on her suit, and left the unit. Of course, the momba would know where she was – all minors were tracked – but she liked the feeling of independence nevertheless.
There were very few wild spaces left in the city, but it didn’t matter much because the suit could moderate the surroundings. Sonia preferred woodlands, so her screen showed her all fixed objects as plants and rocks and all moving things as creatures. The first time she had applied those settings, up from the default “Empty City”, the number of creatures had terrified her. Quickly, she had fine-tuned it – 90% shadows, 10% creatures. Now, she saw the faint blur of shadows that she was used to, but every once in a while a rabbit or a deer would pass her on the sidewalk, going the other direction.
As she walked, she wondered about the book. The Cavalier and His Squire it was called. She could, she knew, call up in an instant the definitions of those things, but something in her resisted. She didn’t want to type it in. She didn’t want to put something from paper into the stream…it seemed it would desecrate it somehow. So she kept the words to herself and rolled them around on her tongue.
She shortly arrived at the park. It looked like there were a couple rabbits chasing each other around and one tree that wavered between a tree and a moose. She guessed it was a mostly stationery momba keeping watch and told the suit to leave it as a tree.
On her last visit, she had modified the old jungle gym to look like a tree fort, so she headed for it and sat snug into a bottom level corner. The shadows of other things moved around, but she knew no one would touch her. The suits prevented accidental contact.
want to put something from paper into the stream…it seemed it would desecrate it somehow. So she kept the words to herself and rolled them around on her tongue.
She shortly arrived at the park. It looked like there were a couple rabbits chasing each other around and one tree that wavered between a tree and a moose. She guessed it was a mostly stationery momba keeping watch and told the suit to leave it as a tree.
On her last visit, she had modified the old jungle gym to look like a tree fort, so she headed for it and sat snug into a bottom level corner. The shadows of other things moved around, but she knew no one would touch her. The suits prevented accidental contact.
Satisfied with her surroundings, she opened the book to the first page again. “Chapter 1: The Broad Road.”
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