350. On the road, 8

(Rose)

During the night, we slept not that far from the domain of the nightmares.

Before dawn, I left Bleue sleeping and went a last time there.

Nightmare appeared rapidly in front of me.

This was to say goodbye to her.

She can be a human eating demon, I still felt drawn to her.

R - Goodbye my friend.

N - ... You enjoy it, don't you?

R - Using your kind of powers? Not really.

N - No. The chaos of life.

R - Of course. I told you, I love this world.

N - There is chaos in life, and we both like it.

I grin. I loved that one.

Goodbye my friend.

~

I woke up Bleue and Ana. Soon after, we were leaving and walking onto the empty roads.

On her backpack, Bleue carries a pot with earth. All of our flying trees died with the drought, but she kept their seeds.

Our most precious remaining possessions with us, we're going toward the northern mountains. Our feet hurt quickly and our shoes are worn out, but we will be fine.

We're getting re-accustomed to living in the wild, using bow and arrows, and living with just what you can carry in your backpack. We will day after day rebuild our lost strength.

I was feeling a little down having lost our nice home. I told Bleue and she looked at me with a shy smile.

B - So... Where should we go next then?

Our smile grew. Let's go ahead for now. We'll find something as we head to milder climates.

~

We're walking mountainous paths, leaning toward the coastal area further and further behind.

The heat in the air and from the sunlight is still unbearable. We rapidly chose to travel at night and twilight, but no longer full day.

We pluck the few fruits that haven't fully dried where they grew.

We don't hunt much because the land is quite empty. We still have enough preserves for a few days though. And Ana manages to hunt or scavenge for herself at least.

We pass by abandoned villages and towns.

We cross dead woods turned to stone forests of stumps.

The higher we get, and the further we go, the slightly cooler or rather less hot the hair becomes.

It feels like we're crossing the frontier land between the realm of the living and one of death. We're slowly walking our way out of the dry lands of Hades.

On an uncertain road, without clearer other goal for now.

During the day, while we rest in caves or holes we dig, we discuss about it. Where to go next?

R - We could return to England for a visit to our friends there.

B - I would like to visit Moscow. It's far in the north, I'm not sure exactly where.

A - Ana wants to see the land of blue sky.

B - Oh, where is that?

A - Don't know. Ana remembers birds speaking of there. Very far.

We're pondering. We have three options for now. Until Bleue found an even more absurd one.

B - I would like to see the Americas.

R - That would mean crossing an ocean. I don't think that's...

B - Possible?

She spreads her wings.

R - ... Easy, let's say. That wouldn't be easy for a challenge... But, we still have that.

I tap my bag. I've seen one thing Bleue has put inside. One of the strongest powers imaginable.

Vials with bacterial strains producing ant gravitational pull.

R - We have the seeds to grow and build a flying ship, so it's not impossible.

B - Wherever we want to go over the world, planes would be the best mean of transportation. Imagine it Ana, you would be flying even while sleeping!

Ana caws in excitement.

Thus we reached an agreement.

Our next destination would be a place with a naval shipyard and good industrial potential.

We need a laboratory to work on biochemistry, a place to process wood, a construction bay, and a sea to test to test our ships over with relative safety.

And food to survive as well would be nice.

R - Maybe we won't find everything in one place, but as long as everything is in the same area, we would be able to work with it.

We hug happily.

We've decided what will be our next journey.

Reaching the sky.

Before heading for the Americas, or the moon maybe?

I'm amused by that idea, but I keep it a secret from Bleue, because I know she would like it.

~

We deviate a little from our way north to return to the black sea shores.

The coastline north is as damaged as in the south.

But with some luck, we will find what we need along it, as we reach the northern black earth.

I should have learnt my geography of Europe and Asia better I think.

If this doesn't work over this sea, we will head back to Italy and follow the Mediterranean coastline toward Spain. It had some interesting ruins I've ventured through before.

I'm pretty sure we would find what we need in the south of Italy and France. But if we can find it here, it's much better.

Not that we have time to worry about, but the black sea is just next to us.

So if its northern shores are more temperate than its southern ones, maybe it could work well.

We venture across a dead city that is essentially a monochromatic graveyard, with only fragmented stones to look at. Nothing growing or living there either.

This land really is hard to travel through.

We ran out of water before we were able to reach the sea.

We left Ana flying ahead with an empty bottle to look for a stream, while we try our best to manage.

We well be fine.

Our body and mind can survive far worse than a day or two of thirst.

We boil sea water Ana brought back that day, unable to find a source. We make and drink infusions with the condensed distillate. We're sheltering in a lost garage in the valleys, behind more dead lands.

The lands around here are rough and the sun still is very harsh, but we're getting more resilient and hardship doesn't slow us down that much.

We're a little roughed up by this travel, but this still is nice.

Our faces of Bleue and I have visibly aged, but smiles and eyes do gleam as ever.

We're quite eager at the prospect of what we will achieve next.

~