Okay, I’ve been promising my Tweeps that I would post an excerpt from my novel. So, here’s my prologue. It goes way back in time, but gives a hint about what’s REALLY going on here. This is still a first draft, so bear with me if it’s a bit rough. But I kind of like it. So, without further ado:
He awoke to discover a letter on his desk. Or rather, that one of the blank sheets he had on his desk was no longer blank. His cartographer friend had news for him. Perhaps this was it. Perhaps what he had been looking for for over a millennium had been found. His hands shook as he picked the letter up.
Nicolaus,
You asked me to be on the look-out for strangely named towns on my tour of the western continents, and while I have found a few that I had thought at the time might interest you, and mapped them out, the one I found this week is of particular interest. Despite you not telling me why you asked, I believe I have found what you were looking for. On the bank of the Mississippi River, in a territory where most of the town names are either French or native in origin, I have found one that is decidedly Italian. Though its origin is the smallest oddity of it, for the name itself is possibly the oddest choice possible for a town. It is called Sangue Collina, which I have been told means Blood Hill. Discreet inquiries have given no indication of any kind of battle having taken place in the area. And in fact, most of the citizens we spoke with had no idea why it was named thus, and could only say that it “always had been”. Indeed, the citizens seem to know nothing of the name’s meaning, and we chose not to enlighten them. After all, we were starting to nurture our own theory about just who it was that founded and named this town, and to speak of such thoughts would have either gotten us laughed out of town or led to quite the witch hunt. I am sure that you can guess just where my mind has been going with it.
It seems that our nocturnal friends have reached the new world before us. Though if I am correct in this thinking, they have been cautious stewards, as there have been no more unexplained disappearances, or odd deaths, here than anywhere else on this continent. I see no reason not to leave them to their town, though if you have reservations about such a thing, please let me know. After all, I am but a simple cartographer, you are the one best suited to see possible future implications of either action or inaction. Barring any word from you to the contrary, we will be leaving here by the end of the week.
I hope you see why I believe this to be the town you were looking for. Everything about it is quite odd, not just the name. Though that is extremely strange. I have mapped the area to the absolute best of my abilities, and will send the maps to you. And, of course, the town has been added to the main map so you’ll be able to find it. If this was not what you were looking for, let me know, and I shall keep you informed of any other such towns, as well as send you information on the others we already found.
Your friend
The moment the name of the town was given, he knew that his friend had indeed found exactly what he was looking for. He went immediately to the large map on the table in the other room and found the Mississippi River. He traced down the river until he found it, then stuck a pin in that spot. Every Time Mage in the world would now know, as soon as they looked at their copies of the map, that Sangue Collina had been found.
He stared at the map, unable to pull his eyes away from the place, half a world away, where the fate of the world would someday be decided.
And now for a short little thing I found. I have no idea what I had planned to do with it, since it doesn’t fit anywhere. Possibly it was meant to be a prologue. But, since I like my OTHER prologue better as a prologue, this poor little paragraph has nowhere to go – except here.
Sangue Collina. It’s name means blood hill and many a historian has spent far too many hours hunched over old records, trying to find some indication of the battle or tragedy that earned it its name. They looked in vain. Those that know the truth about who founded it have their own theories, though. Perhaps one of them, or even both of them, is correct. Those in the know suggest that it was to the founders what a name like New Hope or New Haven would have been to a human. A hope for a brighter future. For the founders of Sangue Collina, a land flowing with blood would have been a mecca. Others, those who know even more, suggest that the battle it was named for simply hasn’t happened yet.
Hi there, I read your blogs like every week. Your writing style is witty,
keep it up!