They had been traveling for several hours.
The melancholy of parting had not yet entirely faded from Gauss's heart when heavy rain began falling from the sky on their way back.
The rain came without warning.
Thick, lead-gray clouds instantly swallowed the sunlight, and raindrops as large as beans pelted down without warning.
At first, they fell sparsely, but in moments they joined into a vast white curtain of rain, splashing into muddy puddles with a crackling patter.
"Tch, this rain couldn't have come at a worse time!" Alya furrowed her delicate brows and wiped at the pale blue strands plastered to her forehead. Cold rainwater trickled down her neck and into her collar.
Gauss took rain capes from his Storage Bag and tossed one to each of his two companions.
Then he looked around.
The land stretched open in every direction, with nowhere suitable to shelter.
Feeling the dense raindrops thudding against his robe, Gauss fastened his cape. The downpour also cleared his head.
He soothed the Land Bird, which seemed somewhat uneasy in the rain and kept shaking its soaked head.
Bad weather was an essential part of any adventuring journey.
The three exchanged glances.
"Keep going?" Gauss's voice carried through the rain.
"Sure." The other two nodded.
Even Alya, the least hardy of them, had long since grown used to rain in the wilderness. It was just that their brief "vacation" had ended, and being greeted by a downpour before they had even made it back to Grayrock Town put a damper on her mood.
Gauss squeezed his legs against the Land Bird's sides.
"Reee!"
At his command, the Land Bird's powerful, hoof-like feet slammed against the ground, spraying soft, sticky mud everywhere as it carried Gauss into the denser curtain of rain.
"Clop, clop, clop!"
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