Odd Prompt: Rainfall

a piece of flash fiction for the prompt challenge

The umbrella tree was dripping, but Nea didn’t care. She was positioned under one of the mature leaves, which arched meters into the air over her head. She tipped her head back, feeling the bruises on her throat pull, and gazed at the underside of the leaf. 

“Penny for your thoughts?” The warm voice at her shoulder startled her a little, but with long practice in control, Nea didn’t react visibly. 

She slowly moved her head, until she could look at her companion. The older human female had very blue eyes, and short fluffy white hair which was currently spangled with rain as though she wore diamonds in it. 

“Is a penny not a small denomination?” Nea wondered aloud. She had learned to trust Major Alexandra Matsumura, as far as her trust went these days. She resisted the urge to raise a hand to her throat and rub her injuries. 

“Yes. The implication is that if your thoughts are worth more, you might not share. On the other paw, if the request comes from a friend, you would not take more than a token. Either way, it’s an idiom that invites confidences and conversation.” 

“Not quite nonsensical, but more than a blunt ‘what are you thinking about’? I can appreciate the poetry of it. I was thinking this is a lettuce-colored umbrella.” 

Now the human looked up, imitating Nea’s posture, but her shorter neck made it a less graceful pose. 

“Yes, I see what you mean.” 

“Is it time?” Nea returned her gaze to the dripline, and beyond it, the structures in the open grassy area. Beyond that was the gray haze of the rain, hiding the sleek silver rocket. She didn’t want to see it, and yet, she knew it was there. 

“No. The ceremony has been delayed by the rain.” 

“I see.” Nea murmured, her mind elsewhere and her eyes focused on nothing in particular. “How long will they wait?” 

“Until this stops, I suppose.” Major Matsumura shrugged her sturdy shoulders beneath her uniform coat. The gold on her epaulets was dull in the overcast light filtering through their leaf shelter. 

“That could be a long time.” Nea wanted to pace, but there was no room to stretch her legs and stay dry. Or not to disturb her friend. “Are we friends?” 

“Goodness.” Major Matsumura looked up at her, blue eyes wide, but her mouth was curved in a smile. “You are blunt today.” 

“I am unsettled.” 

“We are. I think.” 

“Thank you.” Nea spoke gravely. She had no room for the full courtesy, so gave the clasped-hand touch to her brows with the dipped chin of a peer’s nod. 

“Friendship is forged fast under battle.” Major Matsumura imitated the gesture. “Bonds of blood bind tightly.” 

“Your poetry is balm to my soul.” Nea sighed, letting a long, slow breath out as she let her shoulders relax. “I am bereft of words.” 

“Then I shall speak for you if you wish.” 

“I do.” Nea stiffened, feeling her hair stand on end. “They come.” 

Three figures were crossing the lawn towards them, walking with military bearing from the distant structures. 

“Guess we aren’t waiting out the rain after all. Let them come to us.” 

“Yes.” Nea tried to relax again. 

Matsumura looked up at her and smiled with one side of her mouth, a wry expression Nea remembered seeing when things had gone wrong at another time. 

“You look fierce enough, with your feathers ruffled. What do you want me to tell them?” 

“Tell them... best done quickly.” 

Matsumura nodded, and all expression fell away as her face smoothed into a professional mask. She turned and started to walk to meet the men. 

Nea remained. She was reluctant to leave her peace and shelter. 

They met far enough she could not hear them clearly, and she sought distance by slipping into her breathing exercises, using the rush of air into her lung, then slow release, to dim her acute hearing. It was not a long conversation. 

The men stood in the rain, their shoulders square and heads straight, as Major Matsumura came back to Nea. 

“They say it is time.” 

Nea inclined her head, and let the Major lead her into the rain. Like the other soldiers, Nea marched into the drops, not bowing her head to their blows. The men turned as they came, and led the small flight across the lawn. All of them walked with firm steps, the grass squelching as their staccato for the parade. 

The platform looked as though it would be slick when wet. Nea was grateful she did not have to ascend on it. She would be, as the law proclaimed, witness to the ceremony. Major Matsumura stood next to her, stolid. The men took up a guard between them and the stairs to the platform. 

Nea looked around. There was no one else. 

“Shouldn’t there be...” She bent her head to murmur into Matsumura’s ear.

The Major shook her head slightly, diamond rain falling with her motion. “Not in the rain. It’s why we are doing it now. These things were never meant to become a spectacle... again.” 

Unsettled by this insight into humanity, Nea stood straight again, looking past the structure to the rocket standing tall on it’s fins. There was a ramp, and a warm glow of light from the hold which told her the party was disembarking. 

It would be a small work party, if what the Major said was true. Just enough to escort the prisoner. 

Nea ruffled. Then, realizing she had probably shaken off water onto the Major, she regained her self-control and pushed herself back into sleek serenity on the surface. 

“Would it help if I held your hand?” The Major was looking at her with a wrinkle between her brows Nea interpreted as concern. 

“I... No. I am not a child. I can do this.” 

“It will be over soon.” 

The work party was climbing up onto the platform slowly, hampered by the member at the center of the group, who was wearing a black hood and had to be helped. He was being led by the hand, and Nea was glad she had not taken that consolation. 

They set up the necessary arrangements. Nea focused on the raindrops. Glittering wetness like falling tears flickering between her and what was happening. 

A barked order. A sound like a door closing. The rain streaked by faster and faster, silver and black and gray and there was no color in the world. 

“We can go, now.” The Major put her warm hand on Nea’s cold fingers. “It’s all over.” 

“No.” Nea turned and let herself be led. “I am still...” 

“He tried to kill you, child, and damn near succeeded.” 

“But I live.” Nea protested. “And now, he does not.” 

“His choice. Not yours. It is over. You are safe.” 

“I was safe under the leaf. The good green leaf. The rain wasn’t cold, while I was there.” 

“Ah.” The Major put her other hand over Nea’s long thin fingers, cradling them in both of hers now. “We can leave him there, to feed the umbrella tree. Would that be fitting for your people?” 

Nea thought about this for a long moment. It would be suitable, to nurture shelter with that which had torn security away. “Yes.” 

She didn’t realize her war-crest was subsiding, slowly. The Major was watching it, though. 

“Yes, please do that if it will not violate some human taboo.” 

“It will not. It will be done.” 

Nea shivered. “And perhaps... some caf? In the ship?” 

The Major relaxed, then chuckled. “Could use some, myself.” 

This week’s prompt came from

AC Young

with “The ceremony was delayed by the rain.”

I prompted ‘Nother Mike with ““Who do you think you are?”

You can find all of the prompts, responses, and join in the challenge yourself over at More Odds Than Ends. Sometimes you just need a creative push.