A few hours after loading their wagon, saying farewells, and making their way through the sprawling redwood forest he had always lived in Aster could finally see the forest's edge. The blinding light forcing him to cover his eyes, as he sees a sky clear of obstructions for the first time in his life. As his eyes begin to adjust, he starts looking around wide-eyed as he sees a seemingly endless field of grass basked in the stunning sunlight now surrounding them.
"Sorry, I forgot to warn you" Jackson says with a slight chuckle, "don't want you going blind before we even reached the city."
"I'm sorry sweetie, I should've remembered." Alice chimes in, with a nudge to her husband's side, "are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine mom." Aster responds, his eyes still mesmerized by the endless field before him, "I didn't know there could be so much grass. Is it like this everywhere?"
"In some places. But others are like what you grew up knowing, and vastly different." Alice explains with a small smile on her face.
"Wait until he sees the ocean." Jackson whispers, barely loud enough to prompt another nudge from his wife. "What? If he's this surprised by grass. His head may explode when he sees the ocean."
"What's the ocean?" Aster asks, having heard his father.
"It's like this" Jackson says as he gestures out the fields around them, "but it's just water as far as the eye can see."
"That can't be true. The lake a home is already so big. There can't be that much water." Aster says, before looking back out to the boundless field of grass around them. "Right?"
Both of his parents just chuckle at his disbelief as he just looks around, trying to wrap his head around the possibility.
Over the next week, the four of them travel during the day and sleep once the sun starts to set. As Jackson and Alice alternate driving the cart and sleeping. Occasionally letting Aster take the reins, narrowly avoiding holes and driving off the road from time to time. Eating dried meats and stews, lacking the typical flavor they enjoyed at home, much to Aster's dismay. They'd drive past a few others carts and people just walking on the side of the road, as well as through a couple small villages. Much smaller than their home.
But the thing that really stood out to Aster was when they rode through the remnants of a village, that had been decimated by a fire and covered in what looked like some kind of dark red paint that had clumped up and dried. His parents didn't say a word as they drove through the devastation, with faint metallic scent in the air. Alice even covering his eyes most of the way through.
Before long they finally see a large walled city coming into view, the walls appeared to be in a state of repair as a section seemed to have collapsed. The surrounding area appears to have been hit by a tornado, but only the wall seemed to have been hit along with a few houses just inside the wall. As they continued riding to the main gate, Alice quickly covered Aster's eyes.
"What's wrong, why are you covering my eyes mom?"
"Just don't look sweetie. Keep your eyes closed." She whispered as she gently patted the back of Aster's head in a soothing way. As she glanced up at a corpse hanging from a post with a sign around its neck with the word 'Mongrel' written on it.
Both parents stared at the body, which appeared to be only about a week old, with a mixture of anger and sadness. As they knew what it was they were looking at, a Vessel. Unlike Draco and Lyla, who had worked under the Government, this Vessel seemingly was an unregistered or rogue Vessel. The latter being more likely based on the damage they've seen on their way here. Though it wasn't uncommon for a Spiritualist to betray the Government, similarly to Draco and Lyla, but end up hunted down and decide to fight back against their pursuers.
After a moment, once they had passed the by the body, Alice uncovered his confused son's eyes. A few minutes later they get stopped by some guards near the gate into town.
"What's your business here?" A guard asks as he approaches the cart.
"We're here visiting family. My cousin Alan Stark, he's a night guard."
"Oh, you're Alan's cousin? You must be Jack then"
"Jackson, but yeah." The guard smirked as Jackson corrected him. "Alright, you can go in."
"Can I ask what happened here before we go?" The guard looked behind our cart, seemingly making sure there wasn't anyone waiting behind us before answering.
"One of those damn mongrels attacked the city last week. Not long after the village you probably saw on your way here was destroyed. Though, it was obviously two different ones."
"Yeah, we saw. What happened there? That didn't look right, like it was covered in…"
"Blood, yeah." The guard interrupts. "That's what we're thinking too. But we don't have any records of that kind before. That's the last thing we need, new mongrels to deal with."
"What was the one that attack here then?"
"A deserter from the Spiritualist corp. They destroyed the wall in an attempt to escape. If Colonel Sawyer wasn't visiting town, those winds could've taken half the town with them. The only respectable mongrel out of that entire corp, if you ask me."
"So, it was the wind Vessel then?"
"That's right. Nasty powers she had, pretty lady too. If only she wasn't one of those mongrels." The guard adds in at the end.
"Right well, we should get going." Jackson says through barely clenched teeth.
"Of course. Tell Alan hello for me." The guard tells him as he waves for us to be let in.
Once they were beyond the gate Jackson hisses under his breath, "bastard."
"You did well to start calm honey." Alice tells her husband quietly as she holds him. "I know how you feel, I wanted throw some of Jason's dirty diapers at his face. But we can't seem too sympathetic, especially to assholes like him."
Jackson just gives her a small smile before continuing to drive the cart into town.
Aster, who had just been listening the entire time, speaks up, "Dad, what's a 'mongrel'?"
Jackson glances back at Aster before sighing and says, "he was talking about Vessels. Like Draco and Lyla…"
"But why did he call them that?"
"Well, most people think of Vessels as less than human. Just because they're different. Or just to make themselves feel better about being weaker than Vessels."
"Why? They're not different from us."
Jackson smiles at his son's response, "No they're not. You're absolutely right. But everybody sees things differently."
"Then why didn't you say anything when the man was talking like that?"
"Well," Jackson let out a sigh before continuing, "it's complicated. If I tried to disagree with him, then he could've gotten mad at us for defending Vessels."
"But why?"
"Because you can't force your ideals onto others. And sometimes they won't listen if you try to talk to them about it. Or even attack you." Jackson let out another sigh, "if you don't agree with someone don't just call them out on it. Just try to end the conversation and walk away. Even if you'd rather break their nose. Understand?"
"Yes, papa" Aster responds before sitting quietly and looking at the sites as they drive through the city. A mixture of excitement from the new experience and discomfort from the previous conversations.
After about half an hour of riding through the city, seeing hundreds of people going about their day and taking in the buildings. They eventually come upon a nice-looking pale-yellow house with a dark colored roof and shutters on the windows. Where they stop just in front of the front door, before Jackson jumped down and helped everyone else get out of the cart. Once everyone was off the cart they made their way to the front door, where Jackson takes a deep breath before knocking on the door. A few moments later, with no answer, Jackson knocks again a bit louder. After another few moments a man opens the door, a slightly upset look on his face before being replaced with surprise as he recognizes the who is at the door.
"Jackson, is that you?" The man asks as he looked Jackson up and down, "you look like crap!" He exclaims before giving Jackson a big hug.
"Yeah yeah, well you don't smell any worse than me" Jackson says with a chuckle as he hugs back.
"Oh yeah? Well at least I've showered in what? The last week?"
"Oh, shut it. We both know Kendall always had to nag you to shower."
The man just chuckled at this as he said, "that she did. But I have been trying keeping up with it since she passed."
"You better have. I don't want to have to tell her that her efforts to make you not smell like a pig farm all the time failed" Alice chimed in.
"Well, well, well, isn't it the ever-beautiful Alice. It's so good to see you again." The man says as he gives her a hug as well. "Again, sorry I couldn't go to the wedding."
"You really don't have to apologize every time. It's already been over a decade." She says as she hugs him back.
"I know, but still." He says with a smile. "Is the orange tree I gave you still well? Or do I need to get you a new one?"
"It's still going strong. But we definitely wouldn't say no to a second one though, Aster simply adores it. As well as the other children in the village." She says as she steps aside to reveal to two children standing behind her.
"Oh, and who do we have here?" The man asks as he crouches down to look the two boys in the eyes.
"I'm Aster, sir. And this is my little brother Jason. He can't talk yet though." Aster replies as Jason gives a shy wave from behind his older brother.
The man looks up at Alice and Jackson as he hears this, a brief look of concern on his face before he returns his attention back to the boys.
"It's a pleasure to see you all grown up." He says to Aster, before looking to Jason. "And a pleasure to meet you little one. I'm your dad's cousin, but just call me uncle Alan."
Alan looked up at the sky, which was starting to darken. "Well, it's getting late. We should get your stuff inside and find you a place to sleep. Fortunately, my son is staying at his friend's house tonight, the boys can use his bed tonight. While you two can have my bed."
"We can't let you do that, we're the ones imposing on you." Jackson responds.
"Nonsense. Besides, I sleep in the living room when I get home from work most nights anyway." Alan says with a slight chuckle.
"But still…" Alice starts.
"If you just humor me, I'll stop apologizing for missing your wedding. At least until the next time we see each other." He says with a smirk, which makes Alice just give a tentative nod.
"Good, now let's get a move on. It'll be dark before you know it." Alan says as he walks towards the back of the cart, followed by Jackson. While Alice lead the boys inside.
As Alan and Jackson brought in everything from the cart, Alice helped the boys get ready for bed and made a quick meal for everyone to eat. Before even an hour had passed, everyone had passed out as Alan left to go to work. Guarding and patrolling the destroyed parts of the city's wall.