The Cinders of Dezu

15th: Daybreak (1)

Raina woke up early in the morning when she heard the birds chirping. She could hear them in the trees down below her window. Morning bird calls had always been a delight of hers from when she was small. She was particularly sensitive to them, wherever she was. She remembered the moment she realized that not everyone could understand the conversations being held in the trees. For her, this made them an alarm clock akin to an early morning talk radio show, rather than the simple sounds of the outside.

Last night had been pretty fun at dinner with Orion. She had told him about her dance class that her dad had put her in. She showed him the routine she had learned so far for her recital and he even gave her a round of applause. She then started telling him about some of the animals she was learning about in school and a video she saw about a hippopotamus putting its baby on a group of alligators.

She told him how all of the alligators froze in fear just because the mom was nearby. She knew she was the boss and so did they. She asked if he knew that a hippos jaws can snap an alligator right in half and that lead into a whole conversation of them swapping animal stories. After the third story of Orion's, the one about the monstrous Galeefo, Raina could no longer contain her excitement for all the new kinds of strange creatures she could see in Dezu. She begged to join him when he went out the next day. He reluctantly agreed, but only on the condition that she be up early enough to join him before he left.

This is where the birds morning talk show came in handy. However simple the communication, birds talked about the rising sun, argued over lady birds, and discussed the pursuit of the days morning goals. This was her queue to get up and pursue her own. She slipped something on and headed down the winding stairs. The king had told her where to meet him if she was up in time. It was down the stairs, through the foyer, past the dining hall, make a right, go down the hall with the tall windows, make a left and then a quick right. This led to the courtyard where, once she had traveled through it, lead to a pathway that went outside the palace to what the king called a crossover sanctuary.

Guards were posted at the door. They grinned at her and let her pass. Raina wandered through the door to see Orion in the center of the round room looking in her direction. He wore a smile and had his violet crystal in hand.

"You made it!" he said.

"Dad has to be to set early when I come with him sometimes. I'm used to it."

Raina stood next to him. Orion's hand glowed a hot yellow as he lit the purple stone in his palm. She watched it burst in bright light before it nearly instantly reduced back to a solid form. Raina had squinted and blinked so when she looked around she wasn't sure if it had worked.

"It looks the same," she said.

"It does. I designed them to be pretty uniform. Especially on the inside. But we did move. This sanctuary is near a town called Leema, so it's named after it."

"How can you tell the difference?"

Orion rocked his head from side to side.

"There's little things. I mean, first of all, I can count. It usually takes me to each area in the same numerical order. Leema is usually the first one. But if it scrambles it up for some reason I can usually tell. Plus, I recognize people like Neesie over there."

He pointed to the arm of a Sanctuary Guard he could see the hand of near the doorframe of the sanctuary entrance.

"Hi, Neesie!"

The pale green face of a young woman peaked around the corner with a big smile.

"Good morning, your highness!"

"How's Jin doing today?" he asked.

"Oh he's doing, okay. Still sick though. He'll get over it, the big baby."