It was like any other day before the earth roared. It was as though Lord Faolan himself was screaming out for help. But the silence after... the silence was worst of all.— An eyewitness
Sun's Hollow
Sun's Hollow was a small village under the
Lordship of the
Vasey family, located about three miles from their
castle at
Broadgate. It was nestled in a valley in the foothills of
The Teeth, founded in a place where sun pooled like water.
In the five hundred years it stood, Sun's Hollow was mainly an agricultural village; their main export was a particular variety of apple known as
Sun's Gold and the
cider made from them.
The Landslide
On the fifth of Third Moon, 5340 EA, the people of Sun's Hollow awoke to a pale grey sky and light misty
rain. By early afternoon, the rain had grown heavier and was showing no signs of stopping. An eyewitness later stated that the slope above the village looked as though it was weeping.
At mid-afternoon, there was an almighty roar that reverberated through the valley. It was as though the dragons, who had disappeared centuries ago, had returned. Then the earth above the valley appeared to turn to water and a torrent of rock and mud rushed towards Sun's Hollow and swallowed it whole.
Aftermath
Less than an hour after the landslide was over,
Lord Robert Vasey rode out to Sun's Hollow with forty of his men. They joined forces with common folk who had travelled from other nearby villages in the effort to dig survivors out of the mud.
Unfortunately, only one survivor was found - a young boy of seven winters who, it was later said, Lord Vasey rescued from the earth himself. Though this claim is dubious at best, the Vasey family took the boy,
Micah, in and he was adopted as their son a year or so later.
The day after the tragedy,
Priests of Faolan, the
Lord of Earth, travelled from their
temple in the city of Broadgate to perform
funeral rites over the mound of mud and rock for any souls still trapped beneath. Bodies who had been dug out were then laid to rest nearby and given separate funeral rites. It took the priests a week to perform their duties.
It has been only six years since the catastrophe, but grass has now grown to cover the remains of the landslide and Sun's Hollow underneath. A
marker has been erected on Lord Robert Vasey's orders to honour the memory of those who lost their lives.
Only one tree that produces Sun's Gold apples remains. It was cultivated from a broken branch retrieved from the landslide by a Priest of Faolan there to take part in the funeral rites. This young tree currently grows in Broadgate's Temple of Faolan and is fiercely protected.
This made me so emotional reading. I'm glad that Micah was adopted by the Vaseys. The comment about the urine made me snort with laughter.
Thank you! :) It does technically mean that Aric has a little brother he's never met, which is kind of sad, but there we go.
Sad. :(