(Rose)
Since Bleue is able to walk again, we're heading into the country.
I lift all our bags. Bleue is still weak. Her right arm rests in a sling. She's healing slowly. Regenerating even, at this level. The elbow bones will maybe get a wrong alignment as they heal, but the arms flesh regenerate rapidly.
I remember one of my eyes healing similarly, slowly but surely, after a wound past me wouldn't have healed from in older days.
B - I guess that's how humans are nowadays. We heal better.
R - Probably yes.
B - I understand though why I shouldn't get too attached to the items we carry as you said.
R - Ah yes. We easily lose our affairs... I found neither my rifle nor your bow on the shores. Only a few of your arrows.
B - Do you think... Well, I hope we don't need to fight for a while.
R - We should be fine. Monsters are rare.
We can only hope so.
And so we head inland. Along the endless roads of Europe now.
~
Bleue walks slowly and is quickly out of breath. She doesn't seem to rebuild much blood and muscle. Though we don't eat much either.
She must feel hungry all the time, but doesn't complain.
I manage to catch some big rats once every three days or so along the road. I roast them. Bleue eats heartily everything I give her.
The weather is getting nicer and warmer, it's sweeter on us.
We walk across sunken cities inland. We follow roads randomly heading south and slightly east.
And Bleue slowly recovers. She soon is able to carry a small bag over her left shoulder. Her cheeks have better colours now.
We talk about the past, the present and the future.
B - I think dad would have been happy for us.
R - Father... I often think about him you know, and about what he could have thought of my situation. I think so too...
Dear father in heavens...
We're smiling together.
The roads follow cities that have long been abandoned.
It's strange that some of them look like they've been abandoned for centuries, nature claiming them and wild grass crawling everywhere. Whereas for others, very little thing has come to grow or change over the years. These ones still sort of look like they were evacuated only a few days ago.
Some cities are simply empty, others are being gradually swallowed by new woods and jungles.
All is dust in the wind as they say.
We venture in some of these random and unique jungles, searching for food and equipment.
We stumble upon a giant lizard in the distance, crossing a street peacefully. It's followed by four little ones.
B - I didn't know they were wild crocodiles in France.
R - I... Well...
I laugh about it, and we move on.
Hills and valleys of levelled down buildings. Streams of water here and there. Caves filled with pipes and tunnels.
Gleaming hills in the distance, polished by forces unknown over the years.
The road is endless, always the same and slightly different, every step.
For a few miles, the road is covered with stumps and thick stains of molten rust. Some pieces let us guess that they once were cars. They melted to a point they fused with the road and became stains over it, by some means I can't fathom.
Trees growing upside down in a field further down. Leaves growing out of the ground like heavy grass. Roots ending in flying threads, long and thin threads in the wind. They stick and itch when they touch you.
At night, I lay traps for animals. And once in a while, I get these kind of big rats.
This morning I found a rabbit.
We're hungry so I kill it anyway.
Skin it. Empty it. Keep the liver and heart. Wash everything.
And roast it.
As I wash my hands thoroughly, Bleue is looking at the scene.
B - If we can't find clothes from the old world anymore, we'll need to start keeping the furs and skins.
R - Clothes I think we'll still be able to find for a few more years. Preserved food however is more difficult. Especially during winter we'll need to prepare.
B - Where will be next winter?
R - Somewhere around the Mediterranean sea I guess. If we travel well, we may already be in Egypt by then.
B - Should we go through Gibraltar, or the Ottoman empire?
R - I know what you would prefer.
She smiles.
B - After all, we have a common friend who lived in the area. I've always been curious to see what the Nĭlüfer area looks like.
R - I remember reading a few notes about it at home. If not us ourselves, someone related to us went to investigate the area in Turkey, but it was a long, long time ago now.
B - Did they find something?
R - Who knows? Our quest for daiûas was a sweet dream. Some people followed her, and us.
B - Following our trail... Even though we disappeared.
R - Just like we believed in Gülnihal, a few others must have found solace and hope believing in her, rather than any other god.
B - The roads of our pilgrimage lead to Nĭlüfer therefore!
R - Not only there. There was something else in Russia. Another excavation, close to the Arctic circle.
B - I see, I see... Another path. I'm quite curious about it I must say... But first, before we follow the trail of my old daiûa; we have to meet up with yours. And she should still be waiting for us in Giseh so.
R - Hopefully. We will see.
B - Meanwhile... I like. I enjoy, walking alongside this road with you. Even if my feet hurt.
I brush her hair with my hand. I see the corner of her smile.
We enjoy the cool wind.
Bleue smiles heartily, looking at the landscape. She looks happy.
R - You look so happy Bleue...
B - I am.
So am I.
As the endless road unfolds itself before us.
~