Abandoned - Overland Trail -part 5- Wayward - Story 48

[Abandoned]

Intro


This is the 48th story in the Smallville series and the 5th and last part of the Overland Trail mini series.  This story continues the tale of the 16th expedition to leave Smallville. Six families went south to Outskirts and became part of a wagon train going in search of family and friends left behind when the lowlands flooded years earlier.  The wagons left Outskirts in early spring of year 50 SVT and traveled overland arriving in the town of Skyview of story 44 in late summer.  In autumn, two families left the wagon train heading to the Animal Refuge. The wagon master, storage wagon, and four families continued on and arrived in the town of Respite of story 45 in late winter.  They left Respite in early spring of year 51 SVT.   The four families then detoured to the nearby Refugee Camp to make inquires, only 2 of them rejoined the wagon master at the river before crossing to arrive at the Rescue Mission of story 46 in late summer of that year.  At the Rescue Mission they were asked if they could  take much needed supplies to a drought stricken area where missionaries have gone to help.  In the summer of year 53 the wagon train left the Rescue Mission, made a stop at the Mountain Mission of story 2 where one family remained.  The wagon train then headed south to the Mountain Missions Markets of story 47.  After 5 years of helping the missionaries establish that town, the wagon master and 1 remaining family left on the 1st day of autumn and were headed back to Smallville, the same way they came.


Map #    909681422   Valley Arid,   Small,  Mild ,  disasters Off,  Hard (vanilla, 4 families)


Mods enabled in load order:


Starting and Map Changing Mods:  Call of Nature Soundtrack, Banished UI Maps, Labor Window, RK Minimized Status,  New Maps, Jinxie Natural Decorations, Kid Tree Replacer Light, New Flora Edit

Tweak Mods:   Better Fields, Bigger Wheelbarrows, Fishing Dock 25%, Hunting, Increased CC,  1:1 Alternative, override Black Clothes (new, testing), Rocks Respawn, Woodcutter +3

Major or Must Have Mods:  An Empty Square, Map Scroll (made for story only), Storage Crates, Kid Abandoned Places, Kid Friendly Pumpkin (new, testing), Kid GrowHuntFish, Kid Old Town,  Kid Westward Ho Wagons, Kid Workplace v2, Mini Buildings, Mini Warehouse (Kid)

Supporting Mods:    Campfire, Creepy Cemetery, Deco Sunflowers (Kid), I See Fire, Jinxie Festival Park, Kid - Coven (new, testing), Kid Fish n Ships, Kid Market Food, Kid Mist, Kid New Pump, Kid Tree Topper (new, testing), Small Tipi, Small Town Hall (Kid), Tiny Chopper, Tiny Quarry



  So, weary traveler, can you believe it?  That strange woman in black clothing we met outside the Mountain Mission Markets said this was a short-cut back to the Rescue Mission, and now we're lost in the woods. How did she know we were going to the Rescue Mission?   I thought after so many years in the hot red desert it would be nice to be in the cool forest, and now we're lost.  We've met with dead ends, thick impassable forest areas, and have gone around in circles.  We're not out of the woods yet, weary traveler.  Which way do we go now?

[Abandoned]

Chapter 1

  Welcome to Wayward, travelers.  My name is Cordelila and my husband is Aurthurman.  From what you told me, I think Which Way Woods would be the perfect name for our woods.  I am glad you made it through the woods before the weather got any worse.  I have no idea why someone would tell you there was a shortcut through these woods, they are dense and have steep hills, and I've never heard of a Rescue Mission.

  You say the woman was wearing black clothes like we are?  Interesting, hmmm.  Yes, our clothes are quite different.  We donned them when we were in mourning, we were the only 4 families to survive the outbreak of yellow fever.  We buried our dead and moved a short distance away to the south to start over.  We discovered that the dark color absorbed the sun and was much warmer to wear here in the chilly forest. We've worn the dark clothing ever since, but I can't imagine that anyone from here would have been that far south or would have told you such a thing.

There's not much else in this area though.  There's only the Native settlement of Cedar Creek in the prairie to the north that I know of.  One of their hunting parties used to hunt in these woods.  They gave our parents pumpkin seeds and corn seeds and taught them to plant fish parts with the corn to help it grow.  We've done the same since we settled here the year after the epidemic.  My husband, Aurthurman, was woodcutter and I was the tailor.  We built a smith, and a sheep shed.  There was a nice hedgerow and a nut grove but there weren't enough of us to work all those jobs and our pumpkin and corn patches too.  That 1st year only 1 of our 4 corn patches got planted in time for a harvest.  We had snow in late autumn.  We did quite well though, we had a mini town hall and school and had plenty of firewood and a variety of foods for the coming winter.

  I'd be happy to tell you more about our town history, and I am hoping perhaps you can shed some light on a problem we've been having here. It may be connected to your mysterious woman with the cart.  It's snowing again and it looks like you will be here for quite a while, we'll have plenty of time to talk.

[kid1293]

If someone wants to play with black clothes I have a small override for them.

[Abandoned]

  Thanks @kid1293 for release.  The black clothes really add atmosphere.


Chapter 2


  By early spring of year 2 we found a tree north of town to use as a forester station but at the time we had no spare worker to cut or plant trees.  Again we did not have enough workers for the 4 corn patches, all 4 were planted but only 1 patch would be worked by Anjanell.  She was disturbed when a large flock of crows descended on the corn patches and nothing she could do would scare them away.  The constant cawing was a bit unnerving.  When Aurthurman got caught up with cutting firewood, he made a wood frame that I tailored clothes for and turned it into a scarecrow, but it did not scare away the crows.

  By late summer we found another tree a short distance away from the tree forester that could be used by a hunter.  We hoped fall hunting would be good, we were short of leather for warm coats, we only had wool.  It snowed in late autumn and Glenwoody, the hunter, was tracking a herd of deer when he made a disturbing discovery in the woods to the east of town.  He found an old cemetery with an iron fence and gate that was ajar.  There were old tombstones and a crypt but he did not investigate further because the temperature dropped dramatically and it began to snow heavier.  He said the wind started to howl eerily through the trees and it was quite creepy.  Any attempt to investigate further met with the same weather change, a sudden drop in temperature, snow, and wind.  We decided to wait until spring before venturing there again.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 3


  Trying to investigate the creepy cemetery in spring met with no better luck.  As soon as any of us got near the cemetery it would cloud up and begin to rain heavily.  The wind would pick up and howl and the temperature would drop.  An cold eerie mist would rise up from the ground and surround the gravestones and crypt.  No one wanted to venture inside the gate to see if there were any inscriptions on them.

  One such cool rainy day that spring the crows in the corn patches were especially noisy.  So much so that it drew several of us out to see what was the matter.  The temperature seemed to drop.  To our surprise we found 8 strangers in the corn field,  5 adults and 3 children.  They were totally disoriented, they did not seem to know how they got here or where they came from.  The older couple with a newborn kept repeating they wanted a treehouse because of the floods.  Their son, the youngest adult of the group, was no more than a child and should have been in school.  Our mini school had only 1 student but soon there would be 2 more.  The other couple said nothing but seemed quite happy with the house that was built in the woods by the forester and hunter.  Their 2 children, a boy and a girl, were 4 year old twins.  They stood side by side and spoke together in monotone voices saying "We don't like it here."  Everyone who heard then was left with an unsettling chill feeling.

  The newcomers fit right in and were willing workers but said little.  They appeared to be extremely unhappy or in some kind of a trance.  The twins also spoke little but when they did they continued to speak as one, saying the same thing at the same time.

  Our nut grove was producing well, we had a lot of pecans by autumn.  The crows left the corn patches in late autumn and the cool damp and dreary weather set in, it was depressing.  We thought warm roasted nuts would cheer people up a bit.  We evaluated our workforce and figured we could spare 1 worker out of our 13 adults to operate a nut roaster.  By the end of year 3 a nut roaster was built with covers, like the woodcutter had, over the roasting bins.  A firewood storage pile was built nearby.  Not only did our town have 13 adults but it had 13 young children as well.

[angainor88]

Oooo spooky!

[Abandoned]

  Thanks, nice to know I am succeeding.


Chapter 4


    That winter was cold and snowy but we had warm coats now.  The warm roasted nuts were a welcome treat.  The days were short and often dark and dreary as we hurried home at the end of the day.  The hoot of an owl was heard in the distance.

  The crows began returning in early spring of year 4.  There were not as many as before, maybe because 2 workers were tending the corn patches this year.  There was 1 worker in the nut grove and 1 roasting nuts.  We had a woodcutter, blacksmith, tailor, herdsman, forester, hunter, fisherman, and a teacher.  That left only 1 general laborer.  We would stop roasting nuts until the cooler weather of autumn returned.

  No matter what the weather, it would always get colder and snow or rain when the cemetery was approached, no one ventured beyond.  We were concerned because the place seemed to draw the children to it.  I put on my warm coat and did some investigating myself.  There was nothing engraved on the crypt and none of the gravestones had  a date, but some had a symbol.  Some were hard to read but others were not.  All the names I could read were girl's names: Alizon, Cassandra, Esmeralda, Evanora, Minerva, Samantha, and Ursala.   

  I discussed my findings with several people when I returned to town and one of the newcomers said there were wayward girls at the Mission.  Really, travelers, you were told as children that the Mountain Mission was a school for troubled girls, how interesting.  The newcomer would say no more, she did not know if she was from the Mission but seemed puzzled. She seemed more alert and lucid after that though.   We thought this was a strange out-of-the way place for the Mission to bury young girls but decided to name our town Wayward in their memory.

   In late spring of year 4, after the rain, the temperature rose and we found 14 more strangers in the corn fields.  They were in the same disoriented state as the others.  They did not know how they got there or where they came from.  We were concerned and leery but it was nice to have more workers.  We found another hunting tree west of town.  We were concerned we may be infringing on Native hunting grounds but we needed the leather.  We had not seen a hunting party in a few years.  We assigned a hunter to the newly discovered hunting tree and also assigned more workers to the corn patches and forester tree.  And we built houses.  Another couple built a tree house, they may have come from the same place as the first couple but they did not appear to know each other.  Two babies were born to these newcomers, and Wayward's population rose to 45, 25 adults, 3 students, and 17 young children.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 5


  By early spring of year 5 we assigned a forester to transplant apple seedling from the hedgerow.  There was room for an apple orchard near the new storage barn.  With the growing number of children we needed more fruit.  Our concern for the children was growing especially after the strange twins made a discovery on the far side of the creepy cemetery. The stone star circle that they told us of was just that, a circle made of large stones surrounding a star made of smaller stones.  It was not something the children could have made while playing.  It was a symbol of some kind like the ones engraved on some of the gravestones.  Beyond the symbol, in the far distance, through the pouring rain, we could faintly make out what appeared to be a thicket of twisted dead trees like the ones near the cemetery.  More than ever we wanted to keep the children away from this area.

  Plans for a festival park, where they could play, and a new school began immediately.  Our small outdoor classroom only had room for 5 students.  We already had 3 students and 3 children would reach school age very soon.  Next to the park we built a fall food market thinking a treat of baked apples would also keep them close by.  Laborers were sent to the new apple forest nearby to gather the apples.

  We were very glad, earlier in the year, to see campfire smoke in the distance signaling the return of the Native Hunting party.  First chance we got, Aurthurman and I gathered together some gifts of fruits and nuts and tools before making our way to their camp.  We spoke a few words of their native tongue and they spoke a few of ours.  The last few years, they had been hunting further north. They were not concerned with the closeness of our hunting tree to their hunting grounds, they trusted we would not over-hunt.  They were puzzled by our tale of the mysterious strangers that appeared in our cornfield.  They only said there was much bad medicine here when we told of the graveyard and stone symbol.  They followed us silently to the stone circle. The rain stopped and the sun came out.  They were not familiar with the symbol but sensed no evil.  They would speak to their tribal elders before returning.

[kid1293]

Nice, creepy, cozy fall...

[Abandoned]

   I think it is those Tree Replacer maple trees that are adding the warm cozy fall color all year long, I added the creepy 

[Abandoned]

Chapter 6


  Spring of year 6 arrived as usually, and so did the crows.  The crows began cawing and the rain began to fall, but this time the temperature did not drop dramatically.  Five strangers appeared in the corn field seemingly out of nowhere.  Like the others, they could not say how they got here or where they came from but one of the boys told his parents he was sorry and didn't mean to do it.  A few other children who arrived with earlier groups chimed in and said they were sorry too.  None of the children would say what it was they were sorry for doing.

  We assumed that the reason the temperature did not drop when the strangers arrived was because we built a chapel near the graveyard to help ward off the bad medicine the Natives said permeated our town.  The builders experienced the pouring rain and cold until the chapel was completed, then it cleared and the temperature returned to normal.  Although the cold mist still hovered around the gravestones the dramatic weather changes near the cemetery and town ceased.

  The Native hunting party did not return that year but a Shaman and Tribal Elders did.  They said little but performed several dances, chants, and cleansing ceremonies with feathers and burning herbs around town, near the cemetery, and the stone circle.  They did not know the meaning of the star circle but felt no evil from it, only balance and harmony.  To further aid our town they carved a red squirrel totem.  Squirrels have powerful medicine, they teach about balance and gathering and being prepared for the future. The red squirrel is considered to be the sentinels of the forest.  They will chatter and scold when strangers appear. Just before the tribesmen left, the Shaman said the crows speak of dark magic.  The Natives have not returned since then.

  The red squirrel totem did make us think and consider the future.  We had enough food and resources at present but would our production rate be enough if the influx of strangers continue?   We built a fruit gatherer near the apple forester, and found another hunting tree south of town where several herds of deer were sighted.  Two new houses were built for the newcomers.  Wayward's population was 58, 29 adults, 7 students, and 22 young children.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 7


   Early spring was cold and damp, just warm enough to rain instead of snow.  Several of the strangers that appeared in the cornfield were coughing and sneezing, making us think perhaps they did not come from too far away.  We hoped it was only coughs and colds and not something more serious, but again we thought of the future and to be prepared just in case, we built a hospital near the new pumpkin patch.

  Irelainey, who worked the old pumpkin patch, reported that she thought a lot of food had been taken from the small shed next to her house since she stored pumpkins there the day before.  Abigayla, who lived in the house behind Irelainey's, said she had awakened long before dawn and thought she heard something outside in the direction of the shed.  One of the newcomers said that the Witching Hour was between 3 and 4 am before she turned and walked away.  We all just stared after her until Abigayla said that one day she too thought food and other items were missing from that shed when she went to store apples from the hedgerow in it.

  After the newcomers arrived, as was now our custom, when the weather cleared and someone had time, some scouting of the area was done to try to at least determine the direction from which they had come.  From across the river had previously been ruled out, there was no bridge of any kind and the river was too swift at this time of year to cross any other way.  The hunter in the woods to the south saw no sign of anyone having been through the woods there.  Nothing to the north where the Natives used to camp was disturbed either.  That left to the east past the cemetery.

  Aurthurman and Glenwoody went off that way and reported that as they approached the thicket of dead trees, the crows began cawing loudly and it began raining heavily.  They thought they saw some movement on the other side of the thicket but it then began to lightning so they turned to hurry home.  They did make one discovery though.  Outside the thicket among the rocks they found an old wooden pull cart.  It appeared to have been there a while and it was empty.  When you have a chance, travelers, you may want to go take a look to see if it is the one the woman you met outside the Mission Markets had with her.

[kid1293]

Frustrating little comments, if I may say. 

Good story and it really gets me into the fall. We have misty mornings
so I can relate to it

[Abandoned]

  Very seasonal 


Chapter 8


  Aurthurman and Glenwoody made several trips back to the thicket but the rain and crows kept them from investigating further.  The crows kept the vigil even when the snow began to fall.  The two men considered waiting until after dark when the crows would be asleep but they did not really want to be out past that cemetery at night and in the cold.  They would wait until next year.

  In early spring of year 8, our storage units for produced goods were near capacity.  We built several small sheds and another small barn.  In spring, 2 families of strangers arrived in the corn field.  We thought they came from the same town and may have been related although they did not act as if they even knew each other.  However, they were usually together and both wanted the same stone shack built close to each other near the river.  They both wanted a small town hall built there too.  We thought it was a good idea to have town records in more than one place so the town hall was built as well as a matching small stone shed.

  What made their arrival different was the fact that it began to rain when the crows began to caw but it cleared immediately and the temperature rose as if the newcomers brought the warm weather with them.  Perhaps they were from the south.  The corn farmers did not see them arrive, they just seemed to appear out of nowhere.  Like the others they did not know where they came from or how they got here.  The others had still not remembered anything.

  We had more than enough supplies on hand, it is no wonder we had to build more storage units, but we were more concerned for these families.  Would they ever remember their lives prior to arriving here?  Weren't there people somewhere who missed them?  How many more would arrive and from where?  And why? 

  The frost was early on the pumpkins that year and we still had no answers.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 9


  Last year, year nine, was much the same as any other except for a few exceptions. 

  Aurthurman and Glenwoody made several trips back to the thicket.  The cart was still there and so were the crows but on one occasion in early spring the rain was lighter and they could faintly make out the outline of houses behind the thicket.  They again thought they saw movement and this time they called out but the crows rose such a racket they feared they would be attacked.  They thought they heard an evil laugh as they retreated for home. Your mysterious woman with the cart may live back behind that thicket, travelers.

  The strangers that arrived in the corn field in late spring brought a blast of cold air with them.  They obviously came from somewhere cold, they were wearing beautiful warm fur coats.  Like the others they could tell us nothing and luckily the cold blast did not last long enough to damage the newly planted corn and pumpkins.

  Summer was beautiful and uneventful last year.  One could almost forget the dark cloud that hung over our town.  We were reminded of it in autumn when several of the children, including the twins, reported seeing ghosts in the cemetery.  As many times as we adults investigated, we never saw anything out of the ordinary.  One of the newcomers said the last day of autumn was All Hallow's Eve when the spirits of the dead were closest to the earth.  The rest of us preferred to think it was only a distortion of the eerie mist that the children saw.
 
Come winter we were in for another treat.  The latest newcomers built a water wheel on the river and began grinding grain into flour.  They then built a bakery and asked for walnuts to make nut bread.  What few things newcomers remembered were always helpful.  We could hardly wait to try a piece of warm nut bread with our baked apples.