The Progenitors

Side Story - The Founding of Wilhelm (Part 1)

I'm in a hurry today, and Side Stories area always so much easier to write than the main sotry. So onwards, to another Side Story!

On the bright side, I'm going to at least try to develop the background of the wonderful little country my book takes place in as I procrastinate and write background material like this. At least I have a purpose as I find a way to get away from writing what happens to Hallen next. (Because I've thought about it, and I'm not sure how to stretch what I have remaining into a 50k word novel. On the bright side, if I do side stories every couple chapters - or every other chapter like I seem to be doing - that will be a good way to flesh out Rhal. Stuff that I put into these might even make their way into their own book of side stories, if I include this feature into other novels I write as well.

So I'm sorry the main plot is going so slow... >.<

One last thing to justify what I'm doing (I'm the author - I need no justification! :P) - hopefully, with all of these sidestories, I'll be able to keep my momentum up. At least I'm writing about something rather than relegating this novel to the pile of unfinished work that every author seems to have. That's one good, tangible, benefit, right? All of my readers get to have something to read, and I don't feel guilty for neglecting people. ^.^

So - now to start with the side story, a small little feature on the foudning of Wilhelm and Lord Dule's rise to power. I actually think that this might be a multiple part story, seeing as I just now thought of a whole bunch of ways that the town could start, and most of them involve a series of events that couldn't be contained in one chapter.

So here we go... :|

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William stopped the his horse to look up at the sun - the heat was going to go and kill the entire caravan.

The sun had been merciless over the past few days, and they had already lost most of their pack animals to its scourge. They hadn't seen any water in multiple days, and the thirst that everyone was experiencing was enough to drive plenty of people mad. The only reason people hadn't gone insane was because they were too busy sitting on their horses and sweating on the road to the valleys ahead.

The town of Lorcroft was much too small to support the entire population that had come to live there, so many of the people had continued onwards down the road to the East in search of a new place to settle. It was said that there were valleys filled with caves, forests, game, and resources farther to the East for those willing to take the long journey to get there. They had been searching for the land they had heard of for almost a week now - and if they didn't find it within a few more days, their chances of ever finding it would decrease drastically has people started dying off.

He shook his head - that wouldn't happen. He had been the supervisor of multiple such caravans, and none of his groups had died on him yet. That was why people payed him so well - if you went with an established caravan master, the chances of you surviving went up drastically. The bad caravan masters didn't get to ply their trade for very long. Too many ways to die out in the wilderness; William had seen most of them. He had watched most of them in action, too. Caravan trips were rarely peaceful, and he had never had an entire group die on him before. He still lost the occasional child, man, or woman who thought that they were smarter than he was.

Good riddance.

The number of truly idiotic people in the world never ceased to amaze him. That was the reason why people like him were in such high demand - without someone with sense leading the caravan, everyone almost always died. It was a nice way to live - the thinking-impaired gave him large amounts of money to think for them, and as long as he did his job well, most of the suicidal travellers survived.

He could see the valley that they had set out for in the distance ahead. The fact that he could see it at all was a good sign, but it was still much too far away to be reached without water or food - facts that were abundantly cear given the fact that every day, the caravan grew a little smaller as people wouldn't get up in the morning and were left behind.

This could be the first caravan William Dule had failed to protect.