Excerpt of Writing: Comedic Historical Fiction

Greenvale:

A brief history of its foundation

Written accounts of earlier oral tradition were compiled to form most of the information presented.

    First there is Greenvale. Greenvale gets its name for the expansive grasslands and green forests where the village was founded. Forests surround the eastern and southern borders of Greenvale, and lead up into the Greymond Mountains. These mountains also surround and form a barrier on the eastern side. The southern Greymond Mountains completely isolate Greenvale from the Sea of Aldun, which would form the southern border of Greenvale, providing the mountains were not so inconveniently placed there to begin with. Suffice it to say, that with the precipitation from the western sea, and the rivers that flow into the inland areas from the mountain tops, Greenvale was perfectly able to sustain itself. Being cut off from the eastern part of the continent and southern seas did not preclude settlement.

   In the beginning, groups of nomadic tribes from the north began migrating southeast in search of the sea. After several generations, they made it far enough to see the lands change from dry cracked soil, to wetter and grassier valleys. As the tribe grew closer, the valleys grew greener, and the soil more fertile. The first, and likely last generation to see the ocean was led by Jorrok, a large brutish looking figure. Determined to make it to the sea and feast himself fat on fish, Jorrok pressed the tribe onward until the terrain grew rocky. Hills began sprouting up, and forests came into view ahead. The trees were so tall and the hills so jagged that they took months to navigate through the forest. The tribe began to grow weary. But with readily available water and a surprisingly large variety of edible plant life, and wildlife, even the winter dawning could not hold them from the sea. Though, the Greymond Mountains would have something to say about that. After about three months of travel into the forest, the tribe began to feel more lightheaded and dizzy. The cold winter weather was unrelenting. Still, they pressed on. When he noticed the rocks were becoming more jagged and the trees were thinning out, Jorrok began to worry. He also wondered why the last entire month felt as if it were a trek uphill. Soon they came upon an opening in the trees. The bitter chill hit the tribe squarely in the face, and they all looked up in wonder. They were just about three quarters up, on the rocky slope of a large mountain. Things grew worse as Jorrok looked around. He could not see an end to the mountain range. Looking eastward, he noticed the forest had deceptively hid even more of this mountain range. It persisted as far as the eye could see. For the next few days the tribe, led by Jorrok, split up in search of an opening that would lead to the sea. One group traveled up the mountain, one to the west, and one to the east. Jorrok took lead of the charge to the top of the mountain, while the eastern group was led by a smaller more dastardly looking man named Gromblor. Yet to the west, there were no leaders picked, the group merely consisted of the farmers, women, and children. They only deemed it necessary to travel so far west as to be out of sight of the other groups, at which time they would retreat back to the valley. The only problem with this latter strategy was that Jorrok had decreed scouts be sent from each group to meet at a middle point and discuss the progress of their respective groups. So, with the farmers, women, and children went Shorinn as a scout. He was able bodied yet swift, and deftly skilled as a hunter gatherer and all around ranger.

Gromblor

   The fate of Gromblor is detailed as such: Gromblor and his party consisted of shady miscreants and a few lowly bandits. On the second day of the journey, towards the eastern edge, where the mountains turn north, they came upon a crag in the mountain pass. They would have to climb the steep jagged cliff or go miles around it to journey onward. Gromblor, the not so fearless leader, elected Jimbol, a thin frail teenager, to be the first to try to climb. He reasoned that Jimbol’s thin limbs and long fingers and toes would aid him in his climb. And thereby aid in reaching the top and securing a rope ladder for the rest of the party to climb. Gromblor himself being thin and long in the fingers failed to notice the snickers amongst the travelers at his hypocritical choice of Jimbol for this scenario. Jimbol, being the sort of lad that always lacked the approval of a good deed from his absent father, was quick to dispel the chatter when he agreed whole heartedly to traverse the cliff. Had he known Gromblor was not the sort of man to offer loving approval for a job well done, maybe Jimbol would have avoided the ensuing disaster. For two days the tribe gathered grasses and vines and fashioned out a rather lovely ladder of rope for Jimbol. He was given gloves of straw and deerskin to protect his hands from knicks and cuts, and a pair of rather thin but sturdy leather climbing booties. All was well and the weather was ripe for Jimbol’s big adventure. He readied himself for the climb and a small crew assembled to assist him up the first series of escarpments. The rest of the wanderers watched as Jimbol ascended towards the top. Gromblor, being the type of man who could not relinquish leadership, stood directly beneath Jimbol and shouted nice words of encouragement like “hurry up, I haven’t got all day”, or “don’t worry it’s just a flesh wound” and most importantly “ stop knocking rocks off, they are falling near my head you worthless shit”.

    Jimbol smiled at all of Gromblor’s gestures, seeing his lips move but not understanding the words. At last Jimbol reached the top of the cliff and prepared to throw down the rope ladder. He tightly secured the ends of the ladder to a boulder and let the ladder roll open down the side of the cliff. Gromblor, being ever the patient one, insisted he be the first up the ladder, to “make sure it is safe for everyone else.”  As Gromblor tugged on the ladder, an enormous gust blew down from the top of the cliff. Jimbol, the skinny lad, who was wearing a rather large and flappy shirt, was blown off the cliff just as he noticed a potential danger. With the wind gust, Jimbol was blown into the top of an adjacent tree on the other side of the cliff, just above the villagers. As Jimbol began to yell “don’t climb the ladder yet”, Gromblor tugged hard to free the ladder from a jagged surface above him. Jimbol, up in the tree, saw the boulder in which the ladder was secured had tumbled over in the gust after a particularly large tree limb had fallen on it. First Gromblor tugged and felt no slack, and then he started off to climb. The ladder gave way above him and started to fall. The large tree limb that had fallen on the big rock began to fall again and landed in such a way that Gromblor was surrounded by limbs. He could neither see nor hear any of the other tribesmen. The ladder gave way and the large rock began to fall, but it got hung up by debris before it gave way. Gromblor looked up in the tree and yelled a curtly at Jimbol “You didn’t F-ing do it right you worthless pile of PlaaAAAARRRGHHHHH”. Those were Gromblor’s final words as the rock had again fallen from the cliff, struck him squarely above the head, and crushed every bone in his thin frail body. Had the mass of fallen tree limb not been in the way he may have noticed all the other villagers shouting and pointing up as the rock’s 10 second fall to his head began. The rest of the group decided to stay camped here until a newly elected leader could form a plan. After the events of that day, the bandits and miscreants could not elect a new leader without each newly elected leader being stabbed in the back the night following his election, until there was only one bandit left. This particular bandit had just stabbed his predecessor in the back when he realized that he had no-one left to lead but Jimbol, up in the tree. He walked over to the tree and yelled out “hey Jimbol, Get down here. I have stuff I need to tell you to do!”  Jimbol, always obliged to follow orders, was rudely startled out of his sleep by someone yelling, and fell out of the tree. He landed squarely on top of his newly appointed leader, causing him to drop the bloody dagger that he was holding on the ground and fall squarely on top of it. Jimbol recovered himself, being so frail and thin that the pitiful bandit broke his fall. He looked around and noticed that the guy who was yelling at him had accidentally stabbed himself in the back after breaking his fall. He also noticed that there were dead bodies with knives in their backs “sleeping” in every tent. Jimbol now had plenty of meat to nurture himself back to full health and enough traveling supplies to make it back to the valley.

Jorrok

     The fate or Jorrok is detailed as such: In order to find a pathway beyond the mountains, his group advanced along the rocky crags. On the second day of the journey Jorrok and his followers succeeded in finding a narrow crevice that each could pass through one by one. This crevice led into an expansive cave, which Jorrok and his followers determined could possibly lead to the sea on the other side of the mountain. Jorrok had with him nice fellows, but inexperienced in the ways of the wilderness and wild. Jorrok alone could lead, but needed his followers to find strength to carry them through the cave to reach the ocean. After a long day traversing the cave, Jorrok decided to set up camp when they reached a flat, open area. A fire was lit, and everyone was thinking merry thoughts of the ocean around it. Jorrok readied the men for bed and told them all not to worry, and they’d be feasting on fish before they knew it. In truth, Jorrok was not the only man dreaming of a fish dinner that night. All of the men chose to venture with Jorrok because they too wished to feast on fish, and become fish merchants, to sell their catches at expensive prices to all the peoples who live where fish do not. And so they awoke the next morning and traveled onward throughout the cave. Only one man traveled behind. That man was Auric the strong and nimble, who was only slightly smaller than Jorrok himself, but quicker and more intelligent. Auric had been chosen to be the scout, and was ready at a moment’s notice to run back the way they’d came to report the news of this traveling party. Yet still, the group pressed through the cave. The supplies of salted meats they had carried with them were finally starting to dwindle the day they saw light without torches for the first time. As they neared the light they realized it to be an opening to the outside, large enough for all to escape the cave. Jorrok went first. Minutes went by like hours to the men in the damp cave. Jorrok returned and beckoned one man forward. With a smile on his face, he told the man that they had finally found what they were seeking. They had traveled to nearly sea level down through the cave, and the opening led to a cliff that led down to a beach that stretched eastward for miles. Almost every man was already on the cliff then Auric came out last. He could see trees to the west and the slopes of more mountains, and he could see the beach down below stretching east. One thing that puzzled Auric was that the beach stretched for miles to the east, but there was no suitable area large enough to start a colony, at least for as far as he could see. Nearly every mountain ended right where the beach began. Jorrok noticed this as well, but only told the men to press forward, as they would find somewhere to go. Auric followed but stayed to the rear. To reach the beach, the men would have to travel across a narrow ledge. It was about 20 feet above an inlet that led into the cave they had come from. He also made it clear that if any man fell off the ledge into the water, all they need do was swim back into the cave and crawl back out where they emerged from. Before the men would go across the ledge, they decided to camp out up on the cliff and fish for awhile. They had run out of salted meats, and all were growing hungry. Auric was the only man to disapprove, but allowed Jorrok to have the final decision. Jorrok concurred, and the men set out making fishing poles out of the trees and flora in the area. Jorrok decided as a safety measure that the men should also tie their poles to each others. This ensured that if a man lost his pole while fighting a catch, the others would have a reasonable way to recover it. Therefore, no man’s pole would fall into the ocean to scare away the fish. So, using the last of their salted meat as bait, with much disapproval from Auric, the men began to fish. One by one the fish began to pile up on the face of the cliff until the pile was as high as a man. When all the men were satisfied that they had caught enough fish to feast, Jorrok alone asked for one more catch. Auric disapproved. He noticed that they were catching fish rather fast. He learned from his father, whose ancestors lived on the northern shores of the continent, that fish swam in groups like that to evade danger. Perhaps a larger fish was about in these waters. Jorrok had this same idea as well, and ever hungry for a bigger catch, cast his line once more. Minutes went by with no fish in sight. The small ripples they had created before were all but gone. Jorrok then noticed a large ripple down below. It was along the edge of the cliff, near the ledge they were to cross the following day. He neared the ledge with pole in hand and got a bite. It was a big one, a very big one. Jorrok ordered all the other men to keep hold of their poles and help him in his battle with the large fish. As they all neared the ledge they tugged and tugged in hopes of a big one. The fight led the men out onto the ledge, where they could barely keep their balance and fight the fish at the same time. Auric looked on in dismay as he ran over to try and help the men. Jorrok then lost his grip and his pole fell from his hands. It swung back the opposite direction; behind the last man in the line already out on the ledge. Jorrok ordered Auric to try and grab the pole, but Auric refused. Jorrok then grabbed the nearest rock he could find and slung it at Auric, nearly striking him in the head. He shoved his way past all the men on the ledge, back toward the cliff and campsite where they began, to retrieve his pole. As the men put more pressure on their feet to keep their balance on the ledge, a small crack emerged where Jorrok had wrenched free the rock to throw at Auric. Jorrok finally had the pole in his reach and snatched it back up. The crack on the ledge grew with the pressure increasing until one man stepped on it and the ground gave way beneath him. One by one the men were swept down off the ledge as the lines that connected their poles together snapped them backwards. Jorrok failed to notice this until it was too late. He had one advantage in that he was on the cliff and not the ledge. So he peddled back to gain more footing, but never let loose the line. He was now left with a choice. Cut the line to the fish and pull in the men one by one, or cut the line to the men and pull in the fish.

 “They could always just swim back into the cave,” he thought.

   Well, he thought too long. One of the men below panicked and yanked on the line causing Jorrok to lose his footing. He fell into the water as well. Auric ran to the ledge and looked down to see if the men were swimming to safety. Jorrok yelled at each man to hold tight and he would drag them into the cave. He also refused to cut the line to the fish, because after all, he didn’t do all this work for nothing. One by one the men began to sink under water as the bait on their rods was taken by more huge fish. Auric looked in horror as they were all dragged underneath. Every last man was dragged out to deeper water and eaten by the huge fish. Owing to the fact their food supply had been caught by the men, they had taken the bait on the hooks. Auric could only see the unfamiliar sight of dorsal fins from sharks, swimming in circles of blood. Left with no choice, Auric salted and packed the fish the others had caught, carried what he could, and ventured through the cave to tell the fate of his men to the others. When he finally reached his way back to the first entrance of the cave, Auric pulled out a fish from his bag to eat. He noticed that the fish had 2 hooks in its mouth, one crudely made by the men he was with, and another, very well crafted but rusty hook. He reasoned that there had to be a village somewhere through the cave and down the coast. Perhaps it was a village of fisherman. But with the collapsed ledge and shark infested waters, he could not reach it. He dropped the hook to the ground but it snagged on his boot. As he took a step forward the hook caught a vine, which because of Auric’s strong legs, pulled forward and loosened a large rock above the cave entrance. Auric darted forward as the rock fell, completely closing off the entrance to the cave. Auric stopped, carved his name into the rock, and turned and walked away.

Shorrin

     The fate of Shorrin is detailed as such: Not long after the farmers, women, and children departed from the groups of Jorrok and Gromblor, they decided to head back to the valley. This was agreed upon, as no member of the party had ever had to make a responsible decision. The farmers grew crops so that others could eat. They were born, taught by their fathers to grow crops, then taught their own children, and so on and so forth. While the governing bodies of the villages sorted out the affairs of men, farmers just carried on planting crops somewhere out of sight of the busy market. Therefore they did not feel they needed to lead this traveling group anywhere. They merely accompanied them so that they could head back to the valley and plant crops, somewhere out of sight of the busy markets (that will no doubt spring up when the crops are ready to be sold). The women on the other hand had always been instructed by their husbands, because their husbands were, after all, the decision makers of the family. Hence, the women decided to listen to their husbands and follow the farmers, wherever they might lead them. And finally the children, never being known for their successful decision making skills, merely followed their mothers, because, after all, that is what children do anyway. Shorrin on the other hand, being only elected as the groups scout, could not lead the group because he had to stay behind the group. If something were to happen, he had to be ready at a moment’s notice to run back to the meeting place of the scouts. This turned out not to be a good decision, but after all, nobody in this group had made any decisions at this point anyway because they are all just doing what they are told. Shorrin, being the able ranger and woodsman, notices the direction of the group has turned back toward the valley. But because he is so far behind, he cannot lead them in the right direction. Even if he did run to the head of the group and steer them back westward, the group would only turn back toward the direction of the valley as soon as Shorrin was far enough behind them again. This happened many times. The farmers even went so far as to dig a hole with their shovels to trap Shorrin, so they may remind him to stay to the rear forever. They reasoned that the scout should stay behind and not make any attempts to lead. They were convinced that Shorrin was abandoning his duties, thus jeopardizing the group every time he ran forward to coerce them westward. Shorrin, on the other hand, did not like holes very much, so he climbed out of it rather quickly. The prowling jaguar in the forest must have disagreed with Shorrin’s decision to climb out of the hole, so it made a decision to eat Shorrin. The only problem with the jaguar’s decision making skills is that a jaguar usually can only makes decisions to eat, sleep, or lick itself clean. Shorrin being a smart and able bodied hunter and all around ranger could make many decisions, including the drawing of his bow and arrow, which he did. As the jaguar leapt toward the ranger, Shorrin let loose an arrow intending to merely wound the animal. Since he was quite a good bow shot, he managed to pierce the black cat cleanly in its left hind leg. The jaguar fell to the ground whimpering, and then tried to lick the wound clean. Shorrin drew his long-sword and approached the beast casually. He felt bad for the animal, reasoning that it had no choice in the whole trying to eat him thing because it lacked the decision making skills that he had. Just to be safe, Shorrin kept his sword grip tight and bent down towards the animal. He calmed the jaguar and applied a natural plant paste mixture to numb the wound. The jaguar replied with a purr. Shorrin retrieved his arrow from the beast’s thigh, and dressed the wound completely. The jaguar replied by passing out due to the potency of the intoxicant mixture on its leg. Just before falling completely unconscious, the black cat made a smart decision that it would never try to eat Shorrin a second time. Distracted and pressed for time, Shorrin picked up where he left off and began moving frantically north to regain his place at the rear of the group. The farmers, however; had actually traveled westward for once, because without Shorrin running forward to point them west every so often, they had no idea if they were actually traveling north like they wanted. After another day of tracking, Shorrin could find no trace of the group that left him behind. Distraught and hungry, the ranger decided that the group was too far ahead of him, so he set off westward to hunt for food and water. The party, being quasi-led by farmers, had slowed pace when they discovered the trees did an excellent job of shielding them from the rain. They set up camp near a large hollowed tree, inside which they started a fire. The tree was quite good at doing two things. It kept the fire from getting wet, and it piped the smoke up the hollowed trunk like a chimney. Considering that the wounded jaguar was already having a remarkably bad day dealing with the previous night’s arrow ordeal, upon seeing that his house had been set ablaze by pesky humans drove him to make a decision. Being limited in that regard, and feeling somewhat depressed, the black cat decided the only way he would feel better now is to gorge on food. So he decided to eat someone. One of the farmers stood up and yawned as he warmed his hand by the fire. A woman hugged her child and fed him scraps of nuts and berries. The prowling cat sniffed the berries and followed the scent. After the ordeal with being shot by an arrow and all, the jaguar had now discovered he had a slight taste aversion for human beings. His animal instincts had reprogrammed his limited decision making ability to add a fourth decision. He could choose what to eat, when he decided to eat. In this particular instance, the jaguar reasoned that berries would not shoot lethal projectiles anywhere near his general direction, and would be more than happy to be eaten by him as well. The mother had yet to feed any of the freshly picked berries to the young child because she had not yet exhausted her supply of nuts. So the pile of berries lay peacefully placed in a sack near the child. Further out in the woods, Shorrin noticed what looked like a large chimney in the distance. In particular, it was smoke streaming out of a very tall tree. This was quite peculiar, but the smoke trail made it very easy to spot this tree when Shorrin occasionally lost sight of it. The ranger stealthily traversed the night forest in search of the origin of the smoke. As he neared, the ranger could see flashes of firelight originating from the trunk of the smoking tree. Upon reaching the campsite, Shorrin, without hesitating, let loose an arrow. The prowling cat froze in terror as it saw, inches in front of its own two eyes, an arrow. It had blood on the shaft, but not fresh, and what looked to be black fur strands in the metal tip. Shorrin ran forward as the cat trembled, now surrounded by pitchfork wielding farmers. The woman cried that Shorrin had saved her child. The jaguar sat down and thought a few thoughts, including;

“That’s the a-hole who shot me in the leg”, and

“If you’re going to burn down my house, the least you could do is part with a few frickin berries”.

   Of course none of the humans could understand “Purrr purr PPRR growling grrrowl prr growl”, so they didn’t give the cat any berries. Shorrin did however, understand that the cat was wounded and afraid, so he dispersed the crowd and knelt down by the cat. The jaguar, afraid for its life, snatched the berries in its mouth and tried to run. The first thought the jaguar had was

“Wow, these taste good,” followed by,

“At least the berries don’t shoot arrows at me,” followed by,

 “Why is the room spinning?” followed by,

 “I’m not in my room. That’s being burnt down by stupid humans,” followed immediately by the jaguar passing unconscious.

    Had the woman been as keen a woodsman as the ranger, she would have known that the berries she picked for her child were in fact the same berries that Shorrin had picked to numb the wound of a jaguar he had shot with an arrow. The cat lay still on a carpet of leaves as the people gathered around the ranger. In a moment of despair their animal instincts had reprogrammed their limited decision making skills. All the farmers, women, and children reasoned that they would not survive without the ranger’s help. So they elected Shorrin to be their leader. As the traveling group slept the night away, Shorrin decided it would be best for his group to indeed travel to the valley and set up a camp and farm. The jaguar awoke as the group departed, then carefully inspected his burnt down tree house. He decided that his next course of action would be to file an insurance claim against the pesky humans. Since he was, after all, a jaguar, and could not speak, and seeing as insurance had not yet been invented, the jaguar simply ran over to Shorrin and started pawing at him. Shorrin, who could not understand this gesture, failed to respond to the jaguars request for insurance information. So the jaguar just followed close by Shorrin all the way to the valley, because, after all, his house had been burnt down, his leg hurt, and he decided he wanted to eat a cow. Since there was a group of livestock herders among the farmers, this decision would actually work out quite well for the jaguar. Shorrin, noticing the jaguar had grown tamer, decided to name it “Shadow”. And thus the duo of Shorrin and Shadow was born. When the travelers finally reached the tree line to the valley, they found that two other men were camping there in waiting. It was Auric and Jimbol.

Scouts Parley

   The meeting of the scouts is detailed as such.

“Sweet mother of God, Shorrin, is that a frikin’ bobcat?” Jimbol cried out.

 “No, this is my friend Shadow,” Shorrin explained.

While Auric thought to himself “Does God have a mother?”

“No, no, not your shadow, which by the way, I find it disturbing how your body blocking the sun can have a personality” replied Jimbol. “You don’t notice that huge freaking monster of an alley cat behind you.”

 “Yes I do Jimbol, it’s a jaguar, and his name is Shadow.” Shorrin said with a sigh.

 “What? Are you telling me the damn tiger told you his name?” Jimbol cried out.

“It’s not a tiger, it’s a jaguar, and it did not tell me anything. I named it Shadow!” Shorrin exclaimed.

“Well, what did it say when you told it you were changing his name to Shadow?” Jimbol asked.

“It did not say anything because it is a jaguar. It can’t talk, and I only named it because it started following me after I shot it in the leg and the farmers fed it poisonous berries.” Shorrin said, gritting his teeth.

 “Well I don’t think that was very polite of you to shoot and poison your ‘friend’.” Jimbol added, noticing Shorrin’s distaste for the direction of this conversation.

“I’ll explain later”, said Shorrin,”We need to discuss the details of our journeys.”

    Auric could only come up with, “What the hell is the name of God’s mother, and why wasn’t I told about her?”

    In the middle of the three men, Shadow sat back on his hind legs and began to lick himself clean, wondering which of these gentlemen was Shorrin’s insurance agent. For the next few hours each scout described in detail the events that led them to be in the valley. When all the stories had been told, and all the questions had been answered, the men turned their attention towards the future. Auric and Jimbol agreed that Shorrin should take the place of Jorrok as the village leader. They reasoned that he was able to keep his entire group alive when they could not do the same. He was able to save them from danger, lead them to safety, and somewhere in the middle found time to domesticate a mountain lion.

 “A JAGUAR,” Shorrin corrected.

   Throughout this whole ordeal, Shadow remained silent and confused. He had heard everything from bobcat to mountain lion, and tiger to jaguar. Had anyone ever bothered to ask Shadow, and had Shadow possessed the ability to speak, he would have proudly stated that in fact, he was a Panther. Jaguars, being yellow spotted cats of the northwest, were the only medium size wild cats Shorrin had ever run across, and reasoning that a litter of domestic kittens could be any range of colors, he reasoned that Shadow was a black Jaguar. Since first impressions are almost always lasting impressions, and because Shadow did not much care for the name Panther, he allowed himself to be referred to as a jaguar, and from then on he always was. It kind of made him feel somewhat mysterious. Nonetheless, several rules were created that day and set in stone for centuries.

   No man would venture toward Jimbol’s cliff or attempt to climb it because of the dangers that resulted in the entire group’s death.

   It was considered a criminal offense to hold a knife of any kind while standing to the rear of another man.

   No man shall be allowed in another man’s tent without that man’s invitation.

   No man shall try to assassinate any man to inherit his leadership position.  

   No man would try to remove Auric’s rock from the entrance to the caverns, nor attempt to navigate the cave to the beach, because of the dangers that led to the fall of Jorrok and his fishermen.

   Fish was forbidden to eat, and would stay that way so long as it kept villagers from seeking the sea to eat them.

   The berries of the forest were not to be consumed while riding a horse, or operating any weaponry, but they were prescribed regularly for aches and pains.

      There were many other rules, or “laws” set into motion following the meeting of the scouts. While these laws do not play a major role in the future of Greenvale, there are a few worth noting for the simple purpose of understanding its history, for example; because of his history with abandonment Jimbol pushed very hard for a rule to hold wayward fathers responsible if they abandoned their wives and children. Sadly, this was accepted, but the fathers only had to provide monetary compensation, instead of actually raising the child. This was a bad idea because women began to marry wealthy men, and intentionally sabotage the marriage so that they had free money forever. This law started to take a direction it was more intended for when another law stating men were allowed to behead unfaithful wives was written. As with any infant settlement, the laws were constantly being written and re-written to suit the well being of the current populace. Ironically, the jaguar Shadow, was instrumental in a law that stated all men must compensate any other man when said man accidentally destroys said other mans property. When the livestock herders had arrived with the cattle, the hungry cat killed and ate one belonging to another man.  In an act of retribution, the herdsman demanded Shorrin compensate him for the loss. Thus the practice of insurance was finally invented. Because the herdsman was, in fact, the same man who lit the jaguar’s tree house on fire, Shadow was finally able to file his homeowner’s insurance claim. Because the jaguar lacked hands to write up the claim on paper, the herdsman never paid the charges. This led to Shadow chasing another cow into a campfire, setting it ablaze. Barbeque beef was invented the following day when the cow was discovered. Most of the village assumed the cow had taken its own life to avoid being sold to the butcher like the rest of its family. Shadow, finally realizing that he could not be held accountable in a court of law as an animal, pushed forth that he had in fact shoved the cow into the fire, and thereby was the rightful inventor of barbeque beef. He demanded to be paid royalties for his invention, but because he was a wild animal, his growls of complaints were misunderstood as begging for food. When his complaints became too noisy for the citizens to ignore, a shoemaker crafted the first muzzle. He filed for a motion in a court of law that he should be the only man allowed to profit from this invention, and thus the laws of patent filing were drafted. Shadow became disgruntled at the fact that the people of the village did not positively reward him for his contributions to the laws of society. So he resigned to stay out of the affairs of man completely, except when his actions would be rewarded with food and shelter.

Official Establishment

    The establishment and inauguration in the city of Greenvale is detailed as such: After finally settling in the valley, the village of Greenvale sprouted into a rather large city quite quickly. Shorrin was elected King Shorrin I, Auric was the King’s loyal bodyguard and master of the village guard. Jimbol became the King’s messenger, and held duties that dealt with the administrational affairs of the cities daily life. Shadow the loyal Jaguar would have made a great lawyer or shrewd businessman, but after all, Shadow was a wild beast. Therefore Shadow was granted free roam of the village, and became liked and respected by most of the local villagers. When King Shorrin I traveled the forests in search of adventure, Shadow was always by his side to keep him safe. In many regards this was most likely an act of self preservation due to the fact that the townsfolk would soon grow weary of some of the cat’s wild tendencies. Without Shorrin to garner acceptance for the beast, Shadow may have found himself unwelcome. Soon after the village had its first successful crop, travelers from the north began to make their way to Greenvale. Merchants arrived and brought with them various goods and wares. More and more livestock was herded into the village’s surrounding farmland. Builders, masons, blacksmiths, and various other skilled workers began to pop up in the main market area at central Greenvale. As the crop seasons passed by, the village grew into a central city that eventually established smaller villages outside the city walls for miles. After two years of hard work and progress, the citizens of Greenvale had constructed an expansive castle, with a palace for the king, and walls to surround the city. But being isolated, far from the cities to the north, the castle held little use as a battle fortress for many years to come. Wild horses had been brought in from abroad and tamed. This made travel between the outlying villages faster and easier, thereby extending the borders of the kingdom even further. In time Greenvale had divided its lands into many ruled provinces. When finally ten years had passed, life for the travelers had grown into families. Families then became neighbors. Neighbors then became a community of citizens, and the city itself began to prosper.