#begin
You awake to the white noise of gallons of {rain|listen} pouring onto your back, shivering and shimmying in the freezing cold. A horrible realisation dawns as your half-slumbering mind puts it together that the pavement slab your cheek has found itself on is not, in fact, your cosy bed. What on earth <em>happened</em> last night?
>> {{#five-more-minutes Mmh… Five more minutes…}}
>> {{#get-up Open your eyes and get up.}}
##rain.listen
The howl of the wind that gusts and gales around your ears nearly blots out the crashing torrents of rain coming in from all around. A thunder softly roils in the distance.
##five-more-minutes
You stayed up late, and you’ll be damned if you’re getting up early. So you toss and turn, clothes scraping against concrete, legs squelching against wet grass|smell, almost managing to sleep it off until a deafening thunder-crack erupts from the sky and bolts you awake against your will.
>> {{#get-up Open your eyes and get up.}}
##get-up
Clumsily, limb by limb, you pick yourself up off of the ground. You open your eyes to find that it’s the middle of the night, and you’re in the middle of nowhere.
Under the dim street-lights, all you can make out is what seems to be a quiet English village street. To your left, a {full moon.look} peeks through the clouds over {farmland|look,smell} and behind a row of oak trees. To your right, down the path, is a row of three quaint cottages… one of which just turned its lights on.
>> {{#uhh Uhhh…}}
##fullmoon.look
The gaps in the clouds are few, but you could swear the moon didn’t look like that before. You decide to ignore it. There are bigger things to worry about.
##farmland.look
The sodium light drops off quickly, letting you in on only a thin strip of the field beyond. You can, at least, see some bales of hay. Or lucerne? It’s too dark to tell.
##farmland.smell
As soon as you take a whiff of the pasture beside you, you regret it. Looks like it’s just been fertilised.
##uhh
You run through the possibilities in your head. On one hand: <i>It’s a nice country village. Surely they’ve just noticed there’s someone out in the cold and they’re coming to help</i>. On the other: <i>It’s a nice country village. Shit, what if they think i’m a trespasser on their property? What if they’re coming to shoot me?</i>
Cupping your ears and squinting your eyes, you make out hurried footsteps. Or… are those hoofbeats? Fuck. Where the hell is this place? You swear that shadow in the window was holding <em>something</em>, but you couldn’t tell what.
>> {{#ftfo Freak the fuck out and run away.}}
>> {{#steel-yourself Tell yourself it’s going to be fine.}}
##ftfo
TKTK ADD STUFF HERE
##steel-yourself
You can do this, you think to yourself. You’ve been through worse. …Well, you haven’t, really, but it’s a nice thought. Ignoring the primordial urge to fight or fly, you decide to walk (as fast as your body will let you) right up to this fellow’s {house|look}, and ask for help.
Dripping shoes splashing down into every puddle, breath condensing in air, step by step, you get a little closer, and the ruckus inside grows a little louder. As you reach the {front yard|look} and ready yourself to open the {gate|look}, you wonder how you’ll even explain the predicament to the person on the other end of the door.
Then, before you can even decide on your wording, the door opens. Your ears prick up at the sound of keys rattling. A sliver of gold light begins to appear. The open door reveals the silhouette of your savior — the silhouette of a, uh… um…
>> {{#wtf “What the fuck?”}}
##house.look
TKTK ADD STUFF HERE
##wtf
Well, that wasn’t the greatest greeting for what’s clearly a first-contact scenario, but you can’t exactly take it back now.
Before you, wearing a dark purple anorak, stands some kind of anthropomorphic otter…deer…goat…<em>thing</em>. (You’re not sure if the parka makes its appearance more or less incongruous.)
TKTK ADD STUFF HERE
>> {{#inside Look, i’m not going to assume anything. Until further notice? They’re a they.}}
>> {{#inside Oh, come on, he’s got a beard and everything! He’s a he.}}
>> {{#inside Don’t care. Looks female enough. She’s a she.}}
>> {{#inside I’ve been on the internet long enough to know how this works. Shi’s a shi. …However that’s pronounced.}}