Wanderers of the Grasslands

Chapter 2. The Edge of the Farmlands

The next morning was dull and it had rained last night, so the ground was fairly damp. I woke in the early hours and set out of the house after leaving a note to Pa and Mam.
It was what I presumed was 8.00 am when we finally met up at the side of Main House (I had left my pocket watch at home as it was too delicate) and we were huddled around a little grill cooking slabs of meat. Wildfire had been able to build a cooker when he was 6 and had been working on it ever since so it cooked the meat pretty quickly and within the hour, we had set off.
Not many were around and we could only really see Pruney and her friends on their horses near the stables as the four of us (Hothead, Rodent, Wildfire and I) walked silently. We were all a bit frightened of what we might find, and indeed what our parents might say. I knew for a fact Rodent's parents were very uptight and Hothead's were still paranoid from Horsey's incident. Nevertheless, we all knew it was an opportunity we couldn't miss. So we had to lie and tell them we were building dens.

The sun was fully in the sky when we reached Creek's Edge. Creek's Edge was an enormous steel bridge constructed before we'd even arrived at the Farmlands and there were old cars and even old items like handbags left inside cars or charred from an engine fire. The bridge itself was fairly small and was painted red with wires coming down from the pillars. I recognised the design from an older tapestry but was probably imagining it.
The drop in Creek's Edge was enormous, which was partially the reason we weren't always allowed near it, and down below, you could see the graves designed by the Leader where the six boys had fallen off a year earlier. Even in the warm weather I still felt chilled looking down at the silent stone pillars.

Past Creek's Edge was the Opifex Forest. This was where most of the manufacturing for the Farmlands took place and we had to be careful to avoid the men and women working on various pieces of iron, framework or even doors and windows. It was the workshop of the Farmlands and was quite large in size, with six or seven small factories in the middle of the forest. As we walked, Hothead grabbed a spanner and pocketed it, for which I presume he was just going to keep it as his own little artefact.

The Opifex Forest was filled with creatures and Rodent was able to catch a hare to eat later.

When we got to the edge of the Opifex Forest, the boundaries for the Farmlands was in sight. It was a small line of fencing, made of wood. This was the boundary where the first people had arrived and stone houses still stood like watchful ancestors, awaiting our next moves. We crossed from the foot of some spruce trees and moved down a gentle slope to the dirt path which sent us winding towards the fence. As we got to the gate, I stopped to indicate to the beyond. It was Flat grassland, for as far as the eye could see, as wide as the eye could see. No hills, no definition. Just flat land for hundreds of thousands of kilometres. "Okay. We can wait here." I said to the group. No one argued. No one said a thing. We were all stunned. I for one had never seen the edges of the Farmlands, and had, for a while, refused to admit they existed. But it was terrifying. An agoraphobic person would have had a nightmare. I knew then, for sure, that the Wanderers existed, and that we lived in their lands.

The time crawled by as we waited. Hacksaw had mentioned that the Wanderer had only just been in view. Perhaps it had moved beyond the observable horizon, which was likely, given that it would have only been a few steps for the giant.

The day passed considerably, and with each hour, we grew more desperate. By Lunch, Wildfire had returned to Main House and was scoffing scones as Rodent, Hothead and I grew frustrated.
The lack of food certainly didn't help as we were perched on the grass trying desperately to keep the silence at bay that seemed to occur frequently. Meanwhile, we were all squinting at the expanse of green, hoping that we would spot the creature sooner rather than later.