[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/180617/4e18d4d2a5b79d9f3ac43e60eed4258a.png[/img]

[i]Location: City Streets[/i][/center]

To some, the scent of rot would have been almost suffocating. Especially so with how long it had been out in the sun. Sharp, acrid, sickly-sweet. It was the sort of scent that worked its way deep into your lungs and burned them from the inside out, pulling at the windpipes until they were taut. However, Esperanza found herself paying little thought to it as she rode for the city, the muscles of the horse beneath her visible through and past the skin. Part of it was the fact that she had been riding for a few hours now, and by this point it was just about a part of the scenery now. Part of it was the fact that this wasn’t the worst corpse she had smelled by far. 

Still, that didn’t keep her from reminding herself to air out her clothes some before she entered the city itself. Esperanza was well aware that other people tended not to take to the smell of decay as well as she. 

Her companion, nestled within the folds of her cloak and dozing away, was not one of those people. Although he wasn’t really a person at all, even as he spoke like one. The warmth of Chu’s fur gave a familiar sense of comfort in these unfamiliar lands, and with the one hand she chanced away from her steed’s reigns, Esp ever so gently held him ever so closer. Her best, dearest, only friend. She hoped that would change soon, however.

Upon reaching the borders of the city, she dismounted, stroking the horse on what was left of its muzzle as she did so. Some of the fur and skin sloughed away in her hand with the movement, but she stroked anyway, whispering her thanks to it. Esperanza held its head in her hands as the life she had granted it slipped away, and, slowly, its legs gave out and it laid its mangled body to rest on the earth beneath. She whispered again, a hushed, quiet prayer to Death for the safety of its soul, then stood and left it behind as she entered the city.

She wiped her hands clean with some disinfectant as she did so, of course.

As the buildings rose around her, towering, Esperanza found herself promptly gawking at everything. She was [i]supposed[/i] to immediately find herself a place to stay and go from there, but the urge to explore was burning in her chest. Everything was just so [i]loud[/i], everything so new and bright and fast and fresh. 

[color=#F88017]“Chu!”[/color] Face split in a wide, goofy grin, she went to plop down on one of the benches, nudging the mound within her cloak as she did so. [color=#F88017]“Chu, wake up! You must see the city with me!”[/color] 

He was dozing a bit deeply, but that was fine. 

Esperanza had all the time in the world, and they would explore this bright, splendid, incredible new land together.