My throat is killing me... I need some water... And I don’t think ‘a pasture or two’ ordered a stormy sky in all of Equestria. Like...I’ve been walking for an hour or so under the intense heat of the noon sun, but now? The entire sky is covered with thick and dark clouds. What is even weirder is that there are no pegasi spreading the storm.
Is a storm a common thingie in this world? Well, it’s not common back home, but a storm is a natural product of nature. I wonder if this storm...or any other storms here are a natural product of this world’s nature...
And then I feel the first of many cold rain drops hitting my nose. I let out a heavy sigh as a light drizzle starts to shower from the heavens, sending a soft yet cold breeze around that makes the tall grass sway with the wind.
...I tilt my head up, open my mouth wide and stick my tongue out. I think I look stupid, but I seriously am thirsty and I got nothing else to drink.
Hm... Rainwater taste...weird... Or maybe that’s because of how dry my tongue is...
“...Uuuurrrrrffff?” Oh, right... I’m still pulling Reykan by his tail with my tail. “S-stop spraying water on me...” he mumbles, probably half-awake. A pause. “Uh... What’s going on?”
I ignore him as I relish on the cool and watery yet weird-tasting liquid gracing my tongue.
“Jay? Are you dragging me?” A pause. “...Why are our tails tangled?”
Still walking, I turn my head to give him a side glance, my tongue still out.
He blinks at me, his furred back sliding on the ground. “...Uh... What are you doing?”
I pull my tongue back. “Eh... Thirsty.”
He blinks his sapphire eyes at me. “...You’re drinking rainwater?”
I blink at him. “...Yes?”
“There's a water hole by my tree home, you know.”
“Oh...” I turn my attention ahead as the drizzle turns into rain. I take a breath and sigh through my nostrils. “...Why—”
“Can you let go of my tail now?” he asks me. “...I can’t feel the tip of my tail...”
...whoops? “Oh...” I stop, sit down and start to untangle our tails, but it’s freaking difficult, especially with how tight I tied the knot I made with our tails...
“What are you doing now?”
“Trying to untangle our tails... What does it look like?”
He shrugs. “I dunno, but—” he lets out a big and long yawn. “Mrrffff... I slept like a rock.” He sits up, pulling our tails away from my hooves. “Can I cut your tail?”
I arch him an eyebrow.
He shows me a paw, and pulls out four sharp nails underneath said paw.
I shrug. Whoa! I can shrug! Who knew? “Whatever works.” My ear twitches. “Better make it fast though. This rain’s starting to get stronger.”
“Meh,” he mehs, clawing my tail hairs near the tangled knot of tails. “Wild storms.”
I blink, shivering slightly from how cold the air is now. “W-wild storms?”
“Yeah.”
...
... ...
... ... ...no explanation on what those are? “What are wild storms?”
“Mom says that they’re a bunch of angry clouds the flying ponies can’t control.”
Huh...
“Have you been dragging me ever since I fell asleep?” he asks, still cutting.
I slightly shake my head. “No. Only after I woke up.” I pause. “So...you didn’t eat me.”
“Well, you said ‘don’t’, so I didn’t.”
I blink.
He’s still cutting my tail hairs, grunting a bit.
I blink again. “I did?”
“Well, yeah! You said ‘please, don’t’ before you...slept? You have a weird way of sleeping though. Just...collapse on the ground. Doesn’t that hurt?”
I didn’t go to sleep. I blacked out... Not sure if I should tell him that. “...You’ll get used to it...”
“Well, anyway... Not really sure what you meant by ‘please, don’t’, so I only guessed that you meant not to eat you. After all, you still have to see this Twilight pony before you let me eat you. So yeah!” He pouts. “...I didn’t get to hunt after you fell asleep though... Can’t go hunting and leave you. Other preydators might take you away and I won’t be able to eat you...”
Riiight... “Thanks... I guess?”
The moment I notice a small puddle of water forming beside me is the moment I realize that it’s raining very hard now. I’m...soaking wet, and so is Reykan. Well, if there’s a puddle...
I lean my head down and—
“Jay? I wouldn’t drink that if I were you...”
—take a sip from it. I don’t care if it has a taste of mud at the mome—my eyes cross and I spit and cough the vile-tasting water out of my throat and mouth. “Ack...!”
“Told ya... Aaand done!” Reykan chirps and quickly pulls his tail with his paws to untangle it from the tail hairs. It takes him a minute or two, but he’s happy to have his tail back.
I cough and cough until there’s no more of that nasty water in my mouth... “Ungh...”
“Horrible, isn’t it?” He chuckles. “Well, at least you now know not to drink water from wild storms. Heheheh...”
I give him a tired glare, but my gaze then lands on his tail on his paws. “...Sorry about your tail.”
He shrugs. “Meh. Not the worse thing that happened to my tail.” He stands up on four paws and shakes the water off of his fur, only for the rain to soak him again. “I hate rain. Especially wild storms,” he says. “I can’t smell prey when it’s raining like this. I can barely even smell you, and you’re just sitting in front of me!”
Right... No idea how to respond to that. “Eh... We should move.”
“Sure!” Reykan replies as he walks past me, leading the way.
I slowly stand on four aching hooves and walk after the small feline. “So, uh...”
“Hm?”
“...Why does...uh...wild storm water taste...horrible?”
He shrugs. “Eh, I wouldn’t know. Not even mom...”
“Oh...”
He turns his head over his shoulder and smile curiously at me. “So how’d you tie our tails together?”
I groan. “...I’d rather not talk about it.”