The Gardenkeeper's Daughters

Natrina- 5

 Though in general, I find it best not to judge others from first impressions, I hated everything about Vivian the moment I met her. For one thing, her cockiness was off putting. For another, she had appeared out of nowhere and taken over as if we were prey animals to be easily herded. The worst thing, however, was that she smelled like smoke.

Immediately the scent made me want to gag. I thought of home. I thought of Mother collapsing beneath her burning home, calling for Fen, unaware that her daughters were right outside the camp, begging for her. I thought of Lotus, staring at the fire and waiting just a few moments too long before deciding to grow petal wings and play hero.

I hold all these thoughts in my head as she leads us through the villages, pointing out quaint details about the architecture and commenting on various details about us.

"See over there? That's actually a house, not a den. They don't really have them in the forest, but they're very comfortable."

"What's that?" asks Lotus, stopping to point up at the castle with one paw. "I know it's a castle, but I mean the big sharp things."

"Those are spires. They're built to conduct magical energy. It's supposed to be ceremonial." explains Vivian. "They draw from the energy released from the soul when a Sentient being dies. They channel the energy back into beings born within the castle walls, so living there, even as a servant, is supposed to be almost holy."

Lotus and I have never been somewhere sacred before, and Lotus looks enthralled by the idea. "That's so beautiful! Can I come?"
"Well, you're a feral Canis, so they'd have to purify you first. Nothing serious, just swimming through the castle moat."

"There's nothing wrong with living in the forest."

"I want to swim through the moat!" Aislyn cheers.

"You don't have to do anything. You have three Verhamera's horns and wings. We're lucky just to be in your presence. As for you, Lotus... you're pretty special too, aren't you? You've got those petal... wing things. Those aren't something you see everyday."

"She knows my name." Lotus yips loudly, shocked by this realization. "What else do you know?"

"Lots of things," says Vivian thoughtfully.

Aislyn nods eagerly, though her enthusiasm seems a bit more contrived and she might just be doing it to be polite. She's barely listening anyways, instead looking at all the scenery and nodding at every single shocked Canis who meets her eye, barely able to believe what they're seeing.
"How do you know her name, anyways?" I ask Vivian, but Lotus answers.

"She's been following us. I'm sure you realized that, right Natrina? The smell of smoke eeeeverywhere? I kept staring into the bushes?"

"You never told me any of that." I say.

"O-oh. Sorry." Lotus says quietly.

"We're here!" Aislyn is the first to notice, bounding forwards with her wings open. She dives right into the moat, which is not as intimidating up close (honestly Aislyn could've flown right over it) and begins paddling as quickly as she can.

I dive in after her, letting the cold water wash over my fur and chill me to the bone. Bubble flare up around me in beautiful patterns, and I look up and see the sun glistening through the water. I've never been fully submersed like this, and my paws flail wildly as I realize that I can't swim. I begin choking on my own bubbles as they leave my mouth before something else breaks the surface of the water and Aislyn jumps after me, pulling me up onto the grass just past the moat. She gasps several times, her eyes frenzied, and then falls in a heap onto the grass, which is immediately flattened beneath the weight of her soggy fur and waterlogged wings.

I look around, seeing no way in, and Vivian, carrying my sister onto the shore, drops her and goes to bark something up at some Canis on the next floor of the castle. A door begins to slowly fall down, lowered carefully by magic. The place where the door was is now an entrance, and the door itself now forms a bridge that would have saved us a lot of time and energy to use in the first place.

"Was there a reason to almost drown us?" I ask.

"Yes! We had to test your determination. You pushed through even when the odds were against us and you waded through holy water without being devoured alive by Midda."

"Midda?" asks Lotus.

"Oh, we have a giant serpent in the moat that eats the souls of the unworthy." There's a broad smirk on her face now, even though she's sopping wet as we are.

"What?!" Lotus and I say at once, staring back into the depths of the lagoon.

"You guys have giant serpent too?" Aislyn says. "This really is an exciting day."

Seeing our terror, Vivian makes an odd sighing noise in the back of her throat. "Oh, you really didn't realize I was joking. There's no Midda. She's completely fake."

She shakes off, launching water everywhere. I notice that the door is very dark in certain areas, probably from others drying off in a similar fashion. I shake my fur out as well, and Lotus follows suit. Aislyn ends up trying to dry her wings as well, which results in her almost taking off and falling into the water again.

Once we have her safely on land and everyone's at least moderately dry, Vivian continues to walk into the castle, her paws forming an almost rhythmic clitter-clatter on the stone, which is muffled whenever we switch to walking on fur. The entire palace is exquisitely decorated, filled with flowers of all sorts and fire burning on little wooden sticks. A lot of the design is clearly magically made and maintained, such as large and beautifully hued ice sculptures crossing over each other and creating one seemingly impossible picture of a Canis looking skyward at Verhamera. Other highlights include an entire hall where refracted light dyes a lot of the room in a rainbow hue, which passes over us as we continue walking, and best of all an entire room filled with exotic flowers, all of them trimmed, manicured, and bursting with life and energy despite probably being very heavily magically manipulated.

Eventually, we reach a pair of broad doors, which have large handles just above our reach. Vivian stops and looks back at us. She wags her tail slightly, probably taking some joy in how excited we all are. Everything here is so immensely beautiful and I find myself in love with every room we have to walk through.

"Here comes the end of the tour." Vivian says. "So, are you ready to meet the Queen of Dreamland?"