Between Gordawn

‘Tis Wednesday. The day of the humping.

I’m stepping back from Benhá for a bit. I’ll return with serious plotting soon. In this interim I came back to the Camp-home post from a year or more back to light plot Ron’s story. Unexpected backstory tumbled out and now I need to move forward from there.

A quick refresher if you are just joining us or if reading yesterday’s post troubles your sensibilities… Ron fell in love with Neri despite their families cultural resistance. The couple ran away from their mountain tribes to scrounge a city-life in Gordawn. Tension between the two led to an argument and Neri left the opressive city for the comfort of home. Ron, hurt and prideful, stayed in Gordawn as a pig-cutter. That summer job led to work as a hunter in the fall and early winter. His skill earned him a vacation of sorts and, being close to Camp-home, he has returned to visit his family and explain.

Too shamed to enter his former home along the traditional route—The Trail—Ron trudges a more direct path through the snowy mountains.

This is the extent of my discoveries. Nearly.

Ron’s route takes him close enough to Neri’s tribe’s settlement that he is spotted by scouts. Neri’s tribers capture Ron and haul him back to the settlement to face justice for Neri’s death.

Neri’s twin, Seri, explains to Ron what her tribers know: a hunting party crossed paths with the trade wagon Neri hired on with to return to her settlement. The encounter went bad, people were killed on both sides, and the trade wagon caught fire. The tribers eventually won the fight. When the went among the wreck to claim their fallen tribers and the spoils the discovered the wagon held the burnt bodies of several slave girls. One wore a [necklace|bracelet|trinket] which identified her as Neri.

Ron shares with Seri that he’s seen Neri in Gordawn since that encounter and that Neri can’t be dead. Seri wants to believe him but there isn’t time to convince her people before Ron’s punishment [whatever that is]. Seri frees him and they must make their way back to Gordawn to find Neri.

372 words on day 523