A sleeping Town.
Slowly the two wandered into the concrete maze that had been built up within the high walls and soon enough the soft warmth of the mild sun without the village was replaced by a chill and a fog that continued creeping in, growing thicker the farther they ventured inside. It seemed like another world altogether, much unlike the one she had left behind and even now as she stared back at the jungle that was without the gates and the warmth she had left behind, it made Havillah wonder what she had allowed herself to wandered into, the town being such a stark contrast to the sunny forest that they had left outside the gates.
It was cold and eerily. Too quiet in fact apart from the ocassional hum that seemed to come in from the path that lay ahead of them. The smoke, Havillah now realised was actually a smog for none of the quaint stone house with the bright red roofs rarely rising to two storeys high had any chimney to speak of. They must have used other sources of energy to power up their houses and probably also do all their cooking, she mused even as she continued to observe that where Virtue was lacking, technology seemed to have taken its place in this world, man seeking to make his life easier with the invention of new gadgets and multiple appliances.
Despite the dead coldness of the place it surprised Havillah to no end to find that outside most houses they came upon, there seemed to be a flourishing vegetable patch. The ocassional bleat or low of a cow could also be heard and it also suggested that they kept livestock and even though the design of the village was such that the houses stood on rows upon rows that converged upon an invisible centre, Havillah knew that just because she could not see them did not mean that the livestock were not present.
As the two continued to wander nearer and nearer to the village's imminent centre, Havillah found that the gardens were also slowly vanishing having been replaced by more cobbled pathways that meandered through closed stalls and shops with just signs to advertise the wares that were sold or were once sold there. She could see a bakery, a forgery, several convenience stalls but none of them were also open. There was no one else apart from the two of them wondering the streets at this time of morning. Was this the work of the terrors? She mused. The girl had already told her that all friends were either Gone or asleep. So, what did that make this? A sleeping town? She shook her in disbelief. Was it a permanent sleep or did they eventually wake up to do their work?The place looked quite clean and the gardens were also tended. The girl had also mentioned of breakfast and a brother and Mima who looked after her. So, where was everyone?
"Where is everyone?" Havillah finally whispered taking care not to disturb the strange quiet that should have been foreign in a town even one that was quite small as this.
"Gone or asleep."
"Asleep? Why is the village sleeping during the day?" Havillah did not get to wonder for too longer as they came to a stop before a seemingly empty square or so she thought. She could not have been able tell otherwise as the fog in this part of town was so thick that she could not see what was standing before here merely two metres ahead.
"Why are we stopping?" The girl did not answer. Instead she pointed forward at an approaching figure. A dark silhouette against the white background that was staggering as if heavy on wine. Despite the searing cold, the woman that she could now see more clearly with every step that she took closer, wore no jacket or wrapper that would keep her warm and instead, she continued galavanting all around the place in nothing but a shift, a night dress that was frayed and muddied even as she ambled away in the cold of the fog.
"What is wrong with her?" Havillah turned to ask the girl who had also stopped to stare at the woman with a very sad look within her blue eyes.
"She's a Gone."
"A Gone?" Havillah turned again to look at the woman who had just passed them, their presence lost to her as she drifted on into the fog beyond. Like the little girl, her skin had appeared to be rough, pasty and stretched out on bigger bones, but unlike the girl who seemed to have some life still breathing within her, this woman's appearance was one of a walking corpse. A dried up and dishevelled husk of a thing with milky white eyes, sunken within their sockets and surrounded by a wide dark rim that spoke of days of sleeplessness. Her head was completely bald, her hands and feet merely skeletons peeking out beneath the faded orange night dress that might have one day been red and absolutely pretty, but was now faded with time and the grime that continued to cling on to it.
"Sophir!" A new voice called from the fog and Havillah turned to see a tall man walking towards them. He was dressed in black leather slacks, a clean white cotton shirt, a brown leather jerkin that was buttoned up all the way to his belly and a brown wide brimmed hat that was sitting so low on his head, it concealed his face and hair colour. His hands she could see though and they were large, gripping a huge bow firmly. On his back was a complementary quiver, full of arrows, more than a dozen of them with their feathered ends sticking out, waiting for his nimble fingers to draw them out and impale her with the help of his bow. If that was not going to work, there was always the sword. Strapped on his waist in a leather scabbard, the sword hang quite threateningly and from the design on the embroidered leather jerkin and the scabbard, to the jewels attached to the hilt of the broad sword, every thing on this man screamed of wealth and danger and yet, he was somehow acquainted or affiliated with this little girl that was hanging on Havillah's very hand with a look of terror in her eyes.
As Havillah looked up to study his face, the man did the same. Blue eyes latched onto brown ones seemingly drinking in the site of her just as she did the same. What was he? Between twenty to twenty five? He could have been younger or older depending on what the illness had done to him. An illness that now seemed more apparent now that she had witnessed it and its effects first hand.
"You must be new here." The man with the dark hair and a remarkable face despite its gaunt form remarked at her and Havillah nodded her head in agreement. The was no hiding that fact for she was aware very that in a village like this everybody often knew everyone and from her past experiences, she had gathered that acting elusive would only work against her by casting suspicions where she needed their trust the most.
"She's a Gone." He said his chin pointing out to the woman who had now stopped even as she continued mumbling on incoherently, despite their continued presence and their present staring. "Come nightfall it will get worse." He added before turning to the girl. "Come now Sophir. You need your sleep before then."
"But Jharey..." The girl who had until then remained silent, watching between them with a terrified look, now turned ferocious at the suggestion in his voice. "She's my friend and I am not leaving her!"
"She's a stranger." The man called Jharey began to say as he took her other hand and began pulling her away from the square and in the direction he had come from.
"What would Mima say?" The girl ground her feet to halt him even as she pouted back with the angry look still present in her eyes.
"That it was wrong of you to run off and wander around on your own when you should have been sleeping?"
"Not fair." The girl pouted. "I never get to see the orchard."
"You know why Sophir." The young man insisted and Havillah could only sympathise with him. She could feel his desperation, but his little sister was not making it any easy for him. All the same, he managed to remain calm and maintain a firm hand when dealing with her. "Please Sophir...we have to get going. Mima will be worried sick about you."
"Go on little girl." Havillah smiled as she ushered on her new friend. She could not understand why the girl remained so adamant or why she had grown so attached to her, but either way she did want her to get into trouble especially because of her.
"I am not leaving you!" The girl insisted and her brother groaned into his hand. They were rather adorable, the two of them. How she racked up trouble and ther way her brother the ever resilient giant had to bear with her. Nothing like her own relationship with her two younger siblings. "Remember what happened to mama? She wouldn't want us to leave her here."
"Fine!" This time her comment seemed to get to him this and Havillah had to wonder what happened to their mother to make him change his mind on that account. "She can come along. That is, if you have nowhere else you need to be." The man Jharey breathed out in defeat even as the girl squealed out with excitement. Either way her brother had stopped paying her attention and had now turned to look at Havillah with a thinly veiled threat in his eyes. "I do not know what my sister sees in you, but if you do anything to hurt her or our Mima, I will string you up myself." Havillah nodded. It was much easier to turn around and fly off to wherever it was that she was going, but she smelled a mystery here and against all her survival instincts and against all common sense, she chose to stay behind and unravel the enigma that was this town's people.