“This is my favorite spot.” Alec stood on his tiptoes and leaned out over the railing, letting the wind ruffle his fur. “You can see the whole world from here!”

“The whole kingdom, maybe.” His cousin Ariana crossed her arms on the wooden railing next to him. “There’s probably some territories out of sight. And then there’s the rest of the world, beyond what we can see.”

“The rest?” Alec trained his eyes on the horizon, where the greens and blues of the world turned to a gray line. “What do you think’s out there?”

“Lots of things. Hot places. Cold places. People who speak different languages. I saw a feathered person once.”

“Really?”

“When I was really little. She was an ambassador, or something. She came to visit Father. He said she was from a desert land, far away.”

“Whoa.” Alec’s eyes widened, trying to take in all the things he couldn’t see - all the things he hadn’t, until this very moment, imagined were out of sight. “I want to go there.”

“Me too. And I will. Someday.”

“Can I come, too?”

She shot him a sideways glance. “If you behave.”

Her tone was flat, but her tail wagged, letting him know it was a tease.

“We’ll go together,” he said, pulling himself up to sit on the railing. “Over the mountains, and out to the world. We’ll go farther than any hound has ever gone before!”

“Yes we will.”