Silver Umbrellas

Five-- Scissors

"You know, I noticed that your English is a lot better than the last time I saw you," Tino commented light-heartedly, and repositioned his grip on the umbrella's handle. As the taller of the two, the task of holding it had fallen to him.

"Alice helped me," Yao said quietly. "And I'm teaching her Chinese."

"You seemed to enjoy the lesson you were giving her yesterday," he chuckled. "It was nice to watch. You two are very close; I can tell."

"... Yeah." Yao turned his face away from Tino and looked out between the slowly eroding trees, into the misty gray fog that blanketed the ground in the distance. Nothing stood out to his scrutinous gaze, so he deemed that it was still safe. For now.

The conversational atmosphere, if there had ever been one before, evaporated. It didn't take a rocket scientist to tell that China just wasn't in the talking sort of mood, so rather than push it Finland decided to lapse into silence and continue walking through the woods that way. Meanwhile, with his mouth closed and his other senses open, he observed the nature he was now going to become very familiar with.

As mentioned before, the thriving greenery that Oregon was famous for had all vanished as a result of the acidic rain. Because the trees were bigger and stronger, they were lasting only a little bit longer than the ferns and grass and flowers. Without any colors except brown earth, blackened trees, and a solidly grey sky, the setting was a bleak and monotonous one.

As for the animals, those too had disappeared. It was all too likely that not even bones remained of their carcasses, as long as the rain ate through bone matter. It certainly ate through flesh; Tino sent his palm a quick glance and spied the three circular scars that were already entirely healed but would last for a while yet.

No birds twittered in the treetops or the skies above. Squirrels and chipmunks didn't scamper across the forest floor. There was no way a mother deer with her fawn would be spotted between the charred tree trunks surrounding their path. Otters didn't swim in the rivers and pine martens didn't leap from tree branch to tree branch on their nimble little paws.

Speaking of pine martens, where was Revo? Was he alright somewhere else, or...?

'Probably best not to ask' Tino decided.

"Your hair is so knotted and tangled... It vould be nice if ve could clean your hair before I cut it," Liechtenstein mused as she lifted up a handful of Oregon's dirty red-brown hair.

"Oh yeah," she said as if remembering something. "I guess I haven't taken a shower in a couple months."

"You can shower?" Lili asked, her mouth hanging open a touch.

"Yep!" Alice pointed her finger at the old bucket sitting just a couple feet in front of her. "In that. We use a water bottle and reuse the water so it's not wasted."

"... You and China have gotten very good at saving your vater, haven't you." It was more of an assumption than a question.

"Mmhm," Alice confirmed. "It's 'cause we don't have a lot, and we don't want to run out... But I can take a shower right now."

So, the dirty water that had been sitting in the bucket already was their old bath water. The thought was a gross one, but the necessity for it still existed. Because Lili had to keep resting her leg so it could heal up correctly, she couldn't do anything but stay seated as Alice fetched a water bottle from the cellar and brought it back up to the bucket. She bustled about for a moment, clearing the blankets away from the area so they wouldn't accidentally get splashed.

The 'shower' itself didn't last very long; maybe five minutes at most. The water she used was cold, and she had to do a lot of scooping the water up and rubbing it into her skin to dislodge the stubborn dirt while she crouched inside the little bucket. When she was finished, Alice stepped out and made sure not to drip all over the floor as she redressed in grimy clothes.