Before It Dies | Tratie

xiv. silly string defeats

to spacenams who finished her tratie story recently. she's so talented and i highly recommend giving her works a read. 

     There's this impending moment of doom when your satyr steps off the plane and onto the pavement, it's nearly seven o'clock, the sun doesn't even seem to be setting, and the air is so strangely fresh. The world seemed to be empty, the signs of civilization in only one direction even then, there were barely any buildings. Instead of giant skyscrapers filling the skyline, it was all trees and mountains.

     I had to admit it was a strange being in a town so desolate and so small. Yet despite how odd it was, a change like this had been due a long time ago. My head was no longer craned from looking at buildings and you can hear birds singing instead of pigeons. Now imagine how much August Cloverleaf enjoyed the fresh air and nature around us when even I was starstruck. 

     "Holy Pan's beard," he breathed, looking around in awe. "I swear I didn't know how much I missed this until now."

     "Dude," Conner snorted, "We're literally in the middle of nowhere. I did a quick search and there isn't anything. They have like, a Canadian chain coffee shop or something. Half this city is trees."

     "That's the wonder of it all," August said as he carried a limp Peggy on his back. I carried his suitcase and guessed that the mist was masking her passed out body when no one spared us a second glance. Because we only had carry-on luggage, exiting the small-town airport was fast. We really should have known better than to expect some rest when there were a satyr and a child of Demeter with us.

     "We should walk to our hotel," August said as he munched on a few donuts from the chain coffee store called "Tim Hortons". Katie and I sipped on a coffee each and Conner ordered an "ice capp," which literally tasted like a blended iced coffee. Next time, I'd get one of those as well. 

     "What?" I coughed, nearly spitting out my coffee. Demigods ran quickly on caffeine but that didn't mean they liked to was a few miles after a plane ride.

     "Seconded," Katie said softly. "The air here is so much nicer than New York air. I want to take full advantage of that. We should stretch our legs."

     Conner shook his head in disbelief. "There's no way we're walking. Can't we call a cab?"

     "I have all the money," shrugged August.

     "The hotel is under my name," I shot back as we already headed down the road. 

     "I'm carrying Peggy and if she doesn't wake up in the next day or two, I will still be taking care of her. I think I get an extra say in this."

     We all respected and valued August too much to argue further. If he wanted to walk, we would walk. Without him, we would be so screwed over. 

     And to be honest, it wasn't even that bad. Though the town was duller than Katie's gardening routine, the roads weren't overly crowded and the trees were naturally imperfect, unlike the neatly trimmed to perfection ones in New York. It was only a three or four miles away, an easily walkable distance. 

     I made sure to keep my distance between Conner and Katie, keeping an eye on Peggy in the meantime. With the two strained relationships, I didn't know how to confront it properly.

     I peered over to the map on August's phone, glad that we were already near the small hotel. It was supposedly by a river that ran through the territory and had a lot of history. With another turn, that river was visible along with a boardwalk that we were to walk on.