>>6185777You still miss her. Even the faintest memory causes you to tear up as you ascend the cliff. You had to leave, the emotions wer–ARE too strong! And the hushed conversations, the suspicious looks, the sickening gossip! It was all too much!
What happened wasn’t your fault! Couldn’t they see that!?
Couldn’t they see that you missed her?
You had decided that you would leave the University, at least for a time. It would be impossible for you to finish your studies with the rumors. And you had no desire to do anything but grieve.
You planned to stay with some distant relatives in the countryside and lose yourself among the nature and manual labor. Far away from the scorn of others, perhaps you could have found some form of succor given time.
The letter had changed that plan.
Moving your hand to your breast pocket you can fill the crinkle of paper underneath the thin fabric of your shirt. The letter had brought you to the Company, to the lighthouse, with nary a word to anyone from your past. Practically disappearing off the face of the Earth.
“Perhaps for the better.” one part of you thought bitterly.
Wiping away tears you finally make it to the plateau, a worn path leading through short grass and around jutting rock towards the other structures on the isle. A squat warehouse shielded from the wind in a small dell and the tall lighthouse, standing proud a little beyond. Both are made up of darker stone than the landing, the blocks being hewn from native stone sourced from the plateau rather than dragged up the cliff face.
The warehouse housed a majority of your stores from food, to spare parts, and other consumables. It also served as the main repository for your fuel stores, oil for the lamp and coal for heating and electricity generation. A steam powered generator and battery bank take up a portion of the warehouse, as well as a small workshop and the large oil tanks. A series of long pipes ferries the oil to the lamp, but everything else must be manually brought to the towering lighthouse. The lighthouse itself houses the lamp, fog horn, and your quarters which take up the lower section of the tower.
With the Cape Rose already disappearing over the horizon you feel rather aimless, what should you do before the sun starts to set?
>Set out to the lighthouse, examine your quarters and your two charges.>Stop at the warehouse, take stock of your supplies and equipment.>Tour the plateau, get to know your new home.>Something else? 