Briar leaned casually out her window atop the highest floor of the palace, closing her eyes against the desert sun and its hot rays. A warm wind brushed her whiskers, blowing sand and dry air into the ever cloudless sky. The clean desert scent wafted about her. She inhaled it joyfully.
The desert was her home. For hundreds of miles it stretched in all directions. Far to the west, it finally ended at the border of Mossflower country. Few desert creatures ventured there. Everyone that lived in the Eastern Desert preferred the openness of the ululating dunes and foothills to the crowded foliage of a forest. In the northeast lay the Coldsky Mountains, and after that the icy northlands, where wandering vagabonds and vicious wolves were said to live. Along the far eastern coast, a smaller mountain range called the Dawn Ridge gave way to the vast ocean. The sands merged into grassy plains in the south, the fringes of Mossflower blending into the Southsward territory. And her father ruled all of it. To the end of every border, Emperor Blazoneye governed the desert and its peoples.
She opened her eyes to the faint sound of wheels. The sun shone brightly off her golden irises as she searched the northern horizons. Finally, she spotted a dust cloud rising from a large procession of caravans. Briar smiled softly. Even at this distance she could see the Green Eagle banner flapping in the breeze. Her father was returning from his monthly inspection of the northern villages. Trouble was stirred up there often; she couldn't help but feel worried for his safety. She always managed to push it out of her mind, though; his honor guard was more than enough for any mountain-dwelling primitive.
Briar pulled back from the pane-less window as her servant, a lithe brown-furred ferret called Rakesi, padded softly into the room on slippered feet. His white robes crinkled as he folded his paws across his heart and bowed his head, eyes turned to the floor, the typical posture for a palace slave.
Briar folded her arms. "Kesi, you needn't stand like that. I hold you in higher regard than some servant. We've been friends for how long now?"
The ferret turned up his eyes, never lifting his head, to wink at Briar with milky blue eyes. "For a long time, my Princess. I would do as you say, but if I get too used to the habit and slip in front of your father or uncle, they would be most displeased. A switching is not something I would look forward to." Briar grinned widely and nodded her head. Kesi and his formalities, even though they'd played together in the palace cellars since they were infants.
"As you wish. Your message?" Rakesi raised his head to meet her eyes as he spoke. A customary gesture, but Briar was nonetheless happy to be able to view his whole face. She hated how servants were made to hide and cower.
"Your father is returning from his survey of the northern districts, as you must've noticed from out your window." Rakesi smiled and continued. "Apparently, there is to be a feast as soon as he arrives, so the Head Visor reminds you to be dressed appropriately." He rolled his eyes at that and Briar joined him. Visor Brinethorn, the old gray-banded fox, was always one for formalities. Not even Rakesi went so far. At times, Briar thought that her father annoyed the wolf, being too unceremonious for his tastes.
She sighed and walked across the room to her wardrobe, a small grotto carved into the sand wall, footpaws kicking up sand from cracks in the white tile floor. Throwing the curtain aside and stepping behind the ornate, practically translucent dressing screen, Briar picked out a dress at a glance. "Thank you Rakesi. You may carry a message to Head Visor Brinethorn that I will be on my way down by the time the trumpets announce my father's arrival." She couldn't see the ferret's slight bow and exit from the room, but she knew by the scrape of the door closing that he'd left.
Briar neatly folded her previous garments, a finely woven blue jerkin and billowing white undershirt, on a small three-legged stool near. She tugged on the dress, a light yellow silk, low-cut and embroidered with crimson desert nymphs climbing up the sleeves and skirt, long leaves reaching. She fished about in a drawer and pulled out a fringed, pale scarlet wrap and draped it around her elbows. A shame the dress had long sleeves, she would've loved to see Brinethorn's face at the sight of her tattoos. The Green Eagle on her left shoulder and a purple crescent moon on her other. The blazing desert suns on her paws would have to do.
She turned to look in the full-length mirror balanced on a stand ornamented with curlicue fretwork and small cactus roses carved into the woodwork. She frowned at the dress, the silk clinging to her fur and the low-cut neck showing too much. Taking the wrap, she wound it loosely around her neck so that it covered her down to her shoulders. The fashion of a soldier would infuriate Brinethorn even more than her tattoos. Satisfied, she looked herself up and down.
Her golden-brown fur, well kept and free of knots and burrs, was finely accented by the saffron dress. Her claws were lacquered a deep red, except for the thumb, which was done magenta. A creamy colored muzzle enveloped her petite pink nose, powdered with the finest of cactus extracts, and neatly curled white whiskers. Under her long lashes, her golden eyes shone like deeply polished brass plates in the glow of the setting sun behind her.
The oaken door to her chambers opened again to reveal Rakesi with a scratch box and long-handled match. From behind the close to transparent dressing screen, Briar watched as the ferret worked his way around the wide room, lighting the candles that sat on wrought-iron tripods and in wall sconces. The air filled with the sweet scents of vanilla and apple, a heady mixture to be sure. All to add to the allure of a desert princess.
"My Lady? Are you ready? Your father's caravan has just pulled into the city." As if to prove Rakesi's words, a steady trumpet blast sounded from far off, the guard outpost at the entrance to the city.
The desert rat peeked out from behind the partition to wave the ferret away. "I'm almost done, Kesi. I think I can find my way alone." Rakesi looked from her to the window where the guardpost could be seen and back again anxiously. She almost slapped her forehead for her obliviousness. Another custom demanded that the princess, arriving to state affairs and festivals, should always be accompanied by her body servant. Another custom that Brinethorn looked upon highly and also one that he would punish remorselessly for being broken. Briar had seen the scars across lesser servant's backs, most from the Head Visor's own paws. Not that she cared for goodbeasts, but it disgusted her all the same to see subjects to the Eagle throne treated in such a manner.
"I'm sorry Kes, don't look at me like that. I forgot what you'd risk if I didn't let you escort me. One minute, that's all I ask." Rummaging through a varnished, wood-grain chest, she pulled out a heavy, green velour pouch, tasseled rope strings holding the opening tight. With a soft whisk, she loosened the bag and carefully delivered the contained object into her waiting paws.
It was a dirk, complete with a supple red leather sheath. Briar slipped it out of its jacket to hold it up to the combined light of the fading sun and dim candles. Even in that bare luminescence, the crystal pommel stone glittered in a rainbow of colors. The keen blade was approximately a foot in length, single-edged and sparkling clean. The hilt had no cross-tree, but the leather-wrapped wood had as good a grip as any. A sun was carved into the wood right above the blade.
The sheath, gripped in her opposite paw, was embroidered in perforating patterns of eagles. Gold leaf covered the bottom and surrounded the opening. Quietly, Briar re-sheathed the blade and fastened the whole thing to a silver chain that she encircled about her waist.
A princess's weapon, not normally worn to these types of events, but all the trouble that had stirred up the north could very well make its way to the capital. A huge feast such as the one that was surely starting in the Great Hall below right this minute would be ample opportunity for those mountain savages to chance an attack. Stepping from behind the screen, Briar showed herself off to her ferret friend, making a show of swishing her tail and batting her eyelashes. Quite the princess indeed.
Laughing, the two companions made their way into the antechamber and out into the long stretch of hallway, Rakesi trying his best to look the part of an amenable servant without cracking a grin and Briar falling far short of the reposed princess she was supposed to be. She didn't even attempt to suppress her giggles as the lanky ferret mimicked her 'fashion show'.
TO BE CONTINUED....