'Tickets please.'
The inspector's ponderous journey up the central aisle of the carriage had brought her to Snowflake's seat. A looming, heavyset human female whose large body was clad in an aroma of cooked grease and synthetic chemicals, Snowflake sensed the woman's gaze upon her but did not return it. Even with the shaded glasses on, her eyes made humans uncomfortable, and that discomfort made them more likely to remember her.
She handed the inspector her 'ticket' - a random scrap of paper that had been lying on the seat next to her, giving the reassurance, 'This will be fine.'
'OK, that's fine.' The inspector echoed. Her mind, dulled now by tiredness long hours of repetitive work, was running almost entirely on automatic processes, disengaged and easy to to distract. Without even registering anything amiss, she clipped the scrap of litter with her handheld device, handed it back, and proceeded on her way.
Humanworld rolled past the window: Rolling land divided into geometrical shapes, within which crops and animals were cultivated; clusters of dark brick houses, metal towers strung with cables that throbbed with electric current. Each edge aspired to be a straight line or smooth curve, each face desperate to be a flat plane. Chaos striving to be order. Heavy clouds formed a low and pendulous ceiling over this landscape, blocking out the sun and permeating all with a thin, misty drizzle. Even were Snowflake able to take off the thick anorak with which she disguised herself and bathe in that drab light, there would be little nourishment to be gained from it. Her strength was beginning to fade now; she could feel it. Opening her third bag of boiled sweets, she grabbed a handful and popped them into her mouth. The sugar would keep her going, for now.
Gradually, the scenery was changing, the fields growing fewer and fewer, and the buildings more frequent, the countryside at last giving way to a densely clustered town. Huge concrete structures crowned with dormant chimneys dominated the skyline, lying amid the town like the carcasses of gargantuan, extinct monsters. Was this her destination? Snowflake reached out to the minds of the passengers seated closest to her, sifting through their surface thoughts. Soon she had the confirmation she needed. This was Slurry Bank.
*
The train hissed to a halt at its platform and, along with a handful of others, Snowflake stepped off. The station building was simple and drab, build from concrete and brick stained black with age and grime, though the doors and window frames glowed with incongruously vivid yellow paint. Odours of burnt fuel, of decomposing waste, and of human urine jostled for dominance of the damp air.
Snowflake slipped into the middle of the group of disembarking humans, huddling up within her thick, hooded coat. The cold, rainy climate of this country was working in her favour - it meant she could cover up fully, disguising her body shape beneath bulky clothing without looking too out of place. This world was low on overt dangers. There were no rainbow owls or bouncing fluffles here to worry about. In fact, the native wildlife was so unthreatening that the humans actually took steps to protect their own predators. However, there was one menace that was omnipresent; surveillance. Electric eyes were mounted everywhere. Some where overt, some hidden, but they watched endlessly. In public places like this, there were few angles that went unmonitored. The machine eyes were immune to glamer. They couldn't be tricked. They had no minds to distract. Everything they saw, they recorded, and everything they recorded, Illuminus would have some way of seeing. How closely they watched, Snowflake did not know, but Amethyst had warned her not to underestimate them.
Keeping her head down, she shuffled through the station, passing a kiosk selling food and drink products. Papers and pamphlets were arranged by the entrance, their incomprehensible text illustrated by pictures of stern human faces, or of engines of war. Briefly, Snowflake toyed with the idea of taking something from the shop - more of the sugar products to replenish her supply - but she put the idea aside. The shop was watched.
