Tiger Wings

Chapter 1

The beginning of summer brought the ocean breezes from the south throughout all the city. Despite the distance it traveled, over the uninhabited plains, through the frozen mountains, past the countryside farmlands, the people of Cenna still said the air tasted of salt this time every year. It was the only taste of the ocean they ever had, those waters being forbidden to the people long ago. No one living of any land or city had ever seen it. The very thought of going was considered illegal. The city's dungeon, however, was empty of all such thinkers, those who did so being well smart enough to dream to themselves. Though few dreamt of it, because who could dream of leaving Cenna?

It was the greenest city in the world. That was fact. Pride, however, led most Cennians to claim it was the most beautiful city in the world. They tried their hardest to prove it to be fact, but every heart's home is different, and every heart's eyes see its home as the most beautiful place in the world.

Many a heart's eye, however, was deceived for a time on seeing the streets of Cenna. They were unlike any streets of any city anywhere. There wasn't a stone to be seen, like the rickety roads so many feet tread in Gursonn, nor was there perfect smoothness like the polished paths of Sylver. They were not man-made at all, only cared for by men. Truly, they were gardens, with four charming ruts for the wheels of wagons to spin upon, two wagons going in opposite directions. In a fifth rut, between the other paths, were the hoofprints of horses. But from the dirt where no one regularly traversed, grew, in a tame but wild way, grass tall enough to hide a child, and soft enough to sooth one to sleep.

Across these wide roads were bridges, so that traffic would never need be interrupted. Neither were there few, so that many people could cross the streets at once without feeling a crowd, and finding a bridge would not become so desperate that a person might risk an actual dash across the road. These bridges were tall wooden staircases with a short platform across the top to connect both steps. Both wagon and horse and rider below could feel perfectly safe traveling under them because they were so high. People could never fall from them, either, as there were tall railings and even a roof over the platform.

Never ones to miss a chance to create beauty, the people of the city made it a daily contest to see which bridge could appear the prettiest. By evening, every bridge would have twice as many flowers and growing things wound about it as had existed that morning. Since this had been tradition for considerable years already, the bridges had ceased to look like bridges and had simply become flowery trees. The roads beneath the bridges also benefited from this as petals and leaves were thrown or fell to the ground. Hooves, wheels and road workers saw to it that the streets became just as colorful as the high walkways above them.

Houses stood tall, set back from the roads. They were built the same way as country homes only pressed together in groups and stacked neatly upon each other, long rows of homes occaisionally interrupted by the street before there was again buildings. Where there were no dwellings or shops and wasn't road there was short grass. People and small animals trespassed this in all their activity. Still it was green and soft every morning after the night's rest.

They were a comfortable people in a comfortable city. Their peace and prosperity, however, compared not at all to the wealth that existed southward. The king and queen of the country had settled their family immediately south of Cenna. To do so, comfortably, they had built a small city of their own. It was referred to as South Cenna. South Cenna consisted of a massive palace, cottages for servants and their families to live in, farms for them to farm, gardens for them to grow, pens, barns and stables for their animals, storehouses, various houses for various visitors and a collection of other buildings and vegetation for a collection of reasons. Over time, after all, they had had to amuse ten daughters.

The last child was born fifteen years ago. In Tain, however, the last child of the royal couple was born seventeen years ago, the last boy of nine others. No country truly trusted another, but if there were two countries who could come to trust one another, it was silently understood to be Pastopia and Tain. Both were wealthy through the country they possessed. Pastopia's farms could have fed a country with thrice its population, while Tain's ground was filled with gold and iron, diamonds and coal. Both had a boast; in Pastopia, if it was green, it would grow, but in Tain, if it was expensive, it was underground. Together, they could feed all the people and make them twice as wealthy.