Weather the Storm

At the plinking of raindrops hitting the windowpane behind him, Galdor let out a deep sigh.  “Rain AGAIN this week?” he thought.  His fingers gripped tighter around the pen in his hand.  A little bad weather helped with setting the mood for his writing, but this much of it for this long led his thoughts down a path in his mind that he preferred to avoid.  He tried to shake them out and focus on his work, but as the rain picked up into a downpour, so too did his memories forcefully flood in.

It was no secret that Galdor had envy horns - they were large, elaborate, and gilded in gold.  As a child, he watched his littermates be coddled by their demonic caretaker from the outside - often literally, as he was routinely punished by being locked out (for what offenses - if any - he no longer remembered).  The night before his horns started to grow in, he was alone again, except this time he was not let back inside before the sky went dark.  The curtains of the windows were drawn shut, and no matter how much his tiny paws beat against the door, there was no response from the other side.  The sky opened up into a rainstorm, and a young Galdor crawled into a nearby shrub in a desperate attempt to shelter himself.  “They’ll hear the rain coming down and come out to find me, right?” he thought to himself.  The sky began to rumble ominously as rain cascaded down relentlessly.  “I’m scared… I don’t want to be all by myself… Please don’t leave me out here… Please don’t leave me alone…”

BOOM!  A sudden crack of thunder snapped Galdor back into the moment as he jumped out of his chair at the sound.  He looked down at his desk as he tried to catch his breath - a line of ink now trailed across the paper and extended onto the wooden surface of his desk.  “Damnable storm!” he shouted as he slammed his pen down and hastily exited his office.

He retreated into a room further into his home that had no windows at all - just a small sofa with a TV and a computer set up.  Normally, he found most shows on television to be nothing more than mind-numbing drivel, but on this day, that was exactly what he was looking for.  He sat down and turned on the TV, setting the volume high enough to nearly drown out the storm completely.  He placed his hand on his chest and began to breathe deeply in an attempt to calm his racing heart.

Playing on television was some tabloid talk show indistinguishable from others like it.  The tagline for this episode was “My Partner Cheated On Me With Six Buns?!” and it seemed to involve lots of screaming and mentions of lie detector test results.  Even though literally anything was better than the sound of the rain, Galdor still found himself disgusted.  “Is this all there is to our lives?’ he thought to himself.  “Either a lifetime of solitude inflicted upon us as children, or simply treating others as mindless sex toys to use for our own selfishness? I’m not sure which is worse...”

The sound of his doorbell rang through the house, interrupting Galdor’s train of thought and causing him to flinch.  Confused, he went to his front door and opened it.  A petite glass-legged bun wearing a dancer’s outfit was soaking wet and holding a broken umbrella.  “Ballini?” Galdor asked.

“Oh, I’m so glad I remembered you lived around here!” cried Ballini as she invited herself into the vestibule of Galdor’s home.  “I’m sorry, I know we’ve only spoken a few times, and I assure you that I have no ulterior motives - it’s just that my umbrella broke suddenly while I was on my way home from practice, and I HATE getting wet!  Is it alright if I wait out the storm inside with you?  I don’t want to be stuck out there, drenched and all alone…”

Galdor’s eyes widened at the last part of Ballini’s sentence.  “No… No, I wouldn’t want you to be, either… Here, come in, kick off your shoes over there, I’ll go get you some towels…”

“Thank you so much!” Ballini exclaimed as Galdor brought her several fluffy towels and guided her to the television room.  She placed some of the towels down onto the sofa before sitting, despite Galdor assuring her that it was okay if it got a little wet.  As she dried her hair, she raised an eyebrow at the show that was on TV.  “This is what you watch in your free time?” she asked with a smirk.

“Err, not usually…” Galdor muttered, turning away as his face flushed red.  “I don’t watch television very much - I just needed something to drown out the noise…”

Ballini almost asked why, but as the thunder boomed, she saw Galdor wince very briefly before composing himself and sitting straight up.  His icy blue eyes seemed to stare far away past the nonsense that was playing on the screen, and although he placed his hands on his lap in an overly formal fashion, he couldn’t quite stop them from shaking.  Ballini knew better than most that some things were meant to be kept secret, and she instead picked up the remote control.  “Here, I know something that’s usually on around this time…” she said as she changed the channel to something more art-themed.  “Ah, here, this channel always plays reruns of fashion shows during the day!”

Galdor blinked, his eyes focusing back onto the screen.  “Oh…!  What fabulous clothing!  Tell me more about all of this…”

As the show played on, Ballini explained everything she knew about the collections being featured, and they both discussed their opinions on outfits as models walked down the runway.  When the show ended, Galdor found himself leaning back on the sofa as if nothing had unnerved him at all.  “Hey… does it sound like the storm stopped to you?” Ballini asked.

The two buns got up and looked out the windows in Galdor’s living room - sure enough, despite the sky still being overcast in gray fog, the rain had stopped completely.  “Ahh, wonderful!” Ballini exclaimed while clapping excitedly.  “Alright, I can head home now - thank you so much for letting me stay!”

“Of course,” Galdor stated as he gave Ballini a friendly pat on the shoulder.  “Your company was… Much appreciated.” 

Ballini gave Galdor a knowing smile.  “Anytime,” she replied before heading out the door.  As the light of Burrowgatory’s crystals began filtering through the clouds, the glimmer of the golden cracks in Ballini’s glass legs caught Galdor’s attention.  “I’m sure she’s been through her own share of hardships, as well,” he thought to himself before heading back to his office.

Sitting back at his desk, Galdor breathed a sigh of relief.  Other than the general bustle of the city, there was a quiet stillness in the air.  With newfound inspiration, he began using correction fluid to white out the ink line he had unwillingly drawn earlier.  “I’m still alone… but I don’t feel lonely,” he thought with a smile.  “Despite it all, there’s still decent people out there in the world to weather the storms with.”