Kat was now approaching the town. It was the following day, late in the afternoon, and it was becoming rapidly apparent that it wasn't quite so much a 'town' but a small collection of buildings. For the most part two buildings dominated the view, making it hard to judge what was behind them both. Kat could make out the edges of at least a few more buildings, but that was it. The entire settlement was just a few buildings directly attached to the road and hadn't spread out in the slightest.
In broad strokes, it was clear that the buildings had been made by the same individual, or team of people, that created the roads. The buildings, at a first glance, they were exceptionally simple buildings. The roofing was what gave it away from Kat. Even from a distance she could see that it was made of the same stuff that the road was. The simple smooth brick with a bit of grip to it. The walls had been painted since, but with the knowledge that they were made by the same person as the road you noticed things.
The first was that, the windows were clearly cut later. The details were still a bit hard to see for Kat, but with a bit of energy she was able to make them out. The corners were smooth, as if they had been vigorously sanded down. They weren't so much corners, as they were rounded edges where the wall terminated.
The windows on the other hand, were a hack job, in more ways than one. Kat could, if looking really closely, see the chips in the wall where someone took some form of cutting tool to it to make the windows. Every single window she could view, from this position, which was a full dozen on both large buildings, bore the unmistakable pattern of destruction.
That was the other thing. The windows didn't have any glass. They did have a crossbar, but didn't immediately pick up on what it was for. *There's no glass, so why bother with the bar? It's not like you are holding anything in place. Plus the windows were clearly added later, so the structure can clearly support itself with them added in…
Then again, maybe they needed some extra help to hold the wall up? But a simple crossbar, in a literal cross, doesn't exactly scream structural integrity. I mean, the building is square as well, so maybe they haven't uncovered the wonders of triangles…*
It wasn't until Kat saw a figure pass by the windows that it clicked. They weren't to hold anything IN place. They were to keep things OUT. *That's it! They are to prevent people just using the windows as an easy entrance… though, even Xiang is probably strong enough to break in if he wanted to. Maybe it's just a matter of alarm then? Have to break the crossbar to get it potentially waking other people up.*
The windows however, were where the standard appearance stopped. The rest of the exposed walls had a large mural on them. Present on either side. The building on the right's mural looked worn, perhaps by some non-existent wind, or just fading from the sun over a really long time. Kat didn't know enough about paint to say. The faded mural looked a bit more like a mix of four different paintings then a single mural. There might have once been a through line, perhaps with colours or some small detail now lost to time.
What was there though, didn't really explain much more. The bottom right of the wall was the most destitute. It hardly had anything left of it. There might have been some plains with clouds above them but Kat wasn't sure. They could just as easily be patches of paint that had peeled off revealing the stone underneath, it was about the right colour, but not quite.
The bottom left was a mountain. A very simple one, more a triangle really but someone had gone to the effort of actually giving it some details. They weren't accurate, nor did they make it look anything more like a mountain. But additional details were present. The top section seemed to be painted all at once. It looked like a hellscape. Kat wished she could say she knew that from experience, but, well she was still hoping to avoid it.
The walls almost seemed to bleed red, with smatterings of black paint, and it just didn't gel with the bright paintings below it. The only thing making Kat sure it was the same person, was that it was faded as the other was, and the 'style' if you could call it that looked very similar.
On the opposite side of the road, was a painting sure, but one that was still being worked on. Now, Kat couldn't see anyone working on it right now, but considering there was a sun and mountain in the corner with half a man looking towards it, Kat was willing to take that bet.
This painting, unlike the other building, seemed to be done by a professional, or at least someone with practice. The paint was fresh and the details were such that even with Kat's eyes, she was making more and more out every step she took towards the encampment. The figure of the person was extremely underdeveloped. He was almost cut down the middle, and didn't have any of the detail that the other sections had.
As Kat got closer to the town, she started to hear people walking around. And that was something that really hit her. When she was back on Earth, she was sure her ears were never this good. And even when she was exploring the forest, sure she could hear for a long distance but… it never seemed real.
Now though, she could make out distinct people. She could tell that there was one person in the building with half a man on it. They were on the bottom floor and didn't seem to be moving much. In the building directly across, with the fading mural, had significantly more people. However, once Kat realised that she could hear snippets of private conversation, she started to ignore the sounds. She didn't want to spy on random people.
*I wonder if I'm not being paranoid enough. Just because it's a town doesn't mean we are safe but… I also don't want to be a peeping tom. I didn't hear anything incriminating, but, there are way too many ways that could go wrong if I over hear something less then enjoyable.*
Xiang, at this point, spoke up unprompted, for what was perhaps the first time, in the entire trip. "Simple outpost I think"
"Right and that means?" asked Kat
"Nothin'" said Xiang "We can just grab a room and spend the night here"
*Did you already forget about trying to figure out information about that fire clan? Why are we just getting a room?* Kat pursed her lips. *Plus… for some reason I get the feeling that we'd actually be safer from bugs just in the grass. At least then I can freeze everything without worrying about it. *
As they really entered the 'town' proper, Kat couldn't help but hear shutters slamming. Looking around, Kat found that some of the windows now had wooden slats covering them. *Well, if that doesn't spell trouble I don't what does.* All the now shut windows were from the right side building.
Xiang didn't even react though. Kat wasn't sure if it was because he didn't hear, or if he just decided it wasn't worth mentioning. Kat realised, she didn't really know how good her hearing actually was as a human. She never really measured it for comparison.
As Kat started to walk between the first two buildings, she saw a few smaller buildings but ignored them for now. The front of the buildings were even more colourful than the ones that she saw coming into town. However, they had even less reason to them.
To both her left and right, it looked more like someone had just thrown paint at the wall and hoped for the best. Kat could see where paint had built up and overlapped, and, on closer inspection, once Kat got curious, even saw where it started to drip. The colour was mostly a dusty red, but there was some yellow and green mixed in. Quite frankly, Kat thought it was a complete mess on both sides.
That didn't stop Xiang at all though. He didn't even glance around as he walked to the door and KICKED IT OPEN. Kat's jaw dropped. *I can't believe he did that. Why would he do that? Who does that? What person just kicks open a door? Actually why did that work? I doubt-* Kat shook her head and followed behind Xiang.. She hoped to soften the… impression… he was making. As she stepped inside, Kat started to look around, and it was about what she was expecting…
