by T.J.Neckbeard
Five people are crossing a mountain range before winter closes the pass. They have dwindling food, no road, and nowhere to stop — their people are a shunned minority, and approaching settlements means risk they can't afford. The external danger is real. It's not the main story. The main story is the interior lives of five people who cope in ways that don't fit together. A leader whose nervous system was shaped by a volatile childhood. A mother so consumed by the role she's forgotten what else she is. Someone whose restlessness leaves consequences he can't stop making. Someone who notices everything except when he himself is being overlooked. And a three-year-old who says true things at the wrong moments.This is a story about incompatible coping strategies — people who hurt each other without meaning to, misread each other constantly, and slowly learn something like trust.I write scenes out of order and post them as they take shape. No stat sheets. No leveling up. No world to save. Just the interior lives of five people trying to make it through.
