The City of Nature

“Almost there.”

Auranna’s voice rang in Edward’s mind. The party got up relatively early in order to get an early start on their journey to Verdant. Ed let out a yawn, this trip had significantly more walking than he thought was necessary.

“We should’ve gotten one of those carriages,” Ed suggested. “That way only one of us needs to be awake.”

“You went to bed the earliest out of all of us, didn’t you?” Cozy responded. “There’s no way you’re still sleepy.”

“It’s a mental thing, I guess,” Edward sighed.

“You ought to fix your mentality, then.” Auranna said. Edward huffed in annoyance as a response.

The road ahead wasn’t much longer, and they could see the city in the distance. The outline in the vague moonlight reflected off the wreaths of plants that covered the rectangular buildings that stood in the distance. The plants glowed blue, as the light finally reached them. It created a spectacular skyline to look at.

“So, loathed as I am to ask,” Auranna spoke to Ed. “If you wish to see the governor, what is your plan?”

“Was hoping the others had an idea,” Ed whispered to himself, before speaking up. “So guys, how are we planning on getting the governor’s attention?”

“We ask!” Adelyn said.

“Oh no no no,” Cozy shakes her head. “How fast do we want this approval? We’re gonna need to do more than just ask, bureaucracy can take a long time.”

“Well then, what’s YOUR idea?” Ed asked her.

“A girl needs some time before she can think of an idea. This city was never really on my radar until now,” Cozy responded. “But if we want an audience with the governor and fast we need to do something noteworthy.”

“Like what?” Ed pressed further.

“Well, there’s the obvious answer of causing a city-wide incident and stopping it ourselves. This would curry the favor of the entire public and granting us a quick audience-”

“That’s not realistic,” Adelyn interrupted Cozy. “Besides, that also doesn’t feel right. Maybe we should help around a bit, be a hero through that!”

“That’s not going to get us any audience with the governor,” Cozy responded. “The best way with this is to cash in a favour.”

“Guys…” Teddie said. “We haven’t even gone into the city yet… lets uh… actually learn about it first.”

“Yeah, fair point, Teddie,” Adelyn said. “Might as well take a little bit to enjoy, ahah.”

“In my time, when you wanted to talk to someone important you would just knock their door down,” Auranna said. “Watching it become more of a mess over the years is quite a shame.”

“Complaining to me isn’t gonna solve the issue,” Ed responded.

Up close, the city looked spectacular. In comparison to the rather plain villages they saw on their way here, the city was far more busting.

Buildings towered up multiple stories, draped in glowing vegetation. The luminescence replaces lights as moss covered the sides of the stone structures. The architecture looked worn, but it also felt stable. It was as if the buildings stood for hundreds of years but required little changing over time.

Birds flew from the top of buildings, carrying various items to windows that scattered across the skyline. A long crawling bug walked across the building sides, conditioning the blooming flowers around the area.

“Woah…” Teddie looked at the creatures running around. He seemed amazed by all of this. Ed was impressed too, even if he wasn’t as familiar with animals.

“Quite the impressive city, I’d never expect animals to act so civilized,” Auranna said.

“Things seem pretty harmonious here,” Ed said. “I’m not exactly sure if there’s much room for a favor to cash in.”

“There’s always trouble if you look hard enough!” Cozy responded. “You just haven’t looked.”

“This place is amazing…” Adelyn was simply taking in the sight. Ed noticed that her eyes were in particular drawn to the golden glowing butterflies. The insects seemed to be acting as directions to other people new to the town.

“Maybe we should follow those?” Teddie said. “Hey, hey-!”

Teddie raised his hands and the butterflies came to him. They conversed for a little bit in an unintelligible language before coming to an agreement.

“The girls here are willing to give us a little introduction…” Teddie said, pointing to them. “Just as a beginner thing, we’d want to set up a place to stay and all…”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, then!” Adelyn said, looking at the butterflies which just fluttered around her.

“They said it’s nice to meet you too,” Teddie responded. Ed looked up at them and followed along, information is what they were lacking at least, so this was a good start.

They followed the butterflies around the area, observing the bustling city-life. The area was still significantly bigger than Ed was used to, but eventually their eyes were drawn to a long path leading to a massive metal complex.

“What a massive prison,” Auranna noted. “Quite different from the prisons of old.”

“God, it sticks out like an eyesore,” Ed said.

“Yeah, couldn’t they have bothered to make it fit with the setting a little bit more?” Cozy said. “Ahh, it’s whatever. Hey, Teddie, is there like a place to get news or…”

Teddie looked at the butterflies, which fluttered around him, before he turned back to Cozy.

“There are newsstands around, but you’ll probably have to ask the Favians,” Teddie explained. “They’re like little birds who copy messages they hear.”

“Is most of the city facilitated by animal transport?” Adelyn asked. “That’s amazing.”

“Yeah. The animals offer their services in exchange for not being hunted by predators,” Teddie responded. “So… it’s generally a good thing for them…”

“How long has the prison been there then?” Ed asked, curious.

“A good while,” Teddie responded. “Longer than most of the animals can remember at least. It keeps them safe, so no real complaints from them.”

Eventually, the group settles down by a nearby fountain in the center of the city. Seems to be just by the entrance of a park. A group of fish seem to be performing a show in the fountain for a captive audience, of both animals and people.

Teddie was currently enjoying the show, but the rest of them were sitting around trying to think of something.

“So, we want to get one of those Favians, right? Then we hear the news?” Adelyn asked.

“What if that doesn’t come up with anything though? Plan B?” Ed responded.

“Well, we’d need something that would get the attention of the highest power in the city. Something of grand recognition… I could say we could always cause something-” Cozy began to say.

“No,” Adelyn shook her head. “Causing incidents like that wouldn’t do us any favor. Remember, we want them to like us.”

“And they’ll only dislike us if we get caught, sooo-” Cozy said.

While the two of them were arguing, Ed had gotten caught up watching the show alongside Teddie. He was enjoying himself, the fish could sing quite the catchy melody.

“You ought to stop getting distracted and come up with an idea,” Auranna said, manifesting next to Ed.

“Gghk,” Ed’s mood soured at Auranna’s appearance. “Yeah. I’ll get on it, let me have this moment.”

“You’ve barely done anything since you’ve gotten here,” Auranna responded.

“We travelled here, that’s a big accomplishment. Can’t we just enjoy the sights a little bit?” Ed responded back.

“Stop being so lazy. If you’re going to host my power then you can at least make the effort. Do you not know how much of a gift this is to you?”

“Yes, I do know,” Ed grumbled. “But I also would like to enjoy myself for once. I’ll think of it later.”

“Eurgh, you’re such a frustrating host. Fine, you can rest for now but I better see some actual progress on getting that approval.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ed sighed.

“Are you okay?” Teddie looked at him. “You seem to be talking to yourself a lot…”

“I was just thinking, that’s all.”

***

“I’m tired…” Teddie said, as they entered their room. The money they got from the worm managed to buy them a pretty comfortable room for a few days.

“Inns normally aren’t this cheap,” Cozy said. “Guess we lucked out.”

“Well, we still haven’t figured out much of anything yet,” Adelyn said. “We saw the prison and watched the show. Still, no ideas here.”

Ed was a little bit tuned out from the chatter still, he was thinking. The boy wandered to the window and stared outside.

“Have you come up with anything yet?” Auranna formed behind the boy. ”It’s been how long since I last asked?”

“Working on it.”

Ed’s mind wasn’t really clear on the details. The one thing he knew was that he needed a plan to get the mind-ghost to stop bothering him. At least, something that might seem to work.

The remaining three kept on discussing ideas. Some sabotage, some pitching, none of them seemed particularly great in his eyes. He needed something that at least seemed good on paper.

A small bird flew to the edge of the windowsill. Ed stared at it for a little while, before eventually patting it on the head.

“BREAKING NEWS. BE WARY OF THE EDGE OF THE BORDER, THE HYDRA HAS BEEN SPOTTED ONCE MORE. DO NOT ENGAGE. DO NOT FIGHT. IT WILL ONLY SPELL DISASTER. WAIT FOR THE GOVERNOR’S NEXT MOVE.”

“Eh?” Ed said. “Didn’t realize birds could speak.”

“Hold on a second,” Teddie said, coming over to the windowsill. “Ohhh- this is one of those Favians… I think.”

“Oh, really?” Adelyn said, sitting on her bed. “But what did it mean about a hydra?”

“Hydra… uh… there’s only a few of them. I think. My birds told me stories a long time ago,” Teddie said. “Big, scary, and unstoppable.”

“Sounds like a huge mess,” Cozy said. “I wouldn’t want to be unlucky enough to cross that, hahah.”

“I see…” Ed said. He looked out the window once more, seeing the massive prison complex out in the distance. It stands tall, even from this far away, looming over everything. Then, Ed got an idea.

“Hey, what if we went hunting?”