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Chapter 17 - Chapter 17 – Effigy Ashes as Nutrients of the Soil

Third-person POV

 In the sunny and ancient city of Bologna, Italy, within the grounds of its ancient and historical Bologna University, a death creature as a Fahrenheit 451 fireman and a gardener named Ignaz Rossi was tending to his garden of tomatoes and potatoes. Wearing his fireman suit but his respirator was on a table at the nearest arches of the restored university, he tilled the soil with care. He remembered that dark day three years ago: He cried on the dead students and professors he and his fellow firemen of the fire had slaughtered on the day Francisco was killed by Ceo and Kal was overthrown and thrown into the fiery Abyss. He, like the other death creatures on that dark day, cried and sobbed so much the ancient campus's foundation shook from his cries.

 After burying the dead in Bologna's cemeteries with the help of his comrades and enforcers from the 1984 and Brave New World sectors, he took the last name of a dead professor and became Ignaz Rossi. He was a student of the university and a gardener, and a fireman of the Word and the Land, but the 'Land' part is where he had his own way of tending to the Italian landscape.

 As he harvested the ripe tomatoes and potatoes, he remembered his mistake a little over a week ago: After hacking and burning a wooden effigy of Kal out of righteous fury, he gathered the wood ashes and buried them in a patch of soil next to his blueberries. He remembered that it was a big mistake because a day later, the blueberries were ruined. He knows how humans make mistakes. Now determined to learn from this experience, he buried the ruined berries into the soil and returned to the university libraries to research on the wood types and when to put wood ashes into certain plants.

 In that nightly research for 3 days, he found out a system on what plants are acceptable to the wood ashes and what to avoid putting the ashes in. Berries and a few types of plants are hazards to the wood ashes. So, Ignaz compiled a treatise on that. For now, he was conducting tests on different wood types and plant types to confirm his findings as the spirits of the elderly professors and the other students, both native Italians and foreign students, watched over from the arches and rooftop.

 "È davvero fantastico (This is so cool.) …" Ignaz whispered while tilling the soil after harvesting his ripe tomatoes and potatoes.

The winds from Greece blew with beauty across the garden.

 At near noon, a profession-cleasing fire was set in a tenement south of the university, and Ignaz and 3 other firemen responded immediately. While 2 of his comrades of the fire are handling the hoses and the nearest fire hydrant, Ignaz and the third comrade, with their respirators on, recalibrated the dials of their flamethrowers to let the Ultra-Blue Cold Flame Ceo and the other Spanish firemen brethren of their sector had pioneered to snuff out the remaining orange flames on the second floor while water took out the fire in the first floor. It felt therapeutic for them before their mealtime at noon as they carried books out of the building so the building would be cleaned up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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