Blue eyes were wide open, though all that filled them was darkness. Catherine Coriander lay flat on her back, sandwiched in between Peppermint and Rue, the two breathing slowly in their sleep. Further out was her parents, Marjoram and Hyssop. She could tell her father wasn’t quite asleep, the man trying to find a better position in his tossing and turning. It was a wonder anyone could sleep in this mass of blankets and bodies, for the night was full of
sound. A storm raged through, one Cicely claimed was stronger than any he remembered from the last few decades. Coriander had been hoping for rainfall lately, and her wish had been granted with a bit more force than hoped for or expected.
She couldn’t really ‘hear’ the shuffling and breathing of the whole town about her, everyone in the town hall. It was the largest and sturdiest building in Tune Town. All the chairs had been moved aside for a rare ‘mega-sleepover’ (as Sorrel dubbed it). It wasn’t improbable that a storm of this magnitude would rip a few local homes asunder. Rather than leave some of their own out and stranded, none able to hear calls for help in the worst case scenario, everyone had come here to wait out the weather. With food and card games, the lot were able to wait out the time until lights out, though that was in name only, the occasional lightning flickering through the windows. By this hour, windows still rattling, the occasional rumble of thunder distant, Coriander knew she wasn’t going to get much more sleep. And that was fine, she wasn’t tired at all. Honestly, she’d rarely felt more awake and lucid. This density of people wasn’t something she’d ever experienced before. Even if she couldn’t hear the rise and fall of dozens of breathes, the shuffling how blankets and limbs across the wood floor, the errant snore or someone managing the best sleep possible in the worst of conditions, she could feel it all. It was meditative, this feeling of calm and unity, this absolute togetherness.
Rue shivered a little, her blanket having slipped off. Coriander pulled in the young girl, doing the same with Peppermint just in case. For some reason, Verbena wanted tonight of all nights to be the boy’s time to hang out and play alone. Maybe they were trying to challenge the Raijin that might steal their uncovered bellybuttons in the thunder? Raijin knew Coriander has issued the same challenge in the past. Midriff baring was a little inappropriate for a mixed gender hangout, so the three of them now slept with their respective parents, while Rue and Peppermint (the latter an orphan, the former separated from seafaring parents as usual) had been dumped onto Cori. Taking in the warmth of the two sleeping girls, Coriander continued to take in the vibe for as long as she was conscious. She awoke to see light bashing against her eyelids, waking to a coat of red while her cheeks were being pushed together by a pair of small hands. “Cori, we’re gonna get breakfast,” Peppermint said.
“Did ar haus die?” Coriander wondered through squished cheeks.
Extracting herself, Coriander sat up, stretching her stiff muscles. The storm had cleared in the morning, most of the folk waking up themselves, complaining or laughing about their various states of sleep. As she stood, still dressed in her habit (a raincoat bundled up with everyone else’s a short step away), there was a pull of heads, everyone looking to Burnet’s arrival.
“There’s some broken windows, some vanished sheds, and water damage here and there, but all the houses are still standing!” Burnet called out. There was a chorus of cheers. “Yosh!” Dill grunted, he and his fellow loggers and woodworkers getting a few well earned claps on the back.
“Are you coming with us, Rue?” Cori wondered, looking around for Verbena and his family. Rue typically stayed with them, on account of her and Verbena’s parents being rather longtime friends (Rue allegedly cried for hours when she was told Verbena wasn’t actually her big brother, which she vehemently denies).
“No!” Rue cried out, bangs over her furrowed brow, her teddy held tightly as she pouted. Coriander imagined she’d be over Verbena pulling away from her last night by noon. In the meantime, Coriander had two little sisters today.
“What are you guys feeling like? Pancakes or waffles?” Marjoram offered the two guests with a smile.
“Pancakes!” Rue cried.
“Waffles!” Peppermint requested.
“Poppy told me to go easy on the sugar…” Hyssop admitted.
As they crossed the threshold of the doorway, stepping into the sunlight, Marjoram looked to Coriander, expecting a tiebreaker. Under Rue and Peppermint’s pleading glances, she frowned,
“I wanna pick what I want.”“If you pick waffles it means you don’t love me,” Rue growled.
Peppermint’s face fell. “I love you, Rue.”
Rue lit up. “You’ll change your pick to pancakes?”
“I don’t have a waffle iron at my house…”
Rue’s eyes widened. “Wait, you can make pancakes whenever you want?” Peppermint nodded. Rue’s gears turned underneath her pink bow.
“We’re having waffles then, but
don’t think you can bug Peppermint for food whenever you feel like it,” Marjoram warned firmly. Rue whistled innocently (she couldn’t whistle, so it was more like she stuttered air through pursed lips).
Skimming the dockside, the group caught a murmur of anticipation and wonder. Fingers and gazes pointed to the ocean, their walk slowing to the stop as they caught notice of a sight not seen at Melody Island in Catherine’s lived history, and more. Bristling with cannons, the top of the mainmast blackened and scarred, the hull striped with black and navy: the Marines had landed.
A Stormy Day of Melody:
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