Exploring the street took hours and the sun had moved too high in the sky and began to trek lower. Rhea yawned as she stopped at a large ornate sign that stood at the beginning of the path that led to the theater. She could see if even from where she was, even though it wasn’t overly large. She wasn't sure which theater it was, but she could see that it was built into a hill, the seats rising up the side, extending out to the sides enough that she could see them beyond what she thought was the stage. She gave another yawn, tired, but determined to explore as much as she could while she was here. She took another swig of her water and glad she’d found a bathroom earlier in what could have only been a library.
When she reached the theater, the path split and wrapped around the building allowing its visitors easy access to the many doors and stairways that lead into the building. “I should probably head upstairs,” she mused aloud. It would likely be easier for her to see everything from up on the stands.
She started to climb the stair carefully, trying not to trip on any flora that threatened to take over the area. It was as lush and overgrown as most of the rest of the world. The climb wasn’t too bad, still Rhea sighed when she reached the first landing. There was another landing higher up, but now inside the theater she realized she could reach any seat from any entrance. It was all stadium seating built into the hill. She sat down looking down to the stage, whose backdrop was the wall that she could see even from the path. There were pillars of pink stone and statues of people she didn't recognize. Surprisingly there wasn't a statue of Rhea, which she had seen many of all over the city.
Entertainment was obviously a big part of the culture. The library even had a section solely dedicated to comedy, marked with a mask and the same for tragedy on the other side, though the comedy section was notedly bigger.
Rhea sat looking at the stage that she notices now, which had three levels. She wondered what each was used for. Was it the size of the play or to depict different scenes? Being here helped her realize though, why it was that she was probably Sailor Rhea. If she’d managed to come here as a child she would have spent hours on these stages performing. It would have certainly helped the trauma of all this.
She looked down feeling a drop of water on her hand, only to realize she was crying. Her vision was blurry beyond her tears, she felt like a fake … that girl slipped away. She didn’t have that happy exuberance and hadn’t for a while. Not like the Rhea in her vision, the journey had been too much of a roller coaster for her. She scrubbed at her eyes, “no use crying,” she mumbled. She might have missed out on this … this peace as a child, but she was here now and she was going to make the most of it.
She stood and started back down the stairs headed for the stage, walking and then running, bounding down and jumping onto the stage. She grinned feeling somewhat freed, she didn't know if that was the word, but she needed this moment.
She turned looking out over the seat and gasped, so shocked she tripped and fell, looking up at the hill above the theater. Everything was dead. It stretched across enough to be clearly visible even from where she was standing and ended rather abruptly. Rhea looked around, now a little frightened, her heart thundering. She hadn’t seen anything like that anywhere else, but maybe it was just a conscience. She took a deep breath and resolved to check it out, phone in hand, in case she needed to make a quick escape.
She kept a steady pace as she climbed the stairs, noticing a burnt smell and she felt her nerves calm a little. It had likely just been a fire, even if it was a very strange fire … so perfect in how it ended. She reached the top of the theater, exiting onto the landing and looking for a way up onto the hill. It took several to find a spot to climb up and doing so left her colorful fuku very dirty. She was glad before her partially gloved hand, which kept her hands from being completely covered in dirt. She tried to brush some of the dirt off before she continued moving into the charred area. The plants crumbled around her when she brushed against them with her skirt or attempted to touch them with her hands.
She crouched now, sitting on her knees and becoming covered in the dusty crumbling of the plants around her. She looked up to the sky, and felt that this wasn't normal. She had seen the way lightning left places when it struck and it wasn’t like this, even when a fire had broken out. Was it? No, she was pretty sure. There was a tree on campus that had been struck by lightning once and it was still alive.
She poured the rest of her water out of her container watching the ash become a mushy liquid, as the water sunk into the ground. She tried to dry it out as best as she could and tried to grab hold of some of the plants, watching them crumble in her hands. She took the dust, as much as she could gather and put it into her water bottle to show her cousin. Maybe she knew somebody that could explain how fire could do this.
She stood pulling out her phone, opening the camera and snapping a few pictures to send to her cousin and to Hugbell.
Hey, its Rhea
Have you ever seen this before? I think a fire may have broken out on my planet, but it's really weird. Let me know??
She put her phone away after that, standing and trying to brush away the soot she was covered in and headed back down to the theater, climbing back down from the hill before attempting to go home. She pulled out her phone and concentrated on going back to earth.
She was immediately shocked to see the sun rising, ducking behind a tree to avoid being seen by a jogger. She ducked behind a bush and looked around quickly and again slowly before becoming her normal self. How had she been gone all night? Adult or not, her momma was going to kill her. She quickly phone her cousin, hoping for the alibi that she felt asleep watching movies at her place.
Word count: 1147
In the Name of the Moon!
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