"Glass".
I find glass to be the most interesting thing. I don't quite understand what this is. It is hard, like the surface of a smooth rock. Yet it is cold and transparent, like the depths of great water.
-very funny.
I like glass.
Birch didn't seem to like glass. It's like she doesn't like water anymore. or crystal. Or gems, which are often hidden behind the glass of the city.
-A weirdo.
I noticed that my friend Birch didn't seem to enjoy looking at anything that might reflect herself. Maybe after all this time, my negative thoughts about her appearance are finally getting to her?
I leaned down and slowly pressed my shaft against the back of her head.
Don't worry, friend.
I was wrong.
You are not a horrible, disfigured monster. There is nothing to be afraid of.
My friend didn't answer. But she did nuzzle from side to side, her long hair at the back of her head, rubbing against my shaft.
-A symbolic gesture of thanks.
ah. success.
Birch looked up at me and smiled, an unusually heavy smile around her cheeks and under her eyes.
Um.
I don't think her smile is as pleasant as her other smiles. However, maybe I'm just being selfish? After all, I got a free smile.
What else can people get out of life?
Birch turned and looked out at the city within which we remained. Several weeks had passed between our arrival and her attack.
If my friend gives me a nice smile, or a scary smile, maybe I should actually be grateful for both?
Just like I'm grateful for the sunshine, even on a cloudy day like today.
I can only appreciate a little bit of its elegance. But even so, I'm still grateful. Thanks for the smile, Burch.
I am a grateful sunflower. Although not perfect, I am beautiful.
-[sunflower]-
you bathe in the sun
+1 exp
Experience value: 217/310 EXP(Birch): 36/240
While I find this all fascinating, I still don't quite understand why we are here?
The city is an amazing place, full of life and things to see. There are hundreds of new things to see every day. New concepts, new faces, new colors and a new talent for creation.
-I feel like I could sit here for a month, and another month after that, and still have nothing new to watch.
but.
We don't wander.
We are not progressing.
We won’t be crawling, grabbing, and fighting our way to heaven like I’ve become accustomed to.
My friend found a way to support herself; those metal plates, she took from her abuser. Somehow she seemed to be able to exchange these items for food.
The food is also very strange.
It's not Apple.
It's not a piece of meat.
It's not a fish.
It's a combination.
The food here is complex and although I don't eat it, I must say I don't like it either. Mixing these ingredients and ingredients together into a variety of creations, while creative, I feel does obscure the beauty of the individual pieces.
Apples are a magical thing. Hard, crispy and whole. However, when it is covered by some flaky brown substances, we cannot see its ruby-like brilliance, the luster of its skin, the density of its core, or its coldness. The sweetness of dripping juices.
A fish, smooth, fat, soft, divine in its creation. Simply perfect. But cut them into small pieces and soak them in brackish seawater, and suddenly all their natural beauty is gone.
-Too complicated.
I think the food here is too complicated. I think this city, although interesting, is too complicated. As Burch's friend, I think it would be better for her to eat only an apple, a tuber, and a fish, all of which are ready, perfect, and nutritious.
But Birch becomes unfamiliar in a familiar way.
Now I know what's wrong with her.
-Coveting for comfort.
ah.
-[sunflower]-
you bathe in the sun
+1 exp
Experience value: 224/310 EXP(Birch): 43/240
The old ghost has got us again.
Remember, in the cave a few weeks ago? Remember the cave we hid in? We hid in the cave from the non-birds, and she was in there eating plump fruits and clear water to her heart's content?
She had thought she would be safe there. The feeling of security held her there like a metal buckle. It seems she fell into the same trap again.
Our journey was scary and difficult. There were many times of hunger and thirst, many times of cold and warmth, many times of fear and boiling blood.
-Those times are foreign here. Here, comfortable numbness is everywhere.
Oh, Burch. You stupid. I really admire you. That's to be expected, I guess, naively. She is still young after all.
-However, maybe she's not naive? Maybe she's just in denial?
I guess so, given that this happened so soon after we arrived in the city.
ah.
Poor thing. She had high hopes for this place. I now understand why she doesn't look at her reflection. Its gaze would prove to her what I already knew.
Looking up at the cloudy sky, I wonder, when will her eyes be as clear as glass?
-We are not safe at all.
Like being in a cave, it's an illusion.
Birch.
My dearest friend.
You've realized this as well as I have, right?
No place in the entire world is safe. forever. There is no place for us to hide here, nor anywhere else, except perhaps the gardens of heaven.
There is nothing to do but keep walking, keep traveling, or perish, as if we were beasts in a drought, marching through the wasteland toward the only hope.
--Heaven.
I whispered its name greedily in my mind.
-Scream.
another screamed.
Screams filled the air of the noon world, accompanied by the sound of many signal bells in the distance.
The people ran away, and Birch and I turned to look at the front of the city from a high vantage point, on a hill in the center of the city.
We saw a large group, a group, a group of little goblins, more than a thousand of them, rushing out of the nearby forest path and towards the city.
--Wow.
The scenery is so beautiful.
We stood on the top of Heart Mountain and watched the mass of gray and green silhouettes rush toward the walls of the unprepared city.
As the tide poured in through the open gates, we watched as the once translucent streets, gates, and glass were painted red.
good.
Maybe I really need to complain? Life is funny sometimes. It looked like our time in the city had come to an end.
good.
-let's go?
Birch was shaking and crying as he struggled to his feet. Her body didn't want to do what her brain told it needed to do.
What's up, friend?
I leaned on her shoulder and leaned my head on her shoulder. She seemed delighted when I did this to her book a few weeks ago. Maybe it will work now too?
Why are you not happy?
--look.
Hundreds of people are dying.
Who can live to say they have witnessed something so rare? From such a perfect position?
We are really lucky. We are lucky because life gives us a treasure of new experiences.
Screams filled the air as a fire began to erupt from the city's entrance, engulfing homes and falling people like fireflies during the day.
The skeletal mass moved through the streets and alleys, flowing like a creeping poison that rotted everything as it trickled through the venous channels toward a slowly beating heart.
-We are extremely happy.
very happy.
-[sunflower]-
you bathe in the sun
+1 exp
Experience value: 225/310 EXP(Birch): 44/240
Be happy.
Looking forward to more experiences like this in the future.
Isn't this the best?
Birch watched as a family was attacked by a swarm of swarms, killed with a variety of knives, and then turned and fled.
Yes.
There are still many things in the world waiting for us to see.
Howling men and smoke engulfed the day we left. We walked through the streets, through the alleys, through many doors and windows, and I watched others make the mistakes we had avoided.
They try to hide in one place for too long. In a comfortable place.
They closed their doors. They close the windows.
-But these things will not disturb the fire. They won't bother the monsters.
We ran and ran, and I felt the wind blowing my petals with a nostalgic atmosphere. I listened to Birch's heart beating thickly and wildly in a way that took me back to days gone by, and I listened to her feet thumping against the ground as we ran for our lives.
For the first time in many days, we were truly alive. The thrill of the hunt continues.
-I want to thank the goblins for waking my friend from her slumber, from her cozy cobwebbed hallucinations.
Comfort does not mean safety. Comfort is a trap that leads to complacency. Complacency leads to being eaten.
It's wise to keep this in mind.
She had some strange things on her feet that she had lost in the forest, and now that they were gone, Birch ran faster.
An hour passed, but Birch was still running, not along the road, path, or path, but along the setting sun.
It sank now, closer than ever, and as we strode toward it I realized that the red of the setting sun looked like blood on the translucent glass.
What a coincidence.
-Isn’t life fascinating?
this is the best.
