@geniusborn / closed starter for Pazu.
To travel outside of the Valley was always a strange dream for the eldest Hatter, having spent her lifetime oft in the snug town of Market Chipping and rarely remembering from her childhood traveling outside of Upper Folding with her father. Glimpses of her early life with her father morphed to dense fog in her mind; an illusion of something there when all she could do was pass her hand through as the vapor slipped through the cracks of her fingers. If she continued in her pursuit, she’d only be left in the darkness.
However, today proved to be different in the long mundane cycle she’d known to be her life. Blistering sun rays pours from over the mountaintops and the Hatter adjusts the rim of her gray newsie cap. In the light of the new year, the eldest of three decided to take an excursion on possibly the only day the Hat Shop would ever be closed. Underneath her heavy black boots were the gravel that winded down through the mountain-side and her red-rimmed eyes kept high into the sky, watching over the rolling flower fields that went past the horizon.
Almost as if it were another lifetime, the young Hatter traveled with her father on the rare occasion to visit an old friend of his’. An aviator that dreamt of something above the clouds, she vaguely recalled as she fastens the large pouch resting on her side. While as mildly eccentric as her own father, it seemed that he was able to push further and beyond that her own father could ever dream of...But, he sooner disappeared once he reached the impossible. Or, so they say.
All alone now at the small abode on the top of the hill had been the aviator’s surviving kin -- his only son, an orphan now. He was no older than Martha, both now on the cusp of teenagehood and Sophie was already dreading the thoughts of how puberty could already be affecting him. Ah, growing up, a troubling, troubling process.
“I hope he isn’t too busy,” Sophie huffs, wiping down her white blouse and straightening out the front of her long black skirt, trying to make herself somewhat presentable after the terribly long journey over. However, as she slowly walks up the hill, squinting up as to avoid the sun from blinding her, a vague shape was by the house -- she couldn’t tell if it was on the roof or at the front. Damn this terrible vision!
“Pazu! Good morning!” Without another thought, the young woman raised her hand, waving. Hopefully, that had been him or she’d make herself look like a terrible fool..which wasn’t too terribly hard for a terrible fool like her.
