It had only been a few days after her escape from the tower, and Alice hadn't stopped exploring. The feel of grass and dirt beneath her bare feet, the stones digging into her soles, the size of the tree logs, the way moss grew on their side…
She was sitting in a tavern, clutching hard her cup of broth as she squirmed in the corner, still too wary of the people around her, when she heard it.
Pit-pat-pit-pit…
The familiar sound against the roof had her whipping her head towards the window. She opened her eyes wide at the sight of the raindrops rolling against it. She could see the ground getting darker wherever they fell.
"Papa, why is our hair darker when it's wet?" she remembered asking one day. She couldn't remember his answer, and part of her hated it. There were times she feared she would start forgetting more things about him, more and more until there was nothing left but the fact that he once existed.
But at that moment, she pushed her sad thoughts away and stood up, looking out the window mesmerized as she walked to the door.
She opened it and stood there, activating her senses. Feeling.
The scent of the rain and the wet grass.
The sound of raindrops falling against various surfaces.
And finally, finally, the sight of it, of small ponds on the ground being disturbed as more raindrops fell.
She giggled to herself and stepped outside. She now wanted to touch and taste it…
"Are ye mad, lass?" she heard someone say.
She probably was. She heard a few more voices, probably prompting her to go back inside, but the only feeling she could focus on was the one of the rain showering down at her and of the mud under her still bare feet. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back, feeling every drop as it touched her face then rolled down to her neck. She giggled again and opened her mouth, tasting the rain for the first time.
She shouldn't have felt the need to splash on the little ponds - besides, she'd done that plenty on her bathtub, especially when she and her papa played pirates - but she did. So she ran, plopping down on the ponds, not caring at all about the dirt staining her clothes, and she kicked the water here and there as she opened her arms to allow as much rain as possible to reach her.
And she laughed. She couldn't remember laughing so much since before her papa left.
"Is the rain bad?"
"No. But if it's cold outside you might get sick."
"Will you let me touch it when I'm out?"
"Yes, love, I will. But I'll be waiting with a coat nearby, to make sure you won't get sick."
She didn't realize when her laughter had turned into sobs, neither when her hot tears started mixing with the cold raindrops on her face.
There was no one there to wait for her now. No warm coats, no warm hugs. No one to protect her.
Only the cold rain, seeping through her clothes and making her shiver.
She swallowed her sob and wrapped her arms around her. There was a couple of faces looking at her through the still open door of the tavern.
Not caring, though.
One of them was the tavern keeper.
She needed to pay for that ridiculous broth.
She rubbed her hands on her arms, dropped her head down and walked back into the tavern.