L [o/i] ve is a journey

The Girl with the Fox Mask (The First Day Part 6)| Well-Traveled II

Lunaris looked delighted, and interested: „What's other places and foods you liked?" he wrote on the paper before showing her to pose the question.

„Hm, I think, Yuno." She responded, after a short moment of thinking: „A city so far above the clouds, it feels like it's flying. The air is quite thin, and you'd think you're out of breath all the time, for a long time. They have these strange, sturdy all grey buildings, with a hexagonal foundation. The libary is this big tower in the center, also hexagonal, and it grows up like this," her hand formed a cylinder with a peak, „but then, nearly halfway up, it's turning into a hexagonal globe, really looking like a wizard's tower. Which is no wonder, since it's the old city of magic and all."

In Lunaris head the Tower over the clouds took it's hexagonal , grey shape, while she proceeded to describe her memory: „The few specs of colour were either represented by the roofing tiles or flag and banners, it looked, like they were trying to make up for all it's greyness, I don't know? Because of the thin air, I got quite sick, and had to sit in my room for three weeks, until I was accustomed to the thin air. And the weather was also strange, it felt like there were no seasons throughout the year, but rather through a single day! In the morning, the clouds hung in the city, and everything was getting wet, because the water within the clouds condensed on everything."

Lunaris would have hated to get wet by clouds, but the concept was still intruiging. „And then, when the sun had it's peak, the sky was so clear, and the sky bluer than you can imagine." Neri continued, and he got drawn more and more into her desciption of Yuno: „And when you looked down to the edge of the town, if felt like nobody could be closer to the sky than the people living there. It felt like...everything was so far away. Like, you weren't even existing in the normal world anymore!" Her eyes lost itself in a point far beyond him, as part of her memory.

„And by afternoon, the clouds would travel upwards, wetting your feed, so while the sun went down, turning it all slowing into red, the clouds reflected the sunlight of the dying day in all shades of yellow, red and orange. I never saw something like this again! And with the last light of the day, the clouds took hold of the city again! Sometimes, when it got really cold, the droplets in these clouds formed to ice, and small, really small snow crystals fell on everything. A whole season through a day." Nerivie was still fixiated on a point in her mind, far, far away from her actual location, and Lunaris watched her eyes gleem upon the memory.

„One night, the weather got really stormy, and I mean, bad! It was only a lot of wind, but it took all the clouds, and wooshed it away! And suddenly, the stars, the sky, the heaven, the earth, it all became... one. Suddenly, trying to grab a star from the night sky and keeping it for yourself became a feasable thing, even against all the better knowledge. I never felt so small and big at the same time like in that night." She took a bigger sip, and was lost in thoughts and memories.

He looked at her in awe, still trying to imagine this place, the grandeur stony streets, and the hexagonal buildings and towers. His cheek got red in excitement, and he scribbled hurridly „What about the food?"

She chuckled, „Oh, yeah, I nearly forgot! For all it's greyness and serious attitude, they make great cake and sweets! And that's an understatement! I am telling you, whenever possible, I sat on the window frames, and watched the sky with a cake, or any dessert. I always had a cup of hot cocoa." Lunaris wondered what cocoa was, but he could ask later. He was to eager to listen to her story-telling.

„The sweetness, and the bitterness paired with it, with the gentle cream and the hunch of chilli- nothing warms so up so quickly like that! This drink, paired with dessert they called triflot, a thick cream, with a sweetness like a delicate embrace, made of the thick milk of the small sheeps of the area, and the biscuit in between each layer of creamy heaven, mixed with all kinds of fresh fruits that got introduced to the creme, no poetry wouldn't do it justice. In the end, I had to leave, because I was getting wide."

He chuckled, and Nervie was quite happy that Lunaris relaxed a bit more. She watched him stop, become a bit more anxious again. As if a thought had reminded him of his place in this grand scenario, and then he wrote something down. He looked like he wanted apologize for thinking that, but instead, he slowly raised the question, literally: „Where are you from?"

Ah, of course. Talking about traveling without where you started your travels is a normal question. Still... Still, she wanted to avoid saying the name, the name of that cursed place she left behind, before she stranded on that island she eventually...yes, felt at home at.

„Ferun. That's where I started my journey through the world." She replied with a sad smile.

Ferun was far, far away from here. It's the furthest point of the southern part of the continent, and an island that marked the border between the continent of Eriyas and Viriyas. Ferun was on the side that belonged to the continent of Eriyas, as part of the kingdom of Fern. Lunaris seemed to take a moment of how far away that was, before he again used his pen to continue the conversation: „That's really far! You look like you miss a lot?"

„Yes, I do." she responded with a certain melancholia. „I miss the vast, lush green valleys with the fields in between, the broadleaf woodlands where the sun always found a way through to the ground. I miss, how it was never too warm, or too cold. I miss the warm clouds of rain and the long days of sunshine. Even when the storms were rushing over the island, and kept us inside, I miss the smell after such days, or the mist of the sea that traveled slowly like an old, haggard man over the valleys and hills, through the small towns and left it through the next harbour, like an occasional visitor leaves with the next ship." Lunaris watched her taking another sip of tea.

„I miss the taste of the berries in summer and autuum, the taste of freshly picked mushrooms, fried in a pan with butter and garlic or in soup. The taste of all the kinds of bread, the variation of potatos and vegetables. The smell of the oranges and herbs after the rain, that seemed to get absorbed by the food harvested after such rain, and gave it an intriguing taste, that you cannot re-create with spice alone. There is so much to miss, I cannot- hicc. Oh." She held her hand in front of her mouth, „I am sorry! Hicc!" Nerivie apologized, and watched, how Lunaris hastingly scribbled: „Are you ok?" on the paper.

„I hicc just get these hiccups hicc when I am really, really hicc full!" she answered, holding her hand in front of her mouth, trying to regain control over her breathing and the hiccups. „Aw man, hicc, this going to take hicc a while. Don't hicc worry," she said after a while, „it stops eve-hicc-ntually"

Lunaris watched her a moment, trying to resolve his concern, as it seemed, and then nodded, understanding, while she still hicced through the pause that came about.