2024-07-09 - The rainstorm and the river are my brothers

Now this was something very new and very welcome for Auth.

Weather.
It was fantastic!

Auth had been so surprised to learn how different the world outside could feel, but they were already smitten. The first thing they noticed was the change in their source of heat. They had always felt warmth emanating from below. But not anymore! They learned about the sun and how heat came from above, how it grew and diminished depending on things like cloud cover and the time of day. It was fascinating. There were so many variables to determine what each day would feel like that Auth soon realised no two were ever truly the same.

As well as the sun, they learned of the moons and regretted that the tents around them were always well sealed to prevent them basking in the reflected light. Oh they understood this was to keep everyone warm, but Auth would have preferred to feel the cold crisp in the air and know that they were bathed in moonlight. They anticipated the tingling of starlight and awe of moongazing.

The sun, the moons, the clouds... they were all delightful with their intermingling dances. But Auth's favourite weather phenomenon was most definitely the wind.

Wind was invigorating. It was soul stirring. It was the breath of life!

Auth could feel it against their prison, teasing them with tendrils of a soft breeze or rushing around them as if to pull them right up into the sky. Auth longed to feel wind on their skin, to feel it under their wings. They ached to be out in such a beautiful representation of freedom.
Wind could be strong and mighty, a true force to be reckoned with. It howled and raged, it commanded attention and would not be ignored. It pushed and pulled at the world it soared through. But it could also be delicate and playful. It could be a light zephyr or a tickling flurry. It could whistle and sing as well as any harper. It could send shivers down your spine or lift spirits up to the sky. It could be so much all at once, neither strictly one or the other.

Auth aspired to be like the wind.