Some shouting, much ado, a great bit of clamor as the boat bumped against a dock, settling to a rest light on the water and light against the concrete land. Trucks and cars rumbled down the street at the edge of his view, a few buses parked haphazardly at the edge where the little port met the road— a rare few fishing vessels anchored sleepily off to the side. The crowd seethed… and, yawning, he slowly pushed himself to his feet, flicking his tail as he stretched and—
Leaping.
His single jump carried him far over the heads of the crowd, drawing a few gasps and muttered exclamations of surprise— but he’d aimed well, landing delicately on one of the big concrete pylons out in the water, from which he could bound alongside the docks without much effort. Then, when he finally leapt onto the sidewalk by the road, big riverside buildings rising up around him… he got a few strange looks, but for the most part, people paid him no heed. That, at least, was different from what it was usually like in the city proper…
It didn’t take more than a moment for him to figure out why. Interspersed amongst the crowd of so many milling peoples, of all type and stature and build— rare but not so rare that they stood out remarkably— were cats. Their tawny fur caught the light and— unexpectedly, suddenly— made him feel a little homesickness. It’d been months since he’d last so much as spoken to one of his kind, and…
He sighed, refocusing. He only had a few hours of time to find someone who could sell him proper gear before he had to catch the night ferry back to the city. No time for idle fancy. Glancing around, he got his bearings, then headed off. If his directions were right, he needed to head down towards the tributary district…
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It was busier than the inner city had been. Far more packed, too— the flip side of a coin, touching but never the same as its reverse. Hawkers lined the streets, the smell of mud and half melted snow intermingling the putrid scent of rotting things and so many bodies— and smoke, and city aroma, all mixed together into one heady thing. More than once he’d thought to head down a side street before thinking better of it the moment he smelled… whatever was going on in there. Gross.
People didn’t give him quite so wide a berth, here. That was nice, he supposed… though, they did give him more looks of disgust. A strange and impersonal loathing… it stuck to him almost, each gaze heavy on him as he slunk further into the jumbled mess of buildings and twisting streets and grimy—
Then, just as suddenly as it’d come, it was gone, washed away and replaced with a… still worn down, but nice little neighborhood. The buildings had been washed clean and painted a gentle cream almost heart-achingly reminiscent of the architectural style of Fenfeng, street plants growing vibrantly and unseasonably in the planter beds to the sound of trickling fountains. In one small courtyard, rough cobblestones half-iced over still, he saw an entire massive ikkibao tree, its melted-looking wood sloughing off its form as though it were one of the jungle’s eldest, despite the fact it couldn’t have been planted more than a few years prior. The networks had told him to expect a nice area, but he hadn’t expected it to be this nice…
Of course, too, there was one thing he couldn’t help but notice, from the moment he’d stepped into that strange enclave— eminently obvious, utterly bizarre after spending so much time in the massive northern cities—
There were no humans anywhere.
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