Large hunting fowl chirped and flitted from rock to rock, clinging to the vines with their talons before they leapt, wings tucked tight to their bodies as they pursued angelflies for a mid-morning snack.
The entire Garden filled with their song.
And with it… the sound oflife.
Sonara didn’t have a hope in the world of holding her curse back. The cage door practically blasted open, her curse soaring out as she breathed in the aura.
Fresh flower petals and sun-warmed dew and bread rising over a smoldering fire.
It was the aura of laughter, of love, of distant souls greeting each other after months spent apart. It was happiness and joy and lovers reuniting, family members embracing, old acquantainces becoming friends once more.
“The Garden of the Goddess,” Jaxon said from his mount.
Sonara echoed his smile as she breathed it all in.
The sounds echoed back, music and laughter and conversation, the whinny of steeds and the roar of desert cats greeting their companions. The sound of blades clashing, as old comrades sparred together once more.
All around the Garden, interspersed around the rocks, were tents and makeshift booths. Citizens from across Dohrsar had come: Soreians, Deadlanders and those who’d made the journey from the northern White Wastes by wyvern.
Their sky wagons were docked to the far left of the goddess’ fingertips, sails made of stitched hide pulled down taut so as not to catch the wind. The great metal harnesses for the wyverns had been removed and set aside, and the wyverns themselves stood clustered in a makeshift pen.
Overhead, Markam and Razor circled, coming to land by Sonara.
Razor cried out at the sight of her own kind, watching the northern wyverns in the pen. A pile of raw mountain goat legs was stacked in the middle: a free-for-all.
“We don’t get too close to royals, my love,” Markam said to the beast, as he landed and slid from the saddle. Delicate whorls of emerald smoke plumed from Razor’s nostrils, but she lowered her head as he unstrapped her saddle.“They are not kind to desert rats like us.”
He glanced at Azariah with coldness in his gaze.
She simply lifted her chin and glanced past him, her near-black eyes wide as she took it all in. She reached up and lowered her hood, a genuine smile on her lips. “It is a marvel,” she said in a breath. “I never imagined it to be this way.”
“The Gathering?” Sonara asked.
“No.” The Princess only smiled and wrapped her arms around herself.“Freedom.”
She looked like a child receiving a gift. A warrior, being granted their very first sword at sunrise, toes dipped in the raging sea.
“When will they arrive?” Sonara asked.
Thali, all emotion hidden beyond her Canis mask, only looked skyward. “Dusk. The Wanderers will wait for the feast.”
“And then?” Sonara asked.
The jagged teeth of the Canis flashed bright white beneath the sun as Thali beheld the Gathering. “Then we will begin.”
The Wanderers had not yet arrived. But the Gathering was in full swing. And, stars above,the silk.
It was so soft against her cheek, Sonara wanted to bury herself in it.
She wasn’t even past the outer ring of tents and booths when she’d found it. Her curse went wild, so close to something like this.
Cool, smooth water, like diving into an oasis after a long day’s ride.
s
Damn it all to hell.
Outlaw or not, a girl needed fineries like these.
