A ficlet of Fae Apoc and probably Addergoole East. 

🗺️

“What are you doing?”

Chlodovech looked up from his work to see a woman glaring at him.  “Surveying.” Wasn’t Amalasuintha supposed to be keeping people away?

“What for?”  The woman looked aggressive.  She was holding a pitchfork in a way that was clearly not ready to pitch any hay and her eyes were narrowed.

Chlodovech straightened up.  “It’s a school project,” he tried.  Truth, right? Truth was good? Useful?

“School project.”  She narrowed her eyes even more.  “You’re mapping my town for a school project.”

“Well, technically, we’re mapping all of former Pennsylvania.  It’s going very slowly,” he added ruefully. In part because of things like this.

“Why, though?”

“Why?”  He blinked.  But at least her posture had changed; she no longer looked like she wanted to stab him. He could work with that.  “Because all of the maps we have for this side of the cou – continent are woefully outdated and they don’t show things like, ah,” he gestured southwestish  “That big wall of glass that takes up way too much of what used to be an interstate.”

“So, for, for people who want to move, say, lots of people through an area?”

Suddenly he had a slight understanding of her concern. “Not per se.  More for people who want to move themselves from one area to another.  Like me. And my friend Amie and Nacho; we want to travel after school, and it helps if we don’t have to go three days out of our way because we didn’t know about a big glass wall.”

The big glass wall was a pretty useful example, he had to say.

The woman nodded her understanding slowly.

“You think other people might be able to use those maps?”

“Might?”  Chlodovech smiled.  This was something he could actually answer and hopefully help her.  “The goal is to share them with as many people as possible, ma’am. I’m hoping to get them out to everyone whose property or home is on the map, for one. And anyone we speak to while we’re doing this.”  Amalasuintha had the talk a lot smoother than he did. That was half of her job. “I’ll make sure to bring you one personally.”

She relaxed.  Chlodovech relaxed.  “Well then. Anything I can do to help?”