Ika wasn’t sure why the rains had stopped, but she didn’t like it.

The succulent jungle she’d grown up in was withering away as each second passed. Leaves were curling into themselves, growing small and dark while their mother tree pulled back into her roots. Someone told her it was an act of self preservation; that the branches were expendable, but without the tree itself new life would never grow. Ika didn’t get it; what mother could sacrifice her children like that? She’d always seen the leaves like little babies, just like Aisha’s blooms, and it made her worried for Chibale. What about all the babies there? What would happen to them, if it was as bad there as it was here?

As the youngling padded around the exterior of her home cracks could be felt for the first time in the soil beneath her feet. The ground was normally so damp that in certain spots muck would squish up between her toes, but this...this was hard. The first time she jumped down out of a tree onto it her whole body ached, and now she didn’t dare do it again. The humidity of Jauhar was near non-existent leaving nothing but an unbearable dry heat in its wake. At first her mothers had insisted the rains would come back, they always had in the past, but now…..Ika wasn’t so sure.

”It’s the Dretch, it has to be….”

Turning, the little one spotted a few elderly patrons of her mother’s tavern exiting with one last look at the bar. Hadn’t they just come in? Ika could have sworn they hadn’t been there long, but with her Mama Ujana rationing water it was possible they’d been kicked out. She’d talked about closing down for a while, just until the rains came back, but Ika never really thought she’d actually do it. Was it….were things that bad?

”No matter how mad the goddess has been before she’s never punished us like this. It’s gotta be the Dretch; what else is there?”

”Well...maybe it’s because we let those Alk come here-”

”Hush up, now. They’ve been good to us and you know it.”

”I’m not saying it because I don’t like them. I’m just saying that if the Dretch are targeting them then maybe...maybe it’d be better if we asked ‘em to go.”

The two shifters murmured to each other, withered heads pressed close as they walked, but Ika had heard enough. It was just...just stupid! It wasn’t their fault this was happening! Mama Ariya and Subira hadn’t done anything wrong, and neither had Ujiri! Ika herself, however…..well a few tricks weren’t that bad, right? It’s not like she’d ever tried summoning the evil mages or anything, and she’d certainly never hurt anyone that didn’t deserve it.

But what if they were right? That little nagging thought kept pressing into her brain, giving the seven year old enough of a pause to make her worry. The Dretch had been targeting alks; that's why her Mama Ujana had taken them away to Tale when talks with the Elarians had happened. The sight of her fearless momma, all twisted with worry, was rare enough to scare Ika. What if Jauhar had just acted out of spite, and took all the rain away because the Elarians had come? They were mean enough to do something they shouldn’t have, or maybe they’d even taken it back to Yael with them! She didn’t really see how, but if anyone was gonna try, it would be the elaria.

Not that she said it. Ika had remained pretty quiet with her fears as they spread chipped wood along the jungle floor. It was supposed to retain moisture and help the plants, but Ika just saw it as a nuisance. She got splinters in her feet these days when she went barefoot, and everything looked ugly. Shriveled up, desperate and ugly.

Ika pulled her mop of thick curls atop her head and held on, unable to just let go because she lacked a tie to hold them back. She should have been helping to dig a well, or at the very least, find a new watering source, but once the drought had drug out long enough it was pretty much a given that children were to stay home. Her mothers and elder siblings took turns watching over them, which was aggravating enough without being unable to play in the river like she water. Ika loved to swim, but now there were so many rules about going there that it wasn’t fun anymore. Besides, it’s not like it was big enough to swim in anymore; the water barely came up to her ankles now, and Eurig said if it dipped down any lower the water might go away. Then what would they do? They couldn’t drink from the ocean, it was too salty!, not to mention it was too far.

The little youngling found a shady spot to plop down in and huffed. All she could really do was sit back and wait it out, which wasn’t really her style but….what else was there?

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