Yari woke to something that sounded like a lot of tiny stones landing on the metal roof above her. It was weird and creepy and she wondered if she should wake Alex up and ask what the sound was, but it was entirely possible this was a normal phenomenon and she would end up feeling like a silly little girl again. As quietly as she could, Yari pulled herself off the cot and crept across the cold foor toward the shack's only window, being extra careful not to step on Alex.

Outside was very dark, but she could hear… wet. It was odd to think of the millions of tiny thwap sounds as wet, but there it was. She inched back to her bed to grab her cell phone, then back to the window. With her phone pressed to the glass and the light on she could just make out the grass past the tiny porch. It was wet. It took another minute or so to put the pieces together. It was raining. True it rained in the city, when scheduled, but sprinklers on the dome didn't act like this. Maybe it was what the drops of water were hitting as opposed to where the water came from. She would have watched longer, but the cold air made her teeth chatter, another thing she wasn't used to. How did people live like this?

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Everything okay?"

The sudden voice sent a jolt down Yari's tail. "Uh, sorry. It's raining."

"Mmhmm."

Alex didn't really sound awake and didn't say anything further as she crawled back under the covers and willed herself to be warmer.