A village of sunshine exploded before Camilla. The bus pulled along a small street with colorful houses on the sides. Many of them were very modest cottages with sloping, tiled roofs and brightly painted outsides. Camilla felt like the windows of the dwellings were all smiling at her.
Aside from the houses, Camilla also noticed that whoever had constructed this neighborhood, must’ve had a great love of trees and foliage. Weather growing on a rooftop, or in a window, or on the sidings, no house or building on the street wasn’t outfitted in some way with a string of vines, leaves, or grass. It wrapped around the house’s doors and windows and the very numerous amounts of lead pipes and metal accents that a lot of buildings had. Even above her, she could see giant trees stretching up into the sky like arms protecting the people who lived there.
Life bustled outside the window of the bus. People stepped out of stores with full bags of groceries. Mothers dragged their stubborn children down sidewalks. Kids on bikes whizzed past, doing their best not to stay in the road too long. There were many smaller bus stops that the shuttle passed. A few people got out as the bus crowd slimmed. Outside of one stop, a frail, dark-skinned woman stood in a purple dress holding a parasol. The young man who had bumped into Camilla broke from the bus and swept the old woman into his arms. Now that the parasol was out of the way, Camilla could see that the older woman had fuzzy wolf ears of her own. She giggled as the young man held her, wagging her grey tail. The ram girl from before stepped out as well, greeting the wolf woman with a handshake.
Probably his mom, thought Camilla, trying to put context to the whole situation. But thinking that only reminded her of her own mom. The happy town and heartwarming scene had lulled Camilla into a state of calm. For a while, she had almost forgotten her situation, and nearly deemed herself on some kind of vacation. She stiffened up again and put her eyes forward, trying to focus on the mission at hand.
The bus continued to move on, floating over bridges, under walkways, past parks, and through neighborhoods. Camilla did her best to not be seduced by the cheerful sights and sounds outside the bus. Eventually, the bus found its destination.
The cramped shuttle pulled into a station of other buses. Each vehicle lined up in their own rows under the concrete canopy. The bus Camilla rode on lowered itself to the the ground and opened its doors. With that, everyone gathered their belongings and rose from their seats. People flooded out and onto the stations landing. Camilla stepped out too, with the map in her hands. Tons of people moved past and around her as she stopped and unfolded the piece of paper.
“All right,” she murmured to herself. “Now what?”
It looked as it did when Julius had drawn it for her. There was the bus station she was currently at, and there were the red lines all leading to the castle. But there was one detail on the map that hadn’t been there before: a tiny, purple dot. It was sitting right on top of the bus station. Camilla stared at it until she noticed that it wasn’t stagnant like the other markings on the map. The purple dot was flickering.
A bug?, she thought.
She aimed her finger for the dot in an attempt to swat or scratch it away. The minute she touched it however, the dot disintegrated along with the rest of the map’s image. In place of it, appeared an image of a bench next to a lamp post. Camilla gasped. Had she broken it? No map meant no castle, which meant no way home.
She began to panic, until she looked up. Right in front of her, next to the train station, were a bench and lamp post. Camilla double checked the map, and sure enough it was the same image right there. She held it up in front of her. It may have been the same image, but she could see the image on the map was starting to move to the left. She followed it and turned the map in that direction. It now mirrored the walkway that led out of the bus terminal. Not only that, but on the ground were thick, red lines. These were only on the map, though.
Camilla was astonished. It was like some kind of magical GPS system. She flipped it over, remembering something. The big, sparkly word ‘TRACK!’ had reappeared on the paper. It was in the same spot that Montgomery had drawn it in this morning.
Good looking out! thought Camilla.
She thanked the young leopard man in her mind and flipped the map back over. Anything that would make this easier was appreciated. Not wanting to waste any time, she held the map out in front of her and began to walk, following the lines that had been drawn out for her.
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