It had been raining for what must've been a few weeks straight, just constant rain without even a second's pause. Rain so harsh it was a wonder the entire world was not a single ocean. Thus Ambrela, Reinkout and Stroohet were forced to take shelter inside their small house, with nothing much to do besides listening to the sound of rain as it lashed against the walls of their home.
The trio was seated on the floor of the living room, a dozen board-game boxes surrounding them and an unfinished game of Trouble on the floor between them, though none of them seemed interested in continuing it.
Stroohet sighed, "How long is this going to go on??" frustration was evident in their voice, "We've been sitting here for, like, months!"
"It's only been two weeks." Reinkout responded with a disinterested tone, "You know that rain is common in Autumn". Ambrela on the other hand responded to Stroohet's question with only a half hearted shrug.
"I know Kout, but rain's not supposed to last this long!", Stroohet stood up, adjusting their straw hat as they did so. "I'm gonna go check outside to see what's really up.", they said, with a face of determination.
"What are you talking about, Het?", Reinkout asked, although she neither stood nor turned to look at Stroohet as she spoke, "It's just rain, sure it has lasted a while but it's still just rain.", she continued as Stroohet marched out of the living room and turned the corner out of sight. "What do you even think you're-" The sound of the front door opening and slamming shut cut her off, and so she just simply sighed and returned to sitting in silence.
After a brief silence, Ambrela spoke up: "So, are you going to go after them?". He spoke with a slow, methodical voice. It almost seemed like he was asleep, with the slow speech and closed eyes, as he sat with his legs crossed and with his umbrella on his lap.
"It's not my job to babysit Het." Reinkout muttered, absent-mindedly moving around game pieces on the Trouble-board.
"So, you think yourself above it?" Ambrela responded, earning a glare from Reinkout, "is that really any worse a use of your time than sitting here?".
"That's not-", Reinkout started and paused, before continuing: "If you care that much, why don't you go", the response was stern, frustrated and with a small bit of anger mixed into it. Ambrela did not respond, instead continuing to sit in silence. His head turned towards Reinkout as if glaring at her with closed eyes. For a while longer neither of them said anything but then, "Fine, I'll go", Reinkout groaned, stood up and walked out of the room.
*** *** ***
A solid wall of water greeted Reinkout as she stepped outside, accompanied by an ankle deep layer of water that covered the ground. The water made walking difficult, but Reinkout pressed on, even though it only got deeper and deeper as she got further and further from the house. Thankfully, the water seemed to peak around her knees, though its flow was strong enough to at times threaten to knock her down. Still, she managed to press on.
After a whiles walk, all the while she felt like she was being crushed by the water pouring down on her, Reinkout noticed that the rain seemed to be getting less and less harsh, and the water too seemed to be getting shallower, once more only reaching up to her ankles. After a while longer of walking, the rain stopped and the water disappeared. Not gradually, but all at once. One minute there was water and rain, and the next Reinkout was greeted by the sight of a landscape of mud as far as the eye could see. And when she turned to look back, she was greeted by rain and water once more. It was almost as if there were an invisible boundary beyond which neither rain nor water dared to tread.
For a moment Reinkout pondered if she should head back. Must've taken a wrong turn, doubt Het's gone this far, she thought to herself. However, for some reason she was unable to make herself turn back, almost as if some unseen force was pulling, further and further away from where she came and deeper into the mud-lands. And so Reinkout pressed on.
The walk was no easier even with the water and rain gone. Sure she no longer felt like the was on the verge of falling over due to the current being too strong, but the mud had it's own issue. It made each step near unbearably hard as held fast like glue, so starting a step was twice as hard as ending it. But Reinkout pressed on.
She walked up and down hills of mud, passed by spots where the mud seemed more liquid and places where it suddenly became dry and cracked only to turn to sludge mere moments later. In some spots, the mud had globbed together to form boulders, and in others pillars of mud stretched up before branching like trees. Eventually Reinkout came upon the edge of a canyon, it too made of mud. Its slopes where just barely gentle enough for her to scale down them. Walls of mud stretched high up as she looked around at the bottom of the caldera of mud but her attention was quickly caught by an unexpected sight.
There, in the middle of the valley, stood a lone, grey door.