Thousand Steps - 1

A trail of darkly shelled corpses followed the
Lucky Lady
away fr om her duels amid the
burning sands. These carcasses were left behind to rot, as even the voracious illdross deemed
chum inedible flesh. From her harried exploits near Midpointe Rock, the
Lady
pressed forward
on a heading of due east for mor e than six hundred leagues, skirting the northernmost reaches of
Hatred Gouge, a vast and lengthy river canyon that ran jaggedly south to distant seas of salt
water. At this point, the captain plotted a course that ran southeast across a high plateau formed
by the eastern side of the Gouge, until they came within sight of a towering, sharply peaked range
of mountains. These ranges, which were alternately named Raymar's Sorrow or Earthbone
Mountains, depending on the source of one's maps, sat squarely on the horizon like piles of fresh
granite slag, all steeply sloped sides and razor sharp ridges, which were universally topped by a
downy fleece of snow and vaporous clouds.

Once the Earthbones were fully in view, though they stood well off in the distance,
Captain Tipper turned his boat directly south to pursue them on a parallel course for another three
hundred leagues. The voyage that followed was uneventful and somewhat pleasant, despite the
intense heat, perhaps because the omnipresent ice-capped mountains off the port rail were a
constant reminder that there really were cooler places in the world, that all was not blasted hellfire
and sulfurous br imstone.
On the thirteenth day of this last leg of their interminable voyage,
Lucky Lady
entered into
a broad, sandy basin, which filled the valley that spanned the void between two vast, diverging
ranges of alps. Now there were frosted peaks on either side of them as they continued to press
further south, though the way wandered a bit. After many long days and countless leagues
traversed, Vespuzia again turned them directly east, this time to narrowly approach the stony feet
of the impossibly massive Earthbones.

to be continued....