Post by Bianca Sabbato on Jun 4, 2020 23:42:46 GMT -5
It was a beautiful day outside, birds were singing, flowers were blooming... In days like those, girls like us... Should be going on a hike!
After helping Berwyn to set in. We spent a couple days getting to know each other a little better and acclimatizing her to Haven, but still, in the inherent monotony that was our daily schedules, there was little time and even less incentive to get shit going that wasn’t dry and trivial small talk whenever we crossed paths.
So when the weekend started poking its beautiful head on the horizon, we concocted a simple, yet effective plan to get ourselves a nice little bonding as new roommates ought to do.
Since apparently, she was a fan of watching animals and all of that stuff, I invited her to come with me on a little picnic on the outskirts of Ground district, where the city dwindled more with every step taken and the wild forests and green fields started flourishing.
We weren’t going to be out for more than a couple hours, so carrying camping equipment was unnecessary, although I encouraged Berwyn to find some food to take with us. I had prepared a full basket with fruits and some beverages for myself and to share a little with Berwin. But I had a hunch my companion probably ate more than a couple pieces of fruit for every meal, so I let it for her to pick her own food.
Reaching the outer rings of Ground district was as simple a matter as taking a bus to Wind and from then one to Ground (No direct buses from Cloud to where we wanted to go)
On that warm and windy day, I was wearing a light tunic that reached a little over my knees, and I had kept my food and a pair of binoculars borrowed from the academy in a teal backpack I owed since a couple months ago when I began preparing for Haven.
On our way there I tried to make some menial conversation about the weather and things like that, which in turn were replied in equal form and enthusiasm. Eventually degenerating our conversation into a stream of small commentaries and monosyllabic responses.
Yeah... Things were still a little awkward between us since we had just met a couple days ago at best. So a few dragged on silences were to be expected... Right?
Anyway, we were already on our last bus there, so I hoped things started to pick up in pace the closer we came to our destination... The seats were... A little small for her, so since she had to travel standing up, I only considered it rightful to do the same thing myself unless she insisted on me sitting down.
Looking outside, I could not help but drift away in thought as the dilapidated buildings and graffiti-ridden walls became more and more common with each passing street.
The stratification between the different levels of the “oh so great” city of mistral was as jarring as the separation between oil and water.
And a particular avenue or park could delimitate the parts of the city where the police were ruling and willing to help you, but simply crossing them took you to the zones where you were on your own or protected by one of the numerous gangs that called the lower district their home... If you played your part, of course.
All in all, I liked to imagine them like the frontiers of a million miniature countries existing inside a single city... Yeah, maybe Mistral was actually smaller than what it looked from the outside. Maybe we had entered the wilderness already...
Squinting my eyes at the blurred depiction of a painted cluster of blue ceibo flowers adorning the upper part of a half-demolished building, I could not help but snarl as unsavory memories filtered into my mind like pieces of glass resting under my feet.
But then, I relaxed visibly when I noticed it was covered with the marking of a snake biting an apple, probably signaling the turf of some brand new gang formed in recent years.
“That's all dead and buried, Bianca, just ghost of the past... Just ghosts”
Noticing my riled up face in the reflection of the window, I quickly fixed my expression with a slight grin as I addressed Berwyn in hopes of her not having noticed my short-lived irritation.
-You gonna love this place Berwyn! A little piece of heaven waiting for us far away from all the noise and hustle of the city, only a few hunters...- (Not huntsman, but hunters, that was an important distinction to make) –...Know of this clearing, and even the grimm seldom manage to make their way towards it as a result-
I had promised a sightseeing trip, and a sightseeing trip would I provide!
So enough with the long faces and petty bullshit, we were there to have a good time and create some good memories. Time to get my head out of my ass and get to do it!... Now how do I do that again?
-Have you been to Ground before? It’s certainly a place...- Great job Bianca, certainly a master conversationist... Shaking my head, I exerted myself to produce any form of dialogue more advanced than stating the obvious –I mean, it gets a lot of bad rep... Most of in rightfully deserved, but not all of it is bad just as not everything on Cloud is as good as it looks...- It is called cloud 9 for a reason, but a fully sarcastic one.
-Sure, some people like to take advantage of the chaos and lack of surveillance to prey on the weak. But others actually find strength and unity in their hardships... There are some very close-knitted communities down here, to the point that even the gangs have not been able to corrupt them- Yeah, those were nice, maybe if they received a little more help from the head honchos they could have an easier time proliferating.
-Oh, looks like this is it!- I called as I pushed the button signaling the driver to stop. We were the last people on the bus and the only ones making the trip this far. I knew there was supposed to be a couple more stops down the line. But the moment we set foot outside the bus the driver made a sharp U-turn and returned the way he had come from.
Taking out a map from my backpack, I dedicated a few seconds to check if we were in the right place.
I could see my previous analogy of different countries inside a city was as justified as ever. Since when looking around the bus stop, all we could see was a cluster of small buildings surrounding an ominous-looking rubber factory that clearly had seen better days. All in all, there should have been less than 300 buildings piled up one on top of the other, sometimes so precarious construction that they looked like they were about to collapse at any minute and take a couple of the neighbors with them.
Besides that, a couple hundred meters of farmlands separated them from the rest of the urban area, kinda like a small hamlet that was so close to the city it still fell under the jurisdiction of the capital.
On the area itself, I could see a couple suspicious markings and tags in some buildings that indicated active gang activity... But we were not expecting to spend too much time in that place anyway. Just enough to pass by and made our way to the forest beyond it... But of course, only we knew that.
-Ready to go, partner? It’s only a small walk from here. And if we are lucky we may even be able to see some bears fishing for salmon and the like-
1315/1315 Words.