City of Gold and Silver

Daybreak

The morning light was welcome as the sun slowly peeked over the eastern horizon. Daybreak was a harsh battle the shadows never won in the Shining City. First light sheared through the early fog each new day, illuminating the gold domes of the tallest buildings and seeping into the soft peach of the marble facades - it cut lines through the darkness like a sabre through silk, and the darkness always receded.

The shadows, stubborn as they were, clung to what they could, keeping the nooks and crannies and the underside of the city as inky as possible in stark defiance. They even hung from Ariah's body as a shield against the rising sun, painting her silhouette across the lip of the sentry wall. Pixie, beside her, sat as another, albeit smaller, bastion against the morning. The desert dog was tiny save for her ears, ears that were always moving, even in the relative silence of the new day.

"Leto was right about those travellers," Ariah said to the dog, pointing beyond the wall.

Pixie followed her finger then turned back to her as if to ask what she was supposed to be looking at.

The sea of sand that stretched out past the city was still bathed in darkness; the sun's blades hadn't yet made it past the sentry wall to cut away the shadow. Still, the wagon tracks off to the south were like claw marks against the waves of sand. Ariah pulled out a small notebook and began sketching a likeness of the tracks and their position. 

Pixie made a sound between a whine and a murmur.

"I don't like it any better than you," Ariah muttered, turning to her small companion. 

The little dog was not paying attention to her though. Pixie's eyes were focused on the distance, her ears searching ... Ariah stood, following the dog's gaze, listening. She couldn't hear anything but she knew better than to second-guess the tiny beast.

"Where?" she asked and Pixie took off.

Small though she was, that dog could run; Ariah had a hard time keeping up and keeping her balance as they dashed along the very top of the sentry wall. A patrol she could handle - she had enough gold with her to convince them to let her be, but this was something different. She could feel Pixie's anxiety. Something was wrong.

Suddenly, the dog stopped and Ariah slid a bit as she, too, came to a halt. Pixie began sniffing, a sure sign that whatever-it-was was close. Ariah listened again.

There it was.

The faintest thing, swallowed up by the morning breeze and the viscera of the city. Someone was screaming for help.