Monochrome

Looking out at the white spiraling buildings poking the gray rain clouds, her heart felt heavy like it’s part of this hard stone city. Did everyone feel this way in the New Prosperity?

Elisa picked up her dark gray raincoat which she had dropped on the dining table mindlessly the night before, stepped in her black rubber boots and headed out.

The city was buzzing with life and activity, it’s where everyone wanted to be. Yet the air felt stale and oppressive.

As every morning she stopped by the nearby cafe to get her black coffee.

The routine was so strong she had no need to even think about it. Every morning wake up at 6 am, shower, brush her teeth, put her hair up in a practiced knot on top of her head, stand for exactly a minute looking out at the great city, put on her coat and boots, go to the cafe, drink her black coffee, no sugar, while walking to the office. Her body did it automatically, the practiced, perfected little mundane steps of her life.

This time her body added a little extra action which she failed to fully notice - the cafe was hot so she took off her coat and hung it on the coat rack by the entrance. And, as she was going through the regular motions of her day Elisa wouldn’t have noticed that the coat she took when leaving wasn’t even her own. No, her hand just reached for it sideways while her gaze remained straight ahead, her body shuffled into it in the practiced way and she pushed the solid, clean, white doors open to the street.

Elisa entered the tall office building tapping her white card on the matching pure white card reader. Something was wrong. She glanced to her right and noticed at least two strangers openly staring at her.

In this big city she had gotten used to being invisible. Grain in the sand. People minded their own business. Nobody ever stood out. She kept walking straight ahead.

Her steps suddenly felt off beat, unsure, uneven. She bumped her shoulder at the corner of the wall where she normally would have made a smooth turn right to the hallway. Elisa tried to regain her well practiced routine, it had stopped feeling seamless and it was agitating her.

Sitting in front of the laptop her index finger landed on a key and she paused. What was the action she did every day just when she sat down at this exact spot and began work?

Elisa blinked. Her mind was blank, foggy, but there was an unfamiliar feeling to it. She suddenly started paying attention to her actions and none of them came seamlessly anymore.

How come she had never noticed the whirring of the machines in the room next to this open office? What was it? She hadn't wondered about such things before.

Elisa took a deep breath and her eyes widened. Images flashed before her eyes and disappeared. She was so startled by the sensation that she didn’t register the floral scent still brushing against her nose. She thought of the cerulean blue sky, pine forests, picking up yellow flowers from the road side.

She stood up as calmly as she could and tried her best to keep the usual walking pace and headed towards the ladies room. More people were staring. Elisa felt like she might be sick, has she gone mad?

She had never paid attention to any details in the bathroom, never noticed the large mirrors that greet you when you open the seamless white doors. She stood there now staring at her own reflection. Her coat.. It was yellow? Stunned, she took another deep breath and the scent hit her senses again. The coat. It smelled like.. Like something she had forgotten a long time ago. She looked around the room. Looked, actually looked it seemed for the first time since she had set food in this office. The pristine white walls, but wait, what’s that? She edged closer to the wall holding her reflection. Next to the mirror, barely noticeable, there was an imperfection on the wall. She brushed her finger against it lightly, and the white paint crumbled slightly revealing a bright blue color under it. She gasped. Then she paused again. Why did this shock her so much? Elisa wasn’t really sure. Everything today was slightly unusual, out of norm.

She felt the sense of remembering something but at the same time she felt like she had forgotten. How can she forget how to do her own job she had been doing for years now. Wait. How many years was it? She couldn’t remember when and how she started. And what did she do exactly? She furrowed her brows. She must be losing her mind. The memory of the flowers brushed at her senses, the scent was still there.

Without saying a word to anyone Elisa rushed out of the office. This place felt wrong. She walked without knowing where she was going. The glittering walls of the imposing buildings revealed similar little imperfections, some color trying to break through, like an infection, barely contained, or oppressed.

Her mind felt more awake even if she felt a little mad. It was trying to solve some mystery, piecing together some puzzle and she had a strong sensation to go. Somewhere.

People around her seemed to blend in with their surroundings. White, long coats, light gray pants or skirts, dark shoes, on dark asphalt in front of the clean, white walls. Did nobody wonder where all the color has gone? Did she ever wonder this herself?

Her feet took her to the cafe and she realised that’s likely where she must have mixed up her coat with this yellow one. She glanced around the cafe, at the blank faces of people in the charcoal chairs and then she spotted him. She knew now what she was looking for. Next to the white framed, large window sat a man in a cobalt blue coat, already looking at her with an inviting smile. A veil has lifted further. She smiled back and took a chair across from the man.

“I’m so glad you’re here”, he lifted his yellow eyes and held hers.. Now she remembered, she had blue eyes, not gray as she had been told before.

Another piece fell into a place forming the bigger picture. Bryar, she remembered his sweet innocent laugh as a child when they climbed trees together, her vision blurred.

“Dear sister, you must come with me now. It’s not safe”. She nodded. Elisa didn’t know what else to do and she trusted her brother to lead her away.

They walked up the street which was familiar to her but foreign at the same time. She was seeing it with new eyes now it seemed. More cracks, more imperfections. She looked at the faces of the passerby people. Really looked. Their shadowed eyes looked deep and hollow. Faces gaunt and bony.

The street went up a hill, from there she could see the beautiful view of the New Prosperity, the greatest city on this continent. No, that can’t be right. The view she was used to was already fading from her memory and she looked and saw. She saw the rain clouds. But those were not rain clouds. It was black smoke coming from the towers. The air smelt rotten and she covered her nose with the coat and breathed in the floral fragrance. A memory of heavy wingbeats and clear sky. That was not the sky she was looking at right now. There was no sky, only thick, oily smoke.

Her brother took her hand gently, reassuring and guided her through a maze of half collapsed buildings. She thought about the wind in her hair as she glided through the sky, joy in her heart, so distant now. “Bryar! Where is Gidweyn?” her voice felt unused for too long, it came out as a raspy whisper.

“She is safe.”, he sighed. “Your stubborn girl has been trying to get to you, just like we all had. I don’t know how much you remember, but you got captured while your dragon was out hunting. Her cries shook the earth and pierced the sky when Gidweyn realised what had happened.”

Elisa stared at her brother. “How did you get here?” and just like that she knew what she meant with “here”.

“There are these holes in their walls. We have been exploiting the cracks and bit by bit chipping at it. The magic is strong, but not impossible to break through.”

They stepped through an old wooden door. Not white. Not gray. The untreated wood was heavily rotten and the door slightly ajar.

“And what is the best part, they are so confident in their security that nobody is guarding these walls,” Bryar laughed a dry laugh. “The king is overconfident in his illusions and control. And while I’m here with you, our people are being freed before he would even react.”

“This is incredible, brother, I can’t thank you enough! I promise, I will not get captured again!” Elisa felt proud of her brother. Hope shone bright in her chest. “Bryar, their stronghold is collapsing. Our kingdom will be free soon enough.”

Elisa’s heart swelled with happiness at the sight of the familiar emerald green scales and the golden eyes looking impatient. Her brother’s dragon.

Soaring through the sky, she felt more awake and alive as ever. The dirty towers receded from the view. The wings pushed up from the dark oppressing smoke and she saw the blue sky once again.

From up here she could see the distant forests and golden towers glinting in the sunlight.

They were going home.