Penny looked at the city far below, almost wishing she were there.

The air at the top of the mountain was crisp and clean, the neverending wind promising snow before the week was out. The city, on the other hand, radiated warmth. It sent rolling clouds of smoke into the countryside, choking and killing all but the biggest of rainstorms. 

She sighed, turning away. She told herself she was lucky to not be stuck down there, to not be enslaved to the machines and factories. She reminded herself that the smoke was a slow poison, a poison that had killed her family. Being up here was good. 

But flippin’ heck it was cold. 

She shoved her hands further into the pockets of her coat, scanning the ground for signs of the spider. It had to be around here somewhere. 

Survey spiders, cat-sized machines designed to search the world for metal deposits, were sent out in droves by factory owners. They skittered off on their eight iron legs, drawn by some very scientific means to all the veins of metal in the mountains. 

Of course, being cat-sized machines, only about half of them ever returned. The rest of them had to be found. At first the factory owners had simply built bigger spiders to send out to find the little ones, and then still bigger ones to find the medium ones that had inevitably gotten lost. Eventually someone had come up with the bright idea to send humans out to find the stupid things. This had its drawbacks, but all the humans had returned. It was cheaper than building horse-sized spiders to find the pig-sized spiders which had been sent out to find the dog-sized ones, which had been sent out to find the original cat-sized ones. 

Penny smiled to herself as she found a triangular indent in the ground. She was getting close. 

A gust of wind blew around her, chilling her to the bone. This was the highest she’d ever climbed, and even though summer was about to start she would have sworn that the temperature was close to freezing. Technically she wasn’t supposed to go this far up, but she was a seeker. Seekers wandered wherever they pleased, as long as they were back at the city gates at the end of the week. 

She looked at the jagged ridge that made up the very top of the mountain. It would probably only take her half an hour to get there, if she went straight up. 

Penny couldn’t think of a single reason why she shouldn’t. After all, she might be able to see some spiders from up there. Mostly she wanted to go just to say she had. 

She checked her pocket watch first, though. She had a good two hours until dark, and four days until she had to be back at the city gates. She’d already picked up three lost spiders, so no one could complain about her taking a detour for her own enjoyment. 

It took well over an hour. The air got thinner with each step, forcing her to rest more than she’d anticipated. The ground went from packed earth to rock to frozen rock. The last time she stopped to rest snowflakes had blown around her, drifting through a cloudless dark blue sky. 

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Incidentally, she spotted the spider. She made a mental note of where it sat, one leg stuck in a crevice, so she could get it on her way back down. 

Finally she put her hand on the top of the ridge and pulled her body up, looking over it to the other side of the mountain. 

She stared. 

A sea of green stretched out to the horizon. A dense jungle covered the land, starting three quarters of the way up the mountain and going on… forever.

She put her feet on the ridge, standing on the very top of the mountain. The only thing higher than her was the sky. Even clouds passed by at a lower altitude. 

She turned around, looking back towards the city. The land that stretched out was shades of tan and grey; dead earth and desert where things had to fight to survive. It was land that had been stripped of nearly all resources. It was… sad. 

She’d been taught as a child that there wasn’t anything of interest on the other side of the mountains. Teachers had been vague and often contradictory on the topic. Some maps showed an ocean, others a desert. One claimed it was a frozen wasteland. 

None of the maps had shown a jungle, broken by wide rivers, dotted with what could only be villages. The wind that came up from that side of the mountain smelled alive. It smelled like rain and old leaves. It felt humid, and carried the songs of birds. 

Penny sat down on the ridge, drinking in all the color. She’d grown up learning how to appreciate small splashes of color hidden in odd places where hardy plants could survive. She’d always loved the dandelions that had sprouted between the cracks in pavement. 

She’d never imagined that this much green could exist. Looking down, she could see red flowers and yellow birds. A thick stalk seemed to sprout from nowhere, carrying no leaves but holding a bright purple flower at its end. 

Almost without conscious thought she pulled the pack off her back and brought out her evening rations. She bit into the dry bread and cheese, wondering if the pink fruit growing on a vine-like cactus was edible. If it were, it’d be worth the hike down and back up. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a fresh fruit. 

The sun was setting, sending long shadows onto the desert behind her. The canopy in front of her glowed. It reminded her of copper just before reaching melting point.

She shook her head, disagreeing with herself. This was nothing like copper. It was completely different from anything she’d ever known. She had nothing to compare it to. 

Penny finished her pathetic meal, turning her head to stare up at the now visible stars. They looked close enough to touch. Smiling, she reached her hand up. 

A shout came from below her. 

She looked down, dropping her hand. At the edge of the trees stood a boy, oddly dressed, carrying a torch. He waved, smiling as he shouted at her. The words became garbled with distance, but the emotion was cheerful and curious. He motioned for her to come down, to join him. 

Penny looked back at the city. It radiated a dark red light, the only color visible in the desert at night. It had always seemed ominous to her when she saw it from a distance; an angry living machine, ready to destroy anything that came within reach. 

She picked up her pack and slid off the ridge, making her way to the boy. She was sure the jungle was full of dangers. She didn’t know what she was going to find if she followed the boy into the trees.

But she was a seeker. Seekers wandered wherever they pleased, searching for spiders. Surely some spiders had made their way into the jungle, so it was her job to find them. 

Penny stopped on her way down to pick the pink fruit. It looked so odd, so different, so beautiful. 

She smiled, secretly knowing that she would never see the city again. 

She couldn’t wait for whatever was going to happen next.