Challenge #00449 - A074: The Nose Compass

(Actually said by a friend today)

“I have absolutely no idea what it smells like… But it smells like food”

Amalgam Station masses roughly the same as a Dwarf Planet, but is much, much larger in size because Dwarf Planets do not, for instance, contain corridors, cavernous spaces, parks, amenities, and infrastructure.

People tend to forget this. What they know of Amalgam Station becomes the sole total of their experience and they wander no further than their own knowledge.

But not Shayde.

She ‘went walkabout’ or 'went for a wander’ or, most dreaded of all, 'went out to see what was what’. And she could turn up anywhere.

And after the fifth time Security found her and advised she utilise a JOAT as a guide, since JOATs naturally went most places that other cogniscents didn’t reach, Shayde started 'going out walking’ with Rael.

Which included a picnic basket stacked to the brim with easily-portable goodies. Or possibly more so, considering her experience with trans-dimensional storage spaces.

But this time, they had wandered too far into the sorts of forgotten areas that had denizens and sketchy shopfronts not written in GalStand. It was not dark and gloomy, at least. It was bright and blaring and absolutely teeming with things who glared at them like they were invaders. Which, technically, they were.

Rael consulted his PocketRef, very discretely. “That’s it,” he said. “We’re off the map.”

“Aw hesh yerself. Ye keep fergettin’ yer in the company o’ someone who can jump ye back tae home in a whisk an’ a half.”

“Yes, but the experience is not one I look forward to. I saw what shadow-jumping has done to people you don’t like.”

“Drop one pedo through 'is shadow an’ ye never hear the end of it…”

“Do you even know how to get home?” he rummaged in the basket. “And we’re out of snacks.” One day, in the far distant future, he would shake his habit of nervous eating. Today was not that day.

“Follow yer nose, then. Sniff tha’.”

Rael inhaled deeply. “Ooooh…”

“Aye. I dinnae ken what it smells like, but it smells like food.”

“You sure they’ll take the Time?”

“If no’ I always got me axe. Wouldnae be the first time I sang for me supper.”

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