Starter forĀ @theorangehairedgeekāĀ as Estelle:
From the air, Halure looks like a handful of farmhouses scattered about an enormous tree. If you didnāt know what you were looking for, the ludicrous contrast of scale would trick you into thinking you were closer to the ground than you were.
But Rita had been here before. She circled her gyro copter around the tree, slowly losing altitude as she looked for a place to land. She expected, someday, that her usual spot (flat as it was) would be appropriated as farmland, but today was not that day.
Rita set the copter down inĀ āherā field just east of the tree. From here, you could see the inn and the mayorās house, and the hints of the rest of the town in the treeās shadow. As she walked through her landing checklist, Rita watched some of the children from town approach.
Theyād seen her land before -- they were excited at her arrival, but they were all smart enough to stay beyond the edge of the lift rotorās rotation. Even unpowered as it was now, a blade could still land a nasty whack.
Rita unbuckled, and headed towards town. She exchanged greetings with the children, who began clamoring for the rights to pour gas into the copterās tank. It was one of the ways they could (reasonably) get close to the copter.
The children would be left disappointed. Ritaās attention was drawn from them to the approaching mayor of Halure. The usual pleasantries were exchanged before Rita noticed that Estelle hadnāt shown up to meet here like she normally did.
āAh, she has locked herself in, again,ā the mayor mentioned.Ā āWriterās Block makes her reclusive.ā
āI think this is the first time Iāve been here when sheās like this,ā Rita mused.Ā āHow often does this happen?ā
The look on the mayorās face was all Rita needed. She bid farewell to the mayor and the children for the moment, and headed up the path to Estelleās small dwelling.
Could have owned one of the new, larger buildings on the edge of town. She had, initially, but had talked one of the families close to the tree into trading.
Rita knocked on the door.