The Hidden City

by Adrian Tanase

  “We will! Philip, are you coming?”

  Philip nodded happily, as he was just finishing his last bite. They approached the dragons and pet them for a while. The dragons were very obedient, and they seemed to like them a lot. Then, they saddled them, buckled them, inserted the feet all the way in the saddle sockets, and waived at Til’shar. Their dragons rose up upwards at about 10-12 feet in the sky. The dragons were fluttering their wings, waiting for them to let them know where to go. Margaret dragged her dragon softly by the neck, pointing an upwards and forward direction. They rose up more and more, coming to see the whole area made up of the forest. The houses in the vicinity of the forest became smaller and smaller, and Til’shar and the forest opening became gradually like a tiny colored dot. They were up, free, in the skies above the City.

  “Where should we go, Margaret?” asked Philip with a loud voice, so she can hear him.

  “Follow me!” she said. She dragged her dragon to the left and started going above the forest, away and away from the City. “I want to see more of what it is around the City because we can fly over the City whenever we want,” she said, with a loud voice. Philip followed her with quick moves.

  “But Til’shar said...” he shouted.

  “Never mind Til’shar. These are perhaps the usual instructions that they give you when you first ride your dragon. What can happen if we venture a bit outside the City? I want to see the wilderness, so I can get a better picture of where we are,” she said loudly.

  They flew like that maybe over 25 minutes, seeing more and more of the tall green trees of the forest. Wherever you looked it was only the green tops of the trees, a big and vast forest, unexplored and virgin. It was close to 3 o’clock and the sun was up in the sky, blessing them with a sunny and blue day. The sensation of flying with a dragon was something they never experienced before, and they loved the fact that they could quickly reach fast speeds, and dive in really quickly in all directions. Margaret’s hair was fluttering in the wind, and she felt that her dragon was feeling instantly all her wishes. At some point, Margaret dragon was gradually losing speed and soon she stopped, started to just beat her wings up in the air, just so she can stay safely at that altitude. Philip’s dragon arrived and did the same. They were up in the sky and they both stopped moving forward.

  “What happened, Maggie? Why won’t they go further?”

  Margaret looked at him and raised her shoulders.

  “I don’t know, Phil. My dragon just wouldn’t go. Yours seems to follow as well.” She tried to force her dragon to go further, by pushing it more, but they would just stay there, in the air.

  “She clearly knows that I want to go forward, I can feel that, but she would not move an inch.”

  Philip didn’t know what to do also.

  “Let’s descend, then. Maybe there’s something down there in the forest, that makes them act like this.”

  “Ok, Maggie, let’s see what’s down there,” Philip said, and they both took their dragons down.They descended about 150 feet down and they landed. Margaret looked at her Mapper, on her arm, and saw a thick blue line on the display, just maybe 10 feet before them.

  “Look, there’s a blue line on mine as well, Maggie,” Philip said. “What would that mean? The end of the outskirts of the City? But we’re deep into the forest now, I think 40 miles deep. The City is far away now.”

  “Well, we have to see for ourselves,” Maggie said.

  She boldly walked a few steps towards the blue line, and at some point, she reached an invisible wall, that pushed her back, with a jolt.

  “Ouch! What was that?” Margaret said, trying to recover from that push.

  “I think we reached some force field. They definitely put a shield here, in the forest,” Philip said. “But why? The forest does not end there and there’s no sign of anything different in particular ahead...”

  “I really don’t know, Philip. The Elders did not mention anything about this. It looks like we are all inside a big bubble that ends … here.”

  Philip was puzzled and as well was Margaret.

  “Maybe we should just go back. Do you want to investigate the area around?” Philip said, looking at Margaret.

  Margaret weighed his words, and after a while she said.

  “We should not, because if the dragons know they can’t go any further, and we’re out in the woods with no one here, maybe 40 miles away from the city as you’ve said, there’s definitely nothing that one can do. Let’s go back and pretend nothing happened,” she said, petting her dragon. “I hope we’re not in any kind of trouble.”

  They buckled the dragons and rode back home. The way back was quick, as they went in a straight line, following their Mappers, and in less than 25 minutes they were back home. They let the two dragons play in the backyard and relaxed for a while in their long chairs.

  “It was quite an experience today, riding these dragons, Maggie. I think I feel these really cute creatures as if they are my long-lost pets on Earth,” said Philip after a while.

  “It was, Phil,” agreed Margaret. “The dragons are lovely creatures, and it’s good to know that we have now the freedom to go wherever we want in the City, in just a matter of minutes. I never thought that in this City we will get to fly as well. This is one of the best experiences I ever had,” she said, resting and relaxing on her chair.

  Philip was rather tired after his first experience of flying around the City. He thought that Margaret took it too far by wanting to explore the outskirts of the city, but he knew that she always had that need of exploring the unknown around her.

  “I think I will soon go inside and have an afternoon nap,” Philip said. “This training day was enough for me today, and later on I want to clean the vineyard in the back a little, there’s plenty to do around the house today.”

  Margaret nodded and took her book. She started immersing in it, in the clean air of the afternoon, feeling still elated by the dragon training that they had today. The sun’s rays were caressing her face, through the leaves of the big trees that were in front of their garden, and a few flowers were in full bloom, spreading a little of their afternoon scent.

  “A hidden city, in a big forest, on a who-knows-where planet. Who could have imagined that I would run into such an adventure,” she thought while turning a page on her book. Reading for a while in the coziness of the afternoon, made her fell asleep, in the quietness of their garden. She started dreaming that she was a blue dragon that had the freedom to roam across far and uncharted lands. The sunset was close and their day, full of adventure, made them both connect to the City life more. Only the passing neighbors and the few birds that filled the trees in the front of their house were being heard, anticipating the quiet evening that was about to settle in this quiet and rural area of their city.

  Chapter 11 – Maggie’s new job

  The following days brought a lot of joy for both of them. They explored the city, seeing the amazing view from above while riding their dragons that now had their permanent residence in the back yard of their house. The usual stone houses, vegetable markets, stone construction yards, winding, narrow, or straight big roads, alternating in shades of color that were so beautifully seen from above, tall towers, worship places: the city was old, mystical, strange, and beautiful, and the more they were seeing it, the more they fell in love with its magical appearance. It was very far stretched indeed, and every day they went further and further away and taking more intricate paths, they were starting to understand the greatness of this project and the work that the Elders had put in building this wondrous city.

  On one of these days, Margaret finally decided to go to the City Council and requested that she saw an Elder, while Philip was at home, tending the plants, and taking care of the dragons. She was waiting in the coolness of the corridors lit by the small blue lights from above for already three minutes now.

  “Yes, Margaret? You wanted to see me?” said a white-beared tall man that arrived to see her promptly.r />
  “Yes, I did,” she said, with a soft voice, bowing to the Elder.

  “What can I do for you today?” said the Elder, looking kindly into her deep green eyes, and holding his hands together.

  “Well, when I and Philip were roaming around the City the other day, I have heard a couple of references about a Financial Council that exists in the City,” she said, and then paused for a couple of seconds. “I came to talk to you about it.”

  The Elder looked at her rather intrigued and then said promptly.

  “Ah, indeed!” he said. “We … recently formed one, I think maybe 8 years ago. We thought it might be good for the local economy of the City and for regulating our credit-based system, as the city seemed to have grown substantially in recent years, in all kinds of businesses and small shops. May I be inquiring the reason why you are asking about it?”

  “Well,” Margaret said, making a slight pause, “since all I do is lie around the house and our garden all day long, just reading, enjoying the sun, and occasionally riding our dragons with Philip, I thought that I might be of any help in maybe … doing more than that. I want to be helpful, I actually … I actually feel the need to be helpful in this City, and doing something for the people that live in it.”

  She paused, sighed, and concluded with a softer voice, this time.

  “I want to give something back to the community of this City, and feel somehow … useful,” she managed to finally say, worrying that her speech was really lousy.

  The white-bearded man looked at her surprised after he studied her for a couple of seconds and then exclaimed.

  “Well, Maggie! I didn’t know you wanted that so much deep inside you! It might have been quite a really hidden desire of yours, otherwise, we’d send someone right to your home to ask you if you’d want to be part of anything that goes around our city, sooner,” said the old man, with a broad smile, now understanding what she was really here for.

  She looked shyly, with her gaze down.

  “Indeed. I tend to keep some things rather secret and not think about them too much. I think here, in the City, thinking has become obsolete, and I don’t want to bother anyone with my thoughts,” she added.

  “Well, not entirely, if I may correct you. If you’d want to help around with the Financial Council, you’ll see that thinking and planning is still a valued commodity here,” said the white-bearded man, smiling kindly. “Do you have any experience in finance, marketing, accounting, or anything related? From what I can sense you are not really that kind of person...”

  “Well, I do not and I’m not, I’m afraid,” said Margaret. “But maybe I could help around with smaller tasks, doing anything that is required. Maybe a smaller job would be available for me there. I thought about opening a shop too, but I do not have any artistic talents, and I think I don’t really have anything to sell there.”

  The Elder looked at her and shook his head.

  “Hmm. I know what you mean. But I think your problem is of a totally different color, Margaret. Our whole society is based on mutual help, peace, and love. This is the basic commodity we share here. The worthiness you speak about can come out of the feeling of allowing the love we share here to pour into your heart, not by just striving to give effort, every day,” the Elder said, looking at her with compassion.

  Margaret nodded and looked at him.

  “You definitely have read the emotional state that I’ve been experiencing lately … ”

  The Elder nodded and continued.

  “I think the problem is not boredom or having something to do to fill your time with. I think all you need to do is to just allow the love that exists everywhere to enter your being. Love needs to flow, Margaret. If you give love, or if you exert your will, that’s not enough. You have to learn to love yourself first, so you can start loving others too, and you mostly have to let the true peacefulness of our City find you, since you now know that here, in this suspended time, in this place at the end of the Galaxy as you like to call it,” he said and showed a smile, ”love is everywhere and in everything. It is the very thing that we are made of, and that is what will bring you the most fulfillment, in the long run, not any particular job that you will fill your time with.”

  Margaret nodded and lowered her head again. This piece of advice was very simple and she felt that the Elder was absolutely right. She knew that one of her main mistakes was the fact that she was always trying to be right and to give, which mostly consumed her from the inside out, but when it came to receiving, she was usually either too shy or too strong in her appearance, afraid that she would lose her strong personality, by showing as a weak person.

  “These being said, Margaret, do you still want to be a part of our Financial Council?” said the white-bearded man. “It is actually a good idea to earn some well-deserved credits, so you can perhaps buy more of the goods of the city. If this is what you want, I will fulfill your wish. If one wants to be part of the greater expression of our love, which is our City in all its development, then so be it,” said the old man, smiling and waiting for her to say anything.

  “Y...yes, definitely!” said Margaret, with a lot of joy in her voice.

  “Ok, Margaret. I will give you an easy task, then. What do you say if … I would tell you you’d be in charge with … say, the financial administration of a few of our bakeries, first? All you have to do in the beginning is to check the need for any particular product in certain areas of our City and notify the owners of our bakeries of the products in need, so when people will visit them, the bakeries will have them, freshly made in that day. That way the customers can leave happily out of the store and the bakery will make a well-deserved profit. What do you say? Simple enough?”

  Margaret’s confidence raised as quickly as a butterfly jumps to fly from here to there.

  “Can I do that? Thank you very much!” she said, reaching her hands and grabbing the hands of the Elder.

  “Of course you can, my child! As for Philip, I think he’s already happy with what he is doing, for now, as we can all sense that. He will be happy that you have found something to do here to feel useful, and if he would need anything, anytime, he’d just have to let us know, like you did, today,” said the Elder, blessing Margaret with his long cane, that had a big, transparent, and beautifully cut emerald at his top.

  Margaret was very happy with the outcome. In a split second, she remembered their recent event in the forest, while they were riding their dragons. She oscillated a few seconds if she should ask the Elder, now that she finally got a job. She finally came out with the least courage she could find and said with a small voice.

  “Just another thing, Elder, if I may. I wanted to ask you something, but...”

  The Elder turned around, and waited, ready to listen.

  “Well…?”

  “I’m not sure if I should...”

  The Elder looked at her, with a kind look.

  “You can ask, Margaret. What is it about?”

  “Well, I and Philip were flying our dragons the other day and...”

  The Elder looked at her and said calmly.

  “From what I am being told, there were no incidents reported regarding our dragons lately. What experience did you have riding them?”

  “Well, it’s not that. The dragons are the cutest creatures, and they’re very peaceful,” Margaret said. “We were flying them way up in the sky, over the great forest, and at some point, we reached a place, way outside the city, where they would not want to fly anymore.”

  The Elder’s face changed a bit.

  “Did you run into any trouble?”

  “Well, not really. But we descended and there was a place where we could not get much further, a sort of invisible wall, a sort of shield that we bumped into.”

  “Well,” the Elder said with a lower voice, “your trainer told you to keep flying just around the city, and maybe above the caves in the mountains. The forest is far and wide, and it might be dangerous...”

  �
�When we descended, there was nothing in the forest, besides the usual: bushes with fruits, mushrooms, shrubs, tall trees, and a few big and colorful birds. We saw that force-field marked on the Mappers with a blue line,” Margaret added.

  The Elder sighed and looked at her with a straight face. He weighted Margaret and took a few long moments to prepare his answer.

  “The thing is, Maggie, all we do here is find special people that are willing to live in harmony and take care of our City. We’re not interested in trade, money, assets, scouting the vastness of space, or colonizing any planets. We dedicate ourselves to the continuous growth of our City and to the well-being of our citizens and our community. We protect what we have at all costs and sometimes measures like these are a natural response. I hope you understand. Next time, please do not venture more than 35 miles away from our city. The protective shield will not allow it anyway. Now if there’s anything else you wanted to talk to me about besides your new job at the Financial Council...”

  Margaret sensed worry in the Elder’s attitude, a rather curious feeling that she didn’t felt before while talking to one of them. Her amulet could never lie, as she felt intuitively that the Elder was hiding something. Should they have taken Til’shar’s advice and ride their dragons inside the City’s space, an incident like this would never have happened, but her exploring and adventurous nature, made her forget that in the City there were certain rules that needed to be respected.

  “We will try to abide by these rules next time. Thank you for your advice, Elder,” said Margaret.

  “We’ll be in touch, then. I will send someone tomorrow to show you to the building where the Financial Council is gathering every day. You can start tomorrow. Have a great day, Margaret!” the Elder said, and went slowly back, through the dark and cool corridor.

  Margaret thanked and left. She realized that she shouldn’t talk with the Elder about their experience, but she was quite sure that somehow, they already knew about that incident. Something deep inside her made her want to understand more of why there was a shield in the perimeter around the city, but the Elder avoided this subject as much as he could.