Finally, she nevertheless remembered her mission and hurried to the Ring, overwhelmed by guilt.
Her confusion revived in full force as she approached the heart of the City. On the other side of the river bend, buildings with trees growing on them rose high up to the sky. Even from this distance, she could see that the trees were growing directly from the windows of high-rise buildings. She started, as if she saw something obscene. Despite the fact that the time was already approaching noon, the center of the City was immersed in a chrome-green twilight under its leaf cover.
To cross the Ring, she had to choose from three bridges. The bridges were tightly covered by Hawks and Dogs; in addition, barracks were built on both ends of each of them, where the shock detachments of the Bulls were located.
Kapucina reluctantly headed for the nearest bridge, with one eye squinting at the lush foliage of the City to her left. At the checkpoint, she was interrogated by one of the Dogs, demanding that she give her name and place of residence. He jabbed her with a short-fingered hand:
- Where are you going?
- See my grandmother. She lives on Sonnenfelsgass.
“What do you carry with you?”
“Just a little food and drink.”
- Show me. Take everything out of your basket.
Marin was cunning - when Capuchin laid the contents of the basket on the table, the Dog first noticed a bottle of old wine taken from the cellar in an abandoned house. He did not bother with a detailed study of a large fragrant loaf, which contained a piece of explosive and masked its smell. The courageous messenger was inwardly trembling, for before her stood the Dog, whose flaming nostrils represented a modified olfactory system capable of distinguishing the most delicate smells.
“This is illegal smuggling, girl,” Dog said sternly, deliberately frowning and pointing to the bottle. “You can't carry it inside.”
“Oh, please, sir, do not punish me!” - the voice of Capuchin shook pitifully; Marin trained her for half an hour to get the right tone. - I did not know that this should not be done! I found her in one basement and just thought that my grandmother would like it.
“Well, it's not your fault,” said the Dog, allowing himself to be propounded. “You are too small to know all the ramifications of the law.” Do not be afraid, I will not punish you. But I will confiscate contraband, ”he added, lowering the bottle into his personal chest,“ and I will let you go, but I warn you: never do this again! ” You understood?
- Oh yes, sir! Thank you for being so kind!
- Nothing, nothing. Come on in; to guide your grandmother.
Kapucina again packed a loaf, a box of butter and rolls in her basket, and set off further across the bridge. Her heart was pounding in her chest so hard that she was sure that one of the Foxes would certainly hear his beat with the help of her sound amplifiers built into the base of the funnel-shaped ears. However, no one else bothered to stop the girl. Before she could come to her senses, she crossed the bridge and ended up inside the Ring.
In the Ring: Heroic Journey
It was like crossing an enchanted border. The world changed so suddenly that the girl could hardly believe that her eyes did not deceive her - as in old fairy tales about virtual games ...
Inside the Ring of movement there was less than Capuchin had expected. It was difficult to say how many people were nearby, because visibility was very limited by vegetation - someone could walk ten steps behind, and she would not even notice it. But the fearless girl went further and further along the city streets, as if under the influence of some disgusting spell had turned into gloomy paths in a dark forest, until the Ring and the light of day were completely hidden from its moats.
Capuchin did not stop tripping over the roots that carpeted the narrow streets. Twigs and trunks protruded from the windows of the buildings, meeting and intertwining at the top. The open sky was nowhere to be seen: when she raised her head, her eyes met only hundreds of different shades of poisonous green. The sun tried in vain to break through the deciduous canopy; the streets and alleys were completely covered with shadows.
Water flowed from the eaves of the tallest buildings, silver cascading around passing by and feeding brooks, fanciful twists breaking through the grass over a layer of chernozem.
The smells were the worst: the thick stench of the overwhelming foliage, the pungent aroma of mosses and flowers, and behind all this - the disgusting evaporation of the soil, so dense that Kapucina almost felt them penetrating her nails, deposited on the skin under her clothes. If you want to imagine it as it should, my friends, imagine that you were forced to wear a dress soaked in your own excrement.
Overwhelmed by these sensations, Capuchin stopped and trembled with disgust.
Completely unconsciously, she went to the wall of the nearest building and found a place where the ubiquitous vines were already beginning to die. The dried dark-red stalks continued to cling to the stone - a tiny antennae sticking out in rows of three in a row, each ending in a tiny circle molded to a brick. Kapucina began to tear off these antennae, freeing the dead stem adhered to the wall, until at last she completely tore it off. Then she laid her hand on a red-orange brick, now cleansed of a plant infection. The feeling of a rough porous surface under the fingers brought her to her senses, and she stopped panicking.
The girl sat up abruptly and stepped back a step from the wall. No one should see that it harms vegetation! Otherwise, she will immediately fall under suspicion - unless they arrest her on the spot. Marin would be terribly angry with her. She really did not want to leave the wall and her lovely bricks, but she was called upon by duty. She had no choice.
She recalled Marin's instructions again. She had to go down this street to the intersection with Sonnenfelsgasse, and then turn left ...
Capuchin set off again, clutching the plastic handle of the basket tightly. Of course, she could not even imagine that out of the shadows between the trees the Wolf was watching her.
Capuchin walked and walked, and finally reached the intersection. But this was not the intersection, because it was not written anywhere that it was Sonnenfelsgasse. The girl had already completely decided to continue on down the same street, when she suddenly stopped, terrified. On the other side of the crossroads was a gorilla! It was a real animal - the smell of her skin reminded the girl of a stray dog, which she somehow very carefully stroked on the street.
The huge, black-haired figure rested on the knuckles of the hands, examining the surroundings with sharp turns of the head. Capuchin stood as if attached to a place. Here the gorilla started moving, approached her ... The girl looked around, looking for help, but did not see anyone.
A giant monkey walked less than two meters from her. She gave the girl an indifferent look in her wet brown eyes and snorted a warning, but otherwise showed no interest in her. When the animal passed her, Capuchin pulled out a small handkerchief from her basket to wipe her forehead.
It was one of the old prisoners of the dungeon - Tiergarten [77]. When the Gardeners came to power, they were all released, letting them walk around the city wherever they wanted. She remembered the tapes that she had watched as a child: gorillas were always kind and modest animals, and did not constitute a danger if they themselves were not threatened.
She made her legs move again. Now, having gone deep inside the Ring, she began to meet groups of people: Ants, diligently tearing down the wall to make room for the oak to grow, Pigs tearing the ground and fertilizing it with human droppings, Hedgehogs removing parasitic vines from young plants so that the trees could breathe. The smell of manure was so suffocating that the girl could hardly restrain nausea; however, she did not turn back.
A long-legged Postal Pigeon ran past, moving his legs with inhuman speed. Capuchin's gaze followed him with envy - at least he knew well where he was going.
The girl approached the next intersection, but again could not find any sign indicating that it was Sonnenfelsgasse. This made her even more worried. Marin said to her
: “You will reach the intersection, then you will need to turn left along the Sonnenfelsgass ...” If for this she had to go through two other intersections first, why didn't Marin mention this? Or maybe Capuchin just forgot; perhaps her head was so clogged with other instructions that they supplanted everything else?
She hesitantly looked around. Wouldn't she turn back to where she came from? Or maybe just ask a passerby ...
And at that moment the Wolf came out of his hiding place.
Sonnenfelsgasse 263: unexpected betrayal
She was a tall woman with a strange manner of holding her head a little to one side - as if she was tight in one ear. A woman wore her black uniform so merrily, even carefreely, that one would have thought that she was simply good-naturedly putting up with the need to comply with her dress style, even if it was somewhat meaningless. As far as the girl could judge from that part of her face that was not hidden by large mirror glasses, it was quite pleasant.
But watching her approach, Capuchin felt instant horror. And now it was a real horror - for the girl knew what danger this woman was. The wolf smiled at her from afar and spoke in a melodious voice:
- Hello, girl! It seems you got lost?
What brilliant, well-groomed teeth she had! Undoubtedly, a completely vegetarian diet compensated for her lack of necessary equipment for oral care.
Capuchin with an effort expelled from the head all extraneous thoughts. She looked shyly under her feet, then looked up at the woman with a pre-rehearsed movement, expressing modest innocence, and answered:
“Uh ... yes, ma'am, it is.” At least that's how it seems to me. I am looking for Sonnenfelsgasse. Maybe I already passed it?
“Where do you need it at Sonnenfelsgass?” She asked.
Could she really be such an evil creature, as Maryn said? Kapucina felt so hopelessly lost that she gave her a real address, although she did not depart from her legend.
“Number two hundred sixty three.” I'm going to visit my grandmother Kunigunda. I have never been to her and therefore I do not know if I am going right.
“Hmmm ... Are you sure you need exactly two hundred sixty-three?”
- Yes, ma'am.
“You entered Aspernbruck, right?” In this case, you have already passed the necessary intersection. You had to turn left immediately behind the big fire tree.
- Oh, thank you! - exclaimed Capuchin and turned to go.
“No, no, girl, don't leave,” said the Wolf, in a gentle voice. “You don't have to go all this way again.” You see, Sonnenfelsgasse makes a detour here, and two hundred and sixty-three is actually not far from here. I will say what you need to do: go a little further in the same direction where you have been going until now, until you see a large fountain. Immediately to the left of it will be a side street leading more or less back to the north. If you go along it, you will leave at Sonnenfelsgass, not far from number two hundred thirty. Then you turn left and get there much faster. You understood?
In a hurry to set off on the road, Kapucina stood anxiously shifting from one foot to another.
“Yes,” answered the girl, lulled by the soft and gentle treatment of the She-Wolf; even for a second she did not doubt the veracity of this woman. - Thank you very much!
“Not at all, girl!” We live to serve.
As Capuchin went deeper into the Ring, the dusk thickened around her more and more, but the girl's soul felt much better. Making her way through the thicket, she finally reached the fountain, caught a glimpse of the moss-covered sculpture and turned onto a side street that led to Sonnenfelsgass. Only now Kapucina noticed for the first time that trills of songbirds were pouring from the trees around. Flowers bloomed everywhere; leaning over to look at them more closely, she found that some of them were actually quite pretty. This forest was, after all, not so nasty! Her heart was beating happily, she walked and dreamed about what her first cigarette would taste like.
Her eyes gradually adjusted to the patterns of the foliage surrounding her. Therefore, reaching the next intersection, she suddenly realized that the small purple flowers that grew on a winding vine near the corner actually formed the name of the street: Sonnenfelsgass! These names surrounded her all this time - she was just looking for printed signs!
“How stupid I am!” The girl thought. Marin forgot to explain the Gardeners trick to her, but she herself had to figure it out right away.
Now that she knew what she was looking for, she quickly found house numbers among the thickets of ivy that twisted the facades at Sonnenfelsgass. The numbers were grown with yellow flowers, and she walked, counting them, until she found the house number two hundred sixty-three.
On the side of the door, curtained by a canopy of hanging vines, the girl saw a metal box, which she recognized with joyful trepidation: it was an intercom. So, the Gardeners have not yet expelled from the City all the signs of civilization!
She approached the door, looked around guiltily and mumbled into the box:
- Grandma, it's me. I brought you a cake and wine. Open the door.
“Pull the rope, the door will open,” a rough tin voice answered from the box. - I'm too weak, I can't get up.
These words did not make any sense, but they were an agreed-upon password, and Kapucina waited in confidence, while she was opened the door. The lock clicked, and a voice croaked in pursuit:
- Climb right up the stairs to the first platform, and there we will meet.
The stairwell was damp and smoky; in the darkness, branches torn from fire trees slowly smoldered. Capuchin quickly ran up the creaky wooden steps. All her fears disappeared; she was still too small to know that she was not afraid of anything - it means blindly poking at the walls that life puts before you.
Having reached the first platform, little Kapucina pushed open the half-open door and found behind it an empty room, where there was a musty smell of non-residential premises. The window opening was blocked by a chopped tree trunk; a small amount of light seeping because of it was only enough to further emphasize the desolation that reigned in the room. On an upturned packing case sat a woman wrapped in a long cloak. When Kapucina entered, the woman turned her head to her.
The girl froze in the doorway, amazed by the uneasiness that surged across her - now that she had finally reached her goal. For a moment she stood, chained to the place by the gaze of the woman's unnaturally large eyes, because of a flat cornea similar to owls.
“Oh, grandmother, what big eyes you have!” Whispered Kapucina.
“To see you better, my dear,” the woman answered affably.
Somewhat encouraged by the tone of the Lumberjack and the sight of the ax, which, as she now noticed, stood in the corner of the room, Kapucina timidly approached. But when the woman nodded approvingly to her, a strand of her hair fell to the side, and the girl stopped, stunned by what she caught a glimpse of.
“Oh, grandmother,” she said incredulously, “what big ears you have ...”
“It's to hear you better, my child,” the woman said. She didn't smile anymore.
And then Kapucina saw a weapon lying on a box next to a seated woman. She abruptly backed away and backed up until she hit her lower leg with a large chest filled with earth at the window from which the tree grew.
“Oh, what a big gun you have,” she said in a voice bursting with despair.
The girl grabbed hold of the handle of the basket, but it was already too late. It was too late already when she entered this room. False Lumberjack rose to her feet and threw back her cloak, revealing the black uniform hidden underneath.
“And this is to better arrest you,” the Wolf said coldly.
The injustice of what was happening overwhelmed Capuchin, and she exploded.
“But I did everything right!” She cried out.
“However, sometimes this is not enough,” said the Wolf, pointing a gun at the trembling girl. - In a conversation with my colleague, you mentioned Sonnenfelsgasse, 263. By chance, no later than yesterday we uprooted this particular
nest of woodcutters. My colleague sent Swallow in another way to warn me - she got here even faster than Postal Dove. By this time, we already knew the passwords ... That's how it happened.
The wolf led the barrel towards the door.
“Now come with me.”
Capuchin shook her head. The instructions given by the sister did not include such a turn of events. She no longer knew what to do.
“Where do you want to lead me?” She asked; she did not need to imitate a trembling voice.
- To Tiergarten.
The Place Where Page 54