[Chapter 3]

Into the Fire

The girl and her pet darted down the many narrow winding halls of the King's Fortress, with Aurana in hand, zipping past various swordsmen and archer guardsmen on duty as they made their rounds on patrol. The guards dressed in formal robes of shining silk accompanied by loose red sashes across the waist, each greeting Corrin as she passed by in a gust of wind.

“Hey! Wait for me!” called Lief as she dashed by him.

“Corrin, my child! You are late- AND you're not even properly dressed!” shrieked a woman's voice from behind Lief.

Corrin looked at the doors to the ceremony halls, only a short distance from her, and sighed. She had almost made it without interruptions. Corrin quickly dug through the junk in the Elder's satchel and pulled out the Aurana's sheath- which she then plugged the Aurana into and hung over shoulder.

“How can you not be ready?! You've had all day to prepare for this.”

Corrin turned around nervously to face the screeching, coarse voice emerging from out one of the many curtained rooms behind her.

A middle aged woman with a permanent frown and deep set wrinkles appeared with Lief slowly trailing behind her.

“Mara Farron, it's great to see you,” Corrin grinned, lying through her teeth.

Mara Farron quickly wobbled up to Corrin, shuffling about oddly from her formal robe being tightened too tight. Mara Farron's sunken eyes, sucked-in cheeks and sharp pointed ears reminded Corrin of a dark realm ghoul. Mara Farron pulled the satchel away from Corrin, shoving it into Lief's hands.

“That's not mine,” she muttered.

“Take that napsack to the room, Lief,” commanded the Mara.

“We don't have time to fix you up proper right now. Come, follow me. We'll seat you beside the fire for now and I'll have Mara Lillim deal with you and this mess. It's your first dance, my dear, it's rather important to do it right. Don't you recall what happened to the last dancer who angered the Red Bird?”

“But I remember my dance,” Corrin argued, “I won't mess up like she did.”

“You're not even dressed! The dance doesn't matter without the tradition.”

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Mara Farron rushed Corrin through the large doors of the crowded ceremonial grounds and quickly seated Corrin beside the large central firepit before wobbling off. Corrin placed her cedar basket beside her and patiently waited for Mara Lillim.

The fire pit was surrounded by a pool of sand used as a ceremonial dance floor. The sound and salty smell of the nearby coast delighted Corrin.

The large room was fit to hold the entirety of the Asla'ati community and every seat in the room was taken, filled with an eagerly awaiting crowd. This great room was absent of a roof, only having a large gaping opening above. In the center of the ceremony grounds beside the firepit were two large pillars with a large round wooden beam crossing the top, forming a perch for the Red Bird to rest on when it arrived.

The young girl sat silently in the warmth of the fire pit. Her feet nervously dug into the warm surface of the sand, and dipped beneath the surface into the cool, refreshing underlayer.

Corrin scanned the various faces of the surrounding crowd for Nawa and Mara Lillim, but they were nowhere to be seen. A very faint tinge of blue light beamed from a bare spot on her charcoal-painted left palm. Scooping up sand with her left hand, Corrin made a fist to mask the illuminating colour and continued to stare into the bright mesmerizing fire.

The flickering flames of the fire pit danced along the cedar logs submerged in it, singeing and running along the frayed strands of cedar bark encasing the logs. Wood bugs and spiders ran along these logs in the fire, fleeing for safety from the inferno.

“What a horrible fate you've been given,” she murmured, sympathetic for the poor bugs.

Corrin didn't have the heart to watch them burn, and ordinarily she would have attempted to save them by lifting them out with long sticks for the bugs to crawl on, but there was nothing she could do tonight while in the center of the crowded ceremonial grounds. She already made the mistake of dressing inappropriately and being late. Messing with the firepit would surely do her in. Turning away, the girl looked towards the eager Asla'ati crowd filling seats and gathering around her- arriving for the Dance of Fire.

She began to feel awkward sitting in front of so many gathered people. It felt as if Mara Farron had punished her by sitting her in front of the masses without her clothes on. The crowd was so loud that it was hard to tell if they were mocking or making fun of her. She now felt like the wood bug trapped in the fire.

Nervous and impatient, Corrin reached for her cedar basket beside her, and placed it in the sand in front of her. Mara Lillim was taking too long, and the Dance would surely start soon, she thought. The basket was large and bulbous, interwoven with cedar bark, and held her ceremonial attire safely tucked inside.

Sitting on top of the basket were two large fern and feather wings. These wings along with the headdress belonged to the most sacred of the Asla'ati dances. Within the cedar basket were two black silk garments which were for her underlayer to protect her from the itchy cedar ceremonial garb.

Underneath the silk garments were dozens of thin cedar bark strips for her to tie together to make straps and bands out of, the small containers of black charcoal makeup and a skirt made of large red-painted feathers and fern leaves.

At the bottom of the basket contained her sacred wooden headdress of the Dancers of the Red Bird which resembled the four-eyed winged-beast with a long sharp beak and covered in cedar straps and beautiful feathers.

The headdress had a hidden rope near the chin that when pulled opened the mouth of the cedar mask which would reveal her face when worn.

Corrin's ashen blonde hair hung down in her face covering her dainty nose and freckled face. A few braided locks hanging in her view reminded her that she hadn't brushed her hair in days.

She grabbed a handful of thin cedar strips from her basket and pulled her messy hair back, holding it in place with her right hand. She dusted the sand from her left hand onto her leg and tied a single cedar band into a knot which held her hair in a low ponytail. Two long locks of hair hung down in her face, which Corrin promptly blew away from her face.