The Streets of Esdar'ai

Hiro listened with a smile, then turned as she turned and began to follow her at her leisure down the street to the plaza. "The buildings here are so different architecturally to the ones from my own home; it's so strange and intriguing. It's like entering a different world, some sort of alternate realm where nothing is quite the same as it should be."

He held his head high as he walked, with the long tail of his hair blowing in the breeze behind him.

"It's hard to explain... I'm not particularly well-versed in the nature of architecture, but I suppose I could say that our buildings focus greatly on symmetry, balance and width over height. Our greatest buildings are always almost always wider than they are tall, with a few exceptions being towers and such. They also tend to be topped by roofs of triangular slopes, all meeting together at the highest centre-point," he replied, not amiss to the curious whispers and the following children.

Although he looked perfectly calm and relaxed, Hiro was trained to pay attention to his surroundings at all time.

"Much of our architecture tends to emphasise beauty as much as function. We have a lot of large, open courtyards; statues and wall-segments that don't necessarily offer anything practical yet are still vital to the character."

"Perhaps..." He pondered, looking around him at all the different styles of building around them and the people who walked the streets. "Where are we going anyway? I know you said something about a plaza, but what's there?"

"Then it certainly seems like the ideal place to start," he replied with a blink as they passed under the arch. He followed her to the Plaza, eyes in awe of the giant statue as they went.

Vera snorts at Roy's reaction. Of course, they are in a floating city in the sky and his first thought is chocolate. Roy had a one track mind and most of the time she found it endearing, though it did occasionally grate.

"From what I've seen of the climate here, it's not ideal for cocoa beans. Though the soil also has a lot of magic so I could be wrong. Anyway, if they aren't growing their own beans then they wouldn't have chocolate makers."

Roy was shocked. How could people live without chocolate? The sky sounded terrible. He smiled and waved at the children as they approached. He'd always gotten along well with small children, possibly due to the huge number of them always running around at the Estate.

"Hi, kiddos. I'm Roy, I'm from down below. We're just here to visit. And it's a parasol to keep me from burning in the sun."

He pulled several small bars of chocolate from his pockets and offered them to the kids. Children liked chocolate, didn't they? Even if they'd never had it before.

"That's so sad that they don't grow chocolate here, Vera. So many people who've never even tried it. That's awful."

The chocolate appeared to intrigue them - it would seem Vera's theory that there were no cocoa plants on the island was correct. One brave girl reached up and took a chocolate bar, then bit into it.. and her delighted reaction started a ruckus. The other children snagged the bars and began to devour them, though the little girl at the front - her face and hands smeared with chocolate - nodded to Vera and spoke.

"Okay! We'll show you."

The kids then swarmed around the pair, herding them off through the streets and alleyways until they reached a park with a large lake in it. Without an ounce of fear, the children ran out onto the water, which supported them easily. Water sprang up into shapes that the children began to climb on, laughing and yelling and generally having a good time, while others played among jets of water that shot up into the air at random.

Vera grins at the children's excitement and lets herself be dragged along. When they arrive at the lake she gasps in open wonder at the spectacle of it, before turning to Roy with a grin. "Well come on!" She runs toward the body of water and sets about playing with the children, open glee in her face at the spectacle before her.