Citizen 136 Kamille

“Kamille! If you still want to see the snow, you better get out!”, her mother called, looking away from the stove where the sauce for the meal was cooking. It was a cold day, as the elders had blessed the inside of the dome with snow. Oleander had long left the house to play in it, but Kamille, as always, had preferred to sleep in. That it had snowed, she had barely even realized. She’d heard the words somewhere in the back of her head, but the realization hadn’t quite set in.

At least until now. Merely a few moments after her mother had called, she was already up and throwing on her tunic, finishing it up with proper pants and a belt around her hips to hold it all together. Then Kamille already dashed out of her room, past the kitchen where Alyanna stood, then rushed outside, kicking the door closed behind her.

And immediately she stood in a winter wonderland. Her eyes wide, she looked around, her ears perked ever so lightly at the sight in front of her.

They didn’t live in any part of the city of Atlas that had much activity, they were living more on what most rex would call the outskirts. Small houses with gardens, a wide road, a marketplace so rex had the choice to either travel to the big market in the city, or to a smaller one closer to home. It was homely, wide - and absolutely beautiful when dipped in snow. Wherever Kamille looked, all was white, no bit of greenish grass left in sight, neither the bare ground. “It’s beautiful”, she whispered to herself as she stared at the ground, before her gaze traveled up.

Thick, white clouds hung heavy in the sky, barely allowing the blue sky to break through. In a constant haze, the flakes continued falling to the ground, slow and gently carried by the wind. Kamille couldn’t help it - seeing a particularly thick flake, she darted forward. Extending her hands she jumped up as much as her legs allowed and tried to catch it, humming in surprise at the cold feeling all around her.

Falling back onto the heavy blanket of snow she felt a shiver run across her entire body, yet it didn’t deter her. She opened her hand and let out an excited chirp at the pretty white flake she held in her palm. A moment later however, it already got smaller - and then disappeared, leaving only a bit of water as it had melted from Kamille’s own body heat.

For a moment longer she simply watched the spot where the flake had been, then she shook herself. With no further hesitation she dashed through the snow, laughing in pure glee as the cold white brushed against her. It had fallen heavily in the last night, almost making it impossible for the young rex to bend her knees properly without resistance from the snow. That didn’t deter Kamille, even when she stumbled over her own legs and fell face first down, her muzzle disappearing completely in white.

Blinking a bit confused, she shuddered. Then however, Kamille pulled her head back and laughed in pure amusement, before she finally pushed herself off and onto her back. Her green eyes focussed on the sky, where the clouds were covering the blue - and a moment later, she hesitated.

The dome. Alyanna had often told her daughter that the sky they saw above, was in no way real. It was something from the elders, a gift to those that lived under their care, reflecting the day and night of the world outside, but deciding on the weather themselves. Kamille eyed the sky.

As beautiful as it was, it wasn’t real. The snow, made of pure magic, behaving like any normal snow, but it wasn’t real. Carefully Kamille stretched her arms out and towards the top of the dome, feeling the flakes brush past her armored scales as she attempted to reach for the sky. “I wonder”, she whispered to nobody but herself, her eyes sparkling as she looked for the square seeming plates that sometimes glimmered across the sky, hiding the fish behind it. Yet with these clouds and the snow, she couldn’t see them.

A soft, content smile crossed over Kamilles face. This snow, she loved it. And yet she was sure that she could see even more of it. Sitting up in the cold white, she brushed a hand along it, eyeing the flakes that flew up in her hands. One day she’d see what was beyond the dome. She’d feel real wind, she’d feel real snow.

And she would absolutely love it!

~ obscureshizena