Vuori: Clouds Above Korydallos

"" *Such routes spring to life secretly behind chewed iron fences and forgotten broomstick garbage, and carry you through low-inclined coppices. Plenty are the glades, though under the darker sky what they reveal we know not.*""

Vuori: Clouds Above Korydallos is the tenth story in The Vuori Chronicles series, outlining in the series' typical poetic fashion the faraway cliffs and hillsides of the Western Side of Vuori, through the area of Korydallos and beyond.

*Word Count*: 1038

*Preceded By*: Vuori: The Theater at Noon

*Succeeded By*: Vuori: Wrong Turn In Evening Paths

## Release

This chronicle was released in mid July 2018, by writer James Kingston, as a nod to the Unknown, lesser traveled areas of Vuori's West Side. It is marked X in The Vuori Chronicles.

## Plot

Beginning with an explanation of Vuori's nominal origin, the Finnish word for Mountain, the writer directs the attention of the audience to the areas beyond the Kaskantami/ Chaidari Antennae boundary, and into the 'sorrel hillocks' of Korydallos. These were areas much less known to Vuoriors, mainly due to the fact they lie in a non approachable proximity from the areas of Peristeri and Petroupoli.

Describing the 'urbanized' versions of the areas, akin to the narrative in The Charms of Vuori, Kingston recounts the experience he had with an old friend as they traversed the Korydallos Hill to enter through a broken fence opening the reddish soiled areas. While on the first trip they went no further than Ypsi Ikterou ( the Sorrel Mounts), Kingston did cherish the adventure, since he returned with fellow Vuori savvy George Stroubis to cross all the way to the mounts above Shisto and Ag Varvara, until the Dead Eye Rock, where they had to stop due to concern for vagabond tribes scattered amidst the warehouses and the impoverished neighborhoods illegally put up on the mountain. The elusive Antenna Yard, at the Old Shooting fields of Korydallos has been considered a non-Pokilo Oros location, remaining the object of a rather prorogued bitterness of the Vuoriors, as the last unconquered antennae left and the goal of various dreamers, as expressed in The Charms of Vuori.

A short notice on such deterring factors was included later in the tale, though most lines were expended in the description of the overcast skies which usually accompanied trips to Korydallos. Whether by chance or as a darker note to the mysterious, dangerous paths of these faraway Aegaleo areas, Kingston made sure to exploit the element of weather in the story, hence the title.

The tale concludes with a reference back to the known areas of Liopyri and the Final Antennae on Zacharitsa, explaining that no matter how far one treads, the true heart of a Vuorior is everywhere on Vuori indeed. As long as the legend of the mountain is kept alive, no wonderer can truly be lost, as expressed in the final lines of the chronicle.

## Style

Belonging to the first type of story telling with a third person POV, the tale is a lyrical description of the unknown sides of Korydallos and beyond, sharing many characteristic with The Charms of Vuori. The 'overcast skies' with their darker aura and their lugubrious nature is a key element in the story, retained throughout to convey the disturbing feeling of these faraway areas. However towards the end, Zacharitsa descriptions return and the story takes on a warmer, much more familiar tone.