South
The southern part of the city has a chic family-oriented sort of charm to it. Here, small locally owned shops run rampant, neighbors often know each other by name, and the monthly socials are an event not to be missed. In the South, children can often be seen safely playing in the park or on sidewalks and in the weekends, families often take to the beach to enjoy the warm waters surrounding the city.
What You'll Find Here
Ascension Center of Equitation
Hyde Park
Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium
The Outskirts
The University of Sacrosanct
Chapters in stories like heartbeats in melodies
Posted on November 19, 2018 by Fiora Murdoch
The moonlight illuminated the waves in such a brilliant way that Fiora hoped she could manage to capture. The sound of the waves gently washing over each other in an endless cycle of soft crashing. Despite the jacket and coat she'd thrown on, the night chill alongside the frigid waters were making her breath show and her cheeks flush in the pale silver moonlight.
As fingers grew ever-more numb, Fiora kept sketching away, somewhat aware of the laughter in the distance, alongside an older voice saying something, but other than the distant awareness, Fiora herself was separate from the park in the reflected light of the night.
The scents and sounds reminded the chestnut-haired woman of a time when she was younger, a time when her family had taken a vacation to the seaside. She recalled the sunny days that were there, and even the one day it rained when they had first arrived, and how the sand was muddy when they'd played in it the next day. She remembered getting in a splash fight with Ben, and how Ed had thrown sand at them when he got cranky about his brother enjoying time with their sister. Those were the times that the girl had forgotten what would be inevitably waiting for her the next few weeks.
She shook her head, trying to keep those thoughts from resurfacing. They belonged down in the deep, where she couldn't think about them. She had already given enough time and thought to her father, and he couldn't get to her now. Lifting her pencil with a frigid hand, Fiora sighed. The dull pencil combined with the stiffness of her hand had caused some lines to show the strokes more than usual, and while it would still be considered an impressive sketch by most, Fiora could see so many areas to fix, but she knew she would likely freeze if she stayed at the beach much longer.
Before she could put her things away to get going, the sudden collision of a dog and a girl with Fiora's numb body occured, and despite the surprise, confusion, and slight pain in protest from her stiff body, she almost instinctively reached out to the girl on the ground.
"Are you alri-"
Before her gentle question could finish, the child looked her in the eyes, covered her ears, and screamed. The young woman was in shock, unsure what she had done, but she flinched and recoiled her hand immediately and mimicked the girl covering her ears as the dog started barking on top of the screaming. Keep it together... Fiora was at a loss for what to do, unsure what had set the girl off in the first place, what had scared her, but then a man suddenly approached, the girl's guardian, Fiora assumed, with a worried look on his face, she gently loosened her grip on her ears, flinching at the noise, listening to the man's demanding tone.
"I'm... not entirely sure, sir... she ran into me but before I could ask if she was alright... um..." Fiora's voice trailed off, sure her quiet voice was drowned out in the cacophony of sound despite her best efforts, and sure the man could see the outcome for himself. Almost instinctively, despite having done nothing and having no idea what caused the girl to start screaming, she uttered a quiet "I'm sorry," but said nothing more as the man attempted to comfort the girl, in a language that Fiora vaguely recognized as some Roman-based language, likely French, but she wasn't sure. She subconsciously began to shield herself from the situation, curving more inwards, but still feeling the need to stay until the conflict was resolved, hoping the child was alright, despite the fact that she had done nothing except for happen to be in the girl's path.