The Princess's Feathers

“Asha, look! It’s just down there!”

Frida banks to the left and tilts the tips of her flight feathers to point out our destination. “Keuvra’s Horn,” she announces. A jagged, snow-coated triangular peak at the very top of the mountain slopes down to a flat plain where exposed rocks and large boulders stop the massive formations of ice and snow from expanding. Here is where Kuro will summon the flock for the gathering — though I can’t say I know how she will do it.

Meldi mentioned the ‘voice’ of Kin. I know from first-hand experience that Lithan’s voices can be quite loud. But loud enough to summon the whole flock from across an entire continent?

I chased the two sisters after they raced out of the aerie and followed them straight up the snowy face of the mountain. We had a strong thermal from the valley floor to carry us here, but it abruptly ended once we approached the top as strong, ice-chilled winds whipped from around the horn. Flying this high recalls my experience reaching the altitudes necessary to travel the strait to Felra… I’d hate to be the Kin who has to summon the flock when the skies aren’t so blue and peaceful.

Fighting against the gales, we lower from the sky, and Kuro lands on a boulder a few yards from the curving slope of the horn, followed shortly afterward by Frida. Kuro bounds to an icy crevice along an exposed rock wall as I come in to land. She shoves her muzzle into a crack and pulls out a mouthful of dark, oblong shapen ice.

A cloud of snow is thrown skyward by the force of my wings as I land a short distance from the sisters. “What’s that?” I ask.

“Twish wi—“

Kuro stops, chitters to herself, then drops the block of ice to the ground. “It’s ember root! Frozen in ice, of course. We keep a stock of it up here when we call the flock.”

I examine the block of ice up close. Ten or so roots, frozen in pale ice. “You’re going to start a fire?”

“Yeah. It’ll create a plume of smoke so Kin at the bottom of the valley are certain a gathering was called.”

She grabs the icy block with her jaws and steps onto a snow drift. Being familiar with the dustings of snow Varecia sometimes receives, my heart skips a beat as I expect her leg to sink and become trapped in the snow. But to my surprise, it holds Kuro’s weight perfectly, making loud creaking noises as she strides towards the cliff overlooking the valley.

“Hey, Asha,” Frida speaks up as she walks alongside Kuro. “Is there anywhere like this in the Farlands?”

“Nothing even close,” I tell her.

I’ve witnessed countless incredible things the past few days, but nothing quite as dramatic as the view up here. A gently sloping, perfectly circular U-shaped valley extends from the mountain's base and grows wider off to the horizon. I should be viewing this scene from the window of an airship, not the top of a snowy mountain!

I was beginning to suspect that my feathery Lithan body was well acclimated to cold environments, and now that I’m up here, I’m all but sure of it. Despite it being cold enough for snow to stick to the ground, I only feel a slight chill under my feathers, and my talons don’t have any trouble shifting on the compacted snow.

The Kin calls themselves the ‘Snowfell Flock’… if Lithans are dragons of the snow, could Redagas be acclimated to a different type of climate?

Kuro wedges the frozen block in between a cluster of charred boulders near the cliff’s edge. A vicious wind loosens a puff of snow into the air from somewhere below us, temporarily blocking our incredible view behind a curtain of snowflakes. When the wind subsides, she blasts the ice with a shot of fire and the roots ignite. A pillar of flame grows against the gusts of wind, and smoke bellows into the sky.

As Kuro and I watch the fire grow, Frida is conspicuously staring at her talons. “Um…” she mumbles to herself. “I’m sorry you had to watch us fight our grandmother, Asha. You must think our heads are full of sparrows…”

“Oh, Frida. It’s fine, really…” I trail off, rubbing a wing against my neck. Gee, getting into huge fights with your family members? I wonder who else is guilty of that, ASHA?

“A lot of the older Kin can be really stubborn about traditions and stuff. It’s frustrating, but me and Kuro get into fights with her a lot.”

“Really?” I say.

“Oh, yeah. Don’t worry, there’s no hard feelings between us,” her face draws into a big toothy grin.

What a stout little pair, these two. Sofl usually supports my arguments with mom at a distance — never vocally while she’s in person. If Sofl had as much self-confidence as I did, mom would wilt like a varecian rose when we got into a shouting match. Always knowing the other would have your back so vocally… no wonder these two are so close to each other.

“Is that why you believed I was a Farlander?” I ask.

“Huh?” her face twists with a hint of disbelief. “What do you mean?”

A puff of smoke blows between us. “I’ve had to convince everyone — your sister included — that I was a Farlander. But you accepted it without hesitation when she told you who I was.”

“Oh!” she chirps and relaxes her feathers.

“You two are very close, I can tell.”

She chitters to herself and stares up at Kuro. “Well, I figured if anyone could find a Farlander and bring them to White Mountain, it’s Kuro.”

“Shut up…” she mumbles.

Another strong wind rips around the mountain and sputters the flames of the ember root. My gaze is drawn to the plume of smoke drifting higher into the sky. “What happens now?”

Kuro approaches the cliff with her wings half-open. She looks back over the tops of them and says, “The songs of Kin.”

My head tilts. “Songs?”

“Listen.”

Kuro pauses and looks out at the valley that stretches to infinity on the horizon. She rolls back on her foretalons and bunches her muscles. She rears her neck back and lets out a tremendous roar!

ROOOAARRRRRRR!!

The ground beneath me shakes as the roar vibrates the mountain like a bell struck by a hammer. I swirl around to see Keuvra’s Horn oscillating, particles of snow and chunks of ice floating away, her roar echoing off of and projecting outwards in a glorious cacophony of noise. It sounds discordant like the horn was amplifying her cry. I bunch my legs to remain upright, and it feels as if the moon itself could be torn asunder by her call. It travels from the peak and returns to us on echoes as it bounces off the valley walls. It’s just like when I cried out while circling for a landing around Owens Island, but far power powerful and far more extraordinary.

SKREECH!

Embedded in the echoes is a cry from somewhere to our left.

ROOARR!

SCRREEE!!!

Two more join with the first, originating somewhere close to the mountain.

RA-RARRR!

KREEE!!

ROOOARR!

One-by-one as the wave travels, calls from every point in the valley rise to join the growing chorus of noise. I attempt to count their voices but quickly conclude it’s futile as tens— no, hundreds of Dragons sing forth, their voices compounding into a harmony of beautiful, discordant sound.

“The songs of Kin,” Kuro announces, surveying her orchestra. “A celebration of our prominence, and a lament for the lesser creatures of the moon. They sing to acknowledge a gathering has been called and will soon take flight to White Mountain.”

“Kuro, this is…” I trail off, failing to come up with adequate words to describe what I’m witnessing. “Well, it’s incredible. How far will your voice travel?”

A large bunch of voices, perhaps twenty or so, join the song.

Kuro angles her wing forward and smiles. “There’s Flat Rock.”

I gaze off across the valley with my mouth agape. I already knew firsthand just how powerful Lithans could be, but this is far beyond anything I could have imagined. To think that we, ascendant animals, consider ourselves enlightened and technologically advanced creatures. What arrogance! Nothing in our creation comes close to the pure spectacle of an entire valley of Dragons singing harmoniously.

And then, one by one, just as Kuro promised, the rising voices are replaced by rising Lithans, taking flight from the dens and hunting grounds to make their way to White Mountain. The songs subside, it’s not long before the sky is filled with a swarm of Kin, all winging in our direction.

“Come on, Asha!!”

Frida, unable to contain her excitement, lopes from the cliff face and disappears somewhere below. Without hesitation, Kuro and I leap after her and join the growing mass of Dragons.

Back in the mountain, Kin have been slowly filtering in, finding comfortable spots to rest while the remainder of the flock slowly arrives from the far-flung reaches of Kin territory. Once the first Kin from the curiously named ‘Grandfather Tree’ announces their arrival, the gathering will begin.

While Frida left to join the crowd and find her friends, Kuro and I are resting on one of the lower levels of the humbly named ‘Gathering Stone,’ the massive stone edifice I saw when we first entered the aerie. Interlocking pillars of stone rise from the ground to form a tall stage, lit in the center by two ember root fires. This is where the Elders sit and address the flock during gatherings.

Visually, just like everything else here, it’s a genuinely impressive sight to behold — a tower of stone that must be as tall as the Lordanou Palace itself! Now, if only it had an equally as grandiose name.

I mean, come on.

The ‘gathering stone’? That sounds like a pebble you accidentally stepped on in a creek. They should have called it the ‘Gathering TOWER!!’ or the ‘Stone ASSEMBLAGE.’

Lithans aren’t the best when it comes to naming stuff. And if Kuro’s ‘Featherbrain’ insult earlier was any indication, they also need some serious help dispensing insults. Since we’re lying down next to each other, I almost want to interrupt her and give her an on-the-spot lesson about coming up with good burns. Unfortunately, she’s in the middle of a vital pep talk about what to expect during the gathering. I’ll need to follow the rules of conduct and know how the elders will conduct the meeting.

“So, after the Elders say their chant, the fires in the mountain will flicker like they’re about to extinguish. But they’ll remain lit, and then…” Kuro trails off, and a glimmer shines in her eyes. “That’s when Keuvra appears.”

On mentioning Keuvra, my attention is recaptured. “What part of the aerie does he come from? Will he land on the gathering stone with the elders?”

“Nope,” Kuro chirps. She looks to the ceiling above and says, “He appears above us.”

I follow her gaze, expecting to see some cave or opening in the rock where he could descend from. I look around a group of Kin gliding through the aerie and spot a few small openings, but nothing big enough for an adult Lithan to slip through. “Um, from where, exactly?”

“Well, Keuvra won’t be physically here,” she explains matter-of-factly. “His image will appear over the aerie.”

I cease staring at the ceiling to stare at Kuro. “His image?”

She lowers her head back down. “Mmhmm. Keuvra lives in the mountain, but only the elders are allowed to view his physical form. For the rest of the flock, we see an apparition here in the mountain.”

An apparition of Keuvra? So, he’s going to look like a ghost? Deities are supposed to have certain powers, but using them would interfere in our world, which the God of Creation, Azurrel, strictly forbids. Wouldn’t an apparition of himself be breaking those rules?

“Doesn’t the Goddess do something similar?”

Before I can answer Kuro’s question, a Kin’s voice calls out from above us, “Blue skies, esteemed elder!”

I turn up to see a tawny plumaged drakon hovering above a tattered, slate blue Kin. Kuro told me his name is Uma, the youngest of the four elders in the flock. He flew up to the gathering stone a little while ago and had been silently surveying the crowd ever since. The brown newcomer continues, “Brothers and sisters from the Grandfather Tree are arriving. We await your wisdom.”

“Warm currents,” answers Uma. His voice is warm and fierce, not at all hoarse like Bonello and Meldi’s. “I will call the others, and the gathering will begin.”

The airborne Kin acknowledges with a screech and turns to fly off and join the growing crowd. The air is filled with the dull murmur of conversation, and from our vantage by the rock, it seems the aerie is almost full of Lithans.

“The answer is ‘no,’” I tell Kuro, circling back to her question about Goddess. “But it sounds like the gathering is about to begin.”

“That’s right,“ she says, curling her tail around her. “I think I’ve told you everything you need to know for the gathering, so… I’ll be watching with everyone else.” Our eyes meet, and Kuro’s face turns thoughtful for a quiet moment. A second later, her feathers relax, and she adds, “Good luck, Asha.”

I smile, and she quickly returns the gesture. I want to tell her my thoughts and thank her for everything she’s done to help me, but I have trouble locating my voice. Before I can loosen the words, she slips away and bounds down the rock, plunging into the growing crowd of feathers and fluff.

Ugh, why did I hesitate when I tried to speak? I don’t know how my future is about to unfold, and Kuro and I may part ways after this gathering is over.

I never had the strength to tell Calypso…

…

She needs to know how much I appreciate her. My mind made up, I resolve to talk to her after the gathering. No matter what happens.

I sigh and try to temper the nervousness flaring inside my stomach. Somehow I’ve traveled from my home in Varecia to the inner sanctum of Lithan society, and I’ll have a public audience with the dragon deity in just a few minutes. What will he say to me? Will I find out why I became a Lithan? Will he tell me how to turn back to normal? Or will he have some other plan in store for me?

With Keuvra on my mind, I swivel my neck around and look past the gathering rock, catching a glimpse of Uma passing through an opening in the far wall that’s just big enough for a Lithan to pass through. Flanked to his left is a Kin with square shoulders perched curiously on a boulder, his eyes furiously darting around the aerie. A fledge flies in for a landing a short distance from the opening, causing the boulder-mounted Kin to raise his hackles and wings with an audible huff. But the fledge pays no mind to the imposing Lithan, bounding away from him with a skip and flick of the tail to join her friends in the crowd.

You don’t have to be a Princess surrounded by armed security your entire life to figure out what’s going on here: That guy’s guarding that entrance in the wall. And in remembering that the Elders are the only ones allowed to see Keuvra in person, I’m certain the deity must lie beyond there.

The flock is awfully serious about ensuring nobody sees Keuvra’s physical form. I wonder why?