The Enchanted Path (Book 1 of the Dreamfarers' tales)

Chapter 5 - Expectations

The first thing Dianthus saw the next morning was a blur of brown feathers. A couple of blinks later, two waterlily-sized eyes bloomed out of the blur, and the filly they belonged to batted her long lashes at him.

"Where have you been?" she demanded, her tone holding just a hint of indignation. "You have been gone all week...without telling me!"

On his part, Dianthus was still groggy and paid little mind to her accusation. "Good morning to you, Cassidy..." he said as a yawn escaped his wide-open mouth. He stretched his back like a cat and shook himself, taking his time.

Cassidy waited patiently for Dianthus to make himself comfortable with only a slight frown plastered on her face.

"You could have said goodbye at least, you know...it was your mother who told me you were away with your father."

"I wanted to, honestly," Dianthus replied. "Dad wanted to leave early, and there wasn't time to wait for you to show up. Besides, it's not like I can come and get you out of the clouds."

Cassidy pulled her ears back and a faint blush rosened her cheeks. "Oh yeah...that."

Dianthus went back to the willow and disappeared behind its green curtains to emerge again with a long shiny feather in his mouth.

"We saw a phoenix," he said as he put the feather down at Cassidy's hooves. "It's for you. I thought you might like it," he smiled, already basking in her reaction. Cassidy's look said it all, staring at the feather wide-eyed as if the moon itself had been placed at her hooves.

"A phoenix feather...for me?" she lowered herself to the ground, not daring to touch the precious token yet. "Have you any idea of how rare they are?" she murmured, still unable tear her eyes off of it.

Dianthus was tempted to chuckle at her awestruck display but refrained from it. It wasn't such a big deal for him; he had only picked up the feather thinking it would look pretty on Cassidy, but the filly looked simply stunned.

"Yeah, something like 'you must witness the right bonfire every five-hundred years' kind of rarity, and hope that something does survive the fire at all," he joked as he picked up the feather again and tucked it in Cassidy's mane, behind her right ear. "It's no big deal," he concluded. "It suits you."

Cassidy caressed the feather with her wing and trotted to the nearby pond to look at herself: the copper-rainbow phoenix feather gleamed under the sunlight, standing out against her raven mane; the feather's bronze streaks matched her green eyes. Cassidy was speechless.

"Do you like it?" Dianthus knew it was superfluous to ask, but after her long silence, he couldn't help it.

"Do I like—!" It came out as a squeak which she quickly muffled. Cassidy cleared her throat and faced Dianthus with a shy smile. "It's beautiful. Thank you, Dianthus."

Dianthus nodded, satisfied. It does look nice on her.

"I also met a griffin."

Cassidy's eyes sparkled even more. "A griffin? Really? How was it?"

"She's old but very cool! She was a warrior a long time ago and..."

"A warrior? Like a real warrior?" Cassidy withdrew from the pond to assault the little unicorn, her wings flapping frenetically. "Like the ones fighting all fancy with those metal thingies?"

Dianthus laughed, amused by her enthusiasm. "Well, she has a lot of stuff in that nest of hers...she called it 'junk.'" He had to cover his ears to the pegasus' following shriek of astonishment.

"Junk!

"Did she tell you of her missions, by the way? I heard warrior griffins scout all over the continent!" Cassidy fluttered down and sat in the grass with a dreamy expression. Dianthus knew how she craved independence and longed for adventure, and could almost see foreign forests and fields, undiscovered mountains and boundless skies reflected in her eyes.