I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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The Smell of Dust After Rain

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The sun is rising over the soaking wet city of Al Mipedim. Within the hour, its light will touch the walls and streets of the city, all trace of water will evaporate from the buildings and the sands, and the only sign that it had ever rained will be the stockpiles of collected rainwater the Mipedians collected during the night. Well, that, as well as the sweet smell still hanging in the air.

I see a droplet of water collect on the upper edge of the window I'm looking out of, and I hold my left hand under it. The bead of water grows, trembling as it expands until it's large and fat, and finally falls from its perch into my hand. It forms quite a puddle, ice cold. A few more drops fall, and the puddle gets larger.

I hear someone stirring behind me. I turn, being careful not to disturb the puddle in my hand. Isis raises her upper body from her mattress, wipes the sleep from her eyes, and looks around. "Where's Hera?" she asks sleepily.

I put a finger from my right hand to my lips, then point to the foot of Isis's bed. There's a small bed, almost like a crib, and our tiny, red-scaled baby is curled up at its center. Isis leans forward to look, and she smiles. "Hello, Hera," she coos.

I slowly sit down next to Isis. "I have the one of the last pieces of last night's rain for you," I say softly.

Isis looks down at my hand, at the small puddle. She pokes the water with a finger. "It's cold," she says

"Not yet touched by the morning sun," I grin.

To people blessed with easy access to water every moment of their lives, presenting a drop of water to someone would be a silly gesture. To Mipedians, though...

Isis puts her finger to her mouth and gives it a lick. I present my hand to her. She takes my hand, holds it over her head, and pours the water on her face. Tiny streams of water run down her scales.

To Mipedians, who have to struggle to conserve and recover as much water as they can, even a tiny drop of water holds a powerful message.

Isis takes a deep breath and sighs, then turns to me and smiles. "Thank you." There is no hint of amusement in her face. Her words have nothing but gratitude.

It's funny. All I did was take a drop of water from the window to her. It didn't take that much time, it didn't take that much energy, and it really didn't cost me anything. There's no way Isis doesn't know how easy it was, and she's still thankful for the gesture. It's probably similar to how a girl treasures a flower that she watched a boy pick from the fields for her.

"You're welcome," I reply.

Isis searches my eyes. "What are you thinking about?" she asks.

I raise my eyebrows. "How could you tell I was thinking about something in particular?"

"You get this look in your eyes," Isis says, "like there's something very far away that only you can see. Even when you were avoiding me, I could sometimes see that expression on your face."

I smile. "I was just comparing the act of offering a drop of water to you to a similar act back on Earth."

"Another one of those things you need to tell me about sometime," Isis says. Then she presses her lips together with a thoughtful expression. "There's a lot of those stories, come to think of it."

I lean back until my elbows keep me seated in a reclining posture. "Well, we have all day. Which do you want to know first?"

Isis closes her eyes and inhales deeply. Then she smiles and says, "What I want to know what that wonderful smell is."

I grin. "You're not going to believe this. That smell actually has a name. It's petrichor."

Isis lays back on the bed and clutches her blanket to her chest. "Petrichor?"

I nod. "The smell of dust after rain."

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Noon. The sand is dry. The sky is cloudless. The sun is beating down.

Someday I'll find royal life normal. Someday I'll learn something that would normally make my eyes bug out, and instead I'll take it in stride. For example, if today was that day, then when I learned that a servant woman who had recently had a child of her own would be feeding and caring for Hera, I wouldn't have batted an eye. Instead, I'm feeling rather off-balance as Isis and I walk through the courtyard, away from the palace, leaving our child with someone I don't know at all.

"She'll be fine," Isis said for the tenth time since we left. "Joalle will take good care of Hera."

I look back towards the palace anyway. "If you had been a typical Human living on Earth, or even a Mipedian commoner, you wouldn't be okay with leaving your newborn daughter with another person, even a close friend."

Isis thinks about this for a while, then looks back to the palace herself. "I... think I see what you mean..."

"Maybe we should go back," I say.

I'm almost completely turned around when Isis grabs my shoulders. "Michael, I have absolute faith in Joalle. Hera is in good hands."

I take a couple deep breaths and close my eyes. "Right, calm down."

Isis turns my body away from the palace and asks, "Now, where was your favorite place to go before you became my husband? I'd like to see it."

The answer springs to my lips before I can process her question. "Shasta's bar."

And so we went.

It isn't a long walk to the bar, but it feels long. Isis and I draw a lot of stares. It's not every day these people see royalty simply walking down their road, after all. Even Mudeenu's usually on business and accompanied by a host of soldiers. Not that Isis and I actually alone, of course. I know exactly where two of our six invisible guards are, and I have a good idea where two more of them are as well.

We enter the bar, and we stand next to each other as we look around, Isis because this is all new to her, me because it's all familiar. Yes, the tables have been rearranged, and yes, the counter seems to have been renovated, but it still feels the same.

I see Shasta behind the counter, and he sees me. An excited expression appears on his face, and he opens his mouth to call out to me. Then he pauses, and his excitement becomes mixed with uncertainty.

I raise a hand in a partial wave and say, "Hello, Shasta. Don't worry, you don't have to bow, and you can call me Michael."

Shasta's confusion vanishes, and he grins. "It's so good to see you again, Michael!" Then he sees the person next to me, and his eyes widen. He quickly bows and says, "Princess Isis, a pleasure to meet you."

Isis blinks, her mouth hanging open. She looks at me, then at Shasta. "Um, you can stop bowing now." She sounds incredibly uncomfortable.

Shasta looks up. "Right, sorry." He looks incredibly flustered.

I sit down at the counter, and Isis sits next to me. "Two Coalitions, please?"

"Hard or fresh?" Shasta asks, still glancing at Isis.

Isis taps on the table. "Could you look over here?"

Shasta cringes a little as he turns his gaze towards Isis. "Yes, Your Highness?"

Isis leans forward and blows in Shasta's face. Shasta recoils. I hold back a snicker. That's how Mipedian children tell each other to stop talking before they're taught manners.

Shasta looks apprehensively at Isis. "What was that for?"

"That was for taking me too seriously," Isis said as she straightens up. "I'd like my Coalition hard, please. Whatever a Coalition is."

"Hard," I agree. A little something to take the edge off.

Shasta nods and starts mixing the drinks. Even with Isis watching, he's able to do his performance. Isis stares in fascination at the thermos as it flips and spirals through the air.

Shasta pours the drinks. Isis stares at it. "Shasta, that was a work of art!"

Shasta self-consciously scratches the back of his head. "Thank you, Your Highness."

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An hour has passed. There's a pleasant buzz in my fingers and toes. I should probably switch to fresh drinks now.

"Michael!" a familiar voice calls out.

I turn to the voice. "Sett!"

Sett takes a step forward, then his eyes drift towards the woman sitting next to me. He stands at attention and begins to bend at the waist-

"No," Isis says, a slightly goofy grin on her face. "I'm tired of all the bowing and the 'Your Highness'-ing and the this and the that..."

I gently remove Isis's glass from her hand. Let's not make things too crazy in here.

Sett pauses, then awkwardly makes his way to one of the tables and sits down, and how the heck did I not see Ashley standing right there?

"Anything I can get you, handsome?" Ashley asks with a curtsy.

Sett grins and leans forward, resting his forearms on the table. "Hey there beautiful. Could you get me a parfkew kainekot blend?"

"Right away," Ashley says, and- well, it looks like she's figured out to leave without being noticed as well.

I turn to Shasta and point a thumb back at Sett. "Okay, Shasta, what the heck have I missed?"

Isis bursts out laughing, making the whole bar stare at her for a while. After she stops, and the room returns to relative normalcy, Shasta leans forward and says, "Ashley started to flirt with Sett as a joke about a solan and a half ago. Sett eventually started returning with flirts of his own."

"So they're just messing around?" I clarify.

Shasta looks over my shoulder, then lowers his voice. "Not anymore, actually. I'm certain they're being sincere now. The past few months they've been spending time with each other, talking a lot." Shasta covers his mouth and holds back a snicker. "One night Sett stayed late, and he and Ashley fell asleep leaning on each other."

Huh. "It's a good thing he's found someone," I say as I look back at Sett. "He's been alone for too long." I blink. There's Ashley again. "She has got to teach me that trick."

Sett accepts the glass Ashley offers him, and she sits down next to him. Sett runs a hand through her hair, and Ashley plants a kiss on his mouth.

I raise my eyebrows. "Those two are a priest and two witnesses away from being married," I joke.

Sett and Ashley looks at me, then at each other. They grin in unison. Sett turns back to me and says, "Prince Osiris, will you do us the honor of presiding over our marriage?"

I'm caught completely off guard. "...What?"

Sett continues, "Sobtjek will probably have to witness too, to make sure you do it right. Shasta, will you be our third witness?"

I twist my head around to see Shasta nodding. "I will," he says, as if it was perfectly normal to be asked to basically watch Sett and Ashley have sex for the first time.

I stammer,"A-aren't you going to propose to her first?"

"We just did," Ashley and Sett say together.

...I really missed a lot in those ten months, didn't I?

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Up next: The Things We Can Do While Alone

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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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