"The first thing you must understand is that i was wronged, people are wrong - Your body and soul is ripped apart and then rebuilt from scratch, all while you question the very concept of reality. You lose everything. I think my going insane was a j...
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.•° ✿ °•.
Reaching the gates of Jackson city, Ellie headed towards the assignment tent to busy herself away from her thoughts. Dragging her feet, she shivered almost immediately as the winter breeze tousled her hair and pinked her cheeks. Looking up at the woman assigning shifts, she grabbed the assignment sheet, deciding on taking the northwest lookout shift, then scavenging the outskirts of the city for extra supplies.
"I'm heading out!" She announced, returning the clipboard and grabbing the reigns from the stable-hands as the workers opened the gates, despite the stringent winds fighting against it. Mounting her horse, she enveloped the reigns tightly in a calloused grasp that turned her knuckles white. As she was making her way towards the exit, Maria walks right into view.
"Woah there, now wait a second." The woman proclaimed, halting Ellie in her path. "You're up early. You know what you're to do, right? Need anyone to go with you?"
"I'd rather be alone actually." Ellie huffed, ignoring the perturbed looks burning into the side of her face.
"Okay." She let go, "Alright, fine by me. Just...please be safe out there." Maria, the woman she almost considered her aunt, stated. Receiving a nod in return, she scooted out the way, but not before she pet the horse's nose.
Once stepping out of the welfare of Jackson, Ellie seethed, feeling goosebumps tracing over her body. It was the coldest winter Jackson's had in years, making her situation all the more unbearable.
The journey was cold and rough. Ellie rode sluggishly swaying left and right so to almost fall from her horse. She was hardly able to hold her eyes open and every so often would close them, soaking in the silence, listening to the ice crackling underfoot. That was until a more vigorous breeze would rouse her suddenly. Although it did keep her less fatigued throughout the journey, Ellie was still decided that this one was the worst yet.
The Northwest path was nothing if not a vast and thick blanket of hoary-white snow outspread for miles. Unlike Jackson, the land is a bumpy, wide valley floor with a lazy meandering river curling through it.
The path is so long that by the time she visits each checkpoint and reaches the end the scenic view is long lost, now sporting a view too pathetic to be classed a city. What was left stood in spite of itself, defying gravity in its precarious way. The columns were the only complete thing, everything else had worn and crumbled - their decay the only marker of time in a place of uncounted days. Light shone in, illuminating the relics.
The city is as it was before, just devoid of the warmth that made it worthy of that term. A collection of buildings, roads laid like carpets, banners barely hung with slogans to be read-only by the dusty, snow-laden wind. It was as if time had been indefinitely stopped, all the distractions removed so she could see it for real, see how it really was, what it really was. And at that moment all she wished for was another beating heart in this deserted city, another being of warm blood and flesh, one more pair of boots to walk next to hers.
