p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="bfb87117ce3e89d14205f167ff0c30cc"I sat on the rooftop, my eyes closed, breathing. For whatever reason, I preferred breathing to any other noise, except possibly music. I did not know what it was that made me like it. Maybe it was just something relaxing, reminding me that I was still alive. On the other hand, maybe it was the pure feeling of it in my ears. Whatever it was, I enjoyed the sound of it./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="a62fcee1a75354882890815f9375f84d"My hand decided to run through my dyed blue hair on its own as I opened my eyes. The warm air had long lost its novelty, as it was midsummer. By the sun, I could judge it was the middle of the afternoon. I turned my head around, seeing the city of New Toronto unfurl in my vision. It felt as though I was sitting on a rift between destruction and salvation. Life and death. Towards my left, barely blocked by the constructions on the roof, lay the heart of the city and its surroundings. The buildings were clean, standing tall and sturdy as the day they were first built, centuries ago. It was what was left nearly untouched after the Battle of Toronto. Towards my right, however, I could see the full effects of the war. Rubble and debris lay for kilometers, stretching out like hands of detriment towards the horizon. When I looked downwards, it was metaphorically the same. To my left, I would not suffer any major damage whatsoever if I fell off the edge, because of the roof. To my right, a seven-story drop awaited me. A most certain death. I had a couple of centimeters of leeway, but after that, it was nothing but the sidewalk./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="4a987485f4a5c268bb6b71dadbac048f"I looked at the sky, and sighed softly, my brown eyes in full view of any possible onlookers above. Smiling slightly, I waved at the satellites, though I could not see them. I knew they were there, though. Just like my own eyes. My mother used to say that I had her eyes and her smarts./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="836e5ec458713ec8b00812f1c7300790"I stood, stretching. Judging by my numbed behind, I had been sitting there for at least an hour. I faced outwards, away from health and prosperity, towards damage and post-warfare. Destruction was never beautiful, to me. It reminded me of what could have lasted in a proper state, suddenly shattered to a million pieces. However, for whatever reason, I could not help but stare at it. Still breathing. Somehow, I was still breathing./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="27e6d13f263291084af95810383fcecd"Slowly, I turned my head, looking at the rest of the city. It appeared as though there was an invisible, jagged circle separating the clean part of the city from the damaged one. Another thing about destruction: it was never clean. Especially if you used an explosive. It went double for using an explosive dropped from aircraft. My eyes lingered on the jagged line between the part of the city the defensive forces did save, and the one they could have./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="c82cc3fee11a23477a3f1d8f5a84d1fe"I sighed. I had had about enough of looking at all of this destruction. I turned all the way to my right, and ran. Not even thinking, I ran straight for the edge of the roof, jumping when I could run no further. I was in freefall for a split second, and then my feet hit solid ground. I tucked and rolled forward, putting slight pressure on my right shoulder. Without skipping a beat, I got up and continued running; and breathing, of course. /p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2b8a099a765b096b9835e2710f24381d"In twice, out twice. In twice, out twice. In, out. Left, right. I loved running. Especially when I combined it with climbing, vaulting, jumping, rolling, and other elements that composed the music of freerunning. It was fast, efficient, and beautiful in a rugged way./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="08f43f2480a1e4b482c9d5db774ff6ab"I came up towards a wall, curving my path outwards so that I was nearly parallel to the wall once I reached it. Jumping, I put one foot on the wall right next to me and pushed off, putting one foot directly in contact with another wall in front of me, and pushed off that. I ended up/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="97c689dd927e0705e5a4edef861232e2"I kept my eyes focused on the path ahead of me, analyzing obstacles and the environment. As much as freerunning itself was beautiful, the rooftops on which I ran were as amazing to look at. To anyone else, it would have just looked like a random assortment of vents, outcrops and other constructions. To me, it was a perfect urban freerunning environment. I noticed a waist high obstacle about five meters ahead. No trouble. I simply vaulted over it, and continued./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="901228db74454fd9cc5daa087d88c9d7"Eventually, I reached another roof, and I had to stop, as I could not jump the gap to the next building. It was across the street, so it would take an exo-suit to cross the gap. The building on the other side of the impasse was my destination. I stepped up to the edge, searching for anything I could use to get to the other side. After a few seconds, I found a path to my right that would take me on a route to my destination. I sped to the right, running on the edge of the roof, vaulting, climbing and otherwise maneuvering around obstacles in my way. Going around things on ground level seemed so boring to me./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="60f33493d9507cfd89bc359fc7347603"A few minutes later, I stopped at the edge of a roof, smiling. Sweat dripped down my back in the form of tiny droplets in the humid air. Freerunning was a rush that few people understood. I observed the monolithic skyscrapers, constructions of glass and steel and carbon fibre superimposed against the cloudy blue sky. The sun appeared to be a charged plasma round, headed straight towards me yet staying where it was./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="66d0d1837347f3985d53dfbe6c6f02cd"This time, I ignored the ruin behind my back, and focused on the salvation in front of me. This was what they did save. The proof that we survived. No, not only survived, em style="box-sizing: border-box;"won./em I could see many shops and other venues. The people were few, but the ones that were in the streets walked with their heads held high, glorious and free. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.../p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="a281b5519d25e4e971bd2cda54960b8a"I smiled wider. I was proud to be a Canadian. Even if our numbers were few, we were happy with what we had. Our anthem had not changed in over three hundred years, from what I'd heard. The Canada-China war did not take what we were as people./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="190951f86e2265f6a03cd57ab35128ab"I broke my gaze from the streets below, searching for the rest of my line. As much as I wanted to marvel at our streets and think, I also wanted to get to my destination. However, in my search, my eyes flew over my home. My old home. I tensed up. Five years ago. Five years ago, and what happened there still bothered me. A half decade.../p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="1920a84a5353d8b63b15080d4a11fa4d"I stopped myself before I got lost in my thoughts. I found the remainder of my line and followed it, resuming my rough rhythm of jumping, vaulting, climbing and running. Soon enough, I was on top of the building I was heading towards. I jumped down, onto the railing of a fire escape, and then down further onto the platform itself. From there, I ran towards the ground. The metallic thuds transitioned to less resonant ones as my feet hit the ground. I put my hand on the corner of the rough bricks of the wall as I ran around it, towards the entrance. The building was very old, made of brick and mortar. It had been repurposed for training uses. That became clear as I stepped inside, the modern design and architecture greeting me. Notices, information and advertisements floated on the walls, while heavy, thumping, computerized music played through the sound system./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2f0f6cec0a44fe433ccc8cafb575c7e5"I walked up the stairs, advertisements for sparring equipment, protective gear, and other items flashing on the walls. When I reached the top floor, I turned left and walked down a long corridor. Several minutes later, I turned right, and opened a door. The sight of the training room greeted me. Punching bags galore lined the walls, and there were two sparring rings. A line of four targets stood along the wall. I took a deep breath. This was my happy place, or at least one of them./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="a62fcee1a75354882890815f9375f84d"My hand decided to run through my dyed blue hair on its own as I opened my eyes. The warm air had long lost its novelty, as it was midsummer. By the sun, I could judge it was the middle of the afternoon. I turned my head around, seeing the city of New Toronto unfurl in my vision. It felt as though I was sitting on a rift between destruction and salvation. Life and death. Towards my left, barely blocked by the constructions on the roof, lay the heart of the city and its surroundings. The buildings were clean, standing tall and sturdy as the day they were first built, centuries ago. It was what was left nearly untouched after the Battle of Toronto. Towards my right, however, I could see the full effects of the war. Rubble and debris lay for kilometers, stretching out like hands of detriment towards the horizon. When I looked downwards, it was metaphorically the same. To my left, I would not suffer any major damage whatsoever if I fell off the edge, because of the roof. To my right, a seven-story drop awaited me. A most certain death. I had a couple of centimeters of leeway, but after that, it was nothing but the sidewalk./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="4a987485f4a5c268bb6b71dadbac048f"I looked at the sky, and sighed softly, my brown eyes in full view of any possible onlookers above. Smiling slightly, I waved at the satellites, though I could not see them. I knew they were there, though. Just like my own eyes. My mother used to say that I had her eyes and her smarts./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="836e5ec458713ec8b00812f1c7300790"I stood, stretching. Judging by my numbed behind, I had been sitting there for at least an hour. I faced outwards, away from health and prosperity, towards damage and post-warfare. Destruction was never beautiful, to me. It reminded me of what could have lasted in a proper state, suddenly shattered to a million pieces. However, for whatever reason, I could not help but stare at it. Still breathing. Somehow, I was still breathing./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="27e6d13f263291084af95810383fcecd"Slowly, I turned my head, looking at the rest of the city. It appeared as though there was an invisible, jagged circle separating the clean part of the city from the damaged one. Another thing about destruction: it was never clean. Especially if you used an explosive. It went double for using an explosive dropped from aircraft. My eyes lingered on the jagged line between the part of the city the defensive forces did save, and the one they could have./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="c82cc3fee11a23477a3f1d8f5a84d1fe"I sighed. I had had about enough of looking at all of this destruction. I turned all the way to my right, and ran. Not even thinking, I ran straight for the edge of the roof, jumping when I could run no further. I was in freefall for a split second, and then my feet hit solid ground. I tucked and rolled forward, putting slight pressure on my right shoulder. Without skipping a beat, I got up and continued running; and breathing, of course. /p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2b8a099a765b096b9835e2710f24381d"In twice, out twice. In twice, out twice. In, out. Left, right. I loved running. Especially when I combined it with climbing, vaulting, jumping, rolling, and other elements that composed the music of freerunning. It was fast, efficient, and beautiful in a rugged way./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="08f43f2480a1e4b482c9d5db774ff6ab"I came up towards a wall, curving my path outwards so that I was nearly parallel to the wall once I reached it. Jumping, I put one foot on the wall right next to me and pushed off, putting one foot directly in contact with another wall in front of me, and pushed off that. I ended up/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="97c689dd927e0705e5a4edef861232e2"I kept my eyes focused on the path ahead of me, analyzing obstacles and the environment. As much as freerunning itself was beautiful, the rooftops on which I ran were as amazing to look at. To anyone else, it would have just looked like a random assortment of vents, outcrops and other constructions. To me, it was a perfect urban freerunning environment. I noticed a waist high obstacle about five meters ahead. No trouble. I simply vaulted over it, and continued./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="901228db74454fd9cc5daa087d88c9d7"Eventually, I reached another roof, and I had to stop, as I could not jump the gap to the next building. It was across the street, so it would take an exo-suit to cross the gap. The building on the other side of the impasse was my destination. I stepped up to the edge, searching for anything I could use to get to the other side. After a few seconds, I found a path to my right that would take me on a route to my destination. I sped to the right, running on the edge of the roof, vaulting, climbing and otherwise maneuvering around obstacles in my way. Going around things on ground level seemed so boring to me./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="60f33493d9507cfd89bc359fc7347603"A few minutes later, I stopped at the edge of a roof, smiling. Sweat dripped down my back in the form of tiny droplets in the humid air. Freerunning was a rush that few people understood. I observed the monolithic skyscrapers, constructions of glass and steel and carbon fibre superimposed against the cloudy blue sky. The sun appeared to be a charged plasma round, headed straight towards me yet staying where it was./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="66d0d1837347f3985d53dfbe6c6f02cd"This time, I ignored the ruin behind my back, and focused on the salvation in front of me. This was what they did save. The proof that we survived. No, not only survived, em style="box-sizing: border-box;"won./em I could see many shops and other venues. The people were few, but the ones that were in the streets walked with their heads held high, glorious and free. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.../p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="a281b5519d25e4e971bd2cda54960b8a"I smiled wider. I was proud to be a Canadian. Even if our numbers were few, we were happy with what we had. Our anthem had not changed in over three hundred years, from what I'd heard. The Canada-China war did not take what we were as people./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="190951f86e2265f6a03cd57ab35128ab"I broke my gaze from the streets below, searching for the rest of my line. As much as I wanted to marvel at our streets and think, I also wanted to get to my destination. However, in my search, my eyes flew over my home. My old home. I tensed up. Five years ago. Five years ago, and what happened there still bothered me. A half decade.../p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="1920a84a5353d8b63b15080d4a11fa4d"I stopped myself before I got lost in my thoughts. I found the remainder of my line and followed it, resuming my rough rhythm of jumping, vaulting, climbing and running. Soon enough, I was on top of the building I was heading towards. I jumped down, onto the railing of a fire escape, and then down further onto the platform itself. From there, I ran towards the ground. The metallic thuds transitioned to less resonant ones as my feet hit the ground. I put my hand on the corner of the rough bricks of the wall as I ran around it, towards the entrance. The building was very old, made of brick and mortar. It had been repurposed for training uses. That became clear as I stepped inside, the modern design and architecture greeting me. Notices, information and advertisements floated on the walls, while heavy, thumping, computerized music played through the sound system./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 18px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2f0f6cec0a44fe433ccc8cafb575c7e5"I walked up the stairs, advertisements for sparring equipment, protective gear, and other items flashing on the walls. When I reached the top floor, I turned left and walked down a long corridor. Several minutes later, I turned right, and opened a door. The sight of the training room greeted me. Punching bags galore lined the walls, and there were two sparring rings. A line of four targets stood along the wall. I took a deep breath. This was my happy place, or at least one of them./p