Students filed out of classroom buildings arranged under the tall sweetwood tree. Little dark ants down on the green lawn. Some hung around, gathering in small groups or heading off to read in a nearby grove. Others boarded hoverbikes and shuttles bound into the city or off to an afternoon class in some other part of the Sanctuary.
This place has such a different feel to its school atmosphere, Ayleah thought as she sat watching the scene. With her morning off, she was relaxing at her favorite spot on the sunset deck. The sun didn't reach this side of the city until after lunch, so it stayed pleasantly cool later into the day. From here there was an excellent view of the entire lower boulevard, the long-distance landing pad, and the outdoor classroom pod with its pretty groves. In the distance, out to the west, vast green fields stretched as far as she could see, rising to a higher horizon capped with forest. The tall grasses of the field waved hypnotically against the wind, and bushes bloomed like mysterious islands on the valley floor. The Sanctuary sat in a great shallow bowl of land, its sweeping fields dotted with small groves of verdancy and crossed by lanes cut into the grass. It was so different from where she had come on the shores of the lake, and it took some getting used to not having so many trees nearby. Ayleah's favorite places were on the decks that extended out from the city. Here she could feel like she was on the edge of a cliff, with something solid behind and above her. The city walls were not at all like a tree or a rock, but there was a comfort to their presence nevertheless. From the inspiring vantage points on the decks, she enjoyed watching the people of the Sanctuary going about their business. All around the city the workmen, scholars, monks, and other interesting folk went about their days in a communal coexistence. It was a wonderful place, full of life and honest promise.
At Telon's request, Ayleah had now spent a couple of weeks getting to know the land of the Sanctuary, and trying to understand its energy. She had hardly seen him since though, and it was frustrating not having someone with whom to discuss her insights. The land here was so different from what she had known her whole life, and was consequently giving her difficulty. For one thing there were no rocks here. What few she had seen had all come from somewhere else, trucked in from glens in the mountains. Instead the land of this place was a foundation of deep, fine-grained clay. It clumped, and stuck when unearthed. It was like always being on a very firm wet sponge that slowly sucked everything under- the energy below was hard to sense. Water, wind, and sun were plentiful everywhere one went in the Sanctuary though, and even the non-scholarly folk of the city seemed to enjoy their life in this place.
For Ayleah, it was still difficult to get used to the openness as well. She had lived her whole life up to this point under the shelter of trees, only knowing the open sky on those occasions she had been on boats off the shore. Here the trees rarely grew close enough together to create any sort of canopy. They were few, and placed far apart, each on its own. Many of the groves had gathering spots, or buildings clustered near their trunks, and it was clear that even people out here preferred to be under the trees. Perhaps, she thought, it was also due to their landmark status. Out beyond the city lawn the fields are an impenetrable jungle, with grass growing over two hundred feet high, and so thick that it becomes an impossible tangle to walk through. The calm grassy roads that snake out into the Sanctuary provide access in an otherwise bewildering landscape. High above it all rises the city, a prominent bubble of a structure dominating the surrounding fields, the trees and groves nestling it in the picturesque valley.
Within the city it was a closed-in bustle that Ayleah visited only out of necessity. She much preferred being outside in the open air, even if the expanse of blue was a little unnerving. When she did look up at the sky, she would marvel at the sight of huge, fluffy clouds; their billowing flanks uninterrupted by branches and leaves.
