Things to know before reading:

--Perspective of Rayn, wrote while I was being deprived of the Internet – consequently, sentimental junk like this suddenly poured from my system, into the computer somehow.

"Be not afraid, I go before you always…come, follow me, and I will lead you home…" Aura sang softly, rocking the sniffling Arimah back and forth in her lap as they both watched my namesake pour from the skies in a torrent of watery bullets. Then again, I suppose it wasn’t really my namesake – my name was "Rayn," while this was actually a "storm." Though I think I would have been quite happier if my name were "Crystal_Storm." I think it sounded more like me than "Rayn" did. But anyway.

I took off my pitiful, cheap excuse for a raincoat and wrung it on the plush carpet. This earned something of an exasperated sigh from my owner that I ignored. I walked over and hung it on a hook studded into the wall while Aurora, my Bluna, made something of a hollow hiss and arched her back before shaking, scattering raindrops on the ground, and darting off into the kitchen to find something to eat.

Outside, thunder roared, and I sighed and stretched my wings, flapping them slowly, savoring the feel of cramped muscles uncoiling. I took off several items of beautiful but otherwise useless items of Desert costume, including that stupid gold-navy headdress…if I just hawked it out on the market, I knew I would be able to get a few million Neopoints from it, but Aura forbid that. In truth, I just think that she didn’t know how to sell my headdress, or that it’s explicitly forbidden by the utmost Rulers of Fate in Neopia.

"You may walk the war-torn valley, and you will not fear for death," Aura continued, watching me intently. "You will travel through the desert, though you will not die of thirst…you will speak to those of foreign lands and all will understand – you’ll never face the danger alone. Be not afraid, I go before you always…come, follow me, and I will lead you home."

My owner’s soprano voice seemed to cut through the weather’s outrage outside. For a moment I considered sitting down and listening myself; I remember when I was the youngest, long ago, I would love it when she would sing to me. By the look in her eyes, I knew that she wouldn’t object, though she would probably grant me a few lines good-natured teasing.

From her comfortably position in Aura’s arms my youngest sister, who would always be the youngest, stirred with a small purr of content and peered over at me with her ill-matched eyes, one a sparkling, brilliant gold and the other a metallic, deep blue. She moved her crimson scarf from where it had settled over her lower face and grinned.

"Rayn! Come join us!" she cried, waving a hand as if to get my attention. As if she didn’t have it in the first place. Poor little thing – sheltered from most of the evils from Neopia, her pose un-hunched from lack of carrying the weight on her shoulders. I suppose this was entirely our fault – "our" being my other siblings, Aura, and of course, me. We already took care of most of the things in the world; in truth, there really wasn’t much left for little Rimah to do. Aura did Neopoints and all those other complicated things, Fyrlyte took care of battling away evils, Cureia was Miss Neopia, and I was Lady Pessimist.

Not that I was jealous or that I hated my youngest sister. I was perfectly happy living in a world filled with half-empty glasses. (Though I understand that that the last sentence was somewhat contradicting, it was important to know that my meaning was that I was satisfied with my life as it was, even if I often didn’t feel like it.) I loved Rimah, unlike my other sister, and if she liked being cuddled and cooed at, well, then more cuddling and cooing to her.

"No thanks," I replied dully, walking forward towards the stairs. The architecture of our NeoHome was absolutely horrible – the lower floor was a loop of rooms with a hallway cutting through the center, which also led to a stairwell right in the center of the house. Upstairs, there was no hallway at all – merely a long shaft like a sun-window going upwards, and curtain-doors that led off to our rooms. But now that we had all of our Extensions mostly paid for, demolishing a room to recreate a hallway would be a huge dent to our Neopoints…and frankly, the idea of starving to keep up Neopian living standards and convenience didn’t appeal to me.

"Are you sure?" Aura asked as I plodded wetly up the stairs. Her voice sounded strange and low and rough now that she wasn’t singing – it always bothered me how her speaking voice could be so…humble. To put it lightly.

"Yep," was my flat reply.

"Alright…!" Rimah called up to me from downstairs, in a tone of voice that said: "Well, okay, but you’re missing out…I hope you know that."

"And don’t forget that you need to pick up ‘Rimah from Ryushu-Sensei tomorrow!" Aura reminded me. My mind ran to find the meaning of sensei – Aura was taking Japanese lessons in her own school, darn her, so she used the words everytime she got a chance. "I’ve got a Codestone for her and I’m dropping her off before I go to school, so she should be back by the time I get back!"

Oh, yes. Teacher. Ryushu-Teacher.

"Mmmkay!" I agreed, exasperated, as I opened the door to Fyrlyte’s room. His was the only room that had been furnished, and he didn’t really even live here often…he was usually with his clan, with other Eyries, including his mate and cub. I’ve met the latter before – he’s a cute "little" bundle of red and blue feathers whose already about my size despite the fact I’m a year older than him. Then again, Eyries tend to get quite large. Again, to put it lightly.

Anyway, Fyrlyte’s room was the only one that was furnished – therefore, it was the only one with a bed and actual furniture. I was still waiting for the day when Aura would get enough motivation to start on our rooms, but I had an idea that it would come around next month or so.

I flopped down on the Bamboo Bed, unhitching my backpack from between my wings and setting it down on the bed, immediately wetting the soft jade-colored sheets. With a heavy sigh, I opened the bag and lifted out the heavy contents as well as a few sheets of paper and pencils filed down to about two inches long each.

Something else fell from the bag and clacked noisily on the floor – I growled in frustration and flapped my wings hard, sending an eruption of raindrops splattering everywhere. I bent down from the side of the bed, absentmindedly lifting up what had fallen while I eyed the liquid mess in distaste; oh well, nothing to do for it. All the water would probably dry by tomorrow anyway.

I looked at what had fallen as I sat up on the bed. It was a Star Compact Mirror, and I saw the initials labeled in fat purple ink in one of the corners – AT.

I frowned at it. It was Reia’s stupid vanity mirror; the initials stood for her fancy
"nickname," Azure Tigress, which had been given by Aura herself. Cureia was a Striped Shoyress with a hot temper that rivaled my own, so it was an appropriate name. Aura, though somewhat sensible, was one of those insane owners that took a lot of pride in her Neopets. Too much pride, if you ask me. We’re not exactly a bunch to be extra-special proud of.

Stupid Reia had probably stuck it in my bag to back up one of her bigoted preppy jokes…probably the one she had played this morning too, daring stupid DarkElite to kiss me, saying that I was too ugly and anyone who got within an inch radius of me would probably shrivel up and die. Since Reia said she would give anyone who took up her challenge a date, DarkElite had stepped up and pecked me on the cheek. Literally, since DarkElite was a Pteri.

The result was that I had punched the little creep in the face, and he had enough sense not to report me to the principal, since he himself would be probably expelled for sexual harassment.

I sighed and gingerly rubbed the growing red spot on my left cheek that had been hidden from Aura and Rimah, and set the mirror down on the bed.

By some ethereal miracle of sorts, it opened. And by instinct, I looked to see what had created the abrupt click, and saw myself. The Desert "mascara" that swirled from the back of my sky-blue eyes dripping and messed up, my head and neck looking almost bare and amazingly small without the headdress and beaded necklaces to adorn them. I snarled silently at my image and kicked the stupid mirror off the bed; I heard a satisfying tinkle of glass shattering as it landed.

I turned back to my homework, mascara-stained water dripping onto the paper, and tried to make out Mr. Orauk’s idiotic prepositional phrases.

Darn this rain, I thought to myself sourly as I made my way up the hill towards the brightly-lit Training School. I was completely drenched, and this Desert coloring wasn’t as water-resistant as my old, banished Glass one – if anything, it absorbed the water. Probably because it originated out in Sahkmet, when ‘water’ and ‘cold’ was a much-needed commodity for both life and comfort.

Too bad I lived in Neopia.

I shuddered as I stepped onto the porch of the school, resisting the overwhelming urge to throw off my coat and just risk wandering out in the rain back home. But no, that would be like suicide – someone could easily drown in this weather.

I don’t care what my old owner thought before she threw me in the Fates-forsaken Pound; rain is horrible.

My breath manifesting in steam-outlined puffs of air before me; I stepped through them and up to the familiar lump sitting on the front steps of the School, waiting for me. I had left Aurora at home; she hated this weather as much as I did, and I wasn’t about to ring her though it just because I wanted some company. Nope, I was perfectly fine by myself, thank you.

"Next time let’s tell Aura to send you to the Academy when she wants to raise your stats," I muttered bitterly to Rimah as she stood up. She frowned out at the rain herself, and nodded.

"Yeah, it’s supposed t’be warm out on th’island," Arimah agreed, nodding furiously. She walked up to be, easily twenty centimeters shorter – Aishas are smaller than Shoyrus, and when she had transformed, it had done nothing for her size. She shivered when we walked out into the rain together, she huddling close to my rain-saturated cloak. A Forest Cloak, to be exact, one of Fyrlyte’s old forsaken Battledome weapons.

"It’s cold," she sniffled, hugging closer to my arm.

"Yep, it’s cold, alright," I agreed half-heartedly, sparing her my acrid sarcasm. She would interpret it as me being angry at her, and would probably go on to incessant questions of what she had done wrong. It had been sweet – the first time. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very fond of little ones.

I cursed and ripped the cloak from my shivering frame, taking it and slamming it down on the puddle-ridden ground, where it emitted a wet plack. And even more plack’s as I hopped up and stomped on it, while Arimah watched on fearfully from the lee of a tree trunk.

I stood there for a moment, glaring, as if this were her fault. It wasn’t, of course, and it was unfair of me to be so open with my emotions – and to taint her poor little ears with my colorful language. But now wasn’t the time to be considerate.

We had un-boarded the boat at the main Neopian Harbor, the only ones there, which in my opinion was a mark of our sanity. From there, we had walked back to Neopian Central…or so I thought.

I got lost. Seriously. I couldn’t believe how stupid and immature I had become, to lose track of where we were and getting lost in my own musings. The next thing I knew, when I had pulled my head back down from the clouds – we were in the middle of some massive forest, with Arimah asking me meekly if I could give her something to eat.

Lightning crackled across the sky like a vein of brightness on endless slate. I couldn’t even see a patch of sky up there – if only I could just fly and see where the city lights were, we would be able to make it home…

But I wasn’t about to risk getting deep-fried by a strand of electron-friction or whatever lightning was.

"I’m hungry," Arimah squeaked, her voice ever-so-tiny in the magnitude of the storm.

"So’m I," I told her, lifting up the cloak and walking back to the tree. No use to try to find our way out of this stupid forest – we would just get more lost than we already were, and probably wander into hostile Lupe territory to boot. Fyrlyte had told me about several packs of territorial Lupes that took residence in forests – his clan had fought one out of rightful Dark Skye territory once, though he hadn’t been directly involved, as he was watching over his mate, who was at the moment ‘heavy with cub’. But even though a group of Eyrie warriors could probably fight out a group of Lupe warriors, I didn’t want to see what chances a single Shoyress about half the size and power with her little baby sister could do.

Thunder roared, lightning flashed; Arimah squealed in fear and lunged towards me, encasing my arm in a circulation-stopping embrace. I resisted a snarl and compulsion to strangle her for coming within the perimeters of my personal bubble, and merely let her take whatever comfort she could. If she could get any comfort at all. I’m sure Aura could have done a much better job, but she is, of course, our owner of about nineteen months. She knows what she’s doing.

Me? I’m a Shoyru. I’m a Shoyru with a less-than-favorable past with an immense dislike for, yes, almost everything.

I don’t like others hanging off my arms as if I’m their last hope for life.

But I guess I’ll give ‘Rimah a chance. So long as she doesn’t tell ‘Reia, of course, who would naturally go around the school babbling about how I’m just a sentimental softy underneath that ugly Desert coat. Inevitably, word would get to Mindi, the school Psychiatrist, and she would bring me back to her Fates-forsaken office filled with happy, smiling suns and Fuzzy Bears and write on her Fates-forsaken clipboard murmuring, "It’s a breakthrough, a breakthrough!"

"Don’t tell Reia, mmkay?" I told Arimah, in the softest, most soothing voice I could muster.

"Dunt tell Reia wha?"

"Don’t tell her I’m letting you hang off my arm like a parasite, that’s what."

"Whazza parasite?"

"A role in a relationship between two organisms in which the role benefits and the other is harmed," I explained, directly quoting my Biology textbook. Arimah must have sensed that asking about the meaning of what I just said would earn her a particularly poisonous comeback and shut up. Good for her.

We sat in silence, listening to the raindrops slide off the branches of the tree hunkered above us, and with every loud noise Rimah flinched, squeaked, and tightened her hold on my arm.

I wondered what time it was. Had an hour even passed yet? Was it night yet? If the answer to the latter was "yes," then I would get a verbal flaying when I got home. And even if Aura might be a pacifist at heart, I’ve seen enough of her "angry mode" to last me a lifetime.

"Rayn…" Arimah said tentatively, looking up at me with her large eyes.

"What…?" I asked, again trying to be as agreeable and "big-sisterly" as I could.

"Can you sing t’me?"

"Why?" I inquired, trying in vain to be good-natured.

"’Cause Aura always sings t’me, and it always makes me feel better," Arimah explained, looking forward and down at her star-stamped legs and feet.

I sighed. Well, she was my little sister. And she was very scared in all this weather, and the reason we were out here in the first place was because of me. Besides, no one other than me and some feral, feeble-minded thing might be listening…and if something evil wandered up, then at least I’d be able to scare them away before they got too close.

"Alright, what do you want me to sing?" I agreed reluctantly. She brightened at my assent and leaned against my shoulder, making my insides tremble with revulsion at this violation of personal space.

"That one song Aura was singin’ earlier, yest’day," Arimah decided quickly.

"’Be Not Afraid?’"

"Yeah!"

I sighed again. I knew those lyrics – I’d heard them enough times when I was little to not remember them. I’m sure even Fyrlyte knew them…though I knew Fyrlyte wouldn’t be caught dead singing himself. Heck, I doubt anyone at all could be caught dead singing, at least not at the same time.

"Alright…" I said, and straightened my back and took in a deep breath. Just as I was about to start, my breath faltered, and I felt my face grow warm – embarrassed?

"Alright, hold on, let me just…think of the first line," I said lamely. But it was true – for some reason the first line of the song had just…evaporated from my brain.

"You may walk the war-torn valley…" Arimah began for me, her own voice high and off-pitch. I coughed, started, and felt my face grow warm – which was somewhat relieving, because I was sure that it was no longer animate, due to its earlier numbness.

"That’s right…er…" I took another deep breath, cursing myself silently, and began. "You may walk the…war-torn valley…and you will not fear for death. You will tra-vel through the de-sert, and you will not die of thirst…you will speak to those of for-eign lands, and all will un-der-stand…you’ll never face the dan-ger…alone…

"Be not afraid, I go before you always. Come, follow me, and I will lead you home."

I felt the blush cool from my face and sighed in relief, hoped that Arimah wouldn’t beg me to continue. That was the whole song – actually, there was more, but Aura could never remember it, and so never sang it.

"Mmmm…" Arimah said contentedly, giving a wide yawn and settling her head against my shoulder. "You have a pretty voice, Rayn. It’s all high…like Aura’s…"

"Ehm…thanks," I said, genuinely pleased, though I knew that Arimah was just lying – it was the nature of little kids, to lie and say everything was really good even if they, in truth, weren’t.

"Sing…some more…please?" Arimah yawned. Well, at least the little…Shoyru…was falling asleep. It would mean that I would have to stay up and keep watch, of course, but at least I would be able to do so without risking the circulation to my arm cut off completely.

I smiled despite myself – how long had it been since I’d gotten a comment from someone other than the all-praising Aura? Even if it was just my ignorant, respect-bound little sister, it felt nice. Maybe this was why Reia was so stuck-up – she was high on complements, everyone approving of her…beauty. It was all just paint and makeup, if you ask me.

I looked up to the slate-gray sky and chose a different song.

"Listen to the rhythm of the pouring rain, telling me just how wonderful I feel…I wish that it would go and let me cry in vain…then let me be alone again."

"Aww, sing another one," Arimah said. "Tha’ one’s too sad."

Sad? To my surprise, I voiced it.

"Yeah, sad," Arimah responded. "’Cause it’s about how some guy was dumped, and he’s all depressed…"

Now how would-

"Aura sings it all the time," Arimah answered to my unvoiced question, a yawn immediately following.

"Alright, well…"

"’Be Not Afraid.’" Arimah pleaded. "I" – lightning crackled, and she flinched – "like tha’ one."

"Mmmkay," I sighed. "Well…um…"

"’You may…’"

"You may walk the war-torn valley, and you will not fear for death…you will travel through the desert, and you will not die of thirst…you will speak to those of foreign lands, and all will understand…you’ll never face the danger alone…be not afraid, I go before you always…come, follow me…"

Arimah yawned again, stretching her arms and almost poking me in the eye. "Pretty voice…" she murmured, before her whole body went limp and her breathing calm and controlled; obviously asleep. I smiled again, a repeat of the rare phenomenon that almost tore my cheek muscles.

"…and I will lead you home."