Senseless

Chapter 17

The walk was surprisingly short, but as mentioned earlier, things seem greater and farther away when you're the one looking down. Avery merely sat on the cities edge for a while, just soaking in what lay before her eyes.

She'd never seen anything quite like it before.

She'd always though of things like it, but never going quite that far.

Avery made up her mind that if she had to sum up the city in one word, she'd call it innovative.

Before her eyes lay an unusual sight of skyscrapers and glittering towers, each higher than the highest tree in the forest. The ground was solid as rock and perfectly black; all except for the little yellow lines that divided the paths in half. Funny metal carriages trekked along the little paths, each in its proper place. There were even smaller paths that lay on each side of the larger ones. These paths were a dull grey color and instead of the carriages traveling on them, people walked on them. Hundreds and hundreds of people.

The sight was almost overwhelming for Avery. It was a lot to take in for a girl that had only seen a little under a dozen people at a time.

Where the paths turned, there were little buildings that had the funniest things inside them.

One had a food that Avery had never seen before.

It was a rounds ball of what looked like snow, but it came in all different colors. Most of the people had it mounted on cones, but some had it in cups.Each person licking away at this wondrous treat, minding their own business.

Avery loved what she saw and wanted to be a part of that world.

Why was the city bad?

Avery saw nothing wrong with it. Instead, she could only see right in it.

Each person was treated justly and fair, and no one was telling the people what to do of every minute of every day.

The people had the freedom to be whatever they wanted to be.

Some people waited in the shops, while others built buildings, some sold flowers on the street corners, and others just walk along as though they hadn't a care in the world.

Avery smiled to herself.

She wanted to go in it, but she felt as though she might be out of place there.

Her clothes weren't like theirs, her manner wasn't like theirs, and if she did go in, she hadn't the faintest idea of what she'd do.

The smile faded to a slight frown.

"Next time," she told herself in a longing whisper.

She stood to her feet and began to go back to the Traipen clearing.

Not that there was anything to do there, but it was better than working in the fields.

During her walk, Avery her little crackling noises of twigs just a few paces to her left.

She froze... but they didn't freeze.

The noise continued to go ahead of her.

It almost sounded like footsteps, but Avery couldn't tell for sure.

Instead of continuing, Avery stepped to the left, hoping to catch a glimpse of the source of the noise.

By now, she was standing directly in the place where the noise had come from and she looked ahead of her to catch the outline of a person.

The person was about the same height as Avery, maybe slightly taller. Their hair was short and they were dressed as if they were from the fields.

"Hello?" Avery called out.

The figure turned around to reveal the face of Wesley.