520. Endless world, 8 - Jahr 14 ~ Book of Rosa Foetida

(Rose)

I saw a few more of these giant oxen outside the city. We still have a few days’ worth of dry meat from the first one Night got and cooked.

She looks better with some clothes on. She insisted on staying barefoot though.

Her giant droplet of blood has reduced in size, but she hasn’t created her dream creature with it yet.

She’s experimenting other things with it for now. She says she’s trying to refine her raw materials.

I think she wants to create a condensed elixir of life out of it. Something far more potent than blood or sap, that she could use to rapidly give life to anything.

I keep my past experience with something remotely close to such a thing to myself.

She already will have enough weird ideas on her own.

It’s anyway just another perspective on the art of life creation which beings-like-her are so found of.

And the paths to life are more numerous than one might have thought in the old days.

R - What about you Blume?

B - I will eventually, but not today. Today I’ll sleep a while longer within you.

Within us she should say.

~

By a pond, Night is giving the final touches to the huge tanned skin from the aurochs ox.

That fur is wide enough for two good coats.

While I begin to craft better clothes with what we have, we look for more clues on our whereabouts.

On a later day, we confirmed we were not in Europe at all.

Blume somehow managed to figure it out first, from the weather, the day time length, and the stars in the sky at night. And likely from the kind of shrubs and grass growing around.

A map carved on a city monument later confirmed it. We’re in the southern hemisphere instead of the northern one.

We’re close to the southern edges of Southern Americas.

B - Also, I had a quick look around as I dove from space to you.

R - I should have figured out you had a trick up your sleeve.

After a short while, we were about to be ready to go.

As we dined around our campfire, we discussed it. Where should we head to?

R - New-York I guess. In my old age, it was one of the brightest cities in the world.

B - Hm...

R - I guess the wars changed that?

B - I think it was still a little inhabited on the last days, although not as much as you’d think. So there’s a fair chance it’s mostly toxic grounds now. But I can’t be certain so I would be curious as well to see.

R - How long would it take to walk to New-York?

B - About two lifetimes I guess?

Nightmare chuckles, I pout.

R - Anywhere you’d like to go, Night?

N - Maybe home, to check on Snake as well.

R - Hm. Anywhere interesting to a daiûa on this continent?

B - I have an idea. It could be nice to both of you.

R - Where?

B - I’m not sure of its name, but I noticed a place north of here with a metallic gleam to it as I dove through the sky.

A golden glint?

R - Eldorado? You saw a golden city?

B - Something like that. For the quick glance I took while falling, it looked like quite a whimsical place with various fauna.

N - Are you making things up as you go to convince us?

B - Just a tad. I really have a good feeling about it.

R - It’s worth going to take a look, don’t you think?

N - I don’t have much to offer as an alternative.

R - Why so shy, Night? Let’s go take a look together, shall we?

N - Alright.

R - And if it was a waste of time, we’ll think of a way to get back at Blume.

B - Oy!

Night didn’t reply, but a wide smile appeared over her face. Sadistic undertones will always seduce something in her.

Blume too though, so I have to stay sharp.

~

Blume shared with me a glimpse of what she had seen from the sky. The picture just flashed into my memories as if I had seen it myself. Between clouds and optical distortions, it wasn’t an entirely clean map of southern Americas but the overall shape of the continent was still obvious honestly. Blume really just played us letting u figuring out where we landed. She realised it would take us ages and it wasn’t fun anymore, that’s why she told us.

And there is indeed an artefact on that picture. I see the gleam she meant. Gold maybe, but also something that is not a colour, like a concept of lush. Some irradiated particles out of there convey the idea there’s a lot of various life in that place. I get what she meant because I get the same peculiar impression.

This probably is the domain of another being-like-her speaking.

B - Surely is. But likely to be like the cornucopiae you left in Russia. Not a mean spirited one.

R - I like that idea very much.

I know I said that after last time, but I’d rather not carry a sword anymore.

At least for a while. Then when I get murderous itches, Blume and I will find a way. And Night perhaps will help as well.

We’ll see when the time comes.

Meanwhile we’ll enjoy our wander heading north into the Andes just ahead.

On our way to Eldorado.

~

Night walks more easily than me, despite the heavier luggage she carries.

It doesn’t seem fair, but I do see the sweat on her forehead, and I hear her tired breathing.

She’s really become human... And she’s not complaining about these costs and limits.

When I see her smile at me sometimes, beyond her playful nature, I begin to think she actually enjoys being human, again. It’s a new life for her.

In a different world.

Whatever her forgotten original human existence had been, this current one is worth living.

This weirdly applies to me as well.

Our path leads us rapidly in altitude, and roads heading into the heights of the southern Andes.

R - ... Sis!

N - ?

She turned around. I don’t know if she noticed my deep shiver. Blume did. And she remained respectfully silent, though I can feel her smiling from within.

R - Let’s camp out there for the night?

Nightmare looks at the buildings akinto old hunter’s lodges in the distance I’m pointing at. She wipes her forehead mechanically.

N - Alright sister.

I close my eyes, feeling fuzzy.

~