Avia

In Avia, the inhabitants never look at the ground, or at each other. Their necks are permanently craned upward, and they wear spectacles made of brass lenses that telescopically magnify the sky. The city is built of light scaffolding and transparent platforms, so that nothing obstructs the view of the clouds. Here, status is determined not by wealth, but by one's ability to distinguish the shadow of a hawk from the shadow of a kite at a distance of three miles. They keep detailed journals of the wind, recording the passage of every feather that drifts across the sun. It is said that the people of Avia are waiting for a Great Bird that will one day carry the entire city away in its talons, but until then, they merely watch, and list the names of things that fly.