it's just another night and i'm staring at the moon
When the warning had come to the Deserts, she had been deep within the limestone caves lining their border, fast asleep. For more than a dozen years—probably closer to two decades, perhaps even longer—she has made the limestone caverns her home, venturing forth from them only for sustenance. She has never found the heart to truly abandon the kingdom that she had been drawn to probably fifty years ago (has it really been that long?) now. Maybe it has even been longer. She has lost all track of time in the barren kingdom, even though she doesn’t serve it as faithfully as she once had.
She had been asleep… she had missed the warning entirely.
They all had fled. Maye had not.
When the ocean had come to swallow the Deserts, she had been awoken by water flowing into her nostrils and down her throat, choking her. She woke up coughing and spluttering, but the damage had been done. The water was swift moving but she was quicker, fleeing her cavern as the waves lapped at her hooves. It rose quickly and by the time she exited the cave the water had been up to her knees, threatening to wash away the paths that lead to the tops of the cliffs. She was still struggling to breath past the briny clots in her throat but she couldn’t stop to think of another plan. The Deserts was drowning and she had to flee.
She couldn’t stop to think, or even glance down to the Deserts spread out before her, now a rising sea; she only had time to climb the wet cliffs spread out in front of her. It had been treacherous and long and more than once she had almost plunged into the water that tickled more often than not at her heels, but after a fashion, she had made it to the top of the cliffs.
After that, she had run. Ran, and not looked back.
The Deserts is gone. The only home she had ever loved, the only place she had ever loved. The home where she had conceived and raised all of her children, with Moriarty and Gunsynd and most especially, Akhil. Her lover through time. It’s all gone. All of it is destroyed. The center oasis where Moriarty had shifted into a tiger and tried to kill her, only to apologize and flee—it had been the last time she had ever seen him and Charlemagne had had to revive her. He had pleaded with her to leave Wardance on the throne; he didn’t deserve the Deserts anymore. It’s gone, too.
The Deserts is destroyed.
It’s been nearly a year now and she has spent every day of it within the Meadow. Slowly, her throat has recovered back to its normal state, and speaking has become easier again. For weeks she had only eaten and slept, hardly daring to move. But now she is recovered, has been for months, and all she wants to do is return to the Deserts. She doesn’t dare, however. She knows what she will find.
m a y e