Abandoned - Darkstone Castle - Story 55

[kid1293]

Ah, a new story! Great!

[Abandoned]

   What?  No? 

[Abandoned]

Chapter 25

  The villagers and Elven Council were not interested in establishing a new settlement no matter what the reason but Bostoney had other ideas.  I argued what did we know about establishing a town, we were gatherers and conjurers and since we were half-elves we would not even be conjurers.  He said I would know a lot because I had always spent so much time going through town records.  Even though we were Dark Elves, being half-elves, we would never be decision making members of the Council of Elders.  Bostoney and I and our son would only be laborers and gatherers for the rest of our lives. Bostoney was 32, I was 25, and our son was almost 9.  Bostoney found 5 other half-elf couples that felt the same.

  I had my doubt about how much help we could provide to the swamp dwellers and wondered if we  could provide for ourselves.  I wondered if our ancestors would have survived here without the villagers help.  The center of the Coven settlement was a gatherer's hut.  I was still the gatherer in the Dark Forest valley.  We had 3 hedgerows we gathered from, one inside the castle walls.  The villagers, on the other hand, hunt and fish and raise farm animals, they grow and mill wheat and bake bread, they make clothes and tools. 
 
The population in autumn of year 66 was 258, 167 adults, 43 students, and 48 young children, 23 of us would be leaving.   We may not survive but we would give it a good try.  The pirate captain would send the ship to take us upriver as far as the big lake near Lakeland.  The ship would fly whichever flag was safest to fly at the time.  We would make our way from there to the settlement site. 

  So, weary traveler, here we are.  We arrived in Darkmoor Haven in spring of year 67 in the poring rain with little more than a handful of seeds and seedlings and magically protected books.  We did not expect to find other elves here already, but they welcomed us and we all got along.   We learned a lot from the Darkmoor Haven half-elves and tried to make their lives easier by doing what we do best, laboring and gathering, the heavy work, tree cutting and log hauling, stone and iron gathering and hauling.  We provided market carts and workers to bring those heavy materials closer to their woodcuttter and blacksmith.  With their help we were able to do what we came to do, to help the pirates help the swamp dwellers. 

  I often wonder if the shipwreck survivors back in Darkstone were as lucky as we have been.



The End