It was raining.

One moment they had been half jogging along trying to keep ahead of it, the next fat droplets were falling from the sky. And they were instantly drenched.

“It appears,” Ai wryly noted, “that the rain has caught up with us.”

It hard for her to hear her own voice over the noise that typically accompanied a downpour, so she didn’t imagine that the goblin and Jack heard her at all.

“We need to find shelter!” The goblin shouted.

Ai yelled back a confirmation at it, squinting her eyes.

The three of them ran through the rain together, their packs getting rapidly heavier and their sleeping furs ruined. Jack pulled ahead of them, seeming to be completely unaffected, his head held high.

Ai shuddered. Up until a few moments ago, rain had just been another thing she knew about, but hadn’t experienced. Now, as rivulets of cold water soaked into her clothes and ran off her fingertips, she realised she hated rain. With a passion.

She would take a baking hot sauna over this any day. Whenever water was found in large quantities it always seemed to bring cold and bad things. Fonq. Mythical lightning beasts. The only good water had been in the bath house, and she got the feeling she wasn’t going to experience another luxury like that for a long, long time.

The goblin grabbed her hand, pointing at something. Ai shielded her eyes against the rain, her ears tucked miserably against her skull. There was a small rocky overhang. Small enough there would be no fire, but big enough to get them all out of the rain. It wasn’t like they would be able to find any dry firewood anyway.

Jack was already making his way towards it. Eager to leave the wet, Ai ploughed after him. The worst thing about the rain was that it robbed her of her senses. She could hardly hear, had to squint to see and all she could smell was the rain and perhaps a whiff of ozone. Nothing that would warn her of impeding attack, food or anything useful.

Ducking beneath the overhang, Ai let out a deep breath. The air seemed cooler here, giving her goosebumps, but it was still preferable to being outside. She sat down with a squelch beside Jack.

“Not a fan of the rain?” He looked amused.

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Ai probably looked like a half drowned rat. With a shudder, she shook some of the wetness from her body. If any of it got on Jack, that was entirely accidental.

“Really?” He raised one eyebrow at her. Unable to help herself, Ai grinned.

“Sorry, did I get some on you?”

Jack rolled his eyes, and Ai laughed.

“Nice to know you two are having fun.” The goblin grumbled.

Ais eyebrows crawled up her face as she took in his profile.

“What did you do? Roll around in the mud?” Forget a grey goblin, it was a brown goblin now.

The goblin sniffled, sticking its muddy nose in the air. “I tripped.”

How many times? Ai thought, but was smart enough not to speak out loud this time.

“Perhaps you should go back out in the rain, wash off.” Jack suggested with a completely straight face.

The goblin seemed to think about snapping at him, before its shoulders fell with a sigh. Ai could’ve sworn she saw it visibly shrink at the concept. Either way, it stepped back out into the rain.

“If you’re not careful, you could end up looking like that.” Jack said, keeping his voice neutral. It wasn’t until Ai spun to face him she saw the glint of mirth in his eyes.

“Very funny.” She shook her head.

The goblin stepped back in, looking a lot more grey but no less miserable.

“Are you alright?” Ai tried to be thoughtful, and would’ve been successful if her voice weren’t just a shade too high.

The goblin shrugged off its bag, dumping it to one side before collapsing against the rocky wall.

“We got caught in the rain.” It said gravely.

Ai felt her laughter trail away from her heart.

“That’s a bad thing?”

“The wall was built around that village of yours for a reason, Ai.”

“So there will be monsters? Like the Queen?” Ai had fully switched into leader mode.

“Smaller, and usually herbivores but no less dangerous. As long as we keep our distance and don’t antagonise them, we should be ok.”

Jack leant forwards “Anything else we should keep an eye out for?”

“We must not get caught in the eye of the storm undefended.” The goblin was deadly serious.

“What’s in the eye of the storm?” Ai was pretty sure she didn’t want to know.

“Most people call them skinny men. All you need to know is they’re predators and we’re prey.”

Skinny men seemed an odd name. And not terribly frightening. The goblin must’ve seen the expression on her face, because it continued.

“They’re not men. More like people made out of stretched out wood. About twice the height of you, fast and with arms perfect for reaching into houses and dragging out whomever they get their claws on. They eat their prey while they’re still alive.”

Ok, now they were sounding a lot scarier.

“Are those villagers going to be ok?” Ai wasn’t sure why she asked, but she did.

“They’ll probably only lose someone stupid enough to leave the safety of their houses or walk too close to windows. They’re more at risk from their witch problem.”

“A witch? As in glittery magic witch?”

“As in bathes in blood, eats children and consorts with the dark, witch.”

“Huh.” Ai wasn’t sure why she was even surprised any more. “Is she green?”

The goblin threw her a quizzical look. “Of course, all witches are green.”

“Right.” Ai cleared her throat. Of course all were witches were green.