{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/fiction/endless-stars/07",
  "path": "/posts/fiction/endless-stars/07",
  "publishedAt": "2019-01-05T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: subchapter\nAlong the roads into Gwymr/Frina the scattered lamp- and sign-posts\nmixed with bright-colored signs warning of trenches and sudden drops.\nLittle glider-scorpions emerged from the deeper crevices, flitting in\nthe night with the short, sporadic glides that named them. Often the\nwhirring of bats rose with the calls and buzzes of the scorpions, but\nwhen one appeared, the other would grow silent, hiding or hunting.\n\nWe passed a few houses dotting the ravine at its widest, where the posts\ninstead fenced off their yards. Here, netting rose from the\nfence-posts, and blocked any inward flight. The nets met big poles\nrising from the roofs, making the houses like spiderly pyramids.\n\nOne house was a little cottage with outer walls that gleamed where\nothers faded invisibly; instead of black bamboo fences that blent with\nthe night, the outer walls flaunted proud glassy bricks. It looked\ngaudy and frilly, and I shook my head, and drifted my eyes beyond the\ngate. Lit by a crimson lamp, the little garden inside looked dim and\nsad.\n\nAround the garden sat a few piles of rocks --- the strange air wells\nthat gathering water down on the surface. In Tädet/Pimeys we had fog\nnets and collected water from the clouds⁠ ⁠---⁠ but I guessed this\nworked for them.\n\nWe continued on. My canteen had been refilled at the dew pond, but I'd\nhesitated at first⁠ ⁠---⁠ if I filled it, it meant no more ghost\ncanteen. As cool as it sounded, I couldn't really drink ghost water.\nAnd maybe a ghost wouldn't have a problem with alighting twice.\n\nNearing the town proper, the roads became worse for walking, lined with\nfilth and droppings. Muckrakers would try to clean them, but it wasn't\nenough. Holding my tongue, I didn't smell the worst of the stench, but\nthe clean streets of Tädet/Pimeys stood clear in my mind.\n\nI prodded Hinte, pointing a wing at the lower catwalk. It was about a\nwing-beat above us. She nodded.\n\nWith a powerful jump and three flaps that fought my corpse burden I\nlanded on the catwalk, and glanced behind me. Back on the ground,\nHinte's wings bristled as she stalked toward a stairwall.\n\n\"Oops.\"\n\nLeaping down I landed beside the wiver with my tail coiled and my frills\nfolded. \"I'm sorry,\" I said.\n\nHinte looked at me, lips almost forming words, but she folded her frills\nand tossed her head. She walked to the base of the stairwall, her gait\nstill dripping fluidity and grace; it clashed with the weight she\ncarried and with the trace of annoyance that bedewed her fangs. It left\nme idly wondering.\n\nBefore us, the stairwall rose, and it was everything that made craggy\ncliffs and old tree bark easy to climb. Foot-sized knobs protruded out,\nand toe-sized depression sunk in (bigger on the inside so you could hook\nyour toes in them). We climbed up and stood upon the catwalks, blades\nof stone that jutted from the ravine walls. Suspension cords flew down\nfrom higher up to secure, and pillars stabbed obliquely into the walls\nto support.\n\nGlassy feet clanked on the stone. While our glass cracked and grinded,\nshards caught and stuck in the black slime, reducing the sharp edges to\nmere pressure and dull pokes. Our scutes were thick enough to bear it,\nin any case.\n\nI tossed agonizing glances at my black-coated and glass-molting legs;\nthe sight pulled a disgusted squeak from my tongue. I wrenched my gaze\naway, and caught the black obelisk rising in the distance. Rising high\nand illumed by golden-white lights, you could call it a sort of beacon.\nAs we walked on it grew larger. Standing a building or three away from\nthe town hall, it made the perfect meter for our progress.\n\nMaybe Hinte even aimed for the obelisk itself, to check the water clock.\nBut I wouldn't⁠ ⁠---⁠ shouldn't⁠ ⁠---⁠ wear her patience any thinner by\nasking.\n\nAs the obelisk loomed larger, the passersby became more frequent,\nsometimes even an pair walked together in the night. The concerned or\nbewildered glances at our backs came more and more often. After one too\nmany, Hinte hissed at me, jerking me into a wide break in the ravine\nface. She reached into her bag, grabbing two dark, folded cloaks and\nthrusting one out to me. I tilted my head.\n\nThen my brilles flashed clear. I took one cloak and draped it over the\ncorpse. The cloak's placket fell and hung like a dress under my torso\nand the sleeves fell loosely over my limbs. I didn't fasten them.\n\nHinte had put on her own cloak, its black fabric threaded with blue and\npink, and pulled a cowl over her head. A moment passed where we\nadjusted each other's cloaks, the dark-green wiver still not meeting my\neyes.\n\nShe touched my headband, and I flinched back. The wiver hissed and\nbacked off and turned away.\n\nWe set off again, and this time we didn't attract many gazes. The few\nthat lingered only looked curious instead of fearful or worried.\n\nLike that, we continued on. Hinte still wouldn't look at me, and I ran a\ntongue over my fangs.\n\nWe hadn't reached the faer yet; I still had a chance to find some way to\napologize, some way Hinte wouldn't ignore.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nThe stars still shone high above me. As I gazed up at that sacred vista\nmy vision melted into the chain of remembered nights I had spent under\nthis very sky, stretching back to my hatchhood. The comfort of lying\nout under the sky on a warm night, with the breeze caressing my scales,\nwith the hoots and shrieks of black owls filling my frills, it called\nout to me. But would I have preferred an evening lying out on a lonely\ncliff to this fang-wringing adventure with Hinte?\n\nI let my gaze fall from the sky to the cloaked dragon in front of me. My\ntongue felt a drop of sweetness dew on my fangs and I let it stay there.\n\n\"Hey,\" I started without looking up to my companion's face, not checking\nif she was listening. \"What--what did you mean when you said, hide\nyour fangs, earlier?\"\n\nInstants stretched to moments, and moments stretched until they snapped\nunder the strain. I glanced up at the dark-green wiver.\n\nShe met eye and at length a reply marched out. \"It's a saying.\" Her brow\nnarrowed, and she said, \"You speak Drachenzunge. Have you not read of\nJammra the squalled?\"\n\nI broke eye and looked at the ground, the dark-green wiver shaking her\nhead and looking away too. The wiver didn't turn, watching the road in\nfront of her and glancing at the growing obelisk in the distance.\n\n\"Well,\" I started at some point, \"I've seen allusions, but my tutors\nnever pressed more than the minimum, enough to call it a job finished. I\nnever had the talent of my brother, or even my sister, and they never\ntried to make up for that.\"\n\nMy companion clicked her tongued twice, but I couldn't puzzle out the\nmeaning. Maybe she couldn't, either.\n\nWhen I glanced back up, Hinte's determined line had shifted just a\nlittle. \"A pity. It's a famous epic. Jammra was a peerless warrior,\nbut he fought with his fangs instead of his claws. His nemesis was the\ntwisted Wauchu, who desired to be queen, back when the forest still had\nqueens. She was a wiver of evil and ruthlessness, and Jammra was a\ndrake of compassion and courage, so he had sworn himself to stop her.\"\n\nThe dark-green wiver halted for just a moment, and I caught up enough to\nwalk beside her. She continued, \"Their nadir, their final battle, was\nin the deep of winter, at the crest of a cycle. They met unexpectedly\nin a valley, each having come there alone, each to fight and kill a\nterrible Roggenwolf. Instead, they fought each other. Jammra, being a\nfearsome warrior, easily overpowered Wauchu. But before he could strike\nthe final blow, she tried her final gambit. Seeking to exploit his\ncompassionate nature, she told him of her miserable past.\"\n\nHinte paused there, and flicked her tongue. It was a few breaths before\nshe continued, \"It is said that her tragedy was so great that Jammra's\nfangs dewed with a magical sourness. Yet he had sworn an oath to defeat\nWauchu, and a warrior held sworn oaths above all else. So he inflicted\na final bite even as his fangs dewed very sourly. So great was his pity\nfor her that his tears healed the villain of her evilness instead of\nstilling her.\"\n\nThe wiver paused again, this time to watch me. She nodded. \"When she\ncame to, Jammra remained, and as his oath required so the battle would\ncontinue. To protect herself, Wauchu fought back. But Jammra now know\nhis nemesis's heart, and with it, lost his will to fight. So he let\nWauchu defeat him.\" Hinte stopped walking there, and looked at me.\n\n\"And so Jammra died,\" she said, like a cadence. \"Wauchu claimed the\nglory of slaying the Roggenwolf. She had lost her dark ambitions, and\ninstead became famous heroine rivaling Jammra himself. But she fought\nwith her claws and left no oath unfulfilled.\"\n\nHinte lifted a forefoot, and clenched it. \"And that's why warriors must\nfight with their claws, not their fangs. And even if our duty causes us\ngreat sadness, we hide our fangs and carry it out.\"\n\nI tiled my head. \"But... it ends just like that? Jammra just lost?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"So Wauchu won? But she's the villain! She killed Jammra...\" I looked\ndown at the road below us.\n\nHinte tossed her head, but with my head turned I only caught her shadow\ntwisting in the light of a passing lamp. \"She wasn't a villain at the\nend of the story.\"\n\nI drew my wings to my body. \"You can't just stop being a villain.\"\n\n\"It's how the story goes,\" Hinte said, glancing at the obelisk.\n\"Jammra's magic venom healed Wauchu of all her wretchedness, and she\nbecame a great heroine.\"\n\nI slowed down a bit, licking my eyes and watching a ragged white figure\nwalking in the ravine below. When my gaze returned to the catwalk, I\ncaught up with the dark-green wiver. \"Why couldn't she just do that in\nthe first place?\"\n\nHinte tossed her head, then drummed her alula in the air as she said,\n\"She wanted to become queen at all costs, get revenge on the ones who\nended her clan.\" She drummed her alula a few more times as if to say,\nand so on.\n\n\"Hey, that sounds interesting! Why'd you leav",
  "title": "Anneal"
}