Swan Song || The Lost Boys - & The One Who Found Them...

Chapter II ~ ᚢ ( Uruz ) Endurance & Change

" Hjartet fylgjer, tveim blir ein..."
[ The heart, it follows - two become one...]

Wardruna - Raido

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It was around 10am when I decided to leave the house. At last the sun had returned & not a single cloud was in sight anymore; only a deep blue sky stretching from horizon to horizon. As I stood there in the doorway ready to go I peered back into the kitchen & down the hallway where, after almost an entire hour filled with frustration & unimaginable inner rage, I had successfully placed the deer antlers on my old wooden walls, right above the bathroom door. It went surprisingly well with the old furniture & - which was even more important - my interests, the music I liked & my passion for anything related to nature. The taxidermic fox had found a special place in my living room on top of a black oaken bookshelf from where it could perfectly overlook the entire room. I was convinced that sooner or later I'd get used to the idea of having a dead animal in my house. Or so I hoped...

Adjusting my long braided hair I took a final look in the mirror next to the front door to make sure my eyeliner was in place before grabbing my keys & stepping outside onto the porch, the old floor tiles screeching beneath my boots. My eccentric self locked the door as many times as the lock allowed me to which turned out to be four times in total; not that I was paranoid or overly cautious, but the words 'better safe than sorry' applied to me way more than I was willing to admit.
The sun shone down upon the landscapes with great enthusiasm & once the winds weren't blowing it almost felt like springtime, even with the cold air streaming in from the ocean.

I drew in a deep breath, my eyelids dropping down for a moment. It was odd how the mere exclusion of the one sense I was most relying on - my eyesight - significantly sharpened my other senses, most of all my hearing. The voices of the wild such as the chirping of multiple different species of birds in the distance, the rustling leaves & creaking branches from the nearby forest, the howling of the wind as it crawled up the hill's spine... It all grew louder within the span of only a few seconds until every single noise was literally a violent ringing in my ears. At this state it became almost overwhelming, my eyes opening all by themselves. My senses quickly returned to their usual sensitivity as my feet carried me forward, down the hill towards the main road that would guide me into the streets of Santa Carla; the city that was now officially my new home.

Much like on previous days I found myself wondering whether or not I should switch from walking to driving at some point in the near future. As long as it remained warm & dry outside for the majority of the week getting to work by foot was without a doubt enjoyable, especially since more than half of my route led me through the forest, past the cornfields & meadows, however autumn was slowly but surely beginning to shed its delicate skin to make room for what - according to the local weather service - promised to be an extremely humid & dull winter. I had to keep in mind that this wasn't Norway anymore & therefore my chances of seeing any snow here in the plains of California were little to nonexistent. A rather disheartening thing to think about, but it was what it was...

Despite this being only a 20-minute walk thinking a little more practical would eventually become inevitable & my stubborn self was very aware of that.

After around 15 minutes I arrived at the first main road from where an old arch bridge guided me straight into the lively part of the city; the silence of the woodlands behind the hills gave way to the urban jungle where several engines were roaring & hundreds of different voices filled the air. It was not as overwhelming as I thought it would be, nevertheless my walking pace started to pick up since I wasn't all too fond of large amounts of people. Not in combination with too many noises anyway...
My eyes trailed along the horizon before me where I was able to see the spine of the roller coaster, just one of many attractions of the Beach Boardwalk's amusement park.