The Gilded Plains

1 - Echo - An Open Window

The constant clash of hammers on nails and chisels on stone rang through the streets of the village, screaming and whistling as a lousy attempt to wake up any souls unfortunate enough to be late to the wall. It wasn't quite yet morning, the sun had just begun to peek over the distant snow-topped mountains and hills which watched and surrounded the village folk, keeping them safe from the unknown and unforeseen beasts and animals rumored by the gods. Very few could leave the reinforced barrier, never the hills, and often those who dare to venture that far out, at best return veered from the way of man and covered head to toes in bruises and cuts, clothes all tattered to pieces, only to be missing by the morning. But most never return, not those who go beyond the hill, it's not safe beyond the hill, it's not safe beyond the wall. And no one leaves the wall.

Cobar, a strong-willed man, living alone, is an outer builder of the wall, waking up before most and risking his life to restore the exterior of the wall. Every morning it's the same, inspect the beams, check for scratches and blood, clean and fix any impurities to the majesty's great barrier that keeps them all safe. The builders of the outer wall are a small group sent outside the wall to do repairs and inspections every morning after any nightly attacks. No one knows why the wall is often damaged in the early morning, no one besides the crew of the outer wall.

"There are things out there, beyond the wall, I've seen them for myself. They all starve and moan as they fight for survival, there is no food for them, I see no crops or berries as far as the horizon." Cobar attempts to persuade anyone who will listen, standing on an old metal crate in a patch of park grass, or so he wished, it was too risky to really reveal the truth to these people. But it's too late for that now and always has been. All the village folk have listened to this outer wall nonsense from the miners and the repair crew, but they know better than to listen to them. They were told not to, Cobar wished they weren't.

"All they do out there is drink and talk anyway, those damn drunk bastards." Was a common response. "There was no proof, all pictures and descriptions might as well be fake, you know how far our technology has come, I could make a steel wall look rusty and scratched up to if I wished." Cobar had heard this many times before, but he knows what he sees and so does the others. But to the town, it's nothing more than more tales and myths to keep the young ones inside the wall. It's safer inside the wall, to the average citizens there are storms, to the ones who know the truths, or fall for it, monsters.

Cobar and his work partner Zyla had begun taking pictures and detailed drawings of the creatures beyond the steel barrier, some looked fairly similar to those shown in mementos to the old world. Four-legged beasts with sharp teeth and long tails, ranging from black to white hair which covered its body. Others were seen mostly grey and white with thick dense hair growing mostly on its torso. Occasionally there would be what was in the scribes called a serpent, a creature which bore no arms or legs and could kill as well as all the others. Large rat-like creatures with larger tails were scattered everywhere outside the wall. The only thing setting these beasts apart from the ones in the books and stories is that these grew much larger. the four-legged ones with fangs could be seen slaughtering the cloud-like animals and being almost twice their size. And while Cobar has not yet seen one for himself, it's rumored that there may be creatures resembling those inside the wall, walking upright on their hind legs, these he believed were those who went missing beyond the wall. but the last man to admit when he had seen a two-legged creature outside was sentenced to his death the same day. Just the thought of injury or death alone made Cobar feel uneasy, he never did like the smell of blood.

Cobar was a man of slightly above average height, he grew unusually dark hair for those in the village, his short beard was kept, as were his eyebrows and lashes. Everyone around here always seemed to look pretty, even the ones that could be the worst only had a few flaws to them. It made it easy to find someone pretty to love. The small town was segregated into parts, to the furthest left was the elders, and the mistress, a queen-like figure who guarded and bossed around to keep things in order. It was her who issued the building of the wall several generations ago. She grew old now and would before her final days gift the town and all of its people to her daughter. The middle third of the community was for everyone else to live within, Cobar lived on the edge towards the elders third as he was getting up there in his years, soon he would move there, soon he would be free. The final third of the village was for schooling and industry, there are only two schools in the last third, one for children until they come of age, one for adults to learn their purpose and become assigned a job. Beside the school buildings are the factories and farms of the community, here fruit trees could grow and be harvested in days, and metal and wood were always in stock, here was the science of it all.