The late morning had been spent harvesting the fields and sorting through the storage. They wanted to check if any food was going bad or if the harvest wasn't enough to support all of them. Phil helped bundling up the harvested wheat, keeping light conversation with Puffy while also keeping an eye on a very energetic Tommy, who was trying to start a water fight with half asleep George.

The older wasn't having any of it, taking an entire bucket filled with water and whirled it towards Tommy. With a shriek the youngest tried to dodge the wave of water, but ended up entirely soaked anyways, immediately starting to cuss out George for it. Puffy and Phil just looked at each other and shrugged, letting the chaos unfold as the two began to chase each other around.

"How did you manage to deal with them before? Seems very stressful if they are always like that." Phil shrugged, putting another bundle of wheat into the chest. "Tommy was stuck watching me and George was injured. Now they have a lot of bottled up energy to get out." "Ah. That explains why the place is still in one piece."

Phil laughed, leaning against the fence around the field. "Oh no. We usually stop them, but I can't really be bothered right now. Let them have their fun." Puffy shook her head, watching as Bad desperately tried to get out of the crossfire with his chest full of sand and gravel. "First class parenting right there." "Of course. I'm only raising the best water fight warriors."

They allowed the two to continue their fight, simply because they were almost done with the harvest anyways. At least the 'kids' will tire themselves out and go to sleep early tonight. That was, until heavy clouds had begun to cover the sun and a faint rumbling made everyone stop and look at the sky. A few moments later, the first raindrops started to fall.

At first they all just stared at the sky, watching the rain fall around them, as if it was the strangest thing they have ever seen. Which is kind of true, considering this is the very first time it rained since Philza entered this world. Honestly, they may as well have forgotten that rain even exists in this world.

Then, as it began to really pour down, everyone scrambled into the houses.

George and Bad fled into their house, with George being forced to borrow Bad's way too big jacket as he hung up his soaked shirt and pants to dry. Tommy was forced to do the same, curling himself up in his blanket while his clothes dried. Puffy half laughed, half scolded him for getting so soaked in the first place, being met with protests of "George started it!" every time she said something.

Phil remained in the open doorway, watching the rain pour down and form puddles on the ground, his wings twitching and his few feathers ruffling. The cool breeze and raindrops managing to hit his skin felt nice, since it has been a very warm few days. Might as well enjoy it.

"Our horse trio will be very happy about this weather." Puffy joined him and leaned against the other side of the doorframe, watching the rain. "Yeah... we should be prepared to take over their work if they get sick from this." The other only hummed, the quiet sound of rain hitting the roof and the ground the only noise they hear for a few moments.

"Do you think they can actually get a horse?" "I think they can. Animals have been behaving pretty weirdly, so it wouldn't surprise me if catching a horse is really easy now. But I am worried about them being out in this weather. The rumbling could mean a thunderstorm is coming and mobs can spawn during those."

Before Puffy could respond, a loud caw caught Phil's attention. Brian came speeding over the wall of their base, flying right into Phil's arms to hide from the rain. Phil cooed and cradled his bird companion, hiding him in the soft fabric of his kimono while the bird started to ruffle and shake his wings. Shortly after that the iron door flew open to reveal the three very soaked people hurrying towards their homes.

Sapnap and Dream ran towards their house, where Bad was already waiting for them with blankets and warm food. The two had to ditch their clothes and Dream his mask too, hanging them up to dry, but were quickly offered the blankets to warm up in. Dream was now more than glad that he had left his hoodie at home, since he could now cuddle into it while Bad handed them some food.

Techno hurried towards his home after shutting the door again, where Phil stood holding his dry cape and Puffy quickly grabbing his blanket for him. "Thanks...", he mumbled as Phil ushered him inside and wrapped the cape around him, using it more as a towel to dry him off a bit.

"Did you catch a horse or did you guys get soaked for nothing?" Techno whined when Phil tried to dry his hair with his cape, pulling his head away from the rough movement. "We caught three, actually. They were very tame and came with us after a few treats." "Really? Thats awesome! Maybe learning how to ride them will be easy too."

Techno took the offered blanket from Puffy after he was forced to hang up his clothes next to Tommy's. "We tried to keep an eye on the clouds but they were faster than we thought." "Yeah... I was worried you guys would be outside longer. Was already prepared to take care of three sick people. Five if Tommy and George get sick from their water fight."

Said child huffed and sat up in his blanket cocoon to look over at Techno. "What kind of horses did you get?" "Uh... I don't know what you mean with what kind, but we have one brown, one gray, one black and white horse?" Tommy rolled his eyes, a small grin on his face. "That was what I meant idiot." "When you ask what kind of horse, you mean species or body built. You could have just asked what color they are."

Phil snorted at the way Tommy groaned and flopped back on the bed. "Oh my god shut up mister know it all." "Eh? It's a normal thing to know!" "I said shut up, you're annoying!" Techno sighed and looked over to Phil. "Please get your child some basic knowledge." The blonde just laughed as Tommy began to protest about not being a kid.

The rest of the rain filled day was spent inside, hiding in warm blankets, telling stories or just napping. Despite Tommy's insisting of Techno being annoying and stupid, he did seem very fascinated when the older began to tell some greek story about sky gods.

Dream and George had began to try and make some sort of playing cards, using the paper from their sugarcane and coal to draw symbols on it. At least the shears were semi good at cutting the paper into the smaller cards. Sapnap was banned from helping after he used the coal to draw dicks on Dream's mask.

They had fun playing with them once they were done, even if the drawn on numbers and symbols stain their fingers and slightly smudge. It was something different for once, something normal from home. It felt good to pretend everything was alright, at least for a little bit.

---

Introducing everyone to the horses the next day was fun. They got up early, as usual, ate breakfast and then gathered at the heavy iron door. The horses had found their way out of the stable and were peacefully grassing in the fenced area.

"Awww they are so cute!" Phil leaned against the fence and tried to gain the attention of one of the horses. "They are bigger than I expected." "No you're just short." George huffed and punshed Dream in the arm. "I'm not! If anything Puffy is short!" "Hey don't drag me into this." "Stop it you guys, you will scare the horses."

Techno just rolled his eyes and climbed over the fence, making a beeline for his horse that he has officially called Carl now. Carl raised his head and snorted when recognizing Techno, trudging over to him and nudging his hand for a treat. "Hey Carl... you want some breakfast?" The horse happily took the offered apple and began to munch on it.

"Can I pet it?" Tommy stared at the horse with big eyes, like he has never seen a real one before. Techno grinned and handed him some wheat he can give to Carl. "You can, Carl is very gentle." Tommy carefully held his hand out, almost jumping back squealing when Carl began eating out of his hand.

"He likes me!" "I'm pretty sure he likes everyone with food." Techno looked around to see if Phil wants to come over and meet Carl, but spotted the blonde carefully feeding wheat to the black and white horse. Looks like Phil picked favorite too. They either need to share horses or they will need a lot more of them.

George, Dream and Sapnap were gathered around the gray horse, who seemed to actually like the attention and not become skittish at all. Yeah these were definitely not normal horses. Puffy and Bad slowly approached Phil and his horse, wanting to actually pet one too.

"Do you think we can ride them? Right now?" Tommy carefully pats Carl's neck and grinned up at Techno. "I mean, we probably need saddles first. And none of us have ever ridden a horse before, so learning it will be difficult." "But we can't craft saddles. We don't even have leather yet. And we need to kill cows for leather! I don't want to kill cows!"

Techno sighed and pets Carl's snout. "Maybe we can buy some at the village? Fishing them probably doesn't work. We don't have string for fishing rods anyways." Tommy hummed, obviously thinking way too hard about something. "But wouldn't we need to take the horses with us so the saddles will fit them? Won't it be easier if we can ride them to the village instead of walking all the way?"

"Tommy, your logic is right for once, but learning how to ride a horse is difficult enough with a saddle, it will be ten times worse without one." "But it's possible!" Techno sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. "You know what. Yes. It's possible. And you can try it and break all of your bones if you want. I warned you."

The teenager grinned and moved to Carl's side. "Let's try right now!" Techno groaned, but nodded anyways. He knelt down and gave Tommy a boost, helping him climb on Carl's back. The horse didn't even give a shit, happily munching on some grass.

"What are you two doing?" Phil eyed them warily, his wings twitching. "I don't know if that is a good idea." "Tommy wouldn't stop begging." "I did not-!" "Shhh don't scare Carl." Tommy huffed, but stayed quiet. "Shouldn't we wait until we have saddles?" "It'll be fine Phil. Just for a minute."

Techno carefully moved forward, bribing Carl to follow him with some more wheat. He did, trudging along with Tommy on his back, who grinned and clung to Carl's mane. "This is awesome!" "Yeah yeah you would be fully lost if I wouldn't bribe him to follow." Tommy decided he didn't hear that and instead continued to grin and hold on.

"You know... we could use some rope to hold on to and as reins. That way we can learn how to ride them before going to the village." Dream carefully slipped rope around the gray horse's neck. "I mean... it's worth a try I guess? Just don't hurt yourself please. They usually have this whole setup and stuff so the rider also doesn't get hurt..."

The masked man nodded before carefully climbing on the horse's back, who much like Carl didn't really care. "Okay. But they are not trained to react to any signals. They have to learn them first." Dream looked at Phil, held his gaze as he gave a gentle nudge to the horse's flank.

It began to trudged forward immediately, leaving Phil to stare at it in disbelief. The group began laughing as Phil stared, his wings hanging down.

"That's it. I give up. This is stupid. This game world doesn't make sense anymore."

//// A bit shorter today, but at least it's an update :D