pulled out his shaving cream, blade, mirror, scissors and hair brush. Then he settled down while Earth went about shaving his face.

  Once the beard and moustache were done away with, Earth proceeded to give Rain a new haircut.

  “There! Now don’t you look dapper!”

  Rain admired his reflection in the mirror Earth was holding up for him.

  “This is great! Now you’ll give me a bath?” he asked eagerly.

  “You’re not serious?!”

  “Hey, you agreed to the deal.”

  “Come on, Rain. Have mercy. I’m human too!”

  Rain stood up and stretched. “Okay … if you put it that way…”

  Earth rolled her eyes and bent down to clean up the mess around him. She turned around to find his pants lying discarded next to her. Oh well, she shrugged, at least he still had on his boxers.

  Just then, the boxers came flying towards her and landed on top of the pants. Earth stared at the little garment that could cause so much trouble when it was off.

  She heard Rain chuckle softly behind her, and a furious blush crept up her cheeks.

  She waited until she heard the water splash, signaling his descent into the stream, keeping her eyes firmly lowered until then.

  “Do you need these washed?” she asked, without looking up.

  “If you don’t mind.” said Rain, wading into the stream.

  “I’ll do it. You’ll need some fresh clothes too, I presume?”

  “Yeah. You’ll find them in my backpack.”

  “I’ll get them.” said Earth, getting up and almost running away from the scene.

  Ten minutes later, Angel and Heart came jogging towards the stream, holding Rain’s clothes and a fresh towel undoubtedly pulled out of Angel’s belt.

  “Rain! You’re back, buddy!” boomed Angel happily.

  “Brother Rain! I came as soon as Earth told me you were here!”

  Rain frowned.

  “What the hell are you two doing here?” he craned his neck to see behind Angel and Heart. “Where’s Earth?”

  “She told us you needed some fresh clothes, so we brought them for you.” said Angel.

  “Well, I appreciate it. Just leave them on the rock there.”

  Angel kept the clothes on the rock, and then he and Heart sat down on the bank of the stream, facing Rain.

  “Do you mind?!” said Rain, looking incredulously at the two smiling faces.

  “What? It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.” said Angel.

  “Yes, brother Rain. I cannot wait to hear how you fared in your last Quest. You simply must tell me!”

  Rain let out an irritated huff and looked skywards. A huge cloud came to a halt directly above Angel and Heart and they jumped to their feet.

  “We understand if you would like to talk about it later.” said Heart, hastily.

  “Jeez! You could have just said you needed some privacy.” grumbled Angel.

  The two of them headed back towards the camp.

  Rain waited until they were some distance away, and then let the cloud open up above them. He watched the two of them cover their heads with their hands and beat a hasty retreat.

  “That’s for coming here in place of Earth.” he muttered to himself.

  *****

  “Did you have a good night’s sleep?” asked Angel, looking pointedly at Rain. He had electric blue streaks running through his hair. Beside him sat Rainbow, her hair streaked similarly.

  “For the part that I did sleep, the best!” said Rain with a wink.

  “We thought the two of you were never going to stop whispering to each other.” said Rainbow.

  “Happens.” said Rain, with a shrug.

  “And did you have a filling breakfast?” asked Earth, taking the empty bowl out of Rain’s hands.

  “That wasn’t a filling breakfast. That was a killing breakfast! I thought you would never stop feeding me!”

  “A young man needs his strength.” giggled Earth, coming to sit next to him.

  “What are you doing?!” said Rain indignantly.

  Earth froze halfway between sitting down and standing. “What’s wrong?”

  Rain lifted her up and sat her down on his lap. “This is where you’re supposed to sit, always!”

  “Rain … leggo!” said Earth, futilely trying to break free of his grasp. “Rain, they’re all looking!” she hissed in his ear.

  “Yes. At my future wife.” nodded Rain.

  Earth gave up. “Rain, you’re impossible.”

  “No, no. I’m very possible. You should try me.” insisted Rain.

  Heart laughed. “Glad to see you haven’t changed, brother Rain.” said Heart.

  He was sitting across from Rain, with Destiny’s head on his lap, stroking a hand through her hair.

  Rain looked up and smiled. “Where’s Subodh? I haven’t seen him since yesterday.”

  “He left about a month ago. Said his work here was done and he needed to move on. He asked us if we would like to join him, but we preferred to stay. So he went off alone.”

  Rain turned to Rainbow. “Catch anymore Rainbows?”

  “Naah. My total haul is four rainbows. At least I know what to do with them now.”

  “How did you find out?”

  “When Angel and I discovered the hidden meaning behind our core names, it happened then. I just knew.”

  “What can you do with a rainbow?”

  “Control it.” said Rainbow, with a shrug of her shoulders.

  “Er … okay.” said Rain, exchanging an amused glance with Earth. Rainbow would just be Rainbow.

  The sound of a large crash echoed through the air and everyone jumped to their feet.

  “What was that?” asked Rainbow.

  “Sshh …” said Rain, holding a finger to his lips, his ears pricked for anything more.

  “Can you hear that?” he whispered to Earth.

  Earth nodded. “What do you think that weird sound is?”

  They could hear snaps, crackles and hisses.

  “It seems to be getting closer.” said Rain.

  There was the sound of another crash.

  “Trees! Falling!” exclaimed Earth.

  “Let’s stand closer, everybody.” ordered Rain.

  They all collected at the centre of the field, Rain at their forefront and Angel and Heart flanking him on each side in the shape of a ‘V’. The girls were pushed into the inside of this protective formation.

  Rain listened keenly to the alien sounds.

  “Whatever it is, it seems to be moving steadily forward, stopping for nothing and no one.”

  “Maybe it is a large animal.” said Heart.

  “Or a large monster.” suggested Angel.

  Another crash. This time, very close to the campsite. Rain crouched low, ready to spring.

  “Stay close …” he whispered to Earth, pushing her behind his body.

  There was some more snap, crackle, pop and then the bushes at one side of the clearing turned to ashes. The hissing sounds continued and out of the smoke stepped a tall man. The top of his dark hair was pulled back into a pony-tail, followed by four smaller pony-tails all one below the other, taking in the long hair at the back of his head.

  He had a sinister expression on his face and a large scar over one eye that extended halfway way down to his cheek. Another scar ran from one shoulder to the middle of his chest. And these were just the big ones. The man had smaller, multiple cuts and scars all over his bared torso. He
carried no weapons. He was wearing a large ring on one hand with a single red stone glittering on it.

  Rain slowly rose to his feet.

  Could his eyes be deceiving him? No. He was not mistaken this time. He knew the person standing before him too well to be mistaken, even if the person had changed unbelievably.

  Rain was the first to speak.

  “Star …?”

  *****

  End of Book 2: Rain.

  Watch out for the last installment of the Quest Trilogy. ‘Star’ is coming soon!