"It's not the first time something self-destructed in that microwave," I said. "You're sweet to clean it up, though."
"Well, it was my fault," he said.
"Not really. You were just following instructions," Scaramouche pointed out.
"Like everyone involved in every conspiracy ever." He gave her a funny look.
"Ah yes. But smuggling plans for a nuclear bomb in your bra isn't on the same level as microwaving a pizza roll for a minute and a half on high," she pointed out.
"Until it detonates, that is," he said.
"Another supercell?" I looked around. "Don't let it rain on the floor. I don't think it's waterproofed."
"There's not enough humidity in here for it to rain. I'm just trying to...hey, come back here!"
"Got it!" Devon caught the wayward wannabe supercell."You went back to brunette," Scaramouche said.
"Yeah. A fortune teller told Rafael a dark woman would be coming into his life," she said. "He didn't believe her, but I didn't want to take any chances."
"How do you get them to do that?" I don't think Devon ever entertained the idea of a pet thunderstorm, either.
"I didn't know there were others like you," Zephyr said.
"I couldn't have without Tempest and Hawthorne," Gail said.
"One of their storms had taken the life of the tree I'd warded for almost fifty human years," Gail explained. "I was furious. But I decided I'd learn to work the storms myself, instead of waiting to be a victim of another one. That I wouldn't be like them. I'd learn to bring the rains without bringing destruction along with them."
"Then they sent a tornado right at us again," Devon said.
"Both my sister's tree and a little town called Bon Coeur were in its path," Gail said. "But Tempest and Hawthorne were also following them and trying to turn it. We didn't have a wind deva to help us, so we had to try to turn it. And let me tell you, mon amis, that was not easy. I'd been a storm deva long enough to have come face-to-face with a couple of hurricanes, but this thing - mon Dieu."
"It was what humans would call an EF-5," Tempest added. "We turned it mostly away from the town, but part of the business district, the elementary school and the church were all lost."
"But only buildings, ami. No lives. Only what could be replaced," Gail added.
"When the tree I warded reached its natural end, I decided I'd join my sister," Devon said. "Hey, is Rue coming up here?"
"Soon," Gail said. "Rue is our wind deva."
"I asked them to introduce me to Zephyr," Tempest said. "They had Rue by then. I needed someone to work with. Someone good."
(Gail is a tan Pukifee Vanilla. She's named for musician Gail Ann Dorsey and based on a character from my fanfiction days whose name was Tatiana - Tianna for short. And I totally made up the town of Bon Coeur, LA.)
