597. Exploring, 3
While Blume works her magic in the field quite literally, I follow Nokarlık from one wonder to the next.
The fields surrounding the dead helicopter turned into fruit orchards in a matter of weeks. And besides that, the sweet potatoes grow bountiful and bigger than the wild ones we found. One less worry.
With my daughter we studied the place that seemed to make gravity go backward locally. I was excited at the options it might open to us if it were confirmed.
Unfortunately, it was an illusion.
Pockets of optical anomalies were having their play in that room like a colony of wild flowers.
As Nok stepped in front of me, I noticed unusual movements of her appearance. And the closer we looked at it, the better we saw it. At the right places, holding my hand in front of me made parts of it vanish and reappear upside down, a little below or a little above.
It was an effect too small to work its illusion on an entire massive body, but a finger or a falling droplet would look entirely affected.
That and the regular droplets falling on our heads tipped us out. The flowers on the ceiling on the ceiling indeed were upside down, but they were dropping tears of excess water, and most likely some compound that played T.I. that way as well to bend light oddly. A little like the arrays of a moving wheel, it gave the illusion of going the other way around if the sight was confused enough.
It was still fun though. And it made me curious to see the magnified effect of this. I want to build a bigger lens.
We play there for a little while and then move to the next wonder.
~
It’s a pile of wreck like a landfill. An old landfill, making most items and materials partially molten through one another.
We dig through that, unable to find anything especially useful or preserved. There’s a lot of metals though.
Maybe we could try to build a furnace to melt it all, but it’s hard work we don’t really require right now.
What I would like is sturdy cloth, so I could redress everyone and make new backpacks.
Enough for us to be ready to continue walking on our journey ahead.
Although maybe we should head to the coast line and look for a boat first.
To reach the coast near New York from where we are, sailing through the Caribbean Sea would probably be wiser.
I think about it aloud. Nokaranlık listens carefully.
Sailing, hm...
We’ll head to the shore tomorrow and see what’s there.
~
Blume joined us for this expedition. We made it through the wall surrounding our camp and headed through the forest toward the ocean.
It’s a nice morning. Walking along wild trails in the woods. On our uneven path, ruins were often protruding under the trees, left and right, reminding us there once stood a city.
Probably a few metres below where we now walk. There’s no visible car or entrance to any of these otherwise very short buildings we see by.
It brings me back to some of my days in my homeland. Well, it is very different. Most of the ruins were recent back in England. Here, it feels like we’re uncovering pre-Columbian ruins almost.
I detect clues of past great floods that sunk the city over time.
As our uneven way toward the ocean slowly decreases in altitude, as we progress. We hear the waves a little further as buildings become a little more visible and trees sparser.
Nok doesn’t hold my hand any longer. Well, not as much. She still does sometimes.
With more agility than I have left, she runs all around us and ahead at the same time. There’s still so much thirst to learn and absorb everything imaginable that gleams through her eyes.
And more wild slugs to gobble whole, no matter how toxic they look like.
That one bright blue and red with white dots, I wouldn’t even touch, but she swallowed it raw already before I could stop her.
I scold her as her tummy begins to hurt already.
Then I scold Blume for laughing too loudly at her.
Then I have to scold Nok again for enjoying the reversal just as much.
Geez...
When did I become the wise one? Probably when Nightmare left us.
And when Blume overcame some of her old fears to enjoy being more childish.
My ever furrowed brows age me gracefully.
Nokarlık vomits her half-digested snack and we continue walking toward the sea.
~
Like in the Turkish city I’ve lived in before, the city scape continues quite far into the sea.
It’s been swallowed by water and algae as well as jungle. It also makes reefs that fishes and aquatic life love.
Less birds than in Europe around here.
That’s the main visible difference. By less, I mean none.
I miss a bow. I lost the good one General gave me in the confusion of the unfortunate end...
Blume thinks she could find a tree with enough spring to it to make a good bow around here.
It will be useful sooner or later so I agree.
Our dirty feet reach the salty water and sand.
We have a rest, and eat our roasted banana potatoes. They still taste sweet after yesterday’s cooking.
Blume looks for a camping spot for tonight whilst we go for a swim.
I train Nok anew. She’s much stronger now. Though her pelt still is an oddity. She’s better able now that her muscles and coordination have matured.
I tell her the funny stories again of how her mother was afraid of a river, and how she learnt to swim. The lord of nightmares had an older instinctive dread of water. Possibly one last remnant from her antique human days.
Nokaranlık is very curious about it. But swimming from one island of protruding ruins to the next is more fun.
We venture further.
Ruined tips of buildings aggregated enough dirt from land and see to have spots of jungle to grow on them. Meanwhile, underwater life made them grow grotesque like any other reef.
Unless you put foot on them and look closer, the traces that they once were human constructs have vanished.
We look at some huge fishes swimming around. And squids.
Animals like soft bags, obviously without skeleton, swimming around in a different manner.
Nok tries to grab one, mistakenly thinking they can only swim as slowly as she saw them do so far.
I grin as they elude her with frustrating ease. She pouts, and then we swim to the next little island.
~
