Jorghan met Ekatarina at dawn near the tree with red leaves and black branches. The shaman's transport was unlike anything he'd seen before.
The carriage itself was constructed from what appeared to be living wood, dark and glossy, grown rather than built. Red vines wrapped around its frame in decorative patterns that might have been functional rather than purely aesthetic. The interior was visible through windows of some crystalline material—comfortable seating for perhaps six people and storage compartments integrated into the walls.
But most impressive were the creatures pulling it.
They were serpentine, easily forty feet long, with scales that shifted between deep blue and purple depending on how light struck them. Multiple pairs of wings extended from their bodies at irregular intervals—not just two like birds, but six pairs distributed along their length, creating flight capability through complex coordination rather than simple flapping.
