The Plains

Kookaburra sits on the railroad track
Along comes a train and squishes him flat!
Poor Kookaburra, poor Kookaburra,
That's the end of that.

– An old lullaby of unknown origins

To the South of the City lies the great plains, a stretch of narrow, golden land running East to West that a multitude of grazing and burrowing creatures call their home. Sheep frolic in the mosaic of grasses that blanket the concrete bedrock, while prairie dogs nest in squat relics of the past dotting the landscape like lone shrubs. Giraffes pull leaves from the greenery adorning the Rust Trees, while prides of house cats roam the great flatlands in search of something worth their attention.

Though verdant now, the coming Winter will turn this haven into an arid tundra, forcing its inhabitants to huddle together for warmth while scouring the frozen ground for shrubbery worth consuming.

Bisecting the plains is a narrow, slightly raised section that reaches for the horizon in either direction, impossibly straight. Once upon a time, great metal beasts created by the humans hurtled across this region, and animals learned to avoid their wrath, but now those same beasts lie dead and scattered across the straits, their bodies eaten by red decay, and those same animals now use their carcasses as convenient shelters among the vast flatness of the region.

As the straits approach the river to the East, they rise in elevation, until quite suddenly they part from the ground, held aloft by towering stilts. This region of inexplicably floating land arches over the river, then touches back down on the other side. Though a useful path across the river, parents often forbid their young from following the straits this far, lest they stray too close to the crumbling edge and come tumbling down into the waters below.

Though the soil of the plains is too shallow for any of the more conventional trees to grow, that doesn’t mean the horizon is unbroken. Periodically jutting up from the ground in vast rows stand another forgotten remnant of humankind, now known only as Rust Trees. The bark of these trees is a criss-cross of reddening metal, their leaves dangling vines of black wire that hang limply from their two jutting branches. Several of them lie collapsed on the ground, the grasses already enveloping them, but most remain standing, providing resting perches for birds and squirrels.

In the Summer months, encroaching creepers adorn the trees so that they look as green as the forest to the West, but come Winter the plants lose their leaves, and Rust Trees take on an air of bloody foreboding. Watching them stretch towards and then over the horizon like a column of red sentinels, one wonders what they may be protecting from the City… or protecting the City from.

Arising quite suddenly from the flatland is a long, swat, crumbling building that may once have possessed a tiled roof, yet whose slates have long since been broken by time. The building is flanked by two raised concrete platforms, now barely visible through the grassy shoots springing from their cracks. More interesting are the two behemoths next to either platform: long, jagged constructs of metal that stretch across the length of the building. This is a favourite haunt of the larger creatures, the elephants, yaks, and cows, who find the towering machines perfect for rubbing that insatiable itch right on the flank, and during the day any number of the creatures can be found socialising around the shared experience of a satisfying scratch.

Boy (he/him): Founder and leader of Boy's Cows, Boy takes his duty as the leader of the City's rapid emergency response unit very seriously. When he isn't leading his herd to race to evacuate a burning house or holding an intense vetting process for animals attempting to join the ranks of his Cows, he can often be found resting in the Plains, a stalk of wheat hanging from his mouth and a wide-brimmed straw hat shading his eyes as he scans the horizon for signs of trouble.

Lulu (she/her): A young elephant desperate to explore the Plains and wider City. Unfortunately, all the rest of her familial herd want to do is lie around all day at the Behemoth Twins, scratching and sunbathing.

Fern (she/they): A capybara who can usually be found near the Rust Trees. A Scholar who often muses about topics of philosophy. Initially from the Shallows.