It was as if night tumbled into day.
I don't know how the movement through fish worked, but on the other end my feet found a worn stone path, and most shockingly my surroundings went from bare and empty to hurried with people all set on their won business. The grass was green and soft under my bare feet, and when I took a moment beneath a ginko tree to catch my breath, the breeze was warm on my cheek. The path surrounded an enormous wall which seemed to go up into the sky forever, and it was with some trepidation that I returned to the hustle and bustle of the crowd which flowed inward like a stream.
There was a murmur from inside the stone, like an old friend waving hello from a distance. I looked up and up, but all I saw were buildings and stairs and chattering crowds of people doing business. It was as if the mountain itself was carved out into a tumble of houses, doors opening above impossibly narrow steps down which crowds clattered with sublime indifference. Rings of walls were less defense than necessary support, washerwomen dumping water out of pinhole windows on their edges and children kicking restless legs as they surveyed a domain no less cluttered than it was magnificent.
It was the whispers which drew my attention from the sublimity of mountain become home, the better dressed eyeing me as I walked along in my tattered clothing and whispering behind their fans. The attentions of the guards were of move concern, though, and as a pair moved toward me I ducked sideways into a low doorway. A welter of cloth and bows caught my attention then, and the piles of glittering Linden which had been so useless for so long suddenly became more precious than bread; the kind proprietress even let me change from ragged to grand in a tiny back room fitted with washing water.
Refreshed and purified, I sailed grandly by the guards still looking for me, feet led inexorably to the narrow stairs upwards. Tiny courtyards centering around deep wells cut into stone were edged with greenery and surrounded by tiny doors. At once hidden between walls, at another time dazzlingly boundlessness over miles of city below, the stairs continued upward through increasingly rarefied domains. I gaspingly made the final steps, more ramp than staircase, and broke from stone wall to a breathtakingly broad promenade with naught but a single building upon it, surrounding a lovely fountain and with a single lane leading down along the escarpment.
It was there I met an unexpected friend, grown white as lightning from the very depths of the mountain. She greeted me with the rustling of her leaves, having lured me thither, and for a long while I dreamt in the shadow of her leaves. It was out of the light that the airship came, the dragon above it surprisingly placid, the music within it luring me away from a new friend who left me glowing, wounds healed and body rejuvenated. The party on board welcomed me as if I were already a member, the music continuing even as the ship began to move again through the sky.
( More pictures here. )
Credits:
Location: Hopes Horizon
Light Settings: Sim Default
Water Settings: Sim Default
Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only
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