WHAT STRANGE TIDINGS
[ 2218 ]
[ 2218 ]
A crisp winter morning brought light snowfall to the island city of Zephii, the airmen of the Aurora Skydocks passing the time between the rare arriving or going ships by sweeping away the season's greeting. The great passengers docks sat mostly empty, three great bays which could fit a dozen ships apiece built cleanly into the sheer cliff-face of Boreas' western coastline.
Moored at the far-east, the Intrepid was a quaint frigate, clearly the work of a hobbyist. Aboard it, six crew waved to a seventh who departed with a spring in his step. A laicar at a glance, the young man had a dark brown satchel thrown over one shoulder. Bulging with packages wrapped in thick packaging paper, and with bundles of envelopes jutting from one corner of the flap which held it closed, the small emblem adorning its side betrayed its owner: a mailman.
"Now you keep that head on straight," called captain Terrier, a portly enlil with a grin a mile wide, "and see to it that you get those where they belong, you hear?"
Dressing down his muted brown plumage, the enlil's head was almost entirely bare as he roared with laughter when the mailman gave him a silent thumbs-up. His crew gave assorted chuckles and chortles as they offered their own parting advices. Ranging from, "take care of yourself!" to, "never piss into the wind, kid!" the mailman's stoic facade broke quickly. Breaking into a fit of laughter himself, the young man turned on his heel.
His own wide grin matched the crews as he pulled on the brim of his featherless shako, the bright red hat giving him the appearance of being much taller. His jacket - a mixed leather and fabric dyed in a matching faded red - was undone and open to reveal the white cotton sweater he wore underneath. Poking out and passing low over his brow, his mussed black hair sat atop expressive blue eyes.
Adjusting the strap on his mailbag, the boy - though he'd insist on his status as a man - waved enthusiastically back to his one-way ride. His voice called out, strong and clear and settling on that comfortable range between tenor and baritone, "Many thanks, sir!"
Terrier simply waved him off with another grin, mailmen led an opportunistic life after all. Steadily backing away as he finished waving while the captain barked out swift orders to his crewmen, the laicar made swift steps towards the terminal to claim his ticket for passage into the city. Such was the necessity of enlilian society: without a central governing body it was on each city to keep track of their own comings and goings. For the fast-paced avians, it was a perfect system of organized chaos.
To the mailman, it was an uncomfortable fact he'd gotten used to over the recent years. The wait was mercifully short, such was the lack of incoming traffic for the swampy Eastern continent during the winter. Accepting his ticket with a courteous nod, he observed the name scrawled across the punched ticket as he always did.
Demetrius Acutus, Courier
Nuntius Araevis, Secare Branch
Nuntius Araevis, Secare Branch
Nodding to himself, "Dimitri" jammed the ticket into his baggy gray khakis and once again adjusted the strap on his mailbag. In testament to the size of the Skydocks, it took a solid five minutes to get out into the city proper.
Zephii was a city of technology and nature combined. Hoisted atop great trees, the buildings varied between marvels of engineering and the rural enlil dwellings. Sprawled before him was the great canopy of the city's second-largest bridge. Over decades, centuries really, the bark of the great mundus lignii upon which the city sat had been pummeled and beat down into great stretches of highway. Far below the city, the swampy undertow of Boreas' natural landmass continued to cultivate and fertilize the ground. There were murmurs abound this year, that there was another spot in which the great muck had thinned. Talks of planting another ligno tree had swept across the island like wild-fire.
Setting off, Dimitri eyed a fast-approaching tram. Vehicles of all weights and sizes could be supported on the branches and bark of mundus lignii, and so great beams of metal and infrastructure had been woven into the "Island City". All around, the tracks ran to and fro through thick branches and nestled in the deadened canopies of winter.
Caught in his reverie, Dimitri snapped out of it in time to see the tram finish boarding the last passenger already standing at the nearest stop. Breaking into a full sprint, he waved wildly at it. "Hey, one more!"
The tram looked to speed off for a moment, before stopping suddenly. Panting by the time he reached the stop - boy did the streets seem shorter than they were - he gave a sloppy grin to the enlil manning the controls and offered a couple bronzen exa to the driver.
"Much appreciated!" He chirped brightly, before locating the nearest window seat he could squeeze into. Several rows of seats were slotted per tram, each row three wide to leave a single small aisle for people to walk through. Resting his mailbag on his lap, Dimitri safely retreated into his mind once more. The streets of Zephii were nigh-packed, the stubborn enlil often refusing to migrate to warmer continents for the winter months.
Trams were the primary public transit, managing to somehow create an even more jammed-up cityscape. Below, two-lane streets were occupied by numerous vehicles all speeding towards one destination or another. Vehicles were far more plenty here, some of the greater engineering schools in Araevis occupying much of the lower half of the city.
Much of what constituted a street in Zephii was rather odd to look at. Staircases were carved from naturally occurring branches, or otherwise built into nearby buildings, at regular intervals to lead up to small catwalks. Those catwalks then ran for maybe half a street's length, existing primarily as a stop for the trams. At base level, walkways were very haphazard. Sidewalks were more beaten paths into the wood underfoot, various sprawling branches leading out into empty space where some adolescents dared to relax.
Most buildings were nestled into the thicker bunches of canopy and branches, rooted into the parent branch but otherwise completely exposed in the back. Closer to the city center, this would stop... or so Dimitri hoped. His destination was due south and down from the city center, where the central terminal held most trams. The city was negotiated on three different levels to support its massive population, numerous smaller trees often containing various sub-districts for the Island City to use as luxury property.
The morning passed quickly, as the occasional dusting of snow managed to navigate the twists and turns of the ligno tree branches. As was often the case, Dimitri was shaken from his reverie by the shout of another, "Central Lignus, all off please!"
Casting a swift look about, the young laicar blinked owlishly as he noted how few passengers remained. The driver brought the tram in easily enough, various tracks switching on and off to allow it to pass into its last stop for the morning. No doubt the driver would have to move to a new route for the day. Giving his brief thanks to the driver as he stepped onto the Central Lignus Terminal, Dimitri took a quick breath before setting off once more on foot.
The crisp air was harsh on his exposed neck, but he took it in stride. The comical proportions of his hat drew a few looks, but did little to dissuade his cheery mannerisms. Finally, as pedestrians seemed to thin out, the laicar realized he was wandering ever further into one of the various business districts the city possessed. It was no great shakes compared to Terminus, and perhaps only three such districts existed across the entire city, but it was impressive in its own right.
Casting curious looks through the gaps in ligno bark and canopy, he noted with a certain amount of relief the various tangles of netting that existed under each street. Finally, he saw the office he intended to visit. It was a long walk down the slope of the highest level of the city, and when he reached the second at last he fished into one of his jacket pockets for a moment. Withdrawing a small pocket watch, his eyes widened, alarmed. He'd spent almost twenty minutes just getting down here!
The impatient burning in his legs kept him moving, though, and he noted with some small amount of distaste that if he waited for a tram he'd take just as long as he would walking. Shrugging to himself - and earning another few curious stares in the process - he straightened his hat and set its brim determinedly. He was a courier after all, walking was what he did.
It was perhaps after the first hour of walking that he began to regret his decision.
Maybe he should invest in a scarf, every Umbra seemed colder than the last. Zipping up his jacket and wishing dearly he'd remembered to pack gloves for this outing, Dimitri lifted his hat up just enough to scratch at the hair trapped within. Liking the feeling of the fresh air, he tucked the short shako under his free arm. Wild, unruly hair spilled out at various angles from under it. Shaking his head lightly, he succeeded in getting it everywhere that wasn't in his eyes.
Grumbling as he ignored the steady burn of his legs, a passerby might've made out a few sentences. "Less than a ten-percent chance of any enlil genes surfacing, Demetrius. You'd get something interesting if you did anyways, Demetrius. Yeah, sure..."
Scratching idly at his hair - a strangely thick and downy texture to it - the postman patted down his mailbag for good measure. Satisfied that it held the same fullness as before, he picked up his feet. Dear Vis why did the enlil make their cities so spread out.
By the time Dimitri was on the street he was seeking, his chest was uncomfortably warm. The only thing stopping him from opening his jacket again was that he'd immediately be too cold. Truly, winter was an unforgiving mistress. Wiping some small traces of sweat from his brow - wow he needed another haircut already - he observed the logo next to the building's name with a smile.
Nuntius Araevis, Boreas Zephii Branch.
Pushing through the revolving door, Dimitri gave an audible sigh of relief. His inquisitive blue eyes scanned for a familiar face, and his own broke into a wide grin when he saw it. Sitting behind the desk was a rather pretty young enlil. Her plumage was trimmed just-so, in a striking dark coloration. Her neck was strangely devoid of down, and only a smattering seemed to exist across her cheeks. A thick sweater in the brightest pink Dimitri had ever seen was draped over her, and it took the pale-skinned enlil a moment to notice his presence.
Her eyes immediately lit up, bright green and always seeming to be vaguely amused, and her mouth spread into a thin smile. Marching right up to the desk, the young man was quick on his wit. "Miss me?"
"Dimitri! You said it'd be another few months before you made it back to Boreas?" She replied in a musical tenor.
Laughing, he replied quickly, "I guess that makes me full of surprises. I took a job that popped up, a double load for the holidays. Didn't know I'd be here until a couple days ago. Just last week I was in Augustus hiking packages from one end of the Plains to the other!"
Blinking twice at the odd mailman and giving her own giggle, the enlil swiftly stood and moved over to the far end of the desk, where it ran straight into the wall. Behind her, the wall was lined with small P.O boxes and a door led into what was most assuredly storage. Following her with a nervous grin, Dimitri was quick to pry open his mailbag and begin retrieving packages from it.
"One, two... three... and four." He counted aloud, handing them each to the woman with an impish smile. "Should be an address list in the back for me, Belle."
"Of course, just a sec." She replied. Watching her disappear into the back, Dimitri enjoyed the silence for a moment and allowed his thoughts to stray to all manner of white noise, before she suddenly reappeared. "Two-ay-six-six?"
"Should be."
"Got it." Belle nodded, and vanished into the storeroom again. This time he was ready when she reappeared, accepting an offered slip of paper and sliding it neatly into his mailbag. She grinned at him a little more eagerly, "don't be a stranger now."
Dimitri returned the smile. "Don't intend to. Do you have... tomorrow off, by any chance?"
She nodded, and his grin became all the wider. "I'll meet you at Central Lignus then."
Plans made, he waved her goodbye and stepped back out into the frosty Umbra air. Shuddering, he realized too late he should've asked for a scarf to borrow. It's what he got, the life of a courier was supposed to be opportunistic.