Work Text:
It was the end of another trip to Plumeria for Catra, as she flew back home to Brightmoon with Adora on Swift Wind's back. She did enjoy visiting Perfuma and Scorpia for her meditation sessions, though she could have done without a mode of transportation that wasn't constantly singing the whole way. What made matters worse was that Adora was actually joining in on her stupid flying horse's singing!
"Flying through the air like we just don't care~!" Swift Wind sung. "Adora, Swfit Wind and Catra, on our way hoooome~!"
"Nothing beats home sweet home~!" Adora added.
"Could you two at least sing with a freakin tune?!" Catra groaned. It was bad enough that they were singing. It was even worse that they were singing badly.
"Oh come on, Catra, you know you wanna join in," Adora remarked. "I know how beautiful your singing voice is."
"The day I start singing one the bird-horse's melodies is the day hell freezes over," Catra let out an exasperated sigh.
At least they were flying over the whispering woods now. Not long till they got home and Catra could thankfully get Swift Wind's singing out of her head. Thank goodness Perfuma's meditation had been doing wonders to help with her anger management. As Adora and Swift Wind started to sing again and Catra consigned herself to her fate, she looked over Adora's shoulder at the skies before her. Dark clouds were starting to form and the wind was picking up. It looked like it was the start of a storm of some kind.
"I have a bad feeling about this weather," Catra said.
"No worries, if we fly at top speed, we'll be home before even a drop gets on you!" Swift Wind promised. "That's a Swift Wind guarantee!"
A large gust of wind blew past the trio in the sky, Catra clinging on. She hoped that this wind would just be the worst of it... but oh how wrong she was. Suddenly, small specks of glowing light began to fall from the clouds, carried by the currents of wind. Adora narrowed her eyes, feeling there was something familiar about this particular weather phenomena. Catra wrapped her arms around Adora's waist tightly.
"Oh hey, it's snowing!" Swift Wind called out.
"This doesn't look like snow, Swifty," Adora added.
"Yeah it almost looks like- AHHHH!!" Catra screamed as she felt a stinging burn, as one of the objects landed on her shoulder, burning through her shirt and marking her skin.
"Catra!" Adora exclaimed.
"I'm alright! I think this is a Spore storm! Lonnie told me she got caught up in one once with Kyle and Rogelio!!" Catra explained. "Don't let them land on you! They're acidic to the touch!"
"I thought it might have been a Spore storm!" Adora called back. "I remember one struck the Crystal Castle once! Completely fried Light Hope's circuits!"
"Wonder what the odds are it was the same one Lonnie was in!"
"Girls, can we focus on avoiding the acidic death raining from the sky!" Swift Wind cried out in panic.
Adora held on tightly. "Just try and avoid them, Swifty! It's not long till we reach Brightmoon!"
However, the wind was now blowing at its highest speed, and the spores were now circling around them, landing on the trees below. More spores kept hitting Catra and now Adora, the two of them wincing and grunting as the spores burned through their clothes. A large gust of spores flew straight at Swift Wind, the horse trying to dodge it... but even the steed of She-Ra wasn't fast enough, as several of the spores hit his wings. Swift Wind cried out in pain, trying to maintain control, but the deep burning in his wings overwhelmed him completely.
"Gahhhh! I'm hit!" He called out. "Mayday, mayday!"
"We're gonna crash!" Catra exclaimed as Swift Wind tumbled out of the sky.
Adora tried to control Swift Wind's descent... but with only one wing, it was completely hopeless. Swift Wind crashed to the ground below, the flying horse slamming straight into a tree and knocking Adora and Catra clean off his back and into the air. Adora landed down on the ground with a thud, Catra falling into a bush. Eventually pulling herself up, Catra crawled out of the bush, still in pain from the many burns that now covered her body. She went to Adora, rolling her over and patting the side of her cheek. Adora coughed, thankfully she was still alive.
"Don't die on me yet, idiot!" Catra groaned.
Pulling herself up, Adora saw Swift Wind trotting over to them, his wing badly burned. She rushed to his side, caressing his wing. "Swifty, are you okay? Your wing looks pretty messed up."
"I think it'll be fine, but I don't think I'll be flying anytime soon!" Swift Wind answered. "You girls alright?"
"Nothing seems broken," Catra responded, stretching herself, as she saw the spores still landing around them, scorching the trees with their touch. "We gotta find shelter!"
"We gotta call for help!" Swift Wind argued. "Get Glimmer on the horn and tell her to sparkle us home on the double!"
"No," Adora shook her head. "Our tech will just get messed up, just like what happened to the Crystal Castle. Catra's right, we need to find somewhere to hide and let this whole thing blow over."
Catra soon spied a small cave nearby and pointed to it. "That seems as good as any!"
"Let's go then!" Adora declared, transforming her sword into a shield to protect herself and Catra as the three of them sprinted to the cave as fast as they could. It was a tight squeeze, but soon enough, all three of them were safe for the moment. Adora then closed her eyes and held her hand over Swift Wind's wing, her magic soon healing the burns. She then did the same to herself and Catra, before she then slumped against Swift Wind's larger body with Catra in her arms.
The three of them stared as the spores fell from the sky. Fortunately, these storms were apparently infrequent enough that the woods would be able to survive. But still, the sight of seeing the most beautiful forset on Etheria burning like that was one that wasn't to be forgotten anytime soon. Adora was just glad they found this cave in time... but would it be safe forever? That was something that she was concerned about.
Swift Wind grunted as he tried to move but he was very tightly squeezed against the wall. "Ugh, they gotta make these little woodland caves with winged magical horses in mind. I'm gonna get such a cramp in my legs."
Catra found herself almost hypnotised by the falling spores. They were almost... beautiful, despite their deadly nature. "How long do you think we're gonna be in here? I don't exactly wanna spend the rest of my days cooped up in here, hiding from burning snow."
"I don't suppose I could interest you in a singalong?" Swift Wind inquired.
The answer to that question was Catra shooting Swift Wind a glare even more fiery than the falling spores.
"Okay, noted!"
"Guys, relax, I don't think these storms last too long," Adora tried to ease the tension. "We just gotta wait it out."
"Stupid freaky weird Etherian weather," Catra grumbled. "What's next, we're gonna get an ice tornado? A lava tsunami?"
"Could be worse, could be that freaky storm you cooked up when you hacked the Black Garnet?" Swift Wind remarked. "Now that definitely was the craziest weather anyone has ever seen."
"I'll take a planet-wide techno storm over this," Catra shot back. "At least when that happened I was safe in the Fright Zone. Plus the likelihood of getting struck by lightning is really small anyway... unless its being shot out by Scorpia."
"Guys, please, just relax, we'll be fine," Adora insisted, but soon, the hours began to tick by and the Spore storm showed no signs of stopping.
Slumped with her head on Adora's shoulder and her back against Swift Wind's torso, all Catra could do was watch the falling spores. She tried to count them at one point to try and ease her boredom, but even that proved hopeless when she eventually lost count around three thousand. And the longer Catra waited, the more frustrated and impatient she got. They should have been home already by now.
"You know it probably isn't that far to Brightmoon from here," Catra broke the silence, now definitely at the bargaining stage of grief. "If Adora covers us with her sword in its shield form and we run like hell... we could do it."
"Or we easily get lost and get stuck in the middle of an acid storm and have no way to find shelter," Adora pointed out. "We kinda struck gold literally crashing next to this cave." She held Catra's hand. "Just relax, okay, Catra? It'll be over soon."
"I know, I'm just... so friggin tired of just being stuck here... but you're probably right." Catra sighed, looking down. "I... kinda feel like this is my fault."
"How? None of this is your fault."
"My session with Perfuma ran a bit longer than normal. I was just having so much fun with her and Scorpia that I lost track of time a bit. If I'd cut things short and we'd set off earlier, maybe we'd have beat the storm and been nice and cosy in Brightmoon by now and not stuck in this stinkin' cave."
"Catra, that still doesn't make this your fault. We couldn't have known about a freak event like this. Besides, your sessions with Perfuma have been helping you a lot these last few months and I'm proud of you. You honestly could be handling this a lot worse."
Catra laughed, for the first time in hours. "Hahaha! Yeah, you're right. If this was the old me, I'd have probably started clawing at the walls by now, screaming my lungs out."
"See! Progress!" Swift Wind chirped. He then turned his head, seeing a small shaft of light leaking into the cave. "Hey... is that?"
Hoping this is what they'd been waiting for, Catra gingerly took the first steps out of the cave and reached out with her hand... and what greeted it was the light of the evening sun. The storm had finally broke and the clouds had parted. The forest that lay before Catra bared it scars in full, but like Catra's own scars, it too would heal and be reborn anew. Catra finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's over! Thank Mara!" Catra exclaimed.
"Woooo!" Adora cheered, running out and hugging Catra. "See, told you we'd make it."
"And once again, my amazing girlfriend is right and she really deserves the ego boost," Catra snarked, with a light blush on her cheeks.
Trotting out of the cave, Swift Wind weakly tried to spread his wings, but he winced in pain. "Ugh, still can't fly girls, sorry. Looks like we're going on foot."
"That's okay, we could really do with the exercise anyway," Adora responded, before she smirked at Catra. "Race you home, Catra?"
"Prepare to eat my dust!" Catra cackled, before she suddenly sprinted ahead down the track before them, Adora soon giving chase.
Swift Wind eagerly began to gallop after them, starting to sing once more. "Adora, Catra and Swift Wind! Survivors of the spore storm! Living through it to tell the tale~!"
As all three of them headed for home, each was glad that the storm was finally over and hoped they'd never find themselves caught up in such an event ever again.