elif
She didn’t know if it was the Hunt, or the midsummer festival, or the maze - but something had shaken something loose in Elif, had woken her to the world outside of Solterra and its sun-baked walls.
Now, it seemed, she couldn’t get enough of wandering; each morning she stepped from her bed to her balcony, opened wide her wings to the sky. In the mornings it was still cool enough that she didn’t feel like Icarus, but by the time the sun rose full and hot in its summer-strength she was well beyond the desert and the heat on her back and wings felt like a bath. Elif felt sun-soaked, the wind her only companion, whispering to her, carrying her.
Today, with the only hint of autumn the way the breeze was a breath of cooler air against her cheek, she took her time of it - she bedded down for a nap near the shadow of Dawn Court’s great and reaching forest, dozing until the sun sank lower and lower still, until it was only a slow goodbye on the horizon.
She might have only gone home, once she had risen again to the lazy updrafts, except for the unnatural glint of gold that caught her eye like a ring might a magpie. Elif was more aware than she had been (though no less proud) of how much more there was to the world that she might know - yet this still struck her as unusual, sent a shiver of instinct wending its way down her spine to see that odd gold. In a way it reminded her of the falling star she had witnessed - something not of this world.
Of course she investigated.
The bay spiraled a few times before she landed, and each circle only heightened her curiosity. By the time she was low enough to see the strange birds, like little phoenixes, there was no question of her turning back; the girl was rapt.
It made her think of the maze - the unnatural heat of it, the brightness like she had carried her noontime nap with her. She could feel the heat rolling over her in waves, like Solis or the sun, before she landed in the shoulder-height grasses; she tried to be cautious as she drew nearer and nearer yet, her hooves echoing strangely on the cracked and gleaming ground.
By the time her shadow fell over the water there was only one choice left - to drink, to not drink. But as her gaze trailed the firebirds with their trailing tails of flame, it didn’t much feel like a question at all - not when she was so thirsty, not when the water was so gold.
Elif folded her wings, bent her head, and drank.
Open to any if we want to branch off with a thread after roll results!
***STAFF EDIT
@Elif has rolled a 5! She has been awarded +1 EXP point for interacting with the pool.
