Bringing the Rain

It hasn't rained in almost three years.

Times are desperate, people are getting hungrier and hungrier, and in the village proper there's been a great deal of muttering against the mayor.

Rain used to come from the cloud-wreathed Feather Mountain, to the east, but something has changed. Something has gone terribly wrong. People fear that they've angered God, or at least angered the storm spirits. All the villages and surrounding farms receive now are dry lightning storms and dust and hot, terrible winds that destroy what little remains in the parched fields.

You are still not technically old enough to be considered a man, but you've decided to leave home to take some of the burden off your parents, who have your younger siblings to think of. Furthermore, you've had enough of this drought; you're going to the top of Feather Mountain to find out the cause.  

Village Square
Fitful winds swirl around your feet and all about the cobblestoned square in the center of town, coating every available surface with dust from last night's storm. A scrawny chicken pecks half-heartedly at the ground next to the town's main well, long dry; people wanting water have had to travel miles to what's left of the river for nearly half a year now.    

The road to the mountains now turns and leads east out of town, past the dejected looking houses, all withered boards and cracked and peeling paint. The only home that has escaped this fate sits to the south and belongs to Melda, the self-proclaimed witch who insists she can end the drought if only the mayor would give in to her demands.    

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