The sun burned on the western horizon, grasping at the edge of the sky and earth as it sunk. Its warm evening light was being overtaken by the billowing clouds coming down from the mountains, a dark and water-logged row of clouds that signaled strong winds coming.
Susan gazed out the window as the first of the rains begin to pattering on the roof and dapple the walkway outside. They were large raindrops, easily reflecting the light streaming from the window into the darkening yard. She fidgeted. She turned back to the table where Baba was sitting meddling over some papers.
"Can I have friends over?" Her baba paused.
He, himself, glanced out the window and gave a quiet hum. "You surely cannot go outside with those stormclouds coming?"
"I can go to their house. O-or they can come here."
"When I have finished this paperwork, daughter, then we'll see." He flipped over to the next sheet and bent the paper around the staple.
Excited by this Susan ran to the closet and pulled out her yellow raincoat and her new rainboots. She paused, thinking. She may not actually need them. Fu may have some sort of way to make a portal or something. Hurriedly she gathered them in her arms anyways and walked the bundle to the coat rack next to the front door. She hung them up to have them ready - just in case - and dash back to where her baba was sitting. Quietly she peeped behind the frame but he was still working.
Not yet, she mentally realized.
She tiptoed towards Fu's room. The door opened easily at first but soon jammed against something. She braced herself against it and pushed at it, her bare feet sometimes slipping on the wood. She finally managed to slip through and glanced behind to find baskets and bags of stuff had been caught behind the door, impeding it from opening.
Fu was on his bed, sleeping across it diagonally as if he had just slumped himself over the bed with the sheets still in place. She pouted but was quickly distracted by all of the strange things in Fu's room. Most of the walls were lined with messy shelves of colorful jars and liquids and strange knickknacks. Some bundles of herbs hung from the ceiling in a far off corner and seemed to be the source of the strange mix of smells permeating the room.
Susan gingerly stepped out of Fu's room and quietly closed the door behind her. She didn't want to get caught in there by herself with Fu sleeping. She'll get in big trouble for messing with his things.
Back in the other room she found Baba still at the low table. She knelt beside him, looking at the papers he was looking at. She wondered what they were about.
CRASSHHH!
Susan shot up from her position laying down. "Baba," she squeaked. There was a loud background din roaring in her head. Was the bull attacking?
. . . no.
Of course there wouldn't be a bull attacking here. She realized fully that she was in her bed of all places.
She had been asleep. When had she gone asleep?
A violent flash of light from outside highlighted the dimly lit room she was in and a resounding boom overhead caused the house to shudder. She flinched her hands over her ears and pouted, "stupid lightning." Out the window darkened bushes whipped around. She sighed, "it's still raining."
Freeing herself from her layered blankets she half crawled half crouched over to the window, leaning on to the window sill. Raindrops tapped hard against the window pane. They beaded quickly and slipped down to pool on the outside ledge. "It better not rain during the festival tomorrow." Her mind ran through all the fun things Lin said are to be held.
She got up and walked into the hall. It was so quiet . . . well, besides the constant din in the background she now realized must be from the rain hitting the roof really hard. It was kind of like a lake was falling from the sky.
Her smile fell and her step gradually slowed as she walked, her bare feet stepping quietly. With each soft footfall she became more and more nervous. The soft sound almost seemed to echo in the space around her. Where was everyone? She couldn't have been asleep that long? Why was it so quiet?
As she turned the corner she saw the warm light coming from the kitchen. She dashed for the light framed in the door. Her imagination conjured up shadows behind her that just may be chasing her, reaching for her.
The light blinded her at first.
"Fu?" She look over the kitchen. Something good-smelling wafted around her.
He jumped violently and quickly turned, "oh, Susan!"
Her baba wasn't around. He had some explaining to do. "Where's Baba?"
"Well . . ."
She crossed her little arms.
"Uh, your father had business come up while you were sleeping." He smiled, "I was just about to get you for supper, kid. We're havin' American style mac-n-cheese."
Her stance wavered a little. She was hungry . . . but her gaze wandered out the window.
"Susan," Fu Dog tried to get her attention as he walked the steaming sauce pan to the table and sat it onto a hotplate. "Don't touch the pan, k. It's really hot. I'm, heh," he laughed nervously, "still doin' the dishes and we don't have any big bowls to plop this in but we can scoop it from the pan easily enough. It'll save on having to just do more dishes." He went back to the cupboards for some plates. "We have some fruit, too. What would you like?"
"But it's raining outside."
Fu Dog stepped down from the stool. "Yeah?"
"It's raining hard."
Once the plates were on the table Fu Dog finally stopped to look at her. He gave her a weighed down smile. "What is it, Susan?"
"It's raining too heavy outside for Baba to go out."
"He needed to leave. It was urgent business." He proceeded to fill each of the plates, haphazardly flashing her a malformed smile. "Hurry up and eat, Susan. It's gettin' cold. Mac-n-cheese is good even when it's cold but that doesn't beat it when it's warm."
Dark forms still twisted and undulated in the deep inky blackness of a night in the country past the small part just outside the kitchen window that was illuminated by the covered bulbs overhead when she looked back past the window. Once and a while streaks of lightning licked the ground in the distance. She chewed her lip. "We need to save some for Baba. He'll be cold."
Fu Dog turned back to the cupboards without really having to. "Of course we're goin' save some for your dad."
He had finally got Susan to go to bed.
Fu Dog reached up and undid the locks on the door, paused to listen though he knew it wouldn't really help because he couldn't really hear anything through the door's wood unless it was loud enough, and quickly unspelled the seals, leaving the protection and warding charm under the mat in place. He carefully opened the door just enough so he could get his nose through into the crack between the door itself and its frame.
Air that was heavy with moisture and smelled of damp earth and concrete flowed in.
He plopped down on all fours and stretched his face muscles, taking on more of a canine expression. Nudging his nose into the crack he quietly slipped the door open further. He jumped down onto the pavement of the path that led halfway around the house. The door nosed closed behind him he made a wide circle towards the other side of the house not exactly walking down the path, wandering ever so often, aiming to circle the entire house. Sniffing around like a dog. Got to be like a dog, he reminded himself. Heh, I am a dog.
Using a seemingly haphazard, mostly mindless path of how he thought a dog would probably get distracted he made his way to the first protection charm in the gardens. He needed to make sure all of the gleams on the windows and protection charms were working and hidden from view themselves. A hunter would know what to look for to tell if a charm was a simple "decoration" or an actual charm, resulting in an immediate spot on the potential-slaying list.
He paused, listening intensely for anything in his surroundings.
Crickets.
No wind.
He craned his neck up and stared out into the sublimely, suddenly clear starry sky, tracing the swathe of milky stars stretched across it.