Roomies

Chapter 2: A Lucky Friend

Roadie <Geococcyx Toon> is having a great day. First he found another plate of free birdseed (he really must figure out who leaves them one of these days), then Wiley played with him all morning, and now it's raining! Rain means cactus flowers, pretty and delicious. He swipes his tongue over his beak, already almost able to taste them.

He runs between the raindrops until they get too thick to do so, then stops at the top of a cliff, watching as the rain begins to gather into a flood below. He tilts his head as the water rushes, unlike anything he's ever seen in Melody Desert. They get rain, during the rainy season, but never anywhere near enough for a flash flood.

It doesn't particularly look like a normal rain, either, even with quantity aside. The clouds are too dark, with green energy crackling through them... Oh! Ms Hazel must be having a playdate with Bugs again! How fun. He absently wonders if magic rain will change the way the cactus flowers taste, before being shocked out of his thoughts by a loud burst of thunder.

Lightning shatters the sky, wind howls past, and the rain is soon heavy enough to plaster his headfeathers to his skin. The thought of cactus fruit is no longer enough keep him distracted, he can't withstand this sort of weather anymore; it's about time he heads home, before even he finds it too difficult to navigate.

He's halfway down the cliff path when he spots something glinting in the water; a mangled blade from the Flying Blender! Oh, that was a fun one to outrun. It didn't work near as well as his cousin probably hoped, but at least now he'll get plenty of Wiley's brilliant notes to improve it. Cousin Crestfeather is so lucky, having a supergenius for a beta tester.

And Roadie's lucky, he knows, that someone as smart and amazing as Wiley keeps finding time to play with him despite such a taxing job. He really is a spectacular friend, Roadie should do something nice for him...