Tik'mekh that's what this place was called. A pretty cool name, though not as cool as deadzone. That's just an awesome name, whoever came up with that deserves a beer. This is what was going through the mind of Jake as he came closer and closer to the ruins. They were quite a sight to behold; a mighty city ripped from the sky and slammed into the ground. This was the power of the deadzones though this was probably the most literal case of it. What had been a bustling city in the sky was now just a husk of its former self. It was kind of sad really, no time for such thoughts though he wanted to get there before nightfall.

While camping in an abandoned city probably wasn't the greatest plan; it was the plan Jake had decided upon. Plus there were probably buildings which still had roofs, they would make excellent shelter. Excellent compared to his usual solution of put the sleeping bag in a tree anyway. Which while good for avoiding predators had many downsides, such as you're in a tree, it's not very comfortable, and you have to balance on a branch. And during all of this annoyingness you're trying to get to sleep. Though it is better than getting horribly mauled by animals I suppose, barely.

Something that he didn't expect to affect him so much in the deadzones was that magic just didn't work. You'd think that since Jake hardly ever used magic this wouldn't affect him at all. For the first part of his journey it didn't. But as it went on he began feeling perpetually tired even though he usually traveled distances just as long in a day without feeling sleepy. Jake just sort of shrugged this off, lacking any real training in magic he simply assumed it would pass. For the moment it had, or maybe he'd just become used to it. Either way Jake was no on the fringes of the ruins, it was time to start looking around for cool stuff.

Paradox slowly among the ruins, her eyes wide with awe. The centuries of long forgotten history rippling around her in the form of rock buildings and columns was simply mind blowing. She stared at one of the colorful paintings that lined the center streets of the fallen metropolis and admired the hues and details within it. She had never seen anything like this place in all of her travels. She ran her hand along the stone, tracing the shapes with her fingertips. 

She smiled at the beautiful city. It was so pleasant, even though it was an ancient place, it still felt very much alive to her. She trotted forward, her hooves clicking loudly on the cobblestones. She watched a pair of birds fly out of a nest on the roof of one of the buildings and when she passed, she heard the soft chirping of the infants. She slipped into one of the old buildings with a very high doorway and studied the insides and the old rooms. They were nice buildings, sturdy and strong, made almost entirely out of stone. 

She flicked her tail and glanced at a pair of gourds lying on the ground at her feet. They were elegantly built with long curving handles and a neat plump base. Probably for carrying flowers, like a vase or something, she thought to herself as she walked by them. She didn't want to touch anything, for fear she might damage it. She ducked out of the house and continued down the street. When she had first come to the city's borders, she'd noticed that her magical abilities were severely dampened and she was glad that she wasn't heavily reliant on them for day to day activities.

She rounded a corner and caught the scent of something odd. Something alive. She poked her head around and saw what appeared to be a young man walking down the other road. She followed him for a little while, watching his antics and eyeing the oddly shaped equipment on his back. She was curious about it, her kind didn't have instruments like these. She kept walking, almost completely silent, just a few steps behind him.

This city was truly amazing, even after being ripped from the sky it still managed looking like a city. That's good quality craftsmanship, or architecture whichever works in this scenario. "Maybe it's craftsmanship for the stones that the buildings are made out of. But for the actual construction of the buildings its good architecture". Jake stuck his head inside a window to see what was inside the house. Deciding he needed a better view the bard proceeded to climb through the window and enter the house. It was dusty, and disheveled albeit this was expected considering where he was. It's a real shame that the city fell out of the sky Jake would've loved to have played there.

As impressive as the city was. Jake couldn't help but feel forlorn as he walked alone through the empty streets. Families lived here people who were so looking forward to the rest of their lives. Jake shook his head, no time for thinking about that now I wanna climb something. The bard looked around for something tall to climb, he wanted to get a good view of the city. He saw a tall tower just a few blocks away. He began moving towards it with haste, it would be dark within an hour or two and he wanted to climb it today. Plus he might be able to get a good view of the sunset.

Why was Jake doing this instead of figuring out why there was a clopping sound emanating from behind him. The source of the sounds wasn't doing any harm so why bother them. Other than not turn around he didn't really consciously do anything with the knowledge that he was being followed. Besides whatever it was probably wasn't all that great of a climber given the fact that the walking sounds it made implied that it had hooves. So walking at a brisk pace Jake soon arrived at the tower removed all his stuff besides his lute which he had thrown over his back. He then began to scale the building, thinking that climbing a tower is generally the same concept as climbing anything else.

Paradox followed behind the young man for so long she questioned whether he was actually real. He didn't turn around or appeared to notice her, though she knew her hooves were loud enough on the cobblestones. He was evidently a visitor as well. He was continually ducking inside buildings and looking in a windows with almost childlike curiosity. He picked up the pace and she watched as he made a beeline for a tall tower towards the middle of the city. The tower was wide and made of stone, worn almost smooth from the weather. 

Once he reached the tower, she fell back and hid behind a building, her body in the shadows. She peeked around the corner and watch the man assemble what appeared to be climbing equipment. Ropes, harnesses, clips, and assorted other things she couldn't identify. Centaurs, were not climbers as a general rule. They, like horses, liked to keep all four hooves on the ground. That, and the fact that their body design made it difficult to actually climb anything that they couldn't jump over.

She watched the man climb a short distance up the tower and walked as quietly as she could to the bottom of it. She nudged the man's pack with her hoof and stared at the ropes on the ground. She picked up one of the man's clips and twisted it around her hands, curiously. It appeared to be a small triangle of bone or rock, very flat and smooth. She realized it was a pick for the lute the man carried on his back as he now scaled the building. She could see the boot tracks on the stone and followed them up to the young man, several feet above her and climbing steadily. She cocked her head and turned her ears sideways as she stared up at him, intrigued by the ordeal. She was partly confused and interested in this man that chose to climb buildings instead of walk inside and go up the stairs.

Things learned while climbing the stone tower. It is not the same as climbing other things, getting a grip is hard when there's no real handholds other than windows, and that Jake should probably invest in climbing gear. As currently he was doing it without it which made the chances of dying go up immensely. Also climbing was generally quite hard without equipment, but Jake was cheap and if he could climb without equipment he was unlikely to pay for it.  As he made his way up the bard began to peak through the windows to see what was inside the tower. As it seemed rather out of place in this part of the town. From what he saw there were lots of empty beakers and such, perhaps this was a place of magic and alchemy. Either way Jake decided to use this window as a resting point before continuing to climb up.

Jake being rather easily bored decided to hang upside down from the window. Which he did by locking his legs behind on the inside and then hanging his body down against the wall. This led to two things, blood began to rush to Jake's head, and he finally saw who'd been following him. It was a Centaur! He didn't see those very often, or ever as this was his first time coming face to face with one. Well not exactly face to face as Jake was hanging about eighteen feet above her but still. It was closer than he'd previously gotten, Jake never really traveled near the homeland of centaurs. He'd come close once but he got distracted by, well at this moment the bard couldn't recall but it was something.

At this point the lute that was on Jake's back nearly fell off of him. Which led to the bard quickly depositing it inside the window before returning to his hanging activities. It was at this time that Jake realized the centaur was going through his stuff. "Uh hello, my name is Jake and it'd be wonderful if you didn't mess with my belongings". Why was this centaur following him anyways, if she'd wanted to rob him she probably would have absconded with his stuff by now. Either way it was unlikely that Jake had any real means of stopping the centaur from messing with his stuff. With his three options being climb back down, jump down and possibly mess up his legs, or jump into the windows and try to find a staircase. Either way Jake considered this woman to be rather rude, following him around not introducing herself then going through his stuff while he wasn't paying attention.

Paradox watched the young man climb higher up the tower and then reach a window and flip himself over so that he faced downward, hanging by his legs. He is completely mad, she thought to herself as he watching him dangle a dozen feet above her head.  She watched him take the lute off his back and put it inside the building. She turned her head to the side and flicked an ear at him when he called down to her. His name was Jake. Interesting. She had never met a bard before.

She took a quick step back from the young man's gear and looked back at him. "My apologies," she called back up to him. "I was only looking." She held up the small piece of stone in her hand. "I think you dropped this. It's for your lute, I believe." She flicked her tail and shifted the weight off of one of her hind hooves and tipped it to the side. "I didn't mean to mess with your things. I was just curious." She twisted the small piece of stone around in her hands, running the edges along her fingers. 

Sh walked up to the base of the tower, careful to avoid Jake's things. "Why are you climbing the tower?" She asked him. He was quite high up now. It was intriguing to her. She wouldn't have been able to climb the tower like that if her life had depended on it. The intricate ropes and clips would get tangled up in her legs and her arms couldn't support the full weight of her body like his could. She smiled thoughtfully to herself and reared upwards, resting her front hooves against the stone wall. "What does everything look like up there? It must be beautiful." 

As fun as hanging off a building was it did leave Jake feeling nauseous and slightly light headed. So he hoisted himself back onto the window. Now perched upon the window Jake got his first good look at the view, it was quite good. Though it was gonna be even better at the top. But before all that the bard needed to grab his lute from inside the window. It was it this point he noticed that the centaur had his pick which he had forgotten in his backpack. "Ahh yes that does tend to be quite helpful when attempting to play music". Unwilling to waste time going down to retrieve it and then climbing back up Jake began playing music using his hands to pluck the strings. "Looking is fine, theft on the other hand is less fine. Just a future note that if you look through someones stuff behind their back they might be confused as to what you're doing as I was".

Jake had to think on the next question for a moment. Why was he climbing the tower, I mean he had seen stairs when he poked his head through the window. "Well frankly, I'm not completely sure. Partly because I was bored and I thought it would be fun. Partly because I didn't feel like going upstairs. And frankly I just wanted to see the view at the top". At this point the bard began climbing again, as he'd wasted a fair bit of day light and the sun was gonna be setting soon. "It's very pretty, being able to see over the roofs of buildings and look off into the horizon. I bet its gonna be even better at the top"!

Paradox dropped back to all fours and watched the man swing himself back into the building. He disappeared for a second but reappeared just as quickly, lute in hand. He called down to here, but didn't seem to have a dire need for the pick as he started to strum the strings with his fingers instead. She started to smile when she heard the sound of the musical instrument. It had been a while since she'd heard such a nice tune. 

She turned her head to the side and stared up at him. He was getting really high now, almost up to the top. He called down to her again and turn and started to climb once more. She watched him, her eyebrows raised in amusement. He was either very brave or very dumb. Or slightly crazy. She thought that the latter was the most accurate. Even if she was able to, she doubted whether or not she would even want to climb up the side of the structure. She decided it wasn't worth it.

She looked behind her at the sun, which was starting to set far off in the distance. She sighed quietly to herself. The view was probably stunning. She would have really liked to have seen that from up at the top of the tower. She flicked her tail and felt it lightly smack the top of her hocks. Yes, she agreed to herself with a small grin. She really did prefer having all four feet safely on the ground. If she was meant to fly, she would have been born with wings.