The Crossing - Chapter 2

cute cat being cute

found footage

Some people seem to think that the world does not yet have enough faux-found-footage fake-umentary style fiction films.

I disagree.

This.

A Couple of Notes

In The Crossing (current WIP novel) I hesitate to refer to the camp of travelers as refugees or exiles, since although they left their home in order to escape war and being threatened (also raided, plundered, etc) by local armed forces and mercenary types... they weren't specifically evicted or told to leave, nor forced out because of their culture, race, beliefs, or any other such sort of thing. Not... directly.

It was more like, they wanted to remain peacefully neutral and not join the fighting, and being in small unfortified villages and hamlets in the countryside, they simply were easy targets for people who wanted to pick up supplies in quick raids... because of where they lived, and not because of who they were (except for their choice to be neutral). The survivors of the raids found these conditions intolerable, and decided to pack up and leave instead of moving to join any of the (sort of) neighboring fortified burgs that were at war with each other. This doesn't quite fit with a lot of what I read about current common definitions of 'refugees' and I don't wish to confuse people nor in any way minimize the plight of people in the real world on planet Earth who have become refugees or exiles because of their religion/beliefs, culture, ethnicity, or other sorts of differences. I also hesitate to refer to them as 'nomads' because although they have taken up a nomadic sort of existence, it is more of a temporary thing (they hope) like pilgrims or pioneers traveling out of necessity while they seek out a new home to settle in, and not an inherited, cultural way of life like I think the word 'nomad' usually denotes. Likewise, I don't want to refer to them as 'travelers' because it seems in some parts of Europe, that word (in English) specifically is used (perhaps as slang) to refer to the Romani people and their cultural way of life, which is also not what is going on in The Crossing. Sometimes in hash tags I am putting 'traveling people' because I am not sure what else to refer to their current nomadic sort of way of life as, since although they might accurately be referred to as a type of pioneers (in Bennuma) that term could also be confused with a specific time period and the geographic area of North America... and similar issues with the term 'pilgrims' exist, in addition to that term typically also designating having religious reasons for traveling, or 'making a pilgrimage'.

Perhaps eventually I might figure out what would be a term to use that I'd consider ideal, or at least acceptable. For now, it's something of a muddle to me.

Also note: regretfully, I cannot currently be sure to post updates to the Crossing WIP novel @bennuma-crossing according to a regular schedule (as also, the informational, sometimes-containing-short-stories, worldbuilding sort of background blog @legends-of-bennuma) but I am trying to do so without huge gaps in time between posts. After section 1.7 of The Crossing, I plan to get into what I currently consider to be chapter 2... the novel being more or less a first draft, someday after the thing is completed perhaps the novel will be divided differently chapter-wise, I don't know yet... admittedly I sometimes get in a muddle over where to make chapter divisions.

WIP novel progress

(see @bennuma-crossing for most recent and all previous sections of the story, skip pinned intro post if desired)

Starting chapter 3 of my WIP-titled story "The Crossing" ...about a camp of people who fled a bronze-age equivalent war zone in a magic-deprived portion of a fantasy world, who come across a traveler from a different (magic-rich) part of the world, who shows up and helps the people from the camp when they need it most, only asking to travel with them in return.

Who is this stranger, where did she come from, and what is her real objective? How will they find a new home where they can live in peace and safety, and what part will be played by the (arguably) most broken man in the camp?

(note: though originally intended to be an adventure story, future chapters may contain a love story, but rest assured I will be keeping it SFW)

also, if anyone happens to prefer blogspot format for reading long posts, you can find the same story on my blog here:

My emotional support animals are plush.

Totally where I have been for a while.

I know I have OCD issues...

...when I edit a tiny part of a larger section of writing for something small, but have to re-read over the entire thing several times in a row in order to check for typos; and the nagging feeling that I've missed one remains. This after having already done so many times back when the section was originally posted, and... also when it was originally written out prior to making a blog post for it.

art

note:

art for my blogs is credit to Ada St. of @creatures-by-ada-street ...which was for a time called Ada St. WIPs because of being mainly a blog of in-progress art?

Anyway, all drawings, photographs, and logo designs I am currently using on my blogs are by Ada St.

Huzzah!

So, btw... I have another blog for writing stuffs, it's fairy tale soup for when I can't focus on my more serious writing and play with short stories old-school styles.

Duck.

"Never shall I Ever be a Soup!"

Illustration for the opening story @onceuponasoup

Digital painting using GIMP :)