The last trees. The forest was coming to an end. The leaves cleared the view. Ahead came meadows as far as the eye could see. It was like a sea of lush green. It was divided by wide rivers and narrow paths and by the route that the convoy took. A wall could be seen far in the distance. Meia couldn't tell how long it was. It was endless. Meia recognized a curve, but from this distance, that didn't say much about the inside diameter. The wall was certainly one of the city walls of Aoka.

This part of the wall was probably the south side of the wall. Meia suspected this because the path had made a long curve in the forest and afterwards the sun had been on the right side of the sky. That meant at that point they were heading north. By now, the sun was pretty much at its peak. In such a case, Meia would normally estimate the cardinal direction by the wind, but today the wind was too weak. To be honest, it would only be a guess anyway. Meia couldn't judge the cardinal direction at the moment, but it was nevertheless likely to be the south side of the wall. Meia had the feeling that the path had been rather straight overall since the long curve in the forest.

From the forest, the terrain was sloping and then less and less as time went on. Falko took the mug of his thermos flask in his hand to be on the safe side so that it wouldn't slip off the bench. Violet was no longer here. She was probably back at the carriage. So Meia was alone with Falko. It wasn't as if they talked much with each other, but at least a little.

Gradually, the convoy came closer and closer to the wall. Gray stones lay on top of each other in messy layers. Not all the stones were exactly the same size. Small plants grew in the grooves. Every now and then a piece was missing at the top. The wall must have been very old and probably not that important. There was only a simple lattice gate. It couldn't be pulled up, but only opened in one direction. There was no other choice, as the wall was wide but very low. You could get over it with a roofer's ladder if you wanted to.

Eventually, the convoy reached the wall. At one of the holes, Meia realized that there was a walkway with a breastwork on the wall. A breastwork was the name for the parapet of a fortification. You could take cover behind the breastwork and shoot at attackers in front of the wall. But the wall had no other defenses. There were no battlements. There were no towers. It was simply a wall with a gate. It was a better fence. There were no guards either. The gate was open. The convoy could drive through it unhindered.

Behind the wall, the surroundings looked almost exactly the same as before. Meadows far and wide. But not everything was just green anymore. There were also some fields between the meadows, which were slowly taking a golden color as the second third of summer approached. Unfortunately, Meia had no idea about plants. There was no oat and nothing else that she could identify with certainty. In one field, she assumed it was barley. Falko said it was rye for one of the other fields, which was right next to the path. The rest was probably some type of grain too.

To the left in the distance was a river that disappeared behind a wall. This was the second city wall of Aoka. This city wall was more worthy of this term.

The wall had merlons along its entire length. Merlons were places where the breastwork was higher. There was a merlon, then a gap, then a merlon and so on. Behind a merlon, the breastwork was so high that you could stand without being shot at from below. This meant you didn't have to duck, you just had to take a step to the side to protect yourself. The breastwork of this wall was offset to the front and had holes at the bottom. This meant that you didn't have to lean over the wall to shoot at attackers directly at the wall, but could simply use the holes. It was much easier to defend than a wall with just a walkway and breastwork.

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The path made gentle curves through the landscape and eventually led to a large gate in the city wall. This gate was a lattice gate that could be pulled up. It was open. Only the lower part of the gate protruded with spikes into the passageway. Above the passage was a gatehouse as part of the wall. In earlier times, the city guards' quarters were located there. Sometimes it was still like this today, but not so often. This gatehouse had windows with wooden frames. It was therefore reasonable to assume that the rooms here were used by the city guard.

A little further from the gatehouse, there was a watchtower in the wall on each side of the wall. The diameter of the towers was greater than the thickness of the wall and the upper floors were even wider and again with holes at the bottom. This meant that you could see everything from the tower. Attackers were directly in front of the wall or directly in front of the tower. They were within reach. Attackers had taken over a part of the wall. They were within reach and if they wanted the other part too, they first had to take the tower from that part. The towers divided the wall into sections. In the past, such watchtowers were sometimes even still fought over when the city had already fallen.

Two city guards stood in the passageway next to a free-standing ashtray. They were sparsely equipped and seemed to be immersed in a conversation. At first they paid no attention to the convoy. Behind them was a wagon with a horse. The wagon was not covered. There were two benches on the loading area. There was nothing else in the passageway.

"Here we are." said Falko, looking towards the gate.

The wagon reached the gate after the last stretch. In the passageway, Falko pulled on the reins and stopped the horse.

"That's it, Meiandra. Violet's contract only goes as far as here. That means you'll have to ride with someone else the rest of the way."

"No problem. Thanks for the lift." Meia stood up. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Falko. I wish you a safe journey home."

"It was nice to meet you too." Falko said with a smile.

"Goodbye."

Meia bowed, then went through the covering into the cargo area to grab her cloak.

With cloak and bottle in her hands, Meia hopped off the back of the wagon. Her boots landed thudding on stone with thick soles. Up to this point, the path had been flat earth, but here it was cobbled and continued like this as it looked. From here on it was a decent road. Meia put down her bottle and pulled on her cloak. The bottom of the bottle made a crunching sound when she put it down. Meia could hear even such inconspicuous noises very well. Everything in the passageway was bare stone. Every sound had a faint echo. The wetness from the rain was still clearly in the air through the stone. There were studded wooden doors in the walls on both sides. There was nothing else here. It looked abandoned.

Falko drove off. He certainly wanted to turn in front of the city wall. The passage was wide enough for him to pass the other wagon afterwards.

Meia had forced herself to say goodbye to him in such an undistanced way. Normally she would never have used his first name, but he had used hers, so she had felt compelled to use his. Normally you kept your distance out of respect, but when you were offered closeness and you kept your distance anyway, it was like telling the other person that you had to consider their position. It was as if someone slipped up to you and you slipped away. In this case, it would be arrogant.

Someone with a higher rank might address you by your first name, but that was not an offer of affection, but also an indication of status. You had to recognize the difference for yourself. Falko had spoken with remorse. A superior would not have done so. Perhaps this explanation was unnecessary. As a human being, you certainly knew all that.

With the bow at the end, Meia had built up distance after all. It hadn't been intentional. If you had to bow all day for every little thing, then at some point you couldn't stop doing it, even if you wanted to. Meia had even done it once for the change at the checkout. If you had a strong sense of self-confidence, like Cora, then it could certainly be avoided, but if you put everyone above you anyway, then it was difficult. Meia would have to actively watch out not to do it.

.../ End Part