420. Fleur, 8

(Rose)

My moment of rush well over, I didn’t regret anything.

Yaelun licked the wounds he could reach on his body.

I told him not to move for a while. I’ll be looking around for more things to take care of his wounds.

Yaelun doesn’t speak, doesn’t have a voice even, and no facial features or muscles to express much of anything.

I can still tell how he felt from his behaviour.

When I began leaving him alone, he felt uneasy. He was still emotional from what happened earlier today. I also was, in a different way.

I released a lot of emotions there as well.

~

From the top of a tall ruin, I have a good view on the mountains, and the path of the cold area the wolves followed. I can see in the horizon the bolt of cold air continuing on its way, with its stormy clouds along.

Nothing worse is following this trail anymore.

I turn back and begin searching for supplies.

~

Wandering through the ruins of the next industrial area, I end up finding some scraps of more clothes.

That will help replace mine and Yaelun’s bandages later.

I found a bag of coal. I take that as well.

I found an oddity in the scenery of lifeless ruins.

My sight caught that something was unusual there, but as I looked at the buildings directly, I couldn’t see what made me thing that and stop.

I see a pot with a flower growing inside of it. I step closer. A large crack in the wall next to it is leading somewhere.

I head inside. A corridor of rubbles leads inside a chamber richly decorated with warm carpets and blankets.

Various tolls are gathered around this shelter, but no one is there.

The ashes in the foyer are cold. No one sits at the desk covered with books. Above us, a single ceiling window, dirty, gives only the barest light to this place.

My finger draws a line on the dust covering the desk. It’s heavy. It’s old.

There’s a large scale painting on the wall from the entrance. It’s the only wall not covered with carpets attached to it, oddly enough. The painting doesn’t look like anything figurative, it’s odd to me.

Then again, I notice that a door had once been sliding there, but is now gone.

I leave a small note unlikely to be read by anyone but me right now, and I leave. The past has its charms, but the present matters. I’ll return to Yaelun with what useful things I’ve found.

~

The lonely flower in pot at the entrance is looking at me. I take it along as well. I’ll plant it in the ground somewhere where she’ll be able to grow. I feel that I need to make up for something, maybe that will help.

~

Like every blooded animal that I know of, the loss this great snake suffered weakened it greatly.

We walked slowly to a building that could let him in. There, he curled up around a good fire and we carefully tended to his wound.

Yaelun stood there for a while, feeding on the tree branches I would cut and drag to him. He lost his ability to spit alcohol for now, so we also rely on what I can bring.

I still sleep under his wing, but my dreams are a little more agitated lately. I relive glimpses of my last days in my previous life.

I saw the face of a woman I’ve never met, but whom I know is Blume.

I already knew she came to help me live again. That was quite obvious. But now I begin to remember it.

Because a lonely flower along my path caught my attention. I planted it in a wide garden another day that campanula. The world is now open to her.

My chest doesn’t itch, but I feel uneasy. Are you in there Blume? Or did you have to fully sacrifice yourself this time?

Some complex structures of T.I. can remain invisible if they are essentially powerless. So she could be there, like a spore, a dormant spore. I’m scratching the skin between my breasts mechanically, when I’m feeling uneasy.

~

I dreamt of Blume. I’m scratching my chest. Something is not right, but I still cannot quite understand what it is.

~

Yaelun got better, better enough to go outside and eat trees by himself like a cow would eat grass on pastures.

The wounds at the roots of his wings were deep and will take longer to heal.

One day, Yaelun spat inside a bowl, for me to fill a few bottles. I didn’t understand while he did it what was the reason behind it.

He looked at me, and pointed at the path heading north, ahead of us.

It pinged my heart. He was telling me to go on without him for a while.

Continue our way North without me. I will catch up with you when I can.

It made me sad. But he should be alright. Though I will feel cold and lonely, back on my two feet only to travel across this land.

I hugged him goodbye as I could, and gathered my equipment.

The next morning, after a bad night, I left while he was still sleeping.

Soon after sunrise, I left. The air was still cold. All is so quiet.

I began walking.

~

I left behind this wide industrial area we landed in. I crossed empty fields, feeling eerily quiet. There was no wind nor trees around.

After half a day, I reached a fall. One of these abrupt fissures that plague the land around these mountains.

I chose to do what we usually did with Yaelun. I headed for the chain of mountains just a little further, to find a way across.

I know what the southern deserts can look and feel like, with heat, light and sand.

Now I’m heading toward a different kind. Mountains so high and abruptly formed or deformed, that they became another desert almost void of life.

There are shrubs slowly conquering them, but the altitude quickly stops everything as temperature falls. I’m equipped with a good amount of blankets taken from the abandoned shelter, and some clothes roughly made out of some of them. But still, I expect it to be hard.

During the days, it’s summer. But as soon as night falls, it feels like winter.

I’m exhausting myself climbing along the first mountain slopes and boulders, trying to circle around it to find my way through. Given how long we’ve flown around here, I expect to see the end of this chain quite soon.

Maybe I could try to simply head North across the mountains. I’ll stay close to the western edge of these European Andes.

I’ve seen the Alps. I will see through this.

I’ve begun my long journey through.

~