House Repairs (Blizzard and Kuroda)

Kuroda

Kuroda walked along the pond, his blue eyes scanning the area for one Mais in particular. Blizzard… the pale blue and pink Mais was one of his very best friends in the Pond, so Kuroda always liked checking in on him. He walked to Blizzard’s house, peering around the area curiously, “Blizzard?” It was possible the social Mais was out. If so, then Kuroda would just have to continue the search.

---

Blizzard

At the sound of his name, a blue head popped over the edge of the roof of the small house. "Up here, Kuro!" he called down, waving his tail in greeting. He'd been fixing a gap in the roof, but now shuffled  over to the makeshift steps leaning against the side wall of the building. "Sorry about that," he said with a sheepish grin, "A loose stone fell on the house." He glanced up at the small stone ridge his house was built against.

---

Kuroda

Kuroda looked up at the sound of his friend’s voice, seeing him up on the roof of his house. “Oh, hi Blizzard!” he said, walking to the bottom of the steps. He tilted his head, “Yikes, that’s too bad. Do you need any help? I hope no other damage.” he said. A hole in the roof was unfortunately enough, but he hoped that nothing else was damaged.

---

Blizzard

"No, just the one hole," Blizzard said, "I do need to get some more reed stems to patch up the hole though. I could use a little help carrying them back if your not busy." He turned his blue gaze towards the pond banks a little ways down the hill, where the reeds swayed in the breeze.

---

Kuroda

Kuroda was happy to hear it was only the hole. Hopefully it would be easy to patch up! He nodded when Blizzard asked for his assistance carrying some reed stems, “For sure!” he answered, turning toward the pond and waving his tail, waiting for Blizzard to take the lead. “Between the two of us, maybe we can even gather all that we need in one trip.”

---

Blizzard

Blizzard nodded and began walking carefully down the slope; the grass was still rather slippery with frost, despite the approaching Spring. "Watch your step!" he called back over his shoulder as he neared the bottom of the small hill.

---

Kuroda

Kuroda noticed the slope’s slickness a bit too late, wobbling precariously before finally catching himself and stepping much more carefully after Blizzard, “Do you like your name? It fits this time of year!” he said as they made their way toward the reeds. He liked winter well enough, but by now he was ready for spring.

---

Blizzard

Blizzard chuckled quietly. "It's kind of hard to give a definite answer on that. I think it fits my colours, but," he paused with a shiver, "I could do without this horrid season." Watching his precious autumn melt into winter was Blizzard's least favourite time of year. "At least it'll start getting warmer now." He grinned at his companion.

---

Kuroda

Kuroda chucked at Blizzard’s explanation. He loved the beauty that winter brought but he definitely felt the woes of his friend as well. It was… quite cold. He nodded, “Yeah! It’ll warm up before we even know it, and you’ll have a nice new roof to keep out all that spring rain.” Now that they were down by the water’s edge, Kuroda set about inspecting the reeds, to pick the best ones for the hole in Blizzard’s roof.

---

Blizzard

Blizzard nodded eagerly and glanced up at the reeds around them. "We only need some of the smaller ones, since my roof isn't that big," he said, padding over to a short reed poking out of the sand. He gripped it in his mouth and tugged, feeling satisfied that it slid out with no resistance. "This shouldn't take too long."

---

Kuroda

Kuroda nodded, watching Blizzard as he picked a small reed, pulling it out gently. “Right,” Kuroda said, turning and looking around for a small reed that he could grab. He saw one by the water’s edge and walked over, examining it. It was thick and stable, even if small, with no rips or nicks. Looks perfect! Kuroda grabbed it carefully in his mouth by the base, gently lifting. This reed was as easy as Blizzard’s had been, shallow roots lifting from the soil as he gently yanked it up. He smiled, satisfied by his work, and put the reed to the side, starting his pile. He turned to look for another, finding it close nearby. He pulled that one up and added it to the pile as well. He saw one closer to Blizzard and walked over to get that one too. As he prepared to yank it out, he asked his blue and pink friend, “How many do you think will be enough?” he shifted his blue eyes up toward the fellow mais.

---

Blizzard

Blizzard tugged at another reed, a more persistent one at that. He paused, pondering the dark Mais's question for a moment. "Seven should be enough," he mumbled around the reed. It wasn't that big of a hole, and Blizzard already had half patched up from earlier in the morning. He tugged the reed again, squeaking in surprise as it suddenly jerked free, and he stumbled back, flopping into the sand on his back. "Whoops," he chuckled sheepishly and climbed to his feet, tossing the reed on top of his other one.

---

Kuroda

Kuroda nodded at the answer, turning back toward the reed. He looked back in alarm when he heard Blizzard fall, though luckily the pale mais laughed at himself. Kuroda chuckled a bit too, “Those reeds are toughies!” he remarked, sort of hoping this one would be similarly as difficult. He liked a good challenge.

Although the reed was fairly tough, it still let go without too much resistance, and he turned back to his friend. He had three now. He picked out one that was particularly thick for his next one. And just as he has hoped, it did not come out as smooth as the others had before. After several moments of tugging, he stopped to let out a puff of breath. He looked back at Blizzard, “Hey, could you lend me a fin?” he asked his friend.

---

Blizzard

Blizzard tugged at another reed, luckily an easy one for him again. He turned his head at the sound of Kuroda's voice, stumbling a little as the reed swung awkwardly in his mouth. "Sure thing!" he grunted and tossed the reed down. This would be the last one they needed.
He hopped over through the sand and clamped his jaws around the reed stem, just behind Kuroda. "On three?" he mumbled around the mouthful.

---

Kuroda

Kuroda nodded a bit at Blizzard’s instruction. “Right.” he said, taking a breath. The ground was soft enough to cushion their fall, just as it did Blizzard’s when he encountered his first difficult reed, so Kuroda had no concerns about throwing his weight behind this attempt. Through the stem he said, “One… two… three!” and then he yanked with all his might. With Blizzard’s strength as well as his, hopefully they would be able to pull it out.

---

Blizzard

Blizzard shuffled his feet until he had a good grip in the cool sand, and tensed up as Kuroda counted down. On three, he pulled as hard as he could, leaning back against the stubborn reed. When it finally slipped free of the sand, Blizzard squeaked as, once again, his feet skidded on the sand, and he plopped onto his back.

---

Kuroda

Kuroda tumbled back as the reed finally came out. He was quick to let go of the prize and regain his feet, catching his breath as he looked over at Blizzard. “There we go,” he said cheerfully. They had enough to fix Blizzard’s roof now. “You ready to head back and get started on rebuilding?” he asked, walking to his pile of reeds to gather them up for the trip back.

---

Blizzard

Blizzard rolled back to his feet and nodded eagerly. He padded back to his own pile and lifted it onto his back, balancing them carefully as he started back up towards his home by the ridge. "You don't need to stick around for rebuilding if you don't want to," he said with a smile, falling into step beside his friend, "I can manage it on my own if there's somewhere you need to be!"

---

Kuroda

Kuroda walked beside Blizzard as they made their way back up toward his home, careful not to slip on the snowy grass as they went up the slope. "Naw, I've got nothing else going on." Kuroda insisted, “and I love these kinds of projects.” Music was perhaps Kuro’s greatest passion, but building and creating in general were things the versatile mais loved to do, and that included construction! Besides that, he was always up for helping out a friend. Most of all Blizzard, who was probably his closest friend at the Pond.

As they reached Blizzard’s home, Kuroda dropped the reeds on the ground and turned to the blue and pink mais, “Alright, let’s get fixing!”