Day 21
I walked three and a half miles today. Ouch.
Seeing that strange gray structure was an important step in their journey. They were forced to acknowledge the distances they had traveled and the completely different world that they had found.
Dan, particularly, appreciated this opportunity to see how he had moved outside. He had left the prison and entered the world of their colony for just a little while. Then he had left the colony and explored that gray structure. And now, he had even left the gray structure for this colorful, open space. It was certainly an exciting journey forward, but he couldn't possibly imagine any further out. It was beyond the scope of his imagination.
Very little was beyond the imagination of Robert. Already, he wanted to leave this plane and see what was beyond. He wanted to get closer to the creatures and see what they were doing. He wanted to go out as far as he could. He could go to the left, where there was a faint tinge of yellow on the ground, instead of the otherwise uniform green. He wanted to go forward, where the lack of significant landmarks made the possible destinations seem all the more exotic. He wanted to turn to the right, where the large green protrusions seemed to be infinitely numerous, shielding from view two enormous triangular things.
He couldn't stand still, not after having seen the relative smallness of the huge structure that they had been inside. He could see Margie working at something relatively close by, and without a word, he ran in that direction. The rest of the group had to snap into action quickly, especially out here where they could potentially lose track of him among the tall green cylinders.
"He's insane," Jackie breathed out as she led the rest of the group to the place where Margie was working.
"Can you blame him?" Dan huffed out through much more labored breathing.
Arthur only smiled a little bit before concentrating on his running and breathing again. He hoped they would soon stop these little dashes towards interesting things. More importantly, he hoped that they wouldn't have to run away from scary things again. At least they were fairly well hidden on this ground. That significantly decreased their chances of causing trouble, although Arthur was sure that they were still perfectly capable of that.
Their feet made less of an impact on this ground, so it almost seemed to make running easier. They felt lighter once they figured out how to run to use this to their advantage. However, they no longer had the same sense of the distance that they were covering. There were no landmarks that they could follow, especially without making a special effort to see above those green stringy things. There was, however, very little chance of them being unable to find their way back to their gray structure, at least not in this light.
They were quickly able to stop to regain some energy and watch Margie. The objects that she was hanging were wet, as made obvious by the drops of water that were quickly escaping. These colorful things also seemed to be of the same sorts of materials as the cloths or clothes that all of the creatures seemed to be concealed behind. It was also clear that these cloths were being draped over a thick string that was secured between two of the large protrusions, but without their colorful heads.
She was humming a little bit, not very concerned about anything that was going on around her. As she moved between the basket and the hanging string, the group noticed something strange. They no longer felt the reverberations in the ground.
"Oh, that's a relief," Dan said.
"Well, we seem to have discovered one of the advantages to this springy ground," Jackie said.
"A difference, you mean," Arthur said. "This means that they can sneak up on us out here if they don't make any sort of noise while they walk."
"Like I always say, never turn your nose up at a ready made advantage," said a new voice.
They spun around, trying to mentally prepare themselves for just about anything. It was almost a disappointment, seeing that the creature that faced them looked exactly like them. Well, he looked less amazed and a whole lot more annoyed, but he was a familiar shape at least.
"Never rely on luck where skill can do your talking," Jackie countered, ready to demonstrate exactly this skill. She was poised tightly, ready to spring into action as soon as things turned a bit more precarious.
"Don't take stupid risks," the stranger answered, relaxing a little bit. "What are you playing at? You should know better than to risk being seen like this."
"We're not exactly experienced in these things. We're very new out here," Dan said, too tired to be overly diplomatic.
"Oh, I see!" The stranger said. "No problem then, but don't do things like that in the future. I'm Tim, by the way. Follow me and I'll get you settled in for a little while." Without waiting for any sort of answer, he turned and began to walk decisively in one direction. The members of the group looked at one another, and with some shrugs, followed after him. Thus far, following after complete strangers had been rather helpful to them.
"I think it's safe to say that we actually have learned something about our own colony."
Arthur and Dan looked at her with some panic. Robert, however, was too preoccupied with examining his surroundings and scrutinizing their new leader to pay attention to what she was saying.
"Our earthquakes must actually occur when some of these creatures are passing by near the colony. Since there aren't very many earthquakes at all, we can safely assume that there aren't many of these creatures in our area," Jackie said sensibly.
"What about the last one?" Dan asked.
"Last one, what?" Rob interrupted, suddenly interested in the conversation when it seemed to have gotten a bit more heavy.
"The last earthquake," Arthur explained. "What was that awful squealing that we heard during that earthquake?"
"Maybe someone was saying something?" Jackie suggested hopefully.
"No, I don't think so. I didn't hear anything said that wasn't definitely said by the people around me." He stopped to think back to what now seemed to have been a very, very long time ago. "Actually, at the time, that squealing had been a bit weird. At first, I had thought that it was just laughter."
"Really?" Arthur asked.
"That seems a bit.... inappropriate," Jackie said hesitantly.
"Well, i know what I heard," Robert answered. "It was rather high-pitched, though. It sounded like a girl, or perhaps a young child."
"Well, their young should be smaller than they are," Dan muttered.
"What?"
"I think he's referring to the fact that that earthquake wasn't quite as strong as the usual ones. The squealing or laughter made it one of the scarier ones, but it certainly wasn't very strong," Jackie said reasonably.
"I knew you guys would be from the castle," Tim said. Apparently, he had been close enough to their groups to heard their conversation. "Only people from inside ever wear those ridiculous visors."
"From where?" Dan asked, as the rest of the group crossed their eyes to try to get a good look at their visors, despite the impossibility.
"From the castle, of course," Tim said. He stopped to watch their reactions. He was met only with confusion. "Oh, I suppose you might not call it that. Although I don't know what else you would call it."
"What are you actually talking about?" Robert asked simply.
Tim knew that the best possible solution was to point, so he did. He pointed towards the large gray structure that they had only just managed to leave. "That's the castle."
"Oh, that," Jackie said. "Well, we don't actually call it anything, so it may as well be the castle."
"You don't call it anything?" Tim asked slowly.
"We only just discovered that it existed today," Rob said plainly.
"You only just discovered...?" Tim repeated in disbelief. "But you can't be from further away than that! You seem like such typical insiders," he said, sounding quite sure of himself.
"Our colony is inside there, though," Dan said, trying to keep the conversation going.
"And you don't know about the castle? That doesn't even begin to make sense. How could you avoid leaving it for so long?" Tim asked.
"We didn't begin to explore the castle until a few days ago. Before then, most of us hadn't even gone beyond the walls of our colony," Arthur explained.
Tim's mouth had dropped open. "You mean that you haven't ever been outside before?"
"That's what he just said," Dan answered. "We've never before been outside of our colony."
He shook his head furiously. "No, I mean 'outside' outside. Out here," he added, spreading out his arms. "The outdoors, and nature," he added a bit desperately. "How can you not know what's beyond the castle walls?"
The members of the group looked a little bit helpless. They knew that their mission was to learn things, but this was ridiculous. They were being looked at like they knew absolutely nothing about life or living.
"Oh my," Tim said quietly, sitting down on the ground. "I think this is going to take a while." He stared into the distance past their heads for a little while before becoming aware enough to urge them to sit.
"I think that this might be a good moment to pause to introduce ourselves," Jackie suggested, breaking the awkward silence. After introductions were over, Tim seemed to have regained his basic functions again.
"So, this is the outside. It's much, much bigger than the castle. It's covered in plants, and it's home to all sorts of creatures. And I think that there's much more to be done out here than there is inside, but that's another argument for another time.
"Some of us live inside the castle. Some of us are apparently even very deep inside, shielded from everything else that goes on. And quite a few of us live out here."
"And where do you live?" Jackie asked curiously.
"I had been leading you to our colony, actually, but that will have to wait. We live underground, where it's darker and the temperature is a bit more moderated," he said, happy to answer easy questions that any stranger might ask.
"What's up there?" Arthur asked, pointing up. The rest of the group leaned it, eager to learn.
He pursed his lips a bit, pausing. "That's the sky -- the blue, we call that the sky. Before you ask, you can't touch it, it's impossible to reach. Those white things," he pointed to a fluffy object in the sky, "those are clouds. When there is a lot of them it rains, and everything gets wet."
"And the light?" Jackie asked eager.
"The light," Tim said weakly, "is the sun."
Seeing that strange gray structure was an important step in their journey. They were forced to acknowledge the distances they had traveled and the completely different world that they had found.
Dan, particularly, appreciated this opportunity to see how he had moved outside. He had left the prison and entered the world of their colony for just a little while. Then he had left the colony and explored that gray structure. And now, he had even left the gray structure for this colorful, open space. It was certainly an exciting journey forward, but he couldn't possibly imagine any further out. It was beyond the scope of his imagination.
Very little was beyond the imagination of Robert. Already, he wanted to leave this plane and see what was beyond. He wanted to get closer to the creatures and see what they were doing. He wanted to go out as far as he could. He could go to the left, where there was a faint tinge of yellow on the ground, instead of the otherwise uniform green. He wanted to go forward, where the lack of significant landmarks made the possible destinations seem all the more exotic. He wanted to turn to the right, where the large green protrusions seemed to be infinitely numerous, shielding from view two enormous triangular things.
He couldn't stand still, not after having seen the relative smallness of the huge structure that they had been inside. He could see Margie working at something relatively close by, and without a word, he ran in that direction. The rest of the group had to snap into action quickly, especially out here where they could potentially lose track of him among the tall green cylinders.
"He's insane," Jackie breathed out as she led the rest of the group to the place where Margie was working.
"Can you blame him?" Dan huffed out through much more labored breathing.
Arthur only smiled a little bit before concentrating on his running and breathing again. He hoped they would soon stop these little dashes towards interesting things. More importantly, he hoped that they wouldn't have to run away from scary things again. At least they were fairly well hidden on this ground. That significantly decreased their chances of causing trouble, although Arthur was sure that they were still perfectly capable of that.
Their feet made less of an impact on this ground, so it almost seemed to make running easier. They felt lighter once they figured out how to run to use this to their advantage. However, they no longer had the same sense of the distance that they were covering. There were no landmarks that they could follow, especially without making a special effort to see above those green stringy things. There was, however, very little chance of them being unable to find their way back to their gray structure, at least not in this light.
They were quickly able to stop to regain some energy and watch Margie. The objects that she was hanging were wet, as made obvious by the drops of water that were quickly escaping. These colorful things also seemed to be of the same sorts of materials as the cloths or clothes that all of the creatures seemed to be concealed behind. It was also clear that these cloths were being draped over a thick string that was secured between two of the large protrusions, but without their colorful heads.
She was humming a little bit, not very concerned about anything that was going on around her. As she moved between the basket and the hanging string, the group noticed something strange. They no longer felt the reverberations in the ground.
"Oh, that's a relief," Dan said.
"Well, we seem to have discovered one of the advantages to this springy ground," Jackie said.
"A difference, you mean," Arthur said. "This means that they can sneak up on us out here if they don't make any sort of noise while they walk."
"Like I always say, never turn your nose up at a ready made advantage," said a new voice.
They spun around, trying to mentally prepare themselves for just about anything. It was almost a disappointment, seeing that the creature that faced them looked exactly like them. Well, he looked less amazed and a whole lot more annoyed, but he was a familiar shape at least.
"Never rely on luck where skill can do your talking," Jackie countered, ready to demonstrate exactly this skill. She was poised tightly, ready to spring into action as soon as things turned a bit more precarious.
"Don't take stupid risks," the stranger answered, relaxing a little bit. "What are you playing at? You should know better than to risk being seen like this."
"We're not exactly experienced in these things. We're very new out here," Dan said, too tired to be overly diplomatic.
"Oh, I see!" The stranger said. "No problem then, but don't do things like that in the future. I'm Tim, by the way. Follow me and I'll get you settled in for a little while." Without waiting for any sort of answer, he turned and began to walk decisively in one direction. The members of the group looked at one another, and with some shrugs, followed after him. Thus far, following after complete strangers had been rather helpful to them.
"I think it's safe to say that we actually have learned something about our own colony."
Arthur and Dan looked at her with some panic. Robert, however, was too preoccupied with examining his surroundings and scrutinizing their new leader to pay attention to what she was saying.
"Our earthquakes must actually occur when some of these creatures are passing by near the colony. Since there aren't very many earthquakes at all, we can safely assume that there aren't many of these creatures in our area," Jackie said sensibly.
"What about the last one?" Dan asked.
"Last one, what?" Rob interrupted, suddenly interested in the conversation when it seemed to have gotten a bit more heavy.
"The last earthquake," Arthur explained. "What was that awful squealing that we heard during that earthquake?"
"Maybe someone was saying something?" Jackie suggested hopefully.
"No, I don't think so. I didn't hear anything said that wasn't definitely said by the people around me." He stopped to think back to what now seemed to have been a very, very long time ago. "Actually, at the time, that squealing had been a bit weird. At first, I had thought that it was just laughter."
"Really?" Arthur asked.
"That seems a bit.... inappropriate," Jackie said hesitantly.
"Well, i know what I heard," Robert answered. "It was rather high-pitched, though. It sounded like a girl, or perhaps a young child."
"Well, their young should be smaller than they are," Dan muttered.
"What?"
"I think he's referring to the fact that that earthquake wasn't quite as strong as the usual ones. The squealing or laughter made it one of the scarier ones, but it certainly wasn't very strong," Jackie said reasonably.
"I knew you guys would be from the castle," Tim said. Apparently, he had been close enough to their groups to heard their conversation. "Only people from inside ever wear those ridiculous visors."
"From where?" Dan asked, as the rest of the group crossed their eyes to try to get a good look at their visors, despite the impossibility.
"From the castle, of course," Tim said. He stopped to watch their reactions. He was met only with confusion. "Oh, I suppose you might not call it that. Although I don't know what else you would call it."
"What are you actually talking about?" Robert asked simply.
Tim knew that the best possible solution was to point, so he did. He pointed towards the large gray structure that they had only just managed to leave. "That's the castle."
"Oh, that," Jackie said. "Well, we don't actually call it anything, so it may as well be the castle."
"You don't call it anything?" Tim asked slowly.
"We only just discovered that it existed today," Rob said plainly.
"You only just discovered...?" Tim repeated in disbelief. "But you can't be from further away than that! You seem like such typical insiders," he said, sounding quite sure of himself.
"Our colony is inside there, though," Dan said, trying to keep the conversation going.
"And you don't know about the castle? That doesn't even begin to make sense. How could you avoid leaving it for so long?" Tim asked.
"We didn't begin to explore the castle until a few days ago. Before then, most of us hadn't even gone beyond the walls of our colony," Arthur explained.
Tim's mouth had dropped open. "You mean that you haven't ever been outside before?"
"That's what he just said," Dan answered. "We've never before been outside of our colony."
He shook his head furiously. "No, I mean 'outside' outside. Out here," he added, spreading out his arms. "The outdoors, and nature," he added a bit desperately. "How can you not know what's beyond the castle walls?"
The members of the group looked a little bit helpless. They knew that their mission was to learn things, but this was ridiculous. They were being looked at like they knew absolutely nothing about life or living.
"Oh my," Tim said quietly, sitting down on the ground. "I think this is going to take a while." He stared into the distance past their heads for a little while before becoming aware enough to urge them to sit.
"I think that this might be a good moment to pause to introduce ourselves," Jackie suggested, breaking the awkward silence. After introductions were over, Tim seemed to have regained his basic functions again.
"So, this is the outside. It's much, much bigger than the castle. It's covered in plants, and it's home to all sorts of creatures. And I think that there's much more to be done out here than there is inside, but that's another argument for another time.
"Some of us live inside the castle. Some of us are apparently even very deep inside, shielded from everything else that goes on. And quite a few of us live out here."
"And where do you live?" Jackie asked curiously.
"I had been leading you to our colony, actually, but that will have to wait. We live underground, where it's darker and the temperature is a bit more moderated," he said, happy to answer easy questions that any stranger might ask.
"What's up there?" Arthur asked, pointing up. The rest of the group leaned it, eager to learn.
He pursed his lips a bit, pausing. "That's the sky -- the blue, we call that the sky. Before you ask, you can't touch it, it's impossible to reach. Those white things," he pointed to a fluffy object in the sky, "those are clouds. When there is a lot of them it rains, and everything gets wet."
"And the light?" Jackie asked eager.
"The light," Tim said weakly, "is the sun."