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As the rainbows spin around them, Rei’s voice rises and falls, entertaining the group with a story. Nasreen listens raptly to the tale, grey eyes softening dreamily at the mention of a creature she hasn’t heard of before: a phoenix. With delighted glee, she envisions the mythical beast as her friend describes it: enormous, fiery, beautiful… Beside her, the Edge tent flaps in the breeze, and she closes her eyes, imagining that it is the rustle of gigantic wings as they shrink and shrivel into themselves, shedding jewel-tone feathers before they are engulfed by flames. In her mind, the heat rises, shimmering in waves, then hovering over the sand. Oh, the stretch of glass that must glitter beneath the phoenix! She’d have to remember this one; for while the pegasus loves the Th’orquian legends that she grew up with, new stories fascinate her—who knew that other kingdoms could be so creative?
She lets her imagination run free while Rei speaks, savoring every detail and tucking each line carefully away for later. While she does not know with whom she can share the story (for even if they were on better terms, Quilly is much too old for this sort of thing), she cannot let such a beautiful tale go unrepeated. So, she follows along, envisioning everything to the best of her ability—not only for her own pleasure, but in the hopes that her mental illustrations will help her to remember for someone, someday. By the time Rei finishes the account, Nasreen is deep in concentration, brow furrowed as she attempts to get every last detail right. For the most part, she is satisfied, but her mind lingers on the final touch: the phoenix feather. She can’t get it quite right, until her eyes catch on the nearest rainbow. Drawing on the dancing colors for inspiration, the princess pictures a fallen tail feather, red at the tip like the spectrum’s far edge (but deeper, she thinks, more like a ruby she once saw at home) and pale yellow at the base, like the rainbow’s middle, the color of an aspen leaf in the fall.
Nasreen is so caught up in her fantasy that she doesn’t notice when the light in the rainbow she’s studying begins to bend and torque, folding over on itself and elongating until it is a plume of color. She possesses a vivid imagination, and she takes no special notice of the feather, believing it a mere figment of her mind as she finalizes the story. That is, until Rei’s question jerks her back to reality. Embarrassment surges warm and pink to her face, and she is about to respond that she is no crafter…when a gentle chime and a quiet plop! sound at her hooves. Distracted, she looks down. What she sees nearly makes her jump out of her skin.
There, lying in the soft sand before her, is the feather she imagined. It’s unmistakably the one she’s been picturing, for it is ruby red at the tip and pale yellow at the base, curved slightly at just the angle she carved from her mind, and the shaft holds a small loop at the end (for convenient accessorizing, a feature no real feather possesses). A stunned gasp flutters out of her throat, and she stares down at her inadvertent creation, unable to comprehend what just happened.
It seems like hours that she simply gazes stupidly at the feather, but in truth, it is only for a few moments. Soon enough she reaches down and touches the trinket lightly, as if assuring herself it is, in fact, real. It is cool to the touch, and it seems to be made of glass…a short, nearly hysterical laugh bubbles in her throat. She doesn’t understand.
“Here,” she finally mutters, nudging the feather towards Rei, “I don’t know how you did it, but it looks like this is yours.”
OOC: No posting order now, as long as @[Sikeax] goes before Ilios! If @[Dragomir] wants to chime in at any point and explain to Nasreen what just happened, that might be fun too c:
@[Rei], remember to post this in the updates board to be added to your character records!
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