Wayward

Wayward checked out the sky. It felt like rain again. Sometimes he wondered if he was overdoing the whole adventurer thing. Like being on this planet. Two months and only one night without rain, but only because it had snowed. Sure, he was the first to set foot on this planet, no-one else had ever been here, with good reason apparently. Wayward sighed. He had to admit he was bored. At least on the other planets he had explored he had had some contact with locals or seen some interesting plant and animal life. 
Wayward was working for an interplanetary agency that explored uninhabited planets to see if they were good for holiday resorts. And unless people would like to pay to sit in the rain every night Wayward doubted he would get a bonus for this trip. 
Wayward hacked through some leaves of very thick vegetation and reached the rocky plateau that was his designated depart spot. It had taken him days to find it. After a week he had been ready to call it quits, but the darn plateau had been to far off and in the thick vegetation he could only go so many miles a day.
Wayward finally saw some specks of grey that nearly made him dance. Maybe an hour more and he'd be on the plateau for real... he'd still have to climb down to it. The plateau wasn't really a plateau in the sense that it lay higher than the rest. It was a plateau in the sense that it was the only vegetation-free place on the planet. Wayward started the long way down. He could follow a wind-carved path the first few metres down, but after that the ledge became to narrow for him to stand on. Wayward took out his custom made rope with suction cup that would carry his weight without any problem. It was one of the few items the agency gave you when they sent you out.
Why ever would you need more advanced equipment? Wayward grudgingly thought. A free range teleporter would have been great. But no, those were too expensive. And who cared if you walked into some death trap, that was your own fault. No, a stationary one to the ship would suffice. Wayward had had this convo with himself over and over again. He'd decided that he would quit and tell his bosses what he thought of them before he lost his guts. He needed the money yes, but there'd be other ways to get it. People who had worked in his sector were often asked for new colonies. Maybe that would be better. But then there'd be no escape at all, not even a stationary teleporter to a ship in orbit.
At this point Wayward was halfway down, his fingers already cut and bruised from falling rocks. Again he asked why he had come here. Maybe because it had looked so peaceful from space. All blue, with only that one grey spot in the Northern hemisphere. The cold wind kept trying to pull him off the cliff side. Wayward sighed. If he hadn't known better he'd been sure that the planet had set a goal to kill the intruder walking on it's skin, but of course that were just the thoughts of a socially deprived person in extreme conditions.
In all it took Wayward another 5 hours to get down, not including his small rest in the middle on a ledge that had somewhat sheltered him. Wayward looked up, his eyes half shut against the rain and pulled the cord. The suction cup let go at his command and fell down.
"Great! Just wonderful!"
As if to mock him the suction cup hung five metres above the ground, stuck on a spiky ledge. He'd have to climb back up to untangle it. Wayward talked to himself all the way up. It was funny, Wayward thought, how people always tried to create the illusion of being in a society. He kept talking to himself and replying like he was two different persons. Of course, he wasn't, he understood that, he wasn't crazy. But being alone for a month had made him appreciate other people for what they were: needed.
Wayward looked around the Valley. An asteroid must have once crashed into it, Wayward noted, because the walls of the Valley had this strange swirly pattern. Very beautiful. Wayward stared a bit at the strange markings. Not one swirl was the same. Most were white-grey, but others were blue, or purple.

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What happens next is up to the Dragonry
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Wayward is a Candidate at Tirpanalli Dragonry
Music Playing is Hold On, by Kansas and was found here
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