TSK discussion | Passage, ch 1-12
Life continues to imitate art, as today I'm traveling south toward the general vicinity of what's most likely the model for Graymouth. We're not going quite that far, though, and in fact aren't quite close enough to the actual Mississippi River (although I did see it when the plane was landing!). So you've escaped a picspam this time. ;)
Summary
It will probably be next Tuesday before I can put up the discussion post for the second half of Passage, since on Monday we'll be traveling once again (on our way home). Although, I may surprise myself and be efficient. ;)
By the way -- they're having another Ficathon right now at bujold_fic, and Sharing Knife prompts and fic are fair game! Can we get something going for this fandom over there? I'll be pondering prompts...
Past discussion posts:
Summary
- Chapter 1: Fawn and Dag, leaving Hickory Lake Camp, reach West Blue. Whit nearly hits them with an arrow gone astray, and Dag gives his very first farmer-lecture on groundsense and sharing knives to people who aren't Fawn.
- Chapter 2: Dag and Fawn stay a while to help with the harvest chores, but when they talk about their plans to go down the river, Whit begs them to let him come along -- just until they find their passage on a flatboat. Dag decides that this is a good first step for Lakewalkers and farmers learning to know one another (plus, Fawn suspects, he wants some tent-family).
- Chapter 3: The party sets off. A sleepy Dag ground-rips a mosquito and has a bad reaction. Fawn takes Whit to see the blight around the Glassforge malice's lair, and is badly shaken; Whit starts out assuming it's because she's "just a girl," but ends up being told a few tales about sharing knives and Wolf Ridge, and gains a few new things to think about.
- Chapter 4: Fawn, Dag, and Whit arrive at the hotel in Glassforge. Whit is amazed by Fawn's local celebrity, and begins to exercise his talents for trading -- he sells his team to Sassa the glassmaker's boss, and the party ends up riding the rest of the way on glass-goods wagons bound for the river. An apparently shiftless boy working on the wagons, Hod, tries to scavenge for food in Dag's saddlebags. Dag senses his approach and decides to let Copperhead teach him a lesson, but the horse shatters the boy's kneecap, and Dag feels compelled to try some medicine-making. In the process, he discovers that the shiftless behavior and the food-stealing probably had a lot to do with a large tapeworm, and heals Hod of that, too. The party finally reaches the river, and Whit will never be the same again.
- Chapter 5: Dag pays a visit to Pearl Riffle Camp, hoping they will let him have a primed knife to carry. But he finds himself in the middle of an incident -- two young patrollers named Barr and Remo were in a brawl with local farmers, in which Remo's new sharing knife was broken. Between that, and the (possibly biased) council news from Hickory Lake Camp that has preceded him, Dag returns empty-handed.
- Chapter 6: Meanwhile, Fawn goes to have a look at the flatboats on the river, and meets Berry, a young flatboat boss. Berry is looking for her father, her brother, and her betrothed, who went down the river on a flatboat the year before and never came back. She offers a chance to join her crew, with Fawn as cook and Fawn's as-yet-unseen husband as an oarsman. Whit meets Berry, too, and is rather struck by her.
- Chapter 7: Dag's arrival at Berry's boat, the Fetch, takes Berry well aback, but (after yet another explanation of the wedding cords) she decides she's willing to give a Lakewalker a chance. Dag makes an effort, too, joining in the story-telling after supper. The next day, Hod turns up, saying that he wants Dag to work on his knee, and Dag figures out that he has accidentally beguiled the boy.
- Chapter 8: Dag doesn't know what to do about Hod's beguilement, but the boy wants to come along down the river, and Berry is willing to take him on, so the flatboat crew grows again. But an unhappy delegation from Pearl Riffle Camp comes to have another talk with Dag. Word has gotten out about Dag's healing Hod, and a local carpenter farmer went to the Lakewalker camp demanding help for his very sick wife. Things turned ugly fast, so the local Lakewalkers want Dag to stop stirring up the farmers and just go away.
- Chapter 9: Trouble follows Dag: a mob of boatmen and townspeople show up with the sick woman and demand his help. Dag diagnoses appendicitis (not in so many words), and figures he can probably help. He also takes advantage of the opportunity to tell the crowd some of the Lakewalker, groundwork, and sharing knife basics. The carpenter's wife looks likely to recover, but Dag suspects there will be another visit from irate Pearl Riffle Lakewalkers, so he and Fawn hide out having a picnic (among other things) the next day. That night, Remo -- the young patroller who broke the sharing knife -- turns up.
- Chapter 10: Remo wants to run away from home, and wants Dag to take him on. A little intervention from Fawn ensures that no one makes any hasty decisions, and the next day (after a solid nudge from Dag) Remo asks Berry to take him on as crew as well. The river's water level begins to rise, at last. A couple of keelboat crews move out, and Berry plays her fiddle for one of them to keep the men hauling. Then, at last, the Fetch launches, too. Dag's groundsense keeps them from running into a snag, and Berry goes a little thoughtful.
- Chapter 11: Adventures on the river. Fawn learns to cook on a moving boat. At her request, Dag goes after a catfish -- and hooks one that nearly makes off with him. He visits one more Lakewalker camp, but, no luck getting a knife. Dag also gets curious about ingesting ground, and eyes a thorny locust tree, but Fawn talks him down to trying just one oat, first. More thinking about the beguilement problem.
- Chapter 12: Archery practice, and lessons for quite a few folks. Dag coaches Whit on his bow, and sets Whit to teaching Hawthorn and Berry. Remo is finally drawn in enough to start talking with Whit. Dag shows off a bit with his own bow (possibly not only for Remo's benefit). Just as things are going well, Hod, feeling left out, smashes up his knee, again. Dag finds out he was underestimating the boy, again. Communication improves all around, and the whole group thinks some more about beguilement: farmers and Lakewalkers beginning to work together, on one flatboat on one river, at any rate.
It will probably be next Tuesday before I can put up the discussion post for the second half of Passage, since on Monday we'll be traveling once again (on our way home). Although, I may surprise myself and be efficient. ;)
By the way -- they're having another Ficathon right now at bujold_fic, and Sharing Knife prompts and fic are fair game! Can we get something going for this fandom over there? I'll be pondering prompts...
Past discussion posts: