[Though inaudibly, Joshua takes a deep breath. Chesed rubs her head against his leg, because she can feel his pain, and not just the physical kind. His last memories of New Canaan... too many dead. How quickly he’d fallen back into leading people, slipped back on the commanding tone. It hurt him to think back on the terror he’d brought down on them, that they were subject to it because of the charity they’d extended to him.
But that isn’t what the question was.]
New Canaan, or what remains of it, is a good distance to the North, not far from the Great Salt Lake, and with a mountain range to the East. Many of the pre-war buildings were kept in good shape, and where we could not do that, we built anew in their place. It was peaceful and full of life. Perhaps one of our greatest treasures were our books. We had a printing press we’d managed to restore to working order. We kept peaceful relations to all tribes in the area with whom it was possible, and caravans travelled some distance to come to us. Though most who lived in New Canaan were of our tribe, we extended our hospitalities to those who were not, and welcomed any who wished to stay.
[He pauses. It doesn’t occur to him to perhaps leave it at that, and he doesn’t entirely keep the anger out of his tone, either. ]
But the White Legs descended on us in numbers, slaughtering anyone who did not run fast enough. The children, the elderly. Any who stopped to help the wounded. We fled. I do not know what has become of the city, but it won’t be much different from any other place in the wasteland now.
no subject
But that isn’t what the question was.]
New Canaan, or what remains of it, is a good distance to the North, not far from the Great Salt Lake, and with a mountain range to the East. Many of the pre-war buildings were kept in good shape, and where we could not do that, we built anew in their place. It was peaceful and full of life. Perhaps one of our greatest treasures were our books. We had a printing press we’d managed to restore to working order. We kept peaceful relations to all tribes in the area with whom it was possible, and caravans travelled some distance to come to us. Though most who lived in New Canaan were of our tribe, we extended our hospitalities to those who were not, and welcomed any who wished to stay.
[He pauses. It doesn’t occur to him to perhaps leave it at that, and he doesn’t entirely keep the anger out of his tone, either. ]
But the White Legs descended on us in numbers, slaughtering anyone who did not run fast enough. The children, the elderly. Any who stopped to help the wounded. We fled. I do not know what has become of the city, but it won’t be much different from any other place in the wasteland now.
[He stares hard into the flames.]