432. Wilderness, 2

(Rose)

I went beyond the next swampy area easily. The nights are getting really cold, but I’m doing well.

Maybe there’s a hint of loneliness in my heart lately.

It’s been so quiet lately, aside for the wind around me.

The land is lush. The modern roads I follow are invisible to the eye under ages of dirt and earth, where herbs can and do grow. Wallflowers climb on the poles. Ivy covers the remaining buildings walls.

And there’s wildlife living in what has become of our cities all around.

There’s a lot more life than in western Europe, but it feels different.

I miss seeing fishes in the sky or giant flowers. I miss that modern spark on things. It’s less obvious around here. It’s still there, T.I. is there, along with its impacts, but the nature itself doesn’t show it as much around here.

There are still regions of effects and maps of T.I. I don’t know nearly as much as I wished so.

A little further outside that city, I found an old farmland. The buildings have long collapsed, but a few chicken still lived around, by themselves. A familiar sight.

I stole a few of their eggs they simply left around. Not too many.

A little further behind was a ravine, similar to these deep rifts one can find in other places in Europe.

I walked my way around. I crossed a small field of rocks and eggshells, like a graveyard. Bones of various animals were also scattered.

Tons, bleached in this barren area where they gather.

I wonder if this if from before, or new.

Nothing is coming after me, threatening my life.

I kind of miss it on that day...

I’m looking for a little more excitement since the travelling life is rather easy on me lately.

It’s not quite boredom lurking on me, but a lack of excitement.

I grin. I realise I’ve been spoiled.

It reminds me of a time when I could and would read two books per day.

It was never enough. I wanted more.

Now I’m reliving that feeling of folly as an ageing adult.

I want to see more. But I know I will.

My soul is growing hungry about it.

~

One morning, I was lucky enough to see a charming scene in the field below the building where I slept.

Little critters close to beavers or marmots, I don’t remember their name. Families of them playing in the field together. Parents eating peacefully, children playing together with joyous squeals. They were running and rolling over each other happily in the grass.

That was cute. They seem to have a good life around here.

I can barely remember the sunny days of my childhood, when I played along with my three sisters in the field below the house. But I recall it happened, once in a distant memory now. Sweet old memories.

Yes, I’m definitely feeling a little nostalgic now.

~

As I kept walking east the next days, I encountered a few other scenes like that in these peaceful wild lands.

One with similar animals. Sables I think. Then the equivalent with lizards, big lizards. Then another a river further with a species I’ve never seen before. A kind of large slug with too many legs to count, below that softly shaped body. The younglings were still somewhat cute things. It seems it’s a season for families to go out playing in the fields.

I was still surviving with limited need to hunt, adapting on the fly. For now I had enough provision to last a few more days before I would need to slaughter one of these happy families, from a kind or another.

Is this area too peaceful for me? Am I feeling wicked?

I’m still feeling uneasy.

I spend some time cleaning and sharpening my sword and knife when I have the chance.

Something dark is nibbling on my shoulder. I feel an itch.

There’s a fire I miss.

The one I ought to burn myself against, again and again.

My sword is as sharp as can be. I’m impatient and ready.

That night, I snapped my fingers, and a spark appeared right in front of me. Ah!

The T.I. has reaccumulated itself inside my cells to a good level.

I will soon be able to do some daiûa magic again.

Maybe I’ll call Priest? Maybe not. I’d be happy to have a fair fight, but that would be going a step too far into recklessness.

However, one way or another someday, I’ll try to send a message to my other friends. My real ones. To let them know at the rate I’m travelling, I’m very likely to miss the reunion we’ve scheduled.

I’m going for the longest journey.

It amuses me how much my wild desire itches me now. My thorns are amusing in how itchy they can be, in their obtuse way. It makes me grin as I go.

~

The most peaceful days of travel are the most frustrating ones to me lately.

But I’m laughing about my frustration and myself.

This land is too relaxed. Alone, it’s not fun to wander through. Would I still be travelling with a lover, we would have enjoyed it differently, and maybe settle there in Ural.

I scratch my chest at times.

Where are you Blume?

R - Sleepy head... When are you going to wake up? I know you’re in there!

I’m sure she would tell me that she would return either when the time is right, or when she feels like it. Bad flower.

One way or another, she would tease me first of all. And I would try to argue, to avoid admitting something else.

And so days moved on, too frustrating for my taste, but so uneventful and peaceful I could chose to live around here when I’m old and weary.

~

Something was recently reactivated in my brain and my eyes. That bluish stain.

I can reopen my eyes to the world of T.I, on my scale.

It changes a lot what a journey can be.

As if I could see the magnetism of the Earth, or temperature flows; I now can see for a few minutes some aspects of reality that reshape the landscape endlessly.

As if in a foreign city you could suddenly read everything, see new streets and tunnels, and many new people and animals inhabiting them on different levels. It’s not a different world nor a different reality, but another layer of it hard to perceive.

It makes me so happy!

I can see the translucent ribbons and nameless small things again, flying around. All the primeval lifeforms from the other world grown big enough to gather a shape and a good level of energy.

Just one step away from becoming real; and new species.

I can live around all of them again. The spores from the other world trying to blossom in ours. As queer as ever.

It still is exhausting to push on my eyes and brain to be able to see them, to detect their radiations of T.I. and translate them into colours. But it sure is nice to witness them once more.

And just like that, I was able to see and enjoy more of the land.

Simply because I was able to see a little more of it, from a perspective I was blind to so far.

There are more lifeforms than meets the eye around here.

Knowing that makes me genuinely and truly happy.

~