Rose Blumen ~ Exogignesthai

596. Exploring, 2

(Rose)The walls, the entire stadium or building bloc around this park is made of very porous materials.

Humidity rose into it like sap in trees over time.

And everything including trees, vines and shrubs, grew along, bursting from inside regularly.

The walls and the entire structures were completely taken over as if they were fertile soil.

We enter rooms that are made of forest, from ground to ceiling as if that had been intended from the start.

It’s a giant and lush sponge. We venture through empty rooms that are pockets of woods and clearings.

Windows invisible from the wide field let light inside brushing carpets of moss and wild grass. It’s just lush, everywhere.

We slowly climb the levels.

I hear Nokarlık elsewhere. She sounds happy enough already.

One thing I wonder now is what will be her first instinct in front of a fresh human corpse. Bury it, or eat it?

R – I guess she could eat it seeing how she tries to eat anything. Can she learn like you?

B – I don’t think she could because the way her intellect works is human. But she could learn. Just like you.

R – I’ll pass, again. What about you? You’re not eating soil and dirt now?

B – I still have some tricks up my sleeves, but I’m more blood than sap now. I’ll be better with more complex food.

We climb ramps that once were stairs probably. We move through the verdant rooms one after another.

Humidity aside, it’s actually quite a nice place. But we need to check there’s no nasty surprise lurking around first.

I force a little on my sight. I faintly can perceive the ribbons again. I’ve lost the talent, but that’s better than nothing.

It doesn’t appear to be anything unusual lying around. We slowly make our way to the top of this modern coliseum.

There is a room where droplets of condensed humidity, I think, fall upward from mossy floor to ceiling. Some weird kind of flowers grow up there.

They all seem pretty peaceful. I might study them later, but won’t bother them further now.

We reach the roof. We’re at canopy level actually, so the sight is enjoyable. We even see the ocean beyond the dead city and its buried neighbourhoods.

I’m unsure of our precise location in the southern Americas, but we’re getting closer to the sea between North and South continents.

It’s still very lush behind us, so we’re possibly on the northern ends of the Amazon. I should have studied the geography of these continents better.

Speaking of which, I should resume teaching Nokarlık all I can think of before she grows bored of my voice.

R – I hope I have years left.

B – You wish. She’s like you.

R – I was a good student.

Blume pulls out her tongue on me as if calling me a liar. I was though.

~

By nightfall the call of food made my sweet wild child return to me.

I was roasting what we could gather around, making a sweet smell spread in the vicinity.

Hugs and kisses later, we all ate together as the star night sky appeared.

I told her how each star was a sun, very far away. And we wrote some numbers with charcoal around.

Too big numbers. It’s not our scale. It’s hard to imagine and visualise until you can see it.

We’ll look around for a working computer. Perhaps we will be extremely lucky.

We will also look at the weird flowers drinking the droplets defying gravity. It could be a chance to restart a flying technology...

Years of work...

Opportunities are open and wide in this land. We’ll secure some food and crops first.

We’ll learn about the environment around here. Flora, fauna, and the other kinds.

For a little while.

I draw maps. I show as best I could the current plans.

I’m curious to see New York. It was one of the biggest and brightest cities in the world, in the previous age.

It’s still a world away from here. And it’s unlikely to be much different from London, Paris, Istanbul, or even here.

But it’s a journey worth doing regardless.

Thank goodness, Nok is still young enough not to argue with my choices. But she knows how to say no already.

Though our communication is still mostly tactile.

When I pinch her adorable cheeks that evening, Blume sneaks behind me, and comes to pinch mine.

Nokarlık quickly busted in laughter at my expense.

Soon after, I made sure she enjoyed just as much my rough scolding of the wild, wild flower.

R – Bad kids will be punished!

But Blume seems to enjoy that more than anything... Darn...

Two handfuls now. But I guess Blume is enjoying life her own way with me.

~

Between lessons and occasional scolding, of the older one most often, we explore the surrounding area.

The stadium is quite isolated from the rest of the swallowed city, since the main entrances are gone.

So we’re taking our eases. Nok runs.

I run after her. Blume laughs and eat. But she also has the green thumb as I’d expect from her.

She took care of starting cultures and crops in the main field.

She found a new species that is an odd mix of potatoes and bananas, that grows easily and fast. It’s a sweet potato. Another wonder of this world. It even changes colour from beetroot purple to red depending on how you season it.

It’s my new favourite vegetable, after Blume.

~