Chapter Text
Part 1: Up From the Underground
When she first emerged, blinking, into the sunlight, she wasn’t sure just where the hell she was. Not that she was picky, mind you. Anywhere was better than the ghost city she’d left behind. Wherever it was, it sure was pretty.
The grass was a vibrant shade of green, and the sky was so blue it positively hurt to look at. She was in the middle of a forest, surrounded on all sides by tall grass and trees loosely packed together, alive with the singing of birds.
Birds. Real birds, not those hideous carrion crows she’d gotten so accustomed to. Birds that sang and soared, their brilliant plumage a variety of hues. It was spellbinding, and Julianna just stood there for a moment, taking it all in.
She was crying, she was sure of it. Tears meandered their way down her cheeks and fell to the ground but she didn’t care. It was okay. It was all finally going to be okay. She sank to the ground and felt the grass between her coarse fingertips. How long had it been? Julianna didn’t even want to think about it. She just wanted to think about the birds.
At last, she managed to compose herself, drying her eyes and standing up, albeit in a slightly shaky fashion. She walked towards a break in the trees that she could just barely make out in the distance. Soon she had left the cave far behind and found herself on a clifftop overlooking a magnificent valley, adorned in the pinks and greens of spring. The sun played over a vast expanse of rolling green hills and she could see a sparkling ocean in the distance. What was more, she could see a town nestled in the valley, stretching from the hills to the white sand of the beach. A river ran from the mountains out to the southern sea. It looked like a paradise.
She must have spent an hour winding her way through the woods before at last, she emerged from the treeline near a winding riverbank. There she saw a modest cabin with an old man sat out front, smoking a pipe and rocking in a rocking chair she could hear from a hundred paces. In front of him, a fishing rod lay propped up and trailing a line into the gently moving water of the river. She crouched behind a tree, torn on what to do. Should she go over and ask for directions to town? Sneak by? Flee before he spotted her?
Before she could decide, a decision was made for her.
“I can see you, you know!”
Shit.
The jig was up now. Julie sighed and emerged from the trees, holding her hands up in what she hoped looked like a gesture of peace.
“Oh, relax, I’m not gonna hurt ya! Come on over here, you’re starting to creep me out.”
The old man laughed a cackling, wheezy laugh that sent him into a small coughing fit. He blustered and shook out his pipe before standing up and turning toward her. How had he seen her from where he was sitting?
She approached and tried to look casual, like anyone who’d just wandered out of the woods would.
“Uh, sorry! I’m a little lost.”
“Well, I can see that, missy! Where ya tryin’ to get to?”
“Um, town! I think. There is a town down the river, yes?”
“Hm? Oh, that’ll be Pelican Town. Peaceful little place. I hope you’re not looking to cause trouble with that blade there, eh?”
She realized with embarrassment that her sword was still strapped to her hip.
“No, it’s just for… Um… Protection.”
He looked at her a long moment before shrugging and turning back towards his fishing rod.
“Fair enough. Don’t bother me none.”
“And who are you?”
“They call me Old Pete ‘round these parts. Least they did once. This here cabin of mine ain't seen use in a while. I been away, see.”
She took a look at the building and noticed for the first time that is was in a slight state of disrepair. The windows were cracked and the roof sagged. The place was by no means dilapidated, but it could certainly use a fresh coat of paint.
“Shame. It seems like a real nice little spot.”
“Oh, indeed. Best river fishin’ in the valley, right on my doorstep.”
Julianna glanced at the fish basket next to his chair and noticed that it was empty.
“You want it?”
She directed her attention back to him, confused by his question.
“Pardon?”
“I said, do you want it? The cabin. Hell, the whole plot of land. I’ve been feeling like it’s high time i move on out of here for good, and I’d like to see the old place give someone a roof. Especially someone who looks to be in such dire need of one.”
She remembered how ragged and torn her clothes looked.
“I suppose that’s fair, but you expect me to believe you’re just going to give me a plot of land?”
“Yep. Why not? I’ve done worse with more, lemme tell ya. I think I got the deed around here somewhere…”
He reached into his fish basket and retrieved a slip of paper. He handed it to her without looking her way, still occupied with his fishing gear (which so far hadn’t received a single bite).
She took it and looked at it.
‘The undersigned is the rightful and undisputed owner of this here old shack.’
Underneath was a blank signature space. It even said ‘deed’ in cartoonishly big letters across the top.
“You can’t be-”
She looked up, and the old man was gone, pipe and all. The only thing that remained was the fishing rod, which stood propped up proudly on a couple of wooden crates. Now, for the first time, she saw it move as a fish snatched at the hook.
Julianna looked around and saw nowhere that a man his age would have been able to leg it towards in that short a time span, but he had vanished all the same.
Deciding to leave that mystery for later, she tried the door of the cabin and it swung open. The inside was surprisingly tidy, with a small rangetop stove in one corner, a firepit in the other, and a twin bed pressed into the back wall. The pace wasn’t dusty. It even smelled as though coffee was being brewed.
Under any other circumstances, Julianna would have considered this the trap to end all traps, but after wandering through the underground maze for goddess knew how long, she was so ready to sleep that her survival instinct was thrown out the window, driven down the street, and locked in a cupboard for good measure.
“Cool. I guess I own a shack now.”