Awakenings by Claudie Arseneault

Author:Claudie Arseneault
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: aromantic, asexual, Action/Adventure, epic fantasy, cozy fantasy, non-binary
Publisher: The Kraken Collective
Published: 2024-02-09T05:00:00+00:00

5

The Wilderness

The dome’s thin film of translucent pink marked the edge of Trenaze’s boundary with a clear line in the sand, and as the Wagon approached it, Horace climbed down. The entire world extended beyond this barrier, and for all of eir daydreams, e’d never expected to cross it. It felt… momentous, and Horace wanted to take the step emself, rather than to be rolled through. E should be scared—nothing would protect em from Fragments but a sentient Wagon which moved of its own volition, but only foolhardy excitement filled em, making eir fingers tingle. E passed them through the film first, as if to disrupt the energy throbbing in them, then with a jolt of thrill when nothing bad happened, strode through.

Eir confident stride faltered at the black sky and shining stars on the other side, wonder trapping eir feet to the ground. Had the sky always been so dark, and the stars so bright? E had only ever seen them through the dome, their immensity obscured by a pink glaze. The sight made em feel very small despite eir broad frame. E tore eir gaze away, but the wide expanse of the desert did nothing to diminish the feeling.

The Wagon trundled past, wooden wheels crushing pebbles under their weight.

“Hop back on, big friend,” Rumi called. “You can watch from the roof, where it’s safe! Fragments always avoid the Wagon.”

Horace climbed back inside, used the Wagon’s central ladder to reach the large wooden platform on top, and settled down, cross-legged, to soak in the scenery around em. The dirt and stone’s reddish tint had turned a more muted, softer orange, with shrubs and scrawny trees tracing black lines against the ground. In the distance, e caught glimmers of gold at times, Fragment shards moving across the land in lazy patterns. None of them flew in their direction and they looked almost peaceful, a herd drifting through its natural habitat, unbothered by the strangers passing through. But the most beautiful remained the sky, with thousands of light—like crystal dust sprinkled abovehead. Horace stared at it, so absorbed e didn’t notice Aliyah joining em until the blackness diminished and a blue tint crept its way through it, washing away the contrasts.

Dawn, e realized. Horace turned eastward, and for the first and perhaps last time of eir life, e watched the sun climb over Trenaze’s skyline. It painted the sky in soft hues of yellow and pink and blue, highlighting the perfect spheres of Trenaze’s three domes. Most of the city remained in shadows, sheltered by the bulk of the Nazrima Peak, its sharp cliffs rising like protective walls.

The city looked small—too small to have encompassed all of eir life until now, too small for the thousands that lived in it, never crossing the frontier of its shield domes. Everything still felt like a dream: the unblemished sky above, the mysterious elf whose laugh made em feel at home, even the quiet rumble of the Wagon under em, chugging away on the road and carrying em far from home, to lands unknown.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.