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Chapter 1

The grass was still wet with the dew from the night before, its thin blades reaching up towards the sky high above. Many of them were still attempting to regain their original green hues instead of the malnourished pale yellows and browns that covered most of the field.
The tents and pavilions that, the previous day, had dotted the landscape like a patchwork sheet of canvas were now moving along, slowly packing up and filing out to work their way towards the next towns. The roving band of merchants would soon make their way south, into the warmer climates near the equator, whilst the cold chill of the three year winter pushed its way down behind them, like the fine teeth of a frosted comb, picking around the trees and buildings.
Always the last tent to pack up was the smallest, it sold no wares and was too small to hold any stock, instead it housed a pair of twins, the eldest was a girl named Baethiah, ginger haired and frail looking. She had a round, delicate face, but her eyes were harsh, constantly staring into the middle distance and thinking about everything that crossed her mind. Her brother Myrtri, younger by only a few minutes, had slightly darker hair and a more youthful appearance. He was slightly chubbier than his sibling and far lazier, almost always being seen sitting or lying down somewhere and certainly never helping run the market stalls. They both bore similar markings on their faces, a pattern of darker skin where they had been scolded by a fire at a young age, and had the same dark eyes, the deep brown coronas almost blending with their star shaped pupils.
Baethiah was packing the last of her belongings into a travel bag, her jacket slung over the folding chair at the entrance to their cramped sleeping quarters. Meanwhile her brother was fast asleep outside, not seeming to mind the water that soaked in through his clothes.
She looked over to him as she tossed her bag into their cart and shook her head, he was drooling out of the corner of his mouth and snoring loudly. She sighed and walked over to him, giving him a firm kick in the side of the stomach with the pointed toe of her boot.
“Wake up you lazy ass. Time to get moving.” She then walked past him to where the pack animal was tied to its hitching post. “Pack up the tent,” She called over her shoulder, “It’s gonna rain soon and I want to get going as soon as possible.”
She pulled the hitching post out of the ground with a few struggled twists, almost knocking her teeth out with it in doing so. Once freed, their animal trotted over to the cart, its pawed legs padding across the ground. “Good boy Dane,” Baethiah encouraged, “Why can’t my brother be as useful as you huh?” In response the creature snorted, blowing a short jet of steam from each of its large nostrils on either side of its head. Following it over, she picked up its harness from the ground beside the tent, which now had Myrtri clumsily pulling the legs out from the dirt. She slipped the thick leather frame over its massive shoulders before unravelling the straps from the sides and passing them under its vestigial wings, strapping up below its stomach. The whole process only took about a minute, and was done before Myrtri had even begun to drag the tent over.
Once he’d finally managed to do so, Baethiah grabbed the legs of the tent and slotted them into their respective sockets at the corners of the cart, effectively assembling a smaller version of the rectangular structure on top. The entranceway now leaned out over the front like an awning, covering the mighty beast that stood waiting, ever proud. At last, she took the ropes that normally held up the door flaps of the structure and attached them to the loops of the harness, tying a tight knot in each one and doing the same with the ropes on the front of the cart.
Myrtri then took the first opportunity to lie down in the cart at the back, surrounded by their bags whilst his sister picked up the hitching post and chair and threw them into the cart, making sure to aim as close to him as possible.
Then, nearly two hours after the last of the other caravans had gone, they finally set off, their beast pulling the laden cart effortlessly.
Far off into the distance, silhouetted against the rising red sun, they could see the rest of the merchants that they had come to call their family. The monstrous beasts that pulled the largest of the many tents were lumbering slowly into the distance, their crowns of horns towering up into the sky above them like masts on distant sailing boats.

It took them only a few hours to close the gap, and now they picked their way between the larger caravans. Baethiah had returned to the back of the wagon, raiding through their supply bags to find what food they could use to make a lunch. As it was, they only had a few slices of slightly stale bread, a ripe tomato, and a tin containing a small amount of cooked meat. The meat had started to smell a little sour – perhaps not so good for them to eat, she thought – and so she flung it out the front of the wagon, and as it fell gracefully to the floor, their gryphon shot out its long forked tongue, coiling its barbed end around the morsel and swallowing it whole.
She cut the tomato in half and placed each piece on either of the two slices of bread, before passing one forward to Myrtri, who was now steering them along.
“Such culinary skills you have Beth.” He remarked, taking the food from her and examining it.
“It’s not exactly like I had much to work with, you seem to have eaten everything else.” She moved over to the rear of the cart, resting her back in the corner while she ate.
Myrtri looked around in mock offense, putting his splayed hand on his chest and widening his eyes. “Me, eat all the food? How could you make such a hurtful accusation my dear sibling?”
She swallowed her mouthful, a difficult task given how tough the bread was to chew. “Because I’ve lived with you for nearly two decades perhaps?”
He shook his head and faced out of the cart again, pulling at the reins to get the gryphon to move a little faster. “Well you know what I think? I think you’re just trying to pass the blame on.”
“Hmm, whatever you say.” She took another bite, and settled into her usual silence, pulling her hat down over her eyes.
They were travelling through a large clearing between the tall pointed trees in a great forest, spire like shadows would flash in the gaps between those of the leviathans that enclosed them. There was a constant rumble reverberating through the wooden vehicle, shaking their belongings around under the tarpaulins they covered them with. Baethiah was trying to sleep, knowing that it would soon be her turn to drive the cart and she didn’t want to have to do it half-awake. This task was proving to be considerably difficult, not least from the loud voice that now spoke from somewhere outside the wagon.
“Ho down there, is that the young Myr?”
Myrtri leaned his head out from under the awning, shielding his eyes with one hand, “Aye, it is. How are you doing Michel?”
A large man with long brown hair and a scruffy dark stubble was driving the wagon of one of the leviathans, his gondola carried between its massive forelegs like a cradle.
“Not too bad,” The old man called down over his shoulder, “And your sister, is she with you, or did you finally manage to leave the grouch behind?”
“I heard that!” She called, sitting up and shooting an unseen scowl through the walls of the wagon at where she presumed Michel to be, which was in fact the location of the leviathans rear end.
“No, unfortunately she’s still here.” Myrtri sighed, rolling his eyes in mock tiredness.
Michel laughed, a deep bellow from the pits of his large stomach, “Such a shame that is. Well, we’ve a few stops before we reach the next town, so there’s alwa…”
He was cut short by a low growl from Daneizal, baring his bladed teeth and keeping his narrow eyes focussed on Michel. In turn, Michel’s leviathan swayed its colossal head, lightly tossing the basket from side to side. Neither of them appreciated the foul talk against the woman they saw as their matriarch.
After regaining some semblance of balance and control, Michel looked down to Myrtri, a guilty look and a smirk in his eyes.
Myr leant forwards and patted Dane’s flank to calm him down. “Easy boy, we’re only joking.”
“Too damn right you are,” Baethiah leaned back against the wall of the tent, closing her eyes again. “Dane makes a much better brother than you, and you really don’t want him to prove it do you?”
Daneizal bristled with pride, his muscles tensing for a few moments and his golden mane lifting up on the back of his head. Gryphons would often fight amongst their siblings to compete for the attention of their matriarch, usually leading to the weaker sibling’s death.
Myrtri swallowed, picturing the sharp teeth at the other end of the creature in front of him, teeth that he’d almost been on the receiving end of several times before.
After a moment and a shake of his head to get rid of the horrifying image he called out to Michel again, craning his head around the edge of the awning, “Any idea what town we’re going to next?”
Michel shrugged, “’Fraid not, though from the direction we’re going I presume it’d be Vortith.”
“Vortith?” Inquired Myrtri, “I don’t remember us ever going there before.”
“You wouldn’t, the last winter they turned us away at the gates, blaming us for that fire that happened eighteen years ago. The one that, um…” He stopped talking, realising that the conversation may be dangerous territory.
“The one that took our parents.” Myrtri finished. “And gave us these burns.”
“Yeah, that one. Sorry for bringing it up.” Michel looked down at the ground, ashamed at himself.
“Don’t worry, it’s hard to miss someone that you don’t even remember.”
They carried on walking in an awkward silence, and after a few minutes Myrtri bade farewell to his friend and urged Daneizal forwards, pushing further ahead through the caravan until they neared the front. The front vehicle was captained by the caravan’s leader, Lord Riejou was a middle aged woman, lithe shaped and heavy eyed, much like Baethiah. Her head was always kept clean shaven, exposing the tattoos that ran along from her forehead, through her neck and to the base of her spine.
Next to her in their large gondola was the navigator, a short, aged man named Paein, who constantly kept a tray on his lap to hold the detailed maps of the region. The quill and ink pot, whilst almost completely full, was balanced so perfectly on his lap that none of it ever spilled over. He turned to look down at their wagon as they pulled up alongside, the magnifying lens he had hanging over one eye gave that side of his face a comically out of proportion appearance.
He nudged the woman on the shoulder with a fragile looking hand and, when she leaned close to hear, he spoke into her ear.
She then looked over to the twins down below and a smile flashed across her narrow cheeks before she disappeared again. Myrtri heard her calling something out and looked up to see what was going on. A few seconds later they saw someone walk through from the back of the gondola and she stood up to let them sit in her place.
The tall woman stepped out onto the small balcony that grew out from the side of her gondola and leaned over the railing to talk to the twins below. “Ah, just the two people I wanted to see. What brings you up to this end of the caravan?”
Baethiah was now at the front of the wagon, sat on the side of the cushioned platform with her legs hanging down by the front wheel. “We were wondering where we were next headed to milord, Michel seems to think it might be Vortith.”
Riejou made a quick, formal nod, “Aye that is the plan. Whether or not that’s possible I don’t know, since we don’t exactly have good relations with them.”
“Because of the fire I presume?” Both of the twins were now looking up with expectant faces, wanting to hear more of the event that was kept secret from them their whole lives.
“Ah, that’s what you were talking to Michel about. Well you’d have seen it yourselves soon enough I suppose.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “I do understand their trepidation, regardless of whether it was a deliberate attack, or whomever it was that lit the flame, there is no doubt that the fire was started in our camp. However, that was eighteen years ago, many of those who remember it are long since passed and the prejudice should’ve waned.”
“They never found out who did it then?” Asked Myrtri, looking past his sister.
Riejou shook her head slowly, a sombre expression coming across her face. “It was never possible, the fire blazed for days and they couldn’t put it out, it was like no wildfire any of us had ever seen. Even now the land is still black, no plants will grow and no animals go near. I’ve heard that not even insects crawl over those desiccated lands.
“The flames even managed to get into the buildings, the bricks themselves began to shatter from the heat. When it did die out we sent a wagon back to look, see if any that were caught in the blaze were still alive. All they found was the two of you, locked in your mother’s safebox to stay safe from the flames and crying your eyes out.”
She looked across to the sun, nestled deeply in the crook of the distant mountains. “When we took you back to the city, they refused to take you in. They already had so many to rehome and rumours were beginning to spread that we’d started the fire. So we had to take you in ourselves.”
“Why take us to the city? Do we have relatives there?” Baethiah gave a questioning look to the older woman.
“I don’t know about that, but it was where your parents lived, they only joined our caravan for the short time that we were in the south, the rest of the time they would live in Vortith.”
Myrtri looked around in surprise, “Then were we born in Vortith?”
“Oh no, you two were born in a small village a long way south of here, I never did learn the name of it, and we’ve never even been back since it was so out of our usual path.”
They all noticed the light around them fading away and, when they looked to the mountains in the west they saw the rising sun slowly become camouflaged behind a series of rolling grey clouds.
Baethiah turned her head back to the gondola next to them. “Anyway, you said you wanted to see us? What can we help you with?”
Once more Lord Riejou shook her head, “It can wait ‘til later. We’ll make camp once we’ve passed through that storm, come and find me then and I’ll let you know. For now, get yourselves prepared, your wagon isn’t exactly the best for that kind of weather.”
The twins nodded in unison as she headed back into the gondola, shutting the hatch behind her and walking past the others inside to the back.
Once she was gone, Baethiah returned to the tent and lifted up one of the tarpaulins, below was a pair of sacks containing their clothes. She reached inside and fished out two Merma-skin coats, the thick waterproof hides good for keeping warm in bad weather. Then she reached further under, almost having to climb into the sheet, and pulled out the heavy coat for Daneizal to wear.
As she passed her brother on her way out of the tent, she dropped their coats on the seat beside him. Then, hauling the hooded sheet on her shoulder, she walked out along the ropes from the side of the tent to hold on to Daneizal’s harness. The mighty creature didn’t even seem to be affected by her weight, partly because he was so strong and partly because she was so light. She sat astride his back, covering his broad head with the hood of the coat and reaching around his chest to affix the cover to his harness. Finally she made her way back across to the wagon, pulling the tail end of the sheet with her as she did to let it cover him completely.
She picked up her own coat, pulling it over her shoulders, and fastening the buckle across the chest. Myrtri handed the reins over to her and reached across for his coat, repeating much the same procedure as her before taking the reins back.
Beth stepped into the wagon once more, going around the edge and tightening the straps that held down the sides of the canvas to the wooden cart.
Once everything was in place she sat back at the rear of the tent once more and closed her eyes.

No more than an hour had passed before the first of the rains hit, the gentle patter against the canvas rapidly turning into a thunderous round of applause, Myrtri slowed his pace to drop back into the group of leviathans, whose thick hide kept them warm and safe, sheltering behind the largest of which to avoid most of the rain as it sliced its way across the caravan. Though it wasn’t even midday, the sky had dimmed to a bleak grey, casting a gloomy shadow across the landscape.
The party had entered the foothills of the mountains, pushing their way across the trodden ground in the wide glacial valleys that get filled up with ice every passing cycle of the seasons.
Baethiah was awoken by the steady rumbling of the wagons wheels as they trundled over the large sediment deposits at the old glacial heads. Knowing that it would be impossible to rest with the sound of the rain hitting the tent, she got to her feet and, crouching under the low ceiling, made her way to the entrance. Stepping through she felt a brisk spray of water sting her face and scalp, quickly she pulled up the hood and raised her scarf to mask her face. Then she fastened down the tent behind her, protecting their belongings from the worst of the weather.
Ahead of them, the mountains were looming, the grey stone almost indistinguishable from the dim horizon. On the lowest peaks, she could see the snow being turned to a pale slush by the falling water. And even higher up, above the reach of the rain clouds, it sat still atop the ridges like soft, white pointed clouds, showing them the way ahead.
She sat next to her brother on the, now sodden, seat. The salty smell of his soaked coat blowing in the short sharp gusts of wind. It only took her one look to see that Myrtri was too busy concentrating on the lay of the land to engage in idle chatter. They sat in silence, gazing ahead to the distant valleys and hillsides that they saw jutting into the one they were in. Through the sound of the falling rain they could just make out the sound of the nearby river, a steady flowing sound like a bath that never stopped filling up.
After a few minutes Baethiah once again felt herself tiring, so she rested her head on Myrtri’s shoulder, allowing her eyelids to slowly descend. She pulled herself away from the brink of sleep once she felt the ground smoothing out, they’d left the glacier head now and the ground was smoother, with a short crop of grass flourishing across the wet earth. “Myr?”
“Yeah?” He half looked towards her, still paying attention to the way ahead.
“What Lord Riejou said earlier about Vortith, if our parents had a house there, do you think we’ve got any relatives there too?”
He took a moment to think, “Perhaps, no idea how we’d find them though. Besides, the last time any of them saw us would’ve been eighteen years ago, and they probably think we perished in the fire along with everyone else.”
“Hmm.” Beth once again fell into silence, watching the steady rise and fall of Dane’s shoulders as he pulled them along. The hypnotic rhythm gradually pulling her away from her lucidity, and into a calm slumber wherein she dreamed of a ship, rocking on the stormy seas.
It was nearly half an hour later when Myrtri spoke again, waking her up from her sleep. “Why d’you think they never told us any of it?”
Now Beth took some time to ponder the question. “We never really asked about it recently, and I guess the last time we did we were too young for them to say it. I mean, no kid wants to know all the details of something like that, just knowing how it happened is enough.”
“Maybe you’re right. Still, it just seems like…” He trailed off, unsure of how to finish his sentence.
“Seems like there’s maybe something else to it? I know what you mean, maybe we can ask Lord Riejou when we next see her after the storm.”
Myrtri looked a little conflicted for a moment. “That’s it though, I’m not entirely sure I trust her all that much. She’s been in charge here ever since we were little kids, so if anything was kept from us, it would have been her call.”
“Maybe you’re just scared of authority figures. Nearly every time you talk to them they’re telling you off for something or other.” Beth laughed, but they both knew how inside she agreed with him.
Myrtri elbowed her for the comment, looking up at the gondola of the leviathan next to them. It belonged to a man named Keif, someone whom neither of them ever really spent all that much time with. In their peculiar family of people who weren’t related to them, he was their boring, distant uncle. The motion of it swaying around below the beast made him feel lightheaded and nauseous, and so he had to look away.
On board the gondola, the uninvited passenger gave a small start as he thought he’d just been seen by the boy below.

Description
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Chapter 1

The grass was still wet with the dew from the night before, its thin blades reaching up towards the sky high above. Many of them were still attempting to regain their original green hues instead of the malnourished pale yellows and browns that covered most of the field.
The tents and pavilions that, the previous day, had dotted the landscape like a patchwork sheet of canvas were now moving along, slowly packing up and filing out to work their way towards the next towns. The roving band of merchants would soon make their way south, into the warmer climates near the equator, whilst the cold chill of the three year winter pushed its way down behind them, like the fine teeth of a frosted comb, picking around the trees and buildings.
Always the last tent to pack up was the smallest, it sold no wares and was too small to hold any stock, instead it housed a pair of twins, the eldest was a girl named Baethiah, ginger haired and frail looking. She had a round, delicate face, but her eyes were harsh, constantly staring into the middle distance and thinking about everything that crossed her mind. Her brother Myrtri, younger by only a few minutes, had slightly darker hair and a more youthful appearance. He was slightly chubbier than his sibling and far lazier, almost always being seen sitting or lying down somewhere and certainly never helping run the market stalls. They both bore similar markings on their faces, a pattern of darker skin where they had been scolded by a fire at a young age, and had the same dark eyes, the deep brown coronas almost blending with their star shaped pupils.
Baethiah was packing the last of her belongings into a travel bag, her jacket slung over the folding chair at the entrance to their cramped sleeping quarters. Meanwhile her brother was fast asleep outside, not seeming to mind the water that soaked in through his clothes.
She looked over to him as she tossed her bag into their cart and shook her head, he was drooling out of the corner of his mouth and snoring loudly. She sighed and walked over to him, giving him a firm kick in the side of the stomach with the pointed toe of her boot.
“Wake up you lazy ass. Time to get moving.” She then walked past him to where the pack animal was tied to its hitching post. “Pack up the tent,” She called over her shoulder, “It’s gonna rain soon and I want to get going as soon as possible.”
She pulled the hitching post out of the ground with a few struggled twists, almost knocking her teeth out with it in doing so. Once freed, their animal trotted over to the cart, its pawed legs padding across the ground. “Good boy Dane,” Baethiah encouraged, “Why can’t my brother be as useful as you huh?” In response the creature snorted, blowing a short jet of steam from each of its large nostrils on either side of its head. Following it over, she picked up its harness from the ground beside the tent, which now had Myrtri clumsily pulling the legs out from the dirt. She slipped the thick leather frame over its massive shoulders before unravelling the straps from the sides and passing them under its vestigial wings, strapping up below its stomach. The whole process only took about a minute, and was done before Myrtri had even begun to drag the tent over.
Once he’d finally managed to do so, Baethiah grabbed the legs of the tent and slotted them into their respective sockets at the corners of the cart, effectively assembling a smaller version of the rectangular structure on top. The entranceway now leaned out over the front like an awning, covering the mighty beast that stood waiting, ever proud. At last, she took the ropes that normally held up the door flaps of the structure and attached them to the loops of the harness, tying a tight knot in each one and doing the same with the ropes on the front of the cart.
Myrtri then took the first opportunity to lie down in the cart at the back, surrounded by their bags whilst his sister picked up the hitching post and chair and threw them into the cart, making sure to aim as close to him as possible.
Then, nearly two hours after the last of the other caravans had gone, they finally set off, their beast pulling the laden cart effortlessly.
Far off into the distance, silhouetted against the rising red sun, they could see the rest of the merchants that they had come to call their family. The monstrous beasts that pulled the largest of the many tents were lumbering slowly into the distance, their crowns of horns towering up into the sky above them like masts on distant sailing boats.

It took them only a few hours to close the gap, and now they picked their way between the larger caravans. Baethiah had returned to the back of the wagon, raiding through their supply bags to find what food they could use to make a lunch. As it was, they only had a few slices of slightly stale bread, a ripe tomato, and a tin containing a small amount of cooked meat. The meat had started to smell a little sour – perhaps not so good for them to eat, she thought – and so she flung it out the front of the wagon, and as it fell gracefully to the floor, their gryphon shot out its long forked tongue, coiling its barbed end around the morsel and swallowing it whole.
She cut the tomato in half and placed each piece on either of the two slices of bread, before passing one forward to Myrtri, who was now steering them along.
“Such culinary skills you have Beth.” He remarked, taking the food from her and examining it.
“It’s not exactly like I had much to work with, you seem to have eaten everything else.” She moved over to the rear of the cart, resting her back in the corner while she ate.
Myrtri looked around in mock offense, putting his splayed hand on his chest and widening his eyes. “Me, eat all the food? How could you make such a hurtful accusation my dear sibling?”
She swallowed her mouthful, a difficult task given how tough the bread was to chew. “Because I’ve lived with you for nearly two decades perhaps?”
He shook his head and faced out of the cart again, pulling at the reins to get the gryphon to move a little faster. “Well you know what I think? I think you’re just trying to pass the blame on.”
“Hmm, whatever you say.” She took another bite, and settled into her usual silence, pulling her hat down over her eyes.
They were travelling through a large clearing between the tall pointed trees in a great forest, spire like shadows would flash in the gaps between those of the leviathans that enclosed them. There was a constant rumble reverberating through the wooden vehicle, shaking their belongings around under the tarpaulins they covered them with. Baethiah was trying to sleep, knowing that it would soon be her turn to drive the cart and she didn’t want to have to do it half-awake. This task was proving to be considerably difficult, not least from the loud voice that now spoke from somewhere outside the wagon.
“Ho down there, is that the young Myr?”
Myrtri leaned his head out from under the awning, shielding his eyes with one hand, “Aye, it is. How are you doing Michel?”
A large man with long brown hair and a scruffy dark stubble was driving the wagon of one of the leviathans, his gondola carried between its massive forelegs like a cradle.
“Not too bad,” The old man called down over his shoulder, “And your sister, is she with you, or did you finally manage to leave the grouch behind?”
“I heard that!” She called, sitting up and shooting an unseen scowl through the walls of the wagon at where she presumed Michel to be, which was in fact the location of the leviathans rear end.
“No, unfortunately she’s still here.” Myrtri sighed, rolling his eyes in mock tiredness.
Michel laughed, a deep bellow from the pits of his large stomach, “Such a shame that is. Well, we’ve a few stops before we reach the next town, so there’s alwa…”
He was cut short by a low growl from Daneizal, baring his bladed teeth and keeping his narrow eyes focussed on Michel. In turn, Michel’s leviathan swayed its colossal head, lightly tossing the basket from side to side. Neither of them appreciated the foul talk against the woman they saw as their matriarch.
After regaining some semblance of balance and control, Michel looked down to Myrtri, a guilty look and a smirk in his eyes.
Myr leant forwards and patted Dane’s flank to calm him down. “Easy boy, we’re only joking.”
“Too damn right you are,” Baethiah leaned back against the wall of the tent, closing her eyes again. “Dane makes a much better brother than you, and you really don’t want him to prove it do you?”
Daneizal bristled with pride, his muscles tensing for a few moments and his golden mane lifting up on the back of his head. Gryphons would often fight amongst their siblings to compete for the attention of their matriarch, usually leading to the weaker sibling’s death.
Myrtri swallowed, picturing the sharp teeth at the other end of the creature in front of him, teeth that he’d almost been on the receiving end of several times before.
After a moment and a shake of his head to get rid of the horrifying image he called out to Michel again, craning his head around the edge of the awning, “Any idea what town we’re going to next?”
Michel shrugged, “’Fraid not, though from the direction we’re going I presume it’d be Vortith.”
“Vortith?” Inquired Myrtri, “I don’t remember us ever going there before.”
“You wouldn’t, the last winter they turned us away at the gates, blaming us for that fire that happened eighteen years ago. The one that, um…” He stopped talking, realising that the conversation may be dangerous territory.
“The one that took our parents.” Myrtri finished. “And gave us these burns.”
“Yeah, that one. Sorry for bringing it up.” Michel looked down at the ground, ashamed at himself.
“Don’t worry, it’s hard to miss someone that you don’t even remember.”
They carried on walking in an awkward silence, and after a few minutes Myrtri bade farewell to his friend and urged Daneizal forwards, pushing further ahead through the caravan until they neared the front. The front vehicle was captained by the caravan’s leader, Lord Riejou was a middle aged woman, lithe shaped and heavy eyed, much like Baethiah. Her head was always kept clean shaven, exposing the tattoos that ran along from her forehead, through her neck and to the base of her spine.
Next to her in their large gondola was the navigator, a short, aged man named Paein, who constantly kept a tray on his lap to hold the detailed maps of the region. The quill and ink pot, whilst almost completely full, was balanced so perfectly on his lap that none of it ever spilled over. He turned to look down at their wagon as they pulled up alongside, the magnifying lens he had hanging over one eye gave that side of his face a comically out of proportion appearance.
He nudged the woman on the shoulder with a fragile looking hand and, when she leaned close to hear, he spoke into her ear.
She then looked over to the twins down below and a smile flashed across her narrow cheeks before she disappeared again. Myrtri heard her calling something out and looked up to see what was going on. A few seconds later they saw someone walk through from the back of the gondola and she stood up to let them sit in her place.
The tall woman stepped out onto the small balcony that grew out from the side of her gondola and leaned over the railing to talk to the twins below. “Ah, just the two people I wanted to see. What brings you up to this end of the caravan?”
Baethiah was now at the front of the wagon, sat on the side of the cushioned platform with her legs hanging down by the front wheel. “We were wondering where we were next headed to milord, Michel seems to think it might be Vortith.”
Riejou made a quick, formal nod, “Aye that is the plan. Whether or not that’s possible I don’t know, since we don’t exactly have good relations with them.”
“Because of the fire I presume?” Both of the twins were now looking up with expectant faces, wanting to hear more of the event that was kept secret from them their whole lives.
“Ah, that’s what you were talking to Michel about. Well you’d have seen it yourselves soon enough I suppose.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “I do understand their trepidation, regardless of whether it was a deliberate attack, or whomever it was that lit the flame, there is no doubt that the fire was started in our camp. However, that was eighteen years ago, many of those who remember it are long since passed and the prejudice should’ve waned.”
“They never found out who did it then?” Asked Myrtri, looking past his sister.
Riejou shook her head slowly, a sombre expression coming across her face. “It was never possible, the fire blazed for days and they couldn’t put it out, it was like no wildfire any of us had ever seen. Even now the land is still black, no plants will grow and no animals go near. I’ve heard that not even insects crawl over those desiccated lands.
“The flames even managed to get into the buildings, the bricks themselves began to shatter from the heat. When it did die out we sent a wagon back to look, see if any that were caught in the blaze were still alive. All they found was the two of you, locked in your mother’s safebox to stay safe from the flames and crying your eyes out.”
She looked across to the sun, nestled deeply in the crook of the distant mountains. “When we took you back to the city, they refused to take you in. They already had so many to rehome and rumours were beginning to spread that we’d started the fire. So we had to take you in ourselves.”
“Why take us to the city? Do we have relatives there?” Baethiah gave a questioning look to the older woman.
“I don’t know about that, but it was where your parents lived, they only joined our caravan for the short time that we were in the south, the rest of the time they would live in Vortith.”
Myrtri looked around in surprise, “Then were we born in Vortith?”
“Oh no, you two were born in a small village a long way south of here, I never did learn the name of it, and we’ve never even been back since it was so out of our usual path.”
They all noticed the light around them fading away and, when they looked to the mountains in the west they saw the rising sun slowly become camouflaged behind a series of rolling grey clouds.
Baethiah turned her head back to the gondola next to them. “Anyway, you said you wanted to see us? What can we help you with?”
Once more Lord Riejou shook her head, “It can wait ‘til later. We’ll make camp once we’ve passed through that storm, come and find me then and I’ll let you know. For now, get yourselves prepared, your wagon isn’t exactly the best for that kind of weather.”
The twins nodded in unison as she headed back into the gondola, shutting the hatch behind her and walking past the others inside to the back.
Once she was gone, Baethiah returned to the tent and lifted up one of the tarpaulins, below was a pair of sacks containing their clothes. She reached inside and fished out two Merma-skin coats, the thick waterproof hides good for keeping warm in bad weather. Then she reached further under, almost having to climb into the sheet, and pulled out the heavy coat for Daneizal to wear.
As she passed her brother on her way out of the tent, she dropped their coats on the seat beside him. Then, hauling the hooded sheet on her shoulder, she walked out along the ropes from the side of the tent to hold on to Daneizal’s harness. The mighty creature didn’t even seem to be affected by her weight, partly because he was so strong and partly because she was so light. She sat astride his back, covering his broad head with the hood of the coat and reaching around his chest to affix the cover to his harness. Finally she made her way back across to the wagon, pulling the tail end of the sheet with her as she did to let it cover him completely.
She picked up her own coat, pulling it over her shoulders, and fastening the buckle across the chest. Myrtri handed the reins over to her and reached across for his coat, repeating much the same procedure as her before taking the reins back.
Beth stepped into the wagon once more, going around the edge and tightening the straps that held down the sides of the canvas to the wooden cart.
Once everything was in place she sat back at the rear of the tent once more and closed her eyes.

No more than an hour had passed before the first of the rains hit, the gentle patter against the canvas rapidly turning into a thunderous round of applause, Myrtri slowed his pace to drop back into the group of leviathans, whose thick hide kept them warm and safe, sheltering behind the largest of which to avoid most of the rain as it sliced its way across the caravan. Though it wasn’t even midday, the sky had dimmed to a bleak grey, casting a gloomy shadow across the landscape.
The party had entered the foothills of the mountains, pushing their way across the trodden ground in the wide glacial valleys that get filled up with ice every passing cycle of the seasons.
Baethiah was awoken by the steady rumbling of the wagons wheels as they trundled over the large sediment deposits at the old glacial heads. Knowing that it would be impossible to rest with the sound of the rain hitting the tent, she got to her feet and, crouching under the low ceiling, made her way to the entrance. Stepping through she felt a brisk spray of water sting her face and scalp, quickly she pulled up the hood and raised her scarf to mask her face. Then she fastened down the tent behind her, protecting their belongings from the worst of the weather.
Ahead of them, the mountains were looming, the grey stone almost indistinguishable from the dim horizon. On the lowest peaks, she could see the snow being turned to a pale slush by the falling water. And even higher up, above the reach of the rain clouds, it sat still atop the ridges like soft, white pointed clouds, showing them the way ahead.
She sat next to her brother on the, now sodden, seat. The salty smell of his soaked coat blowing in the short sharp gusts of wind. It only took her one look to see that Myrtri was too busy concentrating on the lay of the land to engage in idle chatter. They sat in silence, gazing ahead to the distant valleys and hillsides that they saw jutting into the one they were in. Through the sound of the falling rain they could just make out the sound of the nearby river, a steady flowing sound like a bath that never stopped filling up.
After a few minutes Baethiah once again felt herself tiring, so she rested her head on Myrtri’s shoulder, allowing her eyelids to slowly descend. She pulled herself away from the brink of sleep once she felt the ground smoothing out, they’d left the glacier head now and the ground was smoother, with a short crop of grass flourishing across the wet earth. “Myr?”
“Yeah?” He half looked towards her, still paying attention to the way ahead.
“What Lord Riejou said earlier about Vortith, if our parents had a house there, do you think we’ve got any relatives there too?”
He took a moment to think, “Perhaps, no idea how we’d find them though. Besides, the last time any of them saw us would’ve been eighteen years ago, and they probably think we perished in the fire along with everyone else.”
“Hmm.” Beth once again fell into silence, watching the steady rise and fall of Dane’s shoulders as he pulled them along. The hypnotic rhythm gradually pulling her away from her lucidity, and into a calm slumber wherein she dreamed of a ship, rocking on the stormy seas.
It was nearly half an hour later when Myrtri spoke again, waking her up from her sleep. “Why d’you think they never told us any of it?”
Now Beth took some time to ponder the question. “We never really asked about it recently, and I guess the last time we did we were too young for them to say it. I mean, no kid wants to know all the details of something like that, just knowing how it happened is enough.”
“Maybe you’re right. Still, it just seems like…” He trailed off, unsure of how to finish his sentence.
“Seems like there’s maybe something else to it? I know what you mean, maybe we can ask Lord Riejou when we next see her after the storm.”
Myrtri looked a little conflicted for a moment. “That’s it though, I’m not entirely sure I trust her all that much. She’s been in charge here ever since we were little kids, so if anything was kept from us, it would have been her call.”
“Maybe you’re just scared of authority figures. Nearly every time you talk to them they’re telling you off for something or other.” Beth laughed, but they both knew how inside she agreed with him.
Myrtri elbowed her for the comment, looking up at the gondola of the leviathan next to them. It belonged to a man named Keif, someone whom neither of them ever really spent all that much time with. In their peculiar family of people who weren’t related to them, he was their boring, distant uncle. The motion of it swaying around below the beast made him feel lightheaded and nauseous, and so he had to look away.
On board the gondola, the uninvited passenger gave a small start as he thought he’d just been seen by the boy below.