Travelling on a tiago tiger was the fastest way to travel a land, yet it had its own difficulties.
For one, they were quite rare, rarer now that some were killed by these attackers in their resting state.
Their skins, teeth, and claws were heavily desired in darker markets. And if you traveled on them, it was essential to have a fair grip on whatever you could hold.
But that was if you weren't afraid of being bitten mercilessly or enduring the feeling of falling to your death if the saddle loosened. It always did.
The tigers were swift enough that it felt like the wind was slicing off your skin and that the soles of your feet were jumping off you.
Adventurous creatures, they loved roaming, so they weren't ones to stop at your calls or cries. Yet if you got the hang of it, it also felt quite freeing.
Her pendant kept knocking against her chest, so she lifted it from under her tunic and held the weight of it, right until they took a break in the late afternoon by a stream.
They had since slipped past the rain and into a quiet, yet beaming spot, where the breeze was warm, and the grass was bountiful with bloom.
The tigers had already helped them cover nearly two days' worth of travel since the morning. And so, despite Salīa's eagerness to press on, it wouldn't be wise, considering how worn out all four of them were.
"You kept it?" Bazil observed, passing her a flask of water.
"Why wouldn't I?"
"You haven't worn it since you were a child."
"I'm a child still, maybe even more so now," she rubbed the pendant through her fingers.
I have always worn it, either hidden in my clothes or kept in my pockets.
"It was given to me as I left the voyage. And now it travels with me as I return."
"Must have been some boy," he rolled his eyes.
Salīa suppressed a chuckle.
It wasn't often that Bazil was openly childlike, yet with this, he couldn't help but be.
"I didn't know him. It was just by chance that I got this."
"Well, either way…I could give you a gift, better than that one," he muttered.
"Bazil, you are my gift. I need nothing else."
"Something you can hold in your hands."
"Can't I hold you in my hands?"
He stuttered, then stopped. She smirked, passing his flask back.
Their fingers brushed slightly, causing him to turn his head. Then he spun it back, keeping his eyes stiff.
"Let me see it."
She let him step close, and he lowered, quite tall as he was, to look at it.
"An eye, it has the almond shape. An outline of silver-gold.
Within it is an obsidian ring, colored with lapis lazuli. And…" he looked closer. "Wakening water. That round splash in the middle is what happens when you blend wakening water with labradorite.
It's said wakening water was stirred into crystals in the first days to purify it and provide clarity to those who seek it."
What are the chances I've been carrying wakening water with me?
"I know they say wakening water is a myth, but you know my Uncle Azanji? When he became a miner for Bhuan's caves, he taught me many things. Once he'd come home with a chest of malachite that was spiritized with—"
"It's real."
"What?"
"Wakening water. I've seen a never-ending stream of it. It told me my family was gone. Not dead but gone. It felt like there was hope.
Then it asked me where I wanted to go. You ask it a question, and it answers, only if it can ask you a question."
"Yes," he lit up. "That's what Uncle Azanji said, from the poem. The Whistles of The Wakening Waters.
You look to yourself, as your self looks to you.
Remember, when you look for me, I will look for you.
You ask of me, what you can see.
As I ask of you, what you will be.
I am water, that has awakened
I reflect what you deflect
Wet of me, and you can taste it
From lakes of life to drips of death
You ask of me what you will be
I ask of you what you can see
Then you look to yourself, and your self looks to you
Remember, when you look for me, I will look for you."
His voice lulled so sweetly, she felt she was up in those clouds, her body swaying with the breeze. She lifted the pendant.
It did seem the splash was breathing.
She looked into it, yet it didn't tell her a thing, so she slipped it back under her tunic.
X