With fear and excitement speeding him along, Jasper raced back through the middle of The Pinnacle and kept on running, not even thinking about looking back or even where he was running to, as long as it was away from all those people.
The people of Pinnacle stood stunned, some thinking this was part of the presentation. Nin, however, gaped. The only one who wasn’t shocked was Chrisholm, who chuckled as he watched Jasper turn into a very small, distant shape.
“Jasper!” Nin cried. But Jasper was already far out of earshot, and Nin knew she lacked the connection to be able to communicate mentally with the boy. She turned to the Prophets around her. “Find him! Folde, ease the crowd.”
“What?” the man in the golden robe asked, and hesitated, as did the other Prophets.
Nin pointed to Jasper and shouted, “Now!”
Jasper bounded up the shallow incline of the city streets and raced toward the edge. The experience was too much for his secluded mind. For all his want to see the stars, he never thought they’d be so terrifyingly different. To be pressed into such an intense situation made Jasper want nothing but home, and he hated himself for being so recklessly curious. He raced towards the edge of the city, hoping to run as far away as he could from those who had taken him away.
He skidded to a stop as he reached another high, gated wall that separated the middle of the city from the rest of it. Looking back, Jasper saw a huge party of men and women frantically running toward him. With an embarrassing squeak, he saw a woman flash into being on a rooftop. She strained her eyes to search for him, then disappeared in another burst of light.
Not thinking, Jasper jumped onto the wall and climbed. Siege walls such as these were designed to keep people out. But in the times long ago when they were built, the people of Pinnacle never thought to make them impossible to climb out.
Jasper reached the top and, with his experience from climbing trees, jumped and hit the ground running. He was just in time, too, because a few Prophets in gleaming white appeared on the walls behind him, still not spotting the off-world boy.
Jasper went around the corner of a large, yellow house and stood there panting. He glanced around the corner and saw a gate a little way down the street. Out of it poured men and women, Prophets. Jasper made a desperate little whine and ran on.
He passed through another ‘ring’ of the city and the buildings there changed again. Where the ones he’d seen before were darker and more stone, these were brighter and made of wood. He had only a minute to marvel at the structures when he saw something amazing. It was a massive structure that looked completely made of one block of stone. It sat like a giant, pale rock with a huge window in front. Through this window he saw many statues and artifacts, weapons with little signs in front of them. He edged up to one of these windows and peered in, seeing a giant statue with two men shaking hands, and a woman standing between them. It had a little sign that read Together at last.
Jasper only had a moment to ponder this when he saw a glass door open on the other side of the window. “No, I’ve not seen anyone. I’ll make sure and keep an eye out, though,” a fat man wearing glass over his eyes said as he walked side-by-side with a man in white.
Jasper ran away, fast and light-headed, wondering what the statues were for.
He passed into another section. This was built with a similar material as the large building he’d seen, but had less variety of colors. Jasper quickly turned to see if anyone was behind him. He smiled when he saw none, and suddenly tripped on something strewn across the road. He landed hard on the rough ground and split his lip. He bit on the pain and wiped the blood off his face as he turned to see what had knocked him over.
His foot lay on a long, metal rail. Jasper raised an eyebrow at it, and peered down its length as he saw the thin rail go on and on, rounding the city with an identical rail running parallel to it. It was curiously natural-looking. Before he could think what this low rail might be, he heard a heavy but quiet object coming his way.
It was a huge thing, an animal of some kind, Jasper thought, but with an unfeeling face. Jasper stared at it as it shrieked at him. Suddenly he felt himself pulled away and saw a man with a red cape smiling down at him.
“There you are. We was worried about you, we was,” the man said.
Jasper gawked with fear and, instinctively, as if he were in the grasp of a beast, kicked up and flipped out of the man’s grasp just as the massive silver animal approached.
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“Ah, golla ya little monkey!” the man shouted.
Jasper jumped over the rails right before the monster passed, cutting his pursuer off. He now saw it wasn’t a monster. It was a tube, moving somehow, and filled with people sitting down and looking out glass windows. They stared at him. Jasper, overawed and not knowing what else to do, stood staring and waved back. They pinned their faces against the windows to see him as they went by. Jasper could see that the tube wasn’t long, so he turned and ran as fast as he could.
He sped on and took the first turn he could. Pretty soon he entered the last section of the city, and he gaped in awe at the huge sight before him. Where the structures before had been wide and big, this was tall and big. The building he stood beneath gleamed like a huge piece of glass. It seemed as if someone had made a knife out of glass, hundreds of feet high, and buried it in the ground hilt-down. Jasper nearly fell over as his eyes followed it up to the top.
He took a step back and, coming to his senses, rushed on. He avoided these glass and metal peaks as best he could.
At the edge of the rings of buildings, he saw a mass of people in the fields ahead. They were searching for him. And with no cover in those fields, Jasper knew he’d never make it past the Prophets to the edge of the city. He had to think fast and find a place to hide before they found him where he stood.
A few buildings down, Jasper saw a low archway open and inviting. The structure housing the archway was made out of wooden planks and painted a brownish hue. Jasper bolted to it, and when he went in he closed the massive, metal door that covered the archway. The large room he found himself in smelled sickly sweet, and he realized he was standing on hay. Jasper looked down and wondered why someone’s house would be covered with this, when he turned around.
He shrieked and bounced against the door with a clatter at the sight of a massive animal staring at him. He fumbled for the handle of the door he’d regrettably closed, and fell on top of the hay.
The long-faced creature just eyed him with a passive glance.
Jasper pushed himself away and tried to bury his body in the wooden wall. He felt his heart pounding as he prepared to defend himself, when he heard a voice from the other end of the dimly lit room.
“What is going on in here?” asked a voice, light and small. Jasper could hear the soft crunch of hay as this person approached.
“Help!” Jasper cried out, and raised his hands to shield his face from the strange-looking beast.
“What?”
She came within sight, and Jasper realized it was a girl a little younger than him. The girl had reddish hair, a wonderful color Jasper had never seen before on a person, and a speckled face showing off green eyes. She was wearing a simpler outfit than what Jasper had seen people wear in Pinnacle so far. It was faded brown with a white cover underneath, and resembled a light dress Jasper had seen his sister wear once, beautiful but practical. She giggled when she saw him.
“What is it you are doing down there, foolish boy?” she asked. “I have not seen such fear at the sight of a horse since I was scarcely above my mother’s knee.” The girl came over to Jasper and tried to help him up. She laughed even more when Jasper resisted and remained stiff. “Now what is the matter with you?”
“The, the, big, thing,” Jasper said, and wished he had other things to say to people when he was in a crazed shock.
The girl turned and saw the horse. She giggled merrily. “It is only Firefly,” she said, and went over to pet the horse’s face.
It nudged her with its large, black nose.
“Firefly wouldn’t hurt you,” the girl added.
The reddish-brown animal made a blubbering noise, as if in response, and stamped a hard-bottomed foot. It was then that Jasper realized that not only was this animal not threatening in the slightest, but there was a wooden barrier between it and him. He looked about and realized that the large, high-ceilinged room was filled with similar stalls holding horses of many different colors. None of them seemed anything more than curious with Jasper’s presence.
Jasper felt very silly. He tried to recover a little bit of pride and stood up, wiping the straw off of him. “Yes, well, course he won’t,” Jasper said. He hoped this girl didn’t know who he was, that she’d been working with these horses when he’d given his very brief speech.
“She,” the girl corrected, and stroked Firefly some more. “And that is Leroy. They are the horses of my family.” She pointed out Leroy, a spotted gray horse with a large patch of white hair on his head, in the stall next to Firefly. “These others we take care of for people. How is it you have never seen a horse before?”
“First time in the city,” Jasper said honestly, and hesitantly put his hand out to Firefly.
“She will not bite you,” the girl said with a smile.
Before Jasper touched it, out of instinct, he reached out to it, trying to catch its emotions as he would with a human. Strangely, he felt something. The horse was nervous, and somewhat afraid of him. But it felt comforted by the girl’s presence. This assured Jasper, and he touched the horse’s face, sending feelings of peace and friendship to the animal. It was nearly as responsive as the dogs his family had back home.
“Big dog,” Jasper said, and laughed.
Firefly, relaxed by Jasper’s kind feelings, whinnied in response.
“I think that Firefly likes you,” the girl said with a smile.
“Yes, she does,” Jasper said as he made eye contact with the horse. She wanted to run and was excited to meet someone who could communicate with her like this. After a few seconds, Jasper realized the girl was staring at him. “Sorry, I’m Jasper. You are?”
The girl giggled and put out her hand. “My name is Kay Dillon, Jasper.”
Jasper didn’t know what to do with the outstretched hand before him. He wondered if Kay wanted him to give her something.
“You greet in this way,” Kay said. She took Jasper’s hand and shook it up and down, similar to what Chrisholm had done in the forest. She felt warm and soft, but Jasper could sense very little else from her. The inconsistency of feelings people in Pinnacle were able to give to him distressed him greatly.
“Oh. Kay, can you tell me how to leave?” Jasper asked after he let go of Kay’s hand.