#She's also aroace and non-partnering but shush

[some-pers0n]

Asha is a character I can't help but be fascinated by. She's never once present in the books. She's dead before they even start. The only time we even hear her name is a passing line from Cattail as she's telling Clay about how she sold Asha, her sister, his egg for a cow. Yet, I can't help but be enamored by her.

Why did she want to be a Guardian? What was her story? Cattail implies that she was a kind, hopeful soul who believed in the prophecy with all of her heart. She also talked about how Asha wanted dragonets, something taboo and unheard of with the MudWings. Their culture was just getting together once a month for the. Love Nights, and then leaving behind the eggs to fend for themselves. Asha...Asha was different.

Asha had faith. She had hope. She wanted to raise the dragonets. She believed in that prophecy. What would have happened had she survived? She was caught in the crossfires between Blister and Blaze's armies, dying just as she got there.

What if she lived? Would she have stood up to Kestrel? Would she have taught the DoD the life and joys of Pyrrhia? Telling stories and myths? Not just history lectures or battle strategies, but tales of heroes overcoming hardship? Would she have inspired them to dream of a world they made better?

Asha... Asha, Asha. A wonderful mystery of what-ifs and hypotheticals. One of the most compelling characters, yet one that does not even speak a line of dialogue. What would you be, had you lived? I don't know. We may never know. That is what I struggle the most with.