"What are we going to do?"
"I'm not sure yet."
Behind them a squeal of delight rang through the house, and the two of them turned where they sat at the dining room table and watched as Kay waddled through the room as fast as his tiny legs could carry him, feet slapping against the polished black floors. He carried a different toy in each of his four hands, and behind him Waffles and Pancake trotted side by side, making pretense at chasing the small boy, to his immeasurable delight.
Sunny and Adam watched him pass into the other room, Adam with a growing smile and Sunny with a pleasant humming deep in her chest.
"You know," Sunny began, "Out of context we just watched two apex earth predators stalk our son into the next room, and by all rights they could eat him without batting an eye."
Adam laughed, "Given enough of a surprise attack they could probably eat US."
The slapping of Kay's feet grew in intensity, and he returned to the room still giggling madly as the two large dogs followed him intently through the room and down the hallway.
"I'm glad we have them, makes me feel better that someone is always watching him."
"Same."
The two of them lapsed into silence, and Adam turned back to the window tapping his fingers against the mug he held clasped gently in his hands.
Sunny rubbed at her temples, "So basically Smaug says you need to access the power of the anima, so basically the power of god and THEN maybe then we might be able to make some sort of difference?"
Adam shook his head and set his mug back down on the table, "he wasn't just talking about me, Sunny, he was talking about all of us, all the.... Upper deus II guess. All of us are going o need to learn hwo to access the Anima."
Sunny gave a short chirp of laughter, "Ah yes, because that is going to be SOO easy. Adam, who aren't even sure WHO is a higher Deus except for you."
"Krill."
"No all we know is that he is a Deus, not that he is a higher deus."
Adam shook his head again, "When I went to Revelation, they said that I tended to attract others like myself. I married you and befriended Krill right off the bat, so there is almost no way that you two aren't included, and I would put my money on Maverick for sure. Probably katie, Narovi and the others, some family members of ours as well."
Sunny didn't look convinced, "Its not enough just to assume something like that. We have to know for certain."
"For what? Even if se do figure out who is a higher deus, what then? Hold hands and dance in a circle hoping that we can." He raised his hands to do air quotes, "Connect to the energy. "She gave him a look and he dropped his hands, "Sorry."
Sunny sat for a moment her head tilted thoughtfully to one side "Maybe Naktan can help."
"You're weird mountain friend."
She gave him another look, "He's basically a prophet."
"If you're a saint he's the Pope?"
"Yes, but the fact remains, ha managed to get you to access yours, and if he can do that for you, maybe he can do that for everyone else. Maybe he can helps us figure out who is and who is not?"
It was a decent plan, but it did heavily rely on one thing, "That is assuming Naktan will help us.
"He came down from his sacred mountain to help us didn't he?"
Adam nodded slowly, "he did at that, but, asking him to come down from his mountain, and asking him to leave the planet are two very different things. I mean he doesn't have to, but it would be more convenient if he was willing."
Sunny couldn't disagree with him, but they lapsed quietly into silence.
Adam stood and walked over to the wide windows that looked down on the arcadia skyline. The ball lights were on now, illuminating the ground to near sunlight levels, casting rays down upon the planets and the people who walked through the streets going about their business. Aliens and humans alike ventured along together with no divisions, a fact that granted him with exceeding pride as he looked down from above.
But then there was something odd that caught his eye.
It wan't obvious at first as it appeared in the sky, and the sky was always dark but, to him it seemed that the sky was....
Lower than usual?
He frowned and pressed his face up to the glass looking up towards the sky with a frown.
He felt sunny stand behind him a hint of amusement in her voice, "Adam what are you doing?"
Still frowning, Adam turned and walked past the table into their room, pushing open the sliding glass door and stepping out onto the balcony. Warm air blew past him, tugging at his hair and the collar of his shirt, but then, the smell hit him, and his eyes shot open in shock and surprise.
Adam turned and raced inside past Sunny who was looking confused, and into the living room where he scooped Kay up as he ran for the door.
Kay squealed in surprise and delight, unsure where they were going, but pleased to be invovled.
Behind Him, Sunny called out in alarm.
He didn't bother to look behind him, hearing her footsteps. At his sides both Waffles and Pancake ran, almost as confused as Sunny, eyes wide with concern.
Adam made it to the bottom of the tower in record time as Kay giggled, bursting through the door sand out onto the concourse in front of the tower. He stood there for a moment, sniffing at the air to be sure he was smelling what he thought he was smelling.
Sunny skidded to a stop next to him in a battle crouch, her pearl spear already raised to her son's defense, her eyes narrowed, "What is it, what's wrong?"
Kay had stopped smiling now, sensing the concern on Sunny's voice. His little arms and hands contracted inward, and he cuddled himself tightly Against Adam's chest looking around cautiously for the source of his mother's agitation.
Adam lifted his head to the sky, "Wait for it.'
"adam, what is going on?" Sunny let her spear drop but didn't lower it entirely, trying to figure out what Adam was seeing.
And then it happened. Right before him, he saw a flash in the air and watched a dark spot appeared on the ground in front of him. Pancake jumped, but Waffle's tail began to wag in excitement. As they watched, there was another flash, and another drop and then another, and another.
Adam held out his hand feeling a huge smile split his face as the first raindrop spattered against his palm.
Sunny lowered her spear even further mouth slightly open as she stared up at the sky.
Adam grinned looking down at Kay who sat in his arms, eyes wide.
Adam leaned down and set Kay on his feet, kneeling next to him. He held out a hand as more rain splashed against his palm, "Feel that, Kay. That's rain ."
He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the smell of Petrichor, the one thing that a human nose could pick up in one part per trillion.
Kay looked on, unsure for a second, holding out his own arms, to feel the strange sensation of water splashing over his skin, and then a big smile split his face, and he squealed in excitement babbling nonstop as he ran into the rain, turning to look at them as he ran back and forth under the slowly opening sky.
As the rain began to pick up, doors all around them opened, and aliens as aliens and humans alike ventured out into Arcadia's first rain shower.
Waffles ran around Kay in a circle urging Pancake to join her. Adam Swept Sunny into the first steps of a dance, unable to contain his own excitement. Off to his right he watched as Maverick and Ramirez ventured together from the tower's side door eyes wide. Maverick was the first to react, a massive smile splitting her face, eyes alight with glee as he grabbed Ramirez by the front of his shirt and dragged him after her to run through the rain and splash in the already forming puddles.
Kay saw this and followed their lead, running back and forth and splashing his bare feet in rivers of forming water.
Soon others began to appear to join the moment of revelry happening at the base of the spiral tower.
Adam's Parents weren't far away having sat themselves under the eaves, Martha leaning against Jim as they smiled, watching their grandson, and their children play in the rain. The Grubs appeared as if from nowhere chasing each other through the rain. Riss followed after them spinning in a slow circle under the sky.
Krill joined Martha and Jim, standing straight, face unmoved by the rain determined to stay dry and watch to make sure no one was injured. This attitude did not last long as the grubs came to intercept him and drag him out into the deluge he tried to resist at first but cajoling from the grubs finally forced him to follow.
Maverick and Ramirez had moved to wrestling in the wet Adin moss that covered the front gardens. Narobi had joined Thomas, both of which sat on the small stone wall at the edge of the garden, their eyes closed and their faces turned to the sky.
Adam watched in pleasure as Kay was joined by some other small children, of which included the Hybrid Finnari human born just a little before Kay. The little girl had Primarily Finnari face completely hairless and with an attached frill, but she had very large, human eyes, and a mostly human body. One might have thought the combination rather scary, but she was an adorable little thing, who joined Kay in running through the rain.
The king and queen of sparta stood with their foreheads pressed together having a quiet moment as if no one else were there.
Still others continued to trickle from the surrounding buildings.
Dr. Katie appeared, the light green of her scrubs darkening as water saturated her shoulders.
From above Adam watched, smiling as Ertis appeared, floating slowly down from one of the upper floors. She was unbelievably graceful, and in the rain, with her ribbons and hair whipping around her she looked like goddess of the storm. To no one's surprise, Conn joined her not long after, taking her hands to spin her slowly through the air. Both of them had their eyes closed, and Adam could only imagine what the two of them were feeling, taking in the projected thoughts and feelings of an entire city block overcome with joy by the first Rain on Arcadia.
The moment like that remained unbroken for a good half hour before arcadia's first rainstorm was interrupted by arcadia's first bolt of lightning. The flash was unexpected, ripping across the sky like a tear in fabric.
The ground as illuminated momentarily by white hot light, followed by an absolutely massive eruption.
The square cleared out as quickly as it filled up as people ran to the shelter of the eves. Sunny scooped Kay into her arms and dashed back towards the Spiral tower with Adam in tow, where a group of them clustered in awe, staring up at the sky.
"No, absolutely not!" krill announced turning and walking back inside much to the protest of the Grubs.
Adam watched him go laughing in amusement at his friend.
He turned back to look at Sunny, and Kay, who stared with massive green eyes up at the sky. Another bolt of lightning ripped through the dark, and another rumble of thunder reverberated through the ground.
Adam watched Kay's face split with another big smile.
Adam frowned and looked at Sunny, "Should we be worried.'
Sunny could only laugh in response