11th of Summer 511 AV, late afternoon
The Sea of Grass was peacefully quiet. Aside from the occasional scuffling animal or whistling breeze, a woman could rest in complete silence. It was one thing she sometimes missed about her life before; in Endrykas it was nearly impossible to find somewhere totally quiet. It was the nature of a city without walls to have residents that didn’t care much for privacy. There, everyone’s lives washed over into the others, a flood of muddy waters rushing from different directions to create a murky stew that sometimes left Amelika feeling like she was being drown. The young Drykas was more introverted, and as she stared thoughtfully at the brilliant blue sky, she imagined that from a bird’s perspective Endrykas might look less like the separate tents and pavilions that it consisted of, but one writhing and ever changing organism. At times, she wondered how she fit into that organism, if she even fit at all.
From where she had set up her simple camp, Amelika could see Jeryko grazing in the long grass, and the tent city not too far away across the horizon. She wasn’t stupid enough to wander far away from the city’s protection. For now, the weather was nice, so she had left her tent set up in Endrykas and brought only her bedroll and a backpack full of food and other supplies she would need for the next few nights. She probably wouldn’t stay for longer than a day or two, all she needed was to get away. Away from children playing, and the baying and stamping of the horses that followed the men and women around. Not to mention the many different smells of herbalists and blacksmiths, stables and wrestling wrings; she would never miss the stench of so many people living so close together.
Here, it was possible to wander for days and not see a soul - unless you knew the Web well enough to notice a presence, you could even pass another rider not too far away without even noticing they were there. She enjoyed the solitude, because it was something she didn’t get often. In no way was Amelika a social person, and when she had first moved to Endrykas she had suffered trying to make a home for herself and set up connections so she could support herself with the little hunting she did. She wished that she could spend longer than a few days hunting, but she had bitterly come to accept that she was not skilled enough to truly gain the independence she craved. Though she would be happy to spend the whole summer roaming the Sea on her own, she realized that if she tried she would most likely end up being killed after just a few days.
At least for now, she was content to nestle into her bedroll. She wasn’t sleeping yet - it wasn’t even dark out - but the bed beneath her was soothing and the warm sun relaxed her tense muscles in a way that was impossible when she was surrounded by a crowd of people. Tucked into the bottom of two gently sloping hills, her little hole gave her a place to curl up in and be protected from the wind. The heat made her drowsy, and when Amelika’s eyes slowly began to droop she let them, feeling confident that her strider would alert her if there was danger approaching. She doubted she had anything too serious to worry about anyways, being closer to Endrykas than a glass beak or a Zith would feel comfortably. Though Jeryko was as curious and friendly as a horse could get, he was also a scaredy-cat and she could count on the palomino stallion alarming her by prancing back, snorting and kicking up dust, if he found anything that worried him.
