literature

Seeing Over the Mountains: Chapter Three

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Literature Text

    Past an arched doorway projected a stone platform with guards at all four corners. Syraine dipped her shoulder over the tiled center just long enough for me to grab hold and swing myself up. Infused with her excitement, I hunched against her back as she sauntered off the ledge and we jolted into free fall.
    Air scraped the sides of our bodies, clawing for a hold. The wind tugged at my hair and the hem of my robes, persistence building to a crescendo of swirling air     and freefall even as raw muscle coiled beneath me, taut and ready to burst - but it didn't. Not all at once. To either side of me, golden-tipped wings made an almost timid emergence from their posts at Syraine's sides. 
    The wind slammed into her unfurling wings and we bounced upward. Spreading in the sunlight, her wings shimmered as if layered in tiny diamonds. 
    Without a snowflake in sight now, we dipped lower in the sky, swirling down among the wind currents that brought the noise of the city's marketplace up to us. 
    The buffeting winds gave way to calmer air spiced with the heavy aromas of the market. A ledge cut into the rock above the stalls provided ample landing space. Once a knot of shoppers passed us by, my dragon and I leapt down among them, weaving through the marketplace toward a cluster of glassblowers' stalls.
    The woodsmoke scent of the grey dragon behind the counter greeted us before he did. The vendor's glossy smile, burnished clean by dragonfire, showed he still recognized us. 
    Glinting on the table in front of him and looking all the more unearthly in contrast to the ragged cloths on which they rested were intricate sculptures of glass. Abstract whorls and patterns tossed rainbows onto perching cardinals and curving poppies. 
    After sifting through a cluster of flowers, I plucked a delicate lily with twirled glass leaves off of the pile and, feeling Syraine's approval, handed it over to the vendor. "Green or yellow this time?" he asked. 
    "Green," she replied, watching as he swaddled the ornament in a soft cloth of that color, tying it into a bundle with ribbon.
    "45 and  1/3 terzo." He'd given us a reasonable price, a rare thing from someone who could see the imperial seal on my robes. As I handed the coins to him, he used his tail to push the bundle across the counter where Syraine took it in her teeth. 
    We wove through the crowds until we reached another stone ledge with enough space for a dragon to take off. Once in flight, with the green bundle nestled in my lap, we turned toward the higher mountains in silent agreement.
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As of 3/31/15, this has been added into the main story after Chapter Two for a little extra worldbuilding :)

Feedback is more than welcome!

I might want to put this little scene in after Chapter 2, just as a way of exploring this world a little bit. Thoughts?

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Valkeus-and-Varya's avatar
Wonderful paintings of words again! 

"The wind slammed into her unfurling wings and we bounced upward. Spreading in the sunlight, her wings shimmered as if layered in tiny diamonds. " :3

I liked seeing a dragon as a normal member of society (or so I would guess). It's always fun to read about how they would fit in to human society, or how they would cause a bi-species culture to adapt to their needs.
Wonder what Syraine wants the flower for...