Since her terrifying weather encounter with Iolaire, Zee had spent much less time away from home. Internally her thoughts were warring; the rational side of her wanted to spend as much time as possible outside the den before the children came, and the irrational side wanted to curl up and never leave the safety of it's walls again. Thunderstorms had frightened her ever since she could remember, though there was something different about being caught in one and unable to run away that drove the terror into a near-constant state. She'd made it as far as the Shrine, which in reality was not an impressive feat when you considered how close her den was to the structure. There was a beautiful magic within the shrine's bioluminescent waters, though Zee struggled to focus on it enough to see past the surface of the spring. She'd occasionally glance at one of the dozens of runes etched upon the stones, but could only hold her gaze upon the ground so long before her neck arched upwards and she squinted into the canopy. The trees thick vines obscured her view more then she would have liked, and the queen was absolutely certain that in the distance must be a thundercloud. Her fur stood on end and she craned her neck further, trying desperately to scout the entire cloudless sky from around the alabaster trees. "Speech"

Hari hoped no one had seen what he did. His mood had been all over the place and when he thought no one was looking he peed in the shrine water as a secret act of rebellion. Yea, that was what he thought about this religious nonsense. Although he did feel a bit bad for the fish that lived in the spring water. It was a strange source of moisture, glowing and disturbing so he was fairly certain no one was going to be drinking from it.

Harbringr bounced down off the circle of stones that wrapped around the shrine. They were etched with bizarre ruins but all that said to him was 'human'. Nothing good ever came from humans. Still, he supposed he ought to finish exploring their new home if he could find much of it beneath the ash. He had wandered off, exploring every nook and cranny before winding up back at the shrine again where he saw Zee, her head bent up to the sky. He quickly bounded forward. "Hey Zee, don't drink that ok, it uh… you know the volcano and all that."

Her solitude was interrupted, and a very quick Harbringr bounced up to her to warn her about drinking the water. She flinched at his sudden appearance, blinking to clear her mind of the thoughts of a spontaneous incoming storm. "What?" Her voice returned, stunned. Harbringr was an intelligent wolf, surely he knew what he was talking about. "I drink from the stream that borders Tall Grass Plains, that's even closer to the volcano. Oh shit." She looked down underneath herself towards her swollen belly - suddenly worried for the unborn pups - then back to the faintly glowing water. Was it only dangerous because it glowed so eerily? From what she'd been told, the spring here had the odd tones to it before the volcano had erupted. "Well why the fuck did we move here if everything around us is so dangerous?" Her withheld emotions following her traumatic experience bubbled forward in sudden anger, and she kicked hard at one of the stones bordering the spring. "Ow, fuck. God damnit." Zee drew her paw to her muzzle and licked at it before placing it back down upon the ground hard with a huff. The volcano could really end it's shit anytime now. "First random thunderstorms, earthquakes, now our water is deadly, what's next? Do we go vegetarian in fear the rabbits have disease?" She shook her head in disbelief. "My children will be born with two heads and no tail." "Speech"

Harbringr was pleased to see Zee. She was one of the few wolves outside his family that he considered a friend, heck she might be the only one. She stated she drank from the streams in the Tall Grass Plains and he immediately picked up on her worry. He tried to smile reassuringly. "The streams are probably fine. Its running water so the nasty stuff should get swept away. I have no idea what is going on with this water…" Yup, it was weird and it glowed, and well he had peed in it but he wasn't quite sure he wanted to admit that. In hindsight it was a childish thing to do.

"Well why the fuck did we move here if everything around us is so dangerous?"

"I've been asking myself that. I was hoping we'd move back home not closer to the volcano. My only guess is it has to do with Archon and his obsession with this stupid shrine. Far as I can tell it's some sort of human garbage. Not a thing of wolf making." He leaned over the shrine for a moment then spat in it. If there was anyone he trusted sharing his discontent to it was Zeitgeist.

She suddenly kicked out at one of the stones and swore violently. "Zee!" That was all she needed was to break her dam paw. He didn't know what to say. Everything she listed was dangerous though he chuckled a bit at the vegetation. "I think the rabbits are safer than the vegetation." What little of it there was left. "Well, hopefully not but if you do get a two-headed wolf they'll certainly be the most unique looking thing to arrive since those crazy colored wolves. Anyway between thunderstorms, earthquakes, and poisoned water I'll take the thunderstorms. At least most of the time you can tell when they're coming and prepare." He had no idea how to predict an earthquake and poisoned water well, with that you were shit out of luck unless there was a good way to purify it. He'd need to look into that later.

His eyes drifted up to the sky at the mention of storms but he was quickly distracted by the towering white trees and alabaster vines that surrounded the shrine. He had to admit, he liked the trees. They were beautiful in a haunting way but they were also natural. Not marked and corrupted by human writings. Of course, now parts of them were burnt and blackened to a crisp. He had no idea what colors the leaves would be or if they'd indeed ever see leaves on these trees again.

Thankfully he was quick to reassure her, and his logic about the running water being safe sounded right to her. She nodded, feeling her heart rate begin to calm again before her friend stepped forward to spit in the water. A violent laugh overcame her, and she moved towards him to shove him hard with her paw on his shoulder. "No!!" She told him, laughter still rocking her voice. "Deathbelle will kill you!" Zee had heard the stories of the alabastrine shrine and how Sirius had claimed it in her name, a tribute to Archon. Though she didn't believe in the late-man's religious claims, she could still appreciate that her Empress held it close to her heart in memory of her husband. She could at least admit it was beautiful, in an eerie haunting way. It almost felt like it was devoid of life, and if spirits existed she could see why people would think they lingered in the odd land. He assured her that even if she had two-headed no-tailed children that they'd be unique, and her head shook with amusement then tipped it back to the sky. "Uh-huh. Please Archon if you're up there, don't let my kids be so very unique. I don't fancy pushing out a two headed child." The prayer was half-hearted for sure, mocking if anything. If it was anyone else in her company, she'd feel bad about voicing it aloud. Surprisingly Harbringr preferred the storms to the earthquakes and 'poisoned' water, and Zee turned towards him with interest. "You're a lunatic." She accused. "I hate storms. I'd rather the volcano erupt again." Her brows furrowed with concern as she looked back towards the sky, the white-barked trees framing the cloudless sky. "There is never enough time to prepare, if a cloud decided to brew now I'd never make it home in time." Zee couldn't keep the worry from her voice, and didn't want to divulge to even her friend how bad her phobia was. Sirius knew, Iolaire now knew. She was lucky nobody had made fun of her yet. "Speech"

Harbringr batted a bit at a muddy mix of earth and ash as he continued to gaze at the trees and the ivory vines that adorned them. He noticed there weren't any birds in the trees, nor any squirrels he could tell. It seemed most prey hadn't returned to the area which meant traveling for hunting or seeing if they could find any safer bodies of water in which to fish.

Hari winked at Zee as she shrieked in laughter at his gall. "Only if she finds out!" And besides, spit wasn't the worst that he'd done but he was a bit to embarrassed to mention the other thing now. As the conversation turned to disasters Harbringr found himself shaking his head. "What? How could you possibly prefer a volcano over a storm? It affected so much territory and its going to take years for everything to go back to normal." In his opinion there was nothing worse than a volcanic eruption. It would poison the earth for seasons after its eruption.

He glanced at Zee as she mentioned there wasn't enough time to prepare for a storm. "That's not necessarily true. You know cirrus clouds? If you see some that means there's a shift in the weather coming in 24 hours. Sometimes it's nothing significant but other times it can mean a front is coming in. That's probably not the best time to travel if you're going a long ways in open county." He wrapped his tail around his paws.

"And of course, if you see big mounds and towers of clouds in the sky that's probably a good sign a storm is brewing."

It was incredibly relaxing to be in this moment with Hari, and Zee found herself calming considerably more then she had in the day since the mudslide. Her ears perked forward to catch his confident words, head tilting in curiosity. She'd always looked for the dark, angry storm clouds and not other indicators for a change in weather patterns. "The weather is always changing." Her confused response came. "You'd think there'd be a constant gathering of cirrus clouds then, and it'd be impossible to determine whether a storm is on the wind or merely a shower. It doesn't seem very accurate." Zee wanted to know for sure that she could expect a thunderstorm, if she watched for the special clouds then she'd merely be sprinting back home each time she saw sign of it. Surely it'd be hard to be a good alpha if she was always running and hiding in her den. Her shoulders slumped a bit at the thought, and she worried her claw against one of the etched stone carvings. Harbringr had said they looked human and Zee wondered if he was right - however she'd seen him and his companions etch similar markings into stones in his crafting, so who was to say a wolf didn't put these here? "Speech"

Hari chuckled. "There is no 100% accurate, fool-proof way to predict the weather, but at least there's something. Unlike earthquakes and boy the volcano didn't give us to much to go on far away as we were." He settled down on his haunches, front paws up on the border of the well as he scratched absent-mindedly at it. Oooooo that gave him an idea. He gestured to Ari who had been off climbing one of the burnt trees. The monkey hopped down and bounded over to him.

"You don't know if a front will bring in just showers or a storm without keeping a constant eye on the clouds. If you see stratus clouds or cirrostratus clouds you can expect rain. If you see those cumulonimbus clouds expect a nasty storm. Those are the baddies you want to keep an eye out far but of course I can't say how long it would take them to get to you. It depends where they are. Ari, carve a sundial in this thing will you?" He couldn't help himself. Ever since he learned one trick he now wanted to put a sundial everywhere. The monkey started carving a circle into the top of one of the stones. They already were covered in carvings. One more wouldn't hurt.

"If it helps in the late spring and summer when you see a cumulonimbus they tend to move southwest to northeast. So if the thing is northeast of you you probably don't need to worry. And of course in general lines of storms move west to east." Again, it wasn't a case of always. There were just very few absolutes with the weather. Ari finished carving the circle and poked at Harbringr who nodded. Yea, it was looking good.

Zee listened to his lesson with rapt attention, fascinated that there was so much involved in predicting the weather. She made note to keep an eye on the clouds, to practice identifying it's formations and movement. "Where were you a year ago? Would have saved me a lot of grief." A shudder passed through the queen's body as she thought on how often she'd been hit by an unexpected and terrible thunderstorm. The skies above were still clear, though in the distance she could see fluffy clouds that looked very non-threatening. "So, what you're saying is when I get a bird companion I can send it to you every day, and you can keep in touch with me to warn me when a storm is coming?" The words he'd use to describe the clouds were definitely above her head, and she grinned at him playfully. The idea of having him be her personal weather-predictor was a fun one, and she imagined how Sirius would sigh at her ridiculousness. Or perhaps his protective nature would make him believe the idea was a wonderful one, who knew? "Speech"

The weather was fascinating but it was a temperamental beast. She held her secrets close to her chest. He hoped at least a little bit of the knowledge could help Zee. It wasn't perfect by any means but it could help her out now and again. He made note to consider studying the weather more. If he learned more he'd be happy to share it.



"Surviving a drought and finding my way here. If only there'd been a way to predict that." Short term weather patterns were hard to predict but they were still much easier than long term patterns. He had no idea how one would predict a drought.

Harbringr thought on her idea. "That could work. If you send someone to me I could dry and give you a daily weather report. Just know that I am only a wolf so it won't be 100% accurate all the time but if I see signs that a nasty storm is heading our way I will definitely send Costanza to you. Does that sound good?"