360. Radiant day, 6

(Rose)

There are days when things work beyond your expectations.

This was more than that. This coastal area of what I believe was once little Russia, it holds all the treasured we desired, and even more.

Empty cities without much damage nor lingering curse. Again, most cities abandoned before the white day, usually nature had time to claim them back in force. And most of the ones inhabited during the last day, they remain untouched by most species, but tend to carry something more insidious.

So it's rare to find cities that are so exceptional you're not sure when and why they were abandoned.

Deserted but not ravaged. Without curse but without much damage by invading nature either.

A lively ghost city in its own way.

There's a port arsenal, a naval shipyard we headed toward, where it feels we could build huge ships with all the machines standing still. They're likely beyond repair for most of them. But we're impressed by the industrious sights and the good state everything still appears to be in.

Over the following days we settled inside the industrial and naval area. We began making ourselves a new home, and gathering the stocks of materials we could find a use for very soon.

We found a park with cars still looking glossy and new. Some of them even reacted a little to our presence as if they're just slumbering.

Bleue found food in a container. Stocks of dry rice. It's oddly orange but it's perfect.

In a very short time we found around there and within this city everything we needed for our project.

So much in so short notice it was funny to us.

All we still missed was equipment for biology, biochemistry and bacterial development. A new laboratory for me.

Bleue would find a way to cook a proper food for the sludge of magic bacteria in due time.

We found a kind of bank vault to hide the artefact Bleue found. She keeps the mostly inert copper ring with her.

It's much weaker now, but it's still alive as it always has been. I don't think it'll be able to do anything on its own anymore, even without the other sight.

Still, none of what we discovered so far compared to what we encountered on a later day.

When we thought we had found everything that could ever surprise us.

We met other humans.

~

Humans beings are rarer than demons nowadays.

We were walking down a street in the middle of the day, chatting merrily, holding hands even. Ana was walking by our side like a very large pet dog would.

And out of nowhere, they were there. I don't think they had come to meet us after cautious reconnaissance. We all looked genuinely surprised to discover each other.

A few steps ahead after our turn and theirs, we just stopped and saw each other.

There was an adult man dressed like a Christian monk, covered by long and heavy dark cloth including a hood over the head. His eyes and skin were very pale.

Next to him was a young girl that looked like she was made of copper or brass. Her orange to brown skin had a kind of metallic gleam, just as her hair and eyes. Especially her eyes had a metallic reflection. They were two golden rings.

The girl maybe twelve years old was the only one not showing any stupor or surprise on her face.

We came to understand over later times she just never shows any emotion at all, if she had any. She still would be friendly, even if she never smiled.

The man however was harbouring his emotions. Surprise in shock, unbelievable surprise. Then joy. Immense genuine joy.

In front of them were two women and a giant crow that looked well behaved. My skin and hair, even my eyes, had been bleached in the past, but had already partially recovered some colours. I was still very pale, but that man had me beaten. From closer look, we could see the blue veins under his skin.

Next to me, though it wasn't obvious at first when facing her, while she had them folded, but this young woman carried large wings, not a weird backpack.

The man was not believing his own eyes when he realised getting closer that Bleue had wings. Maybe she twitched and it gave it out.

But then, he laughed. Happy. He granted us both with a hug at the same time, in a manner of familial greeting, speaking a few words in a language I should have learnt.

We were surprise just like he was, and similarly confused but happy to meet them.

~

We tried to converse over dinner. We shared our rice. They shared their biscuits and dry powder of fruits. He carried bricks of it. Dissolve a tea spoon in a litre of water and you get yourself a nice fruity juice. I liked that.

I understood later it also cleanses the water.

I could only speak in English. Bleue mostly listened, a little shy. She translated the bare minimum for us to understand each other. But we all managed.

He spoke what I would call new European by now. The girl didn't speak much.

She liked petting Ana though, and the bird was fine with it.

Ana revealed herself to be able to speak. Even the girl was surprised, stopping in her motion for a few seconds. The man, Mushio, laughed in joy after realising what just happened.

He kept pointing at Ana, calling her a Dünyanın çiçek. Maybe that's how he calls daiûas in his language.

He kept talking and trying to communicate long into the night, passionate about exchanging knowledge with us.

We invited them into one of our many guest chambers for the night. The cars still looking new. They loved it.

Mushio seemed especially excited to be around the cars. There was something he longed for we would later understand. A treasure to be found lied in these cars.

This place was full of riches for more than just us two.

~

The next day, we were accompanying our new friends back to their own home.

It would be a few days walk. They lived further inland.

But we would surely not regret this invitation. There's too much to learn.

Mushio covered his pale skin as he did because direct sunlight gave him terrible rashes. He showed Bleue after she asked about it. His skin burnt in mere seconds where exposed.

In exchange, she showed the full span of her wings he was asking about. She flapped them, blowing dust around, but not strong enough to fly off. It was still an impressive sight.

She explained she could at least glide as if she had a giant kite.

Mushio asked us about the cars, if he could take some parts out using the tools he carried.

We let him take whatever he wanted. We didn't care about these.

He dismantled the control panels of two of them, removing and recovering what I'm aware are computer technologies.

Unfortunately, he probably thinks we're familiar with these technologies, since we're old enough to have lived in the old world.

We're not. We're just aware of their previous existence, like a dead language. I've seen screens display text or picture maybe twice in my life, and never or once only for Bleue.

Seeing Mushio bag up a good amount of pieces and parts, I understand easily that he is building something at his home.

He is building a technology of legends from our perspective. A working computer.

Complex automatons of pure energy in the form of electrical currents.

Something that more than lost technology would almost be like lost magic to my eyes.

Mushio is beaming.

He's human, yet he will show us the kind of almost magical power that reshaped the world, a long time ago.

~