Guitar Strings and Flower Petals

Guitar Strings

Skara had never liked to be woken up early. Especially when it was caused by an irritating noise. She utterly despised morning alarms for this reason - She was a Bard, after all. Alarms to her sounded like nails being dragged against a chalkboard. So she always tried to make sure that she got enough sleep so that she woke up before any alarm woke her up - She would wake up when she was ready to, not before.

And as utterly exhausted as yesterday had left her, she had no intention of waking up until she was good and ready to.

But for some reason that was completely beyond her, she found herself stirring awake while she was still totally exhausted. She tried to squeeze her eyelids shut tighter to try and fall back asleep, but after a few seconds, her ears picked up the source of what had woken her up - A noise.

It sounded like... A wail. But not from a person. It was more... Ethereal than that.

More... Ghostly.

And all of a sudden, it was piercingly loud.

She bolted upright, still wrapped in her cocoon blanket, clutching it even tighter as her eyes darted across the room. Immediately, the noise had stopped, and looking around, nothing looked... Different.

Although admittedly, she didn't have a lot of experience in this room, so maybe something had changed, but if it had, Skara didn't notice it. It took her a couple of seconds to remember exactly where she was, but once she did, she couldn't think of anything that stood out to her as out of place. The room still looked like an old cabin bedroom, the bed still looked like it was against the wall, and Willow...

Well, Willow still laid asleep, curled up underneath the blanket, lightly snoring.

The Bard rubbed her eyes. The sound had been... So loud, so clear, and so, so sharp - Like needles had been shoved down her ears. And she had heard it with the most absolute clarity. It had been a wail, she was sure of it. One of the loudest that she'd ever heard in her life.

And yet, Willow hadn't even reacted to it in the slightest?

It confused the still tired, but now wide awake Bard for a moment, as her brain tried to catch up with the rude awakening it had received. Either Willow was the deepest sleeper Skara had ever met, or, the more likely answer, the noise had been part of a dream she already couldn't remember.

Or, a third option - Maybe it had something to do with the weather outside the cabin? Skara looked out the window, expecting the wind to be battering against it.. But to her surprise, in the thin rays of dawn, the wind barely seemed to be flowing at all.

They were still in the chasm, so it was still very possible that outside of there, the wind was still strong and bellowing, but noticeable, there wasn't any snow falling from up top. Not even a single snowflake. She could see the sunlight reflecting against what snow had settled overnight, and could feel it bouncing back through the window and onto her. It was... Actually warm.

The storm was over.

It must have ended during the night, while they were sleeping - Storms on the Knee were capable of lasting for days, and that had been what Skara had expected once the thundersnow had begun; days stuck in the cabin. The fact that it hadn't honestly threw Skara for a loop. It took a few seconds for what that meant to actually register with her.

Me and Willow can try to get home!

A grin that was impossible to stop spread across her face - Her hands pumped into fists, and they shot into the air. A squeal escaped her, "Yes!"

Immediately after, she slapped her hands over her mouth, worried that her excitement, movement, and squealing had just woken Willow. She glanced down at her to see if she had. Thankfully though, Willow simply gave a small snorting snore before turning onto her back, arms splaying about as she did so. Skara sighed, grateful that she hadn't just accidentally woken her.