Vastra had never expected to stumble across such a lively place in the desert, which up until now had seemed quite empty and unforgiving. At first it had startled him, caused him to shy away and hide among the fringes of the bazaar, ducking in and out of sand dunes and shadows of stalls as he observed the commotion around him. His eyes flicked up to the cloudless sky, taking some solace in its openness as he contemplated the crowd milling about and gathering. A mess of music and clapping and talking swirled about his eardrums, overwhelming and distracting him. He supposed he really should keep moving, but ancestors above, he was so weary from his awakening...
"Hello there!" Vastra's form twitched in surprise at the voice behind him, and he turned abruptly to stare at a young girl with a protective scarf around her head and neck. "I don't think I've ever seen you at the bazaar--who are you?" she asked, clearly taking an interest in Vasta's elaborate cloak. The traveler made a sound, his voice still unused--before he'd been reborn as a human, of which he truly had no memory of, he could only utter chimes of his soul to communicate. Now, he had lungs, and a voice box, and things were so much more complicated and his tongue never worked quite right in his mouth. But he was able to smile, which seemed to be enough for the girl. "Come join in the fun! There's no need to hide in the shadows!"
The girl reached out for his hand, and he instinctively understood to take it in his own. She pulled him along, into the crowds of people, the music Vastra had been growing used to suddenly loud and all around him, people bumping into him left and right with small uttered apologies. She glanced up at him, noticing his blank expression of shock, and turned around to hold both of his hands in hers. "It's a little scary at first. When I was a baby, my mama would bring me here, and I'd always cry and cry until I got too tired and slept through the rest of the noise. You're not a baby, though," she added with a laugh, and Vastra simply smiled, because her laughter was such a happy sound. "Oh! I know! Do you know how to dance?"
Of course, he didn't, and of course, she offered to teach him. He didn't know how to say no, nor did he want to--before long he'd managed to copy her movements, and it seemed their small circle of dance had attracted a few more people to join in. Vastra couldn't believe the friendliness and positivity that seemed to swirl about him as people clapped to the beat of a collection of musicians, flutes and drums guiding their steps. Dance--dance... the word she'd said kept turning in Vastra's mind, and every now and then when he'd stop to rest, he'd find himself trying to mouth it, trying to utter sound in the right way to say the word that described this exhilarating action. When he rejoined, he was so engrossed in spinning and twirling that he almost missed the fading out of music, and then abrupt stop of it. His eyes opened, blinking wide-eyed as he realized the lighting had changed. His eyes lifted to try to find his new friend, the girl, but it seemed he'd lost her in the pointing crowd.
Vastra looked up at the sky and felt stricken with fear at what he saw. A black creature, shimmering like the night sky, stretching over the bazaar with enormous wings. Vastra's legs were rooted to the ground, even as the dark shape began to fade slightly, and then altogether... and then, an absolute
outpouring of admiration and joyful cheers from the crowd around him. Vastra yelped slightly, an untrained noise escaping his throat as he looked around wildly at the other people, until a tug on his robes dragged him back down to some semblance of calm. His eyes flicked down to look at the small girl from before, her eyes bright with excitement. "Traveler, why do you look so scared?" she asked, pointing up at the horizon line. "Look--can you believe it? It's a miracle! Yepha has brought us rain!"
Vastra stared at her, confused, then slowly looked up at the sky, at the dark clouds rumbling and approaching. Rain. Rain... he'd never heard of such a thing, in all his short memory. "R...ra..." Vastra began slowly, trying to join in as ripples of the word, breathed with awe, moved through the crowd. Vastra steeled himself and turned his face upwards as a cool breeze from the direction of the clouds buffeted his hair. "Ra-ain... rain."