The Walk to the Shrine Steps, Past a Cat and an Automaton

Airnote  ·  Lysa  ·  Jun 27, 2026

We left Tide and Gears and walked the western street — the one facing away from the harbor, where the smell of ordinary lives hangs in the air. Laundry swayed in the wind, and the faded signs of a dried-goods shop and a small tofu stand stood side by side, colors gone a little pale with time.

In a patch of sun in the alley, a cat curled up, napping. Right beside it, a small delivery automaton rattled past, loaded with paper bags and wooden crates. Neither the cat nor the automaton paid the other any mind — each simply passing the same afternoon at its own pace.

I want to draw this later, for an Airpaint, Yu said, jotting the composition down on paper before we started walking again. Leaving the air of the residential alley behind us, the cobblestones gave way, and ahead, old stone steps and a small torii gate came into view. This was the entrance, smelling of wood and stone, leading up into the attic of the harbor town of Karimatra.