Peggy stared out the window of her farmhouse home, watching the storm outside rage on with lightning, thunder, and dark clouds. Felce would always insist it was science, the clouds grinding against each other to create bolts of electricity and getting so heavy with the water in them that it began to fall to the ground below, but Peggy wasn’t so sure. Felce was sarcastic and scientifically minded, unlike Peggy, who was earnest and whimsical. Peggy was certain there was more than just science out there. She was certain that there was a god out there in those clouds right now. Something big and grand with a booming voice like the thunder and eyes that glowed like the lightning did. Its tears were the rain and its fur was the clouds. It hid up there in the sky and replenished the land below it whenever it cried, which seemed to Peggy like it was often. Apparently said god had a lot to be sad about. Maybe it needed a therapist… or were they tears of joy? Tears about how beautiful the life below it was, perhaps? Peggy wished she could fly up into the clouds and ask it if it needed someone to talk to. Being a god living in the sky probably got lonely sometimes.

A voice startled Peggy from her thoughts and she turned to see Felce standing in the doorway to the room she was in. “Peggy, honey, it’s 10:00 pm. Come to bed and get some rest.”

Peggy sighed. “Can’t we both stay up a little longer? I’m busy thinking.”

“This isn’t about sky gods, is it?” Felce sighed, coming to sit down next to her girlfriend. When Peggy nodded, Felce rolled her eyes and looked out the window. 

“I think its voice is the thunder, the lightning is its eyes, and the rain is its tears,” Peggy informed her very matter-of-factly. 

Felce chuckled and leaned her head on Peggy’s shoulder. “Mmm, yes, I believe you now,” she replied with another characteristic eyeroll, “Sky gods crying rain and speaking in thunder… clearly you’ve cracked the code of all things. What other enlightenment do you have for me, oh Wise One?” she quipped dryly.

Peggy was about to open her mouth to explain more when Felce kissed her, clearly not wanting to hear any more of it at the moment. “Just come to bed,” the witty cinna sighed once they separated again. “You need to rest, dear.”

Peggy furrowed her brow for a moment, then gave in. “Fine,” she conceded as she stood up to head towards her bedroom with Felce. She’d think more about sky gods tomorrow, she decided. For now it was time to lay in her warm bed under one of her many handmade quilts she kept around the house and snuggle with Felce until they both fell asleep. Rain on windowpanes and the gentle roll of thunder sang an unusual but not unwelcome lullaby, and the being out there in the clouds stood guard over both Cinnas as they rested. The sky would always be there. The sky would always blanket the world. The sky wouldn’t ever leave its old home behind.

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Felce was absolutely done with summer and looking forward to returning to her regular schedule. She’d spent most of her summer at the beach with her girlfriend, Peggy, who had proceeded to find a lobster oozebud and tried insisting they take it home because it had “imprinted on” her and it would be “cruel to just leave him wondering where his new momma went”. Felce had, of course, vetoed the plan, but the lobster oozebud had been given off by Peggy to a friend of hers instead since she’d gotten so attached to the darn thing.

The amount of sand that had gotten stuck in Felce’s socks had been annoying her for weeks. Every time she thought she’d washed all the sand out, she’d pick up one to put it on and surprise surprise! More sand would spill out and make a mess on the floor. Great. Lovely. Abso-fricking-lutely peachy. Not to mention the sunburn where the fur on her forearms and legs was thinner than on the rest of her body. No amount of aloe vera lotion could have possibly cured the pain she was currently feeling. Felce couldn’t even take a hot shower like she usually liked to because of the pain it caused her burns. She should have brought more sunscreen. She’d bring more sunscreen next time. This was absolutely not ever going to happen to her ever again.

Well, at least Peggy was happy. Felce loved seeing Peggy happy. Her girlfriend was the light of her life and even if Felce was sunburned and had socks full of seemingly never ending sand and had to keep an eye on a lobster oozebud for most of the trip while her lover ran around trying to catch butterflies and swam in the ocean, it didn’t matter in the end because she was happy so long as Peggy was happy. 

Besides, she’d gotten to buy some nice sunglasses that would be perfect for her secret agent Halloween costume. She already had the suit, the tie, the little microphone, and now the glasses. It was all coming together perfectly, and pretty soon she was planning to startle as many people as possible by knocking on their door and looking as serious as possible while saying something along the lines of “I know what you did”. Mischief wasn’t her forte, and it probably wasn’t the most kind or legal thing to do, but Felce had the idea to do it ever since she was a little Cinna, and though she wasn’t nearly as much of a dreamer as Peggy was, she wasn’t about to pass up the chance to fulfill this childhood fantasy. And at least it was achievable. 

Outside, summer was turning into fall, and Felce was ready for a rather welcome change of seasons.

“It’s September already?!” Peggy yelled in astonishment from down the hall where the calendar Felce had recently changed the month on hung on one of the walls. “Where did all the summer go?!”

Apparently, not everyone was as ready to say goodbye to summer as Felce was.

Author’s note: This is for the September 2022 Cinnadog MYO prompts!