As Summit walked away from his new place of work, the only thing that he could feel was accomplishment. He was overjoyed. He needed to celebrate. He wanted to celebrate with his best friend, Dexterous. So, Summit walked out of the City Square School, and back to the City Square. Summit made it past the dense urban sprawl, and down one of the many roads that was connected to it. As he went past the many, many, various buildings, all he could do was appreciate the intricate architecture. Especially compared to his home, that was carved from the stone. Eventually, he found the home of Dexterous.
Summit walked up to his friend's door, and used the iron knocker. After a few seconds of patient waiting, Summit heard footsteps that approached through their door and somebody answered. Not Dexterous, but instead his mother, who he had met many times before.
Dexterous' mother looked at Summit, and said "hello Summit. Are you looking for Dexterous today?" She gave a creepy, yet sincere smile.
"Of course, I just got my apprenticeship and I'm looking to celebrate a bit with him," Summit answered pridefully.
All of the sudden, Dexterous' mother gave a light frown, an annoyed moan before saying, "despite what I told him, Dexterous insisted on coming over to you in the City Square. You'll have to get him yourself."
Why Dex? We had a plan! Summit thought. "I have to go now, I guess, goodbye!" Summit said before starting to power walk the way he came, back past the homes, stores, and all the other things that the city had, back into the vortex of the City Square. I guess Mr. S had a reason to walk like this. Summit navigated over to the sundial, guessing that he may had been by one of the benches that were there, but he was not.
After that, Summit continued to retrace his steps, going back to the City Square School. Standing in front of the school, he could finally see his best friend Dexterous. Dexterous was wearing a usual outfit for him. He was wearing grey pants, a navy blue long-sleeve shirt, and his favourite pair of dark, smokey grey smith gloves that he wore any time he could.
Summit began to approach Dexterous, he waved as he walked over. "Hey Summit! How did the interview go?" Dexterous asked enthusiastically.
Summit was gleeful to announce his victory, "it went great! I'm starting my apprenticeship in a week, how's your search for an apprenticeship going?"
Dexterous was ecstatic as well, "I got an apprenticeship with a jeweller from the second layer, my dad used his connection to help me out a little, I really wanted to get started as soon as possible."
The Indestructible City had a system of layers that were above and below each other. In total, there were 5 layers. The nicer homes, stores, and schools tended to be higher up in the city. Summit lived in a smaller home in the fourth layer, meanwhile, because of the blacksmithing business that Dexterous' parents ran, they lived in a larger home on the first layer.
Summit replied, "I guess I could see you on my way up from fourth to the school on first, so we can check in with each other!"
"Why do you want to be a teacher anyways? Your parents are bakers, shouldn't you follow in their footsteps?" Dexterous asked.
"I'm a horrible baker. I'm sure my parents would love to tell you about my baking indecent from when I was eight for you. And I just like helping people, you know? Like my mom. It makes me feel good. Just like you go crazy whenever you see something shiny. Say, how did you even convince your dad to be able to do anything as a jeweller if you bounce all around when you see anything shiny?" Summit said and teased.
"Hey! It's only sometimes, and I'm sure I'll get used to it." Dexterous seemed mildly embarrassed.
"Sure, and you'll also stop wearing those gloves," Summit said sarcastically.
"I'll need those for work anyways," Dexterous nervously defended, quickly drawing his dark gloved hands up above his shoulders.
"Fine, you win that one, let's go. I want to celebrate," Summit said to his friend.
"Where?" Dexterous asked.
"I'm sure my parents will get us something free at their bakery," Summit suggested.
"Fair. Let's go there, I've got nothing on me."
Summit and Dexterous began to walk back into the City Square, and made their way up to the surface of the city. The air immediately felt fresher, he could hear the people talking, but not their endless echos. He could hear the incredibly colourful birds chirp and sing from the mighty green and brown trees. He could see the great expanse of Pyrhia poking right outside of the civilization of the Indestructible City. It was breathtaking every time he saw it. It oozed beauty, but gave him fear as well, because he and all the others knew of the dragons that dominated the open expanses. I miss seeing the outdoors outside my house, Summit thought. Despite its hypnotizing beauty, Summit looked away from the nature, and towards his the bakery that his parents worked at, Skyward Sourdough.
The bakery was unusually tall, sporting two whole floors. The food would be baked upstairs to be sold on the ground floor. The ground floor that Summit and Dexterous had just walked into.
Summit looked ahead to the counter at Skyward Sourdough, it was his father. Great! Summit thought, in relief. We will be able to get some free snacks. "Hi dad! I got the job!" Summit announced to his now smiling father.
"That's incredible kiddo," Oakley congratulated tiredly.
"So are you go tell mom?"
"I'm too busy down here to leave this place, I need to be here so things can get done down here."
Summit looked over at the room, there was one other person in the room outside of Dexterous and them. "Are you sure? It doesn't look too busy."
"It's usually busier than this, I'm sure more people will come in in a minute."
"Well, I was looking to celebrate with Dex, so I was hoping that maybe you could get him and I some cookies or something...on the house?" Summit asked anxiously.
Oakley thought for a moment, before saying "I don't know. My boss said to stop doing this, but he also said that I have to work with customers, so just take the cookies and leave before anything happens."
"That was my plan anyways," Summit responded.
Oakley walked to the back of the counter, grabbed two date sugar cookies, a rare type due to the difficulty in getting dates from the desert to the city, and also Summit's favourite, giving one to both Summit and Dexterous, and they jogged out into the rest of the market.
They decided to go to the park out on the cliff to get away from the dense crowds that inhabited every market. It was a weekday, so fewer people than usual were there. They decided to sit on the ground, only a few meters away from the open overhang.
After they sat down and they started to devour their delectable cookies, Summit was asked a question by Dexterous, an uncomfortable, yet interesting question. "Would you ever want to explore out in the wild? See the nature up close? I think it'd be cool," Dexterous asked.
Why would anyone want to go out there!? Dex would die! I would die! No, you have to keep calm Summit, you're being irrational again, most of it is nice. Just look at it! After collecting himself with his thought, Summit responded, "I'm too scared to go out there. Too many people-eating-dragons for me."
"It's not all bad," Dexterous said. "We don't see that many dragons around here. And you lived in a town above the ground, in the wild, for most of your life."
"Before a dragon killed everyone but my family that I knew, and burned the town out of existence," Summit pointed out.
"I guess, but how much would it take for you to go out for like, a day?" Dexterous asked, re-framing the question.
"I'd need like, a sac or two of gems and gold, at least. I value my life, after all," Summit smirked after saying that.
"Fair, I just want to see it, find a cool gem, or a new plant or something. The Indestructible City is so small, and it's all the same," Dexterous said, answering his own question.
"Well have fun dying then,"
"It'll be a nice grave,"
Summit looked at the sun again. It's almost dinner time! His mind screamed. I have to go! "I've got an early dinner today, I need to go."
"I'll race you to the City Square then, to make it faster," Dexterous challenged.
"You'll only slow me down," Summit teased.
"Well I'm already...off!" and Dexterous began to run as fast as he could, getting a head start.
Summit began to dash the moment his brain had caught up, trying his best to make up the distance, cutting between people in the market's crowd like a sewing needle, to little avail. He was neck and neck with his friendly rival, but then he reached the stairs down to the first layer. He was very slow down the stairs, just to be safe. They were carved from the stone to be wide and crowded, very dangerous if you were to fall over. Despite his fear, he marched on a speedier pace than usual for him, but Dexterous was a SkyWing, and he was a snail.
By the time that Summit had made his way through the spiralling staircase to the first layer, Dexterous had his gloved hand laying on the sundial. Summit frowned, and made his way at a walking pace over to his friend.
"Want to hang out at four tomorrow? You can meet me at my house because you love walking to me so much," Summit asked.
"Sure, to both of those, I do like walking. I think it's relaxing," Dexterous agreed.
"See you tomorrow then!" Summit called. After that he slowly walked away, waving.
"You too!" Dexterous screamed over to him to communicate through the crowd.
They were separate again, and Summit made his way home for dinner, somehow later than his parents, even though he didn't see them on his way down. The dinner was very good as usual. Summit decided to read a book of his, before going to bed yet again, excited at what the future may hold.