The Orb And The Onslaught {COMPLETE}

Been Around The Block

    The sound of tapping roused Florence from her sleep, she hoped for their sake it wasn't another brute in a suit come to escort her somewhere suspicious. She put her glasses on and looked around, there was no obvious reason for the tapping at first. They were parked in a side street, looking out onto wider streets that were already bustling with fancy vehicles. People were hunched over while they rushed to their destinations. 

    That's when Florence noticed it was pouring with rain, the drops were bigger than anything she'd ever seen; Saphos Woul took it's storms seriously. That's what was constantly tapping on the roof of the Cantercraft and what had woken her. She sat up straighter to alleviate some of her stiffness and was greeted by meows. She turned to see the cats staring at her; they were the definition of bright eyed and bushy tailed. 

    She stroked each of them in turn and proceeded to wake Quentin and check his injuries, to which she saw they were healing nicely. Once they were done they ate a meagre breakfast with the last of their food packages. Florence kicked herself for not getting more from Agnes before they left. The conversation immediately turned to supplies then and plans for the day. They needed to stock up and just as she'd predicted Quentin immediately commented on the fact she had no pills left. 

    Florence smiled at him and he frowned when he noticed. 

"Why is that amusing? Usually you get frustrated and try to stop me from fussing."

"It's just nice to have the old you back again... well most of you anyway." She gestured to his injuries with a wide smile. 

    Quentin looked about to retort when he saw the look on her face and he narrowed his eyes playfully. 

"I was actually about to rise to your taunting, I think I'm out of practice. But anyway, you're not throwing me off the subject that easily. We need to find a pharmacy while we're out getting food." 

    They were only gone an hour but the storm really started to kick in and made shopping much more difficult. They luckily came upon a pharmacy and Quentin paid for the pills at a peculiar machine instead of going to a person. Florence shook her head and the strange idea and watched Quentin stow the pills in his bag while side eyeing Florence.

    She wanted to argue that she'd managed the last few days without the pills, but the truth was she was aching and she couldn't wait to take one. However, the moment she said that out loud Quentin would start treating her like she was frail and old, and she couldn't have that.

    He pushed pills onto her as soon as they got back into the Cantercraft, she took them and looked forward to the relief they'd bestow on her. They went on to look over the food they'd purchased and separated it between their bags. Florence handed a few treats back to the cats and they sat in silence for a few moments watching the weather worsen to the point the Cantercraft began to shake.

   "We may have to find somewhere to stay and wait out this storm." Quentin suggested after several more moments of silence.

"I don't think so, if it's anything like the one we experienced with Essa we'd be stuck for days, we can't afford to lose any more time." 

Florence tried to ponder the situation but Quentin interrupted her thoughts.

   "What do you suggest then? Because we have no idea where to go next. Miyah could have been just a little more specific, Swynmead is huge and did you notice how nearly all of the buildings look the same? We're not going to just happen upon the clue like a big, glowing welcome sign letting us know it's there." 

     She couldn't disagree with him, if it hadn't been for the street signs even she would have got lost. The buildings were made entirely of metal and glass from what she could tell, they were the most modern and technologically advanced buildings she'd ever seen. Swynmead back in her youth had been advanced for its time but not to that extent. There was no way for them to know where to go next and they could spend days just wandering around looking for something out of the ordinary.