Love Poison No Cure Needed

Starting the Hunt 1.1

“Ooh, so this Bellare square that Grandad Ash talks about.” Sorrel murmured as he stepped out of the west exit of Saige park. The square was spacious, the east side of it bordered the park while the south side was boarded by the access road past the park from the sprawling suburban areas to the south to the Bellare district. The north side had the entry to the large suspension North Bridge that was the access from the Bellare district to the city centre. Sorrel had heard that just the other side of the bride was the grounds for Bellare Preparatory Academy that was said to be the school that most of the clubs that operated in the Bellare district went to school. While directly opposite the park was the Bellare Industrial area. 

It was still called an industrial area but only about one third of the warehouses still performed some sort of industry. The remaining two thirds were renovated into private club houses for the rich second generations playing bad boys. A legal gang warzone in a sense, though lethal attacks were still heavily punished. Otherwise, random fighting for broken bones and bruises were accepted. Because that way the damage was kept to a controlled area. There were even notices up all over the place saying it was an open fight space for juveniles. The groups that operated in the area were referred to as clubs and were said to be about the brotherhood of friendship. It was like the old lords and their territories. The leader collected their supporters and then they duelled amongst themselves to determine who was to be king. It really sounded so exciting.

Grandad Ash had watched the opening ceremony when the joint task force from the police, juvenile health and district government had announced the opening of the Bellare district as a sport and recreational area for ‘excitable’ and ‘rebellious’ youths. Creating a legal area for the fighting that was otherwise damaging other areas. Grandad Ash said it was a good chance for the sprouts to grow as they pleased in the closest thing that they could get to the wild nowadays.

It was really the best hunting area though, no one would think twice about signs of fight around there and the people within all expected to get into a fight at a moment's notice anyway. 

When he stepped into the square the breeze carried with it a tantalising aroma from within Bellare district, along with a familiar scent of pollen. Sorrel instantly stopped to let his senses spread out relying on just his own eyes or nose to beat the test would waste way too much time and he really did want to get settled in with the guardian that Grandad Ash had found for him as soon as possible. They’d said he would be able to go to a human school. He could not wait to try it, gossiping in class and being bullied for not fitting in oooh maybe getting cornered at the locker by the school bully since he was new it all looked so exciting in the tv clips they showed on the big screen outside the park’s Eastgate.

It was a curious sensation the way his natural sight worked, since it related to not only what was immediately present to his sense but also to the senses of all his cousins in the surroundings. It showed the world as if it was broken down into a skeleton of itself. The mould growing in the corners of the warehouse directly opposite showed that there were seven people inside but there was no trace of Aunt Lata’s seed. As night had long since crept in there were no cars or people moving along the southern access road and the nearest person to the north was crossing the bridge away from the district. The next two closest warehouses were actually for industry and aside from a lot of strange but interesting machines they were empty. Sorrel wondered what the machines did. It would be interesting to find out but no he was doing a test was not allowed to get distracted.

There much further in was a trace of the seed. Simple enough then he would just head straight in following that slight tug and knock out anyone he felt coming close. The people that seemed to have come to the window of the first warehouse didn’t count since they didn’t have the seed and so were unrelated. Pretty as he was, he wouldn’t be standing out just by walking around.

“la la lalala lala,” singing lightly under his breath Sorrel started across the square, halfway across the square an intense pollen scent assaulted him, completely not what he was looking for but also one hundred and ten percent out of place. A colony of moss on the roof showed a vague and large four-legged lean and long muzzled form as it prowled across the warehouse in front headed for the square.