The Gardenkeeper's Daughters

Lotus- 3

 Though my sister is clearly completely incredulous, I have to admit it makes sense. She did just fall from the sky, she has three Verhamera's Horns, and she does look kind of like an angel. Between the wings and the horns, she might as well be the angel of legend, come to Dreamland to defend Verhamera's children against some great evil, the likes of which have never been seen by mortal eyes.

The idea of it, though terrifying, fills me up with excitement. There's going to be a great journey unlike anything the world has ever seen and we might get to tag along. Stifling the last of my giggles (Nat! Of all names!), I bound up to the beautiful Canis and ask, "So, if you're Verhamera's daughter, you must be sent here for some great purpose, right? What's going on? How can we help?"

"Great purpose." I can see her mulling it over in her head. She blinks several times, as if she could look past us and see the answer if she keeps doing it, and then says quietly, "Wow, they must talk about me a lot here. Are you sure there aren't any other daughters of Verhamera?"

"Of all the daughters of ancient deities capable of creating our world and the entire multiverse, I'm pretty sure you're the only one who's ever showed up."

"That's awful! I'm sure Verhamera didn't mean for me to leave. It was my fault I ended up here in the first place."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I was in her palace with the Terreskians, but she wouldn't let me near the portals the Terreskians use and she wouldn't let me look out at creation either. So I was looking around one day, and I fell into the Room of Travel and tripped into a portal. I woke up face first in another dimension entirely, and it was almost completely underwater. After mulling around there for a little while, I opened my own portal, and I've been going from world to world ever since. I'm sure she's worried about me."
I know all about the Terreskians- they're the first race in all the worlds, creatures with galaxies on their pelts and eyes that reflect the cosmos themselves. They were Verhamera's family and later servants, and she based the Canira off of them when she created the races of Dreamland. Like the Terreskians serve her, in larger packs and even kingdoms, (which are like packs but much larger and with a far less defined power structure) the Canira are often bound to do servant work for the Canii. They happily take on this duty, though some of the feral Canira out here are far less kind.

However, for all this information about mythology, I had no idea that the savior of Dreamland was going to reach us by tripping through a portal and aimlessly stumbling across dimensions.

Natrina is too flabbergasted to speak and my silence must be equally drawn out, because the fluffy, winged Canis continues, "By the way, my name's Aislyn. You're Natrina, and wait- who are you again?"

"Lotus." I say quietly.

"I definitely knew that. You guys aren't with anyone else, are you? Do Canii usually travel in groups of two?"
Natrina speaks up first. "No, actually, we just left our pack. We're going to go see the Queen of Dreamland about helping them. There was a forest fire, though it was probably magical, so we need to find out who set it. After that, what matters is fixing the camp up and then getting revenge."

"The Queen?" She sounds very much entranced with this idea.
"Yes."
"Ay! Sounds like fun! Can I come with you?" Her tail is wagging furiously and she has on large, pouty puppy dog eyes.

"Y-yes. Absolutely. It would be an honor." Natrina bows down a little, unsure of how to properly address the demigod. However, Aislyn doesn't seem to notice how awkward my sister is and instead pulls up between us, wagging her tail.

"What do we do now?" she asks.

"Well, if you're okay with it, we were going to set up camp for tonight. If I know much about the castle, it's going to be a long walk from here. It could take us almost twelve days just to walk there and back. We need to hurry if we're going to do all that and consort with the Queen. If we come back late, we're going to be in huge trouble with the alpha." Natrina says, though she's not holding eye contact. Instead, she's looking around for somewhere to stay. Eventually, she finds a large patch of bramble and thorn overshadowing small pockets of nice, grassy ground. "These will be secure."

"Maybe secure, but definitely not very comfortable." I mumble as thorns dig their way into my pelt. I feel an indignation at being squeezed into the tiny space, but at this point, it's not like I have a right to be complaining.
I just met the angel of legend, daughter of Verhamera. I put out a fire and saved our entire tribe. These last few days have just been a long series of impossible events.

I see Aislyn take the biggest one, curling in her wings. "This grass is really nice," she says.

"I'm glad you like it." Natrina says, "I-if you want more.."

"No, no. I mean, you need it too. It's just... I haven't been anywhere like this before. It smells different from grass in other dimensions. Kind of smells like home." She takes several deep breaths, rolling onto her stomach and basking herself in the earth. "Well, good night to both of you."
"Sleep with the still of the deepest waters..." Natrina's voice trails off as she searches for an honorific to attach to Aislyn's name.

"May the stars bless your dreams, Aislyn." I say. "As for you, Nat," I try really hard not to laugh at her new nickname, "May your name always be short and your tail long."

"You're not funny, Lotus." Natrina says coldly.
"I know."

There's fire in my dreams that night. I can still see the bodies on the ground, but they're getting up. The fire is warm, comfortable, and it soothes me instead of chilling me to the core. I feel repulsed by it immediately- how could something so awful, the thing that took my mother, be so warm and bright, so tantalizing?

No. I still have my mother. She'll be there when I get back.
Just a nightmare.

She's not dead.

Otherwise I would be panicking, and I'm fine. It's going to be okay.

My heart beats painfully as I realize that that's not why I'm unable to feel anything.

The pain is still there, it's just not recent. My mother died a long time ago.