You’re a weary traveller, out on a contract for a cattle rancher who’s looking for fertile valleys with cheap farmland to expand his stock. In your search for new ground, you’ve pushed farther into the jungle-covered mountains than you’ve ever gone before.
All day, you’ve thought about turning back — the terrain here is punishingly steep, with barely a place to put a foothold — but you haven’t seen another soul in weeks and you’ve heard rumours of a village somewhere in the mountains nearby.
You’d love somewhere to rest your head, and maybe they can even help you with your task. Your boss doesn’t like you to return with empty hands…
You round the corner, and enter a rare patch of sparse cover, almost meadow. You crane eagerly forward, but your view of the next real valley is still blocked by another ridge…
Just then, from up ahead, you head the unmistakeable clatter of tack, and the gentle breath in and out of livestock. Not like the small creatures of the wild — these animals are unworried of being overheard, because of human protection. Then you hear a clear, low-pitched whistle. A man’s voice, you think. You don’t recognise the melody he’s whistling, but it’s sweet.
You let out your own breath in relief and give a shout. “Hoy! Over here!”
A train of several mules rounds the corner, headed by just one figure: a pale-skinned man of about fifty. He has a kind face, with broad forehead and aquiline nose, and although he is tall for the folk in these parts, he sits with a slight stoop, as though weighed upon by the years. He has a slender moustache, well maintained, although the circles around his eyes suggest great weariness. He’s wearing the standard garb of the people who work the land in this area.
He spots you right away, and leads his mules over. “Hello, señor. Are you lost?”
Excuse me, OP, but you have the gift of writing- this is the absolute best thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
This is my jam, okay? This is my kind of writing even though I can’t actually write it. Gothic is so good and this is just absolutely top-tier. I am physically biting back words I am not allowed to say because this is incredible.
I want so much more of it. Like, all the Encanto Gothic. I want to bury myself in it.
The prose?!! hello?!! Who said you could put words together like that?? The suspense? It’s awesome and I am jealous. How did you do it? Give me your secrets!
This may just be the best thing I’ve reblogged in a long time. Masterfully done, OP. This is BEYOND amazing.
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