I am turning thirty four this winter.
When I mentioned this to Keith, he was stunned. "Are you really?" he asked, in disbelief.
I love that man.
Last night, the thought of my birthday had me in the grip of a cold fear, though I'm ashamed to admit it. I saw how short life is.
It doesn't seem so bad right now, in the morning, after I've had some coffee. But it still stuns me- just how fast our lives go by.
Now I'm wrestling with a much more important matter- how on earth do daemons travel the long distances between towns?
My entire re write is hung up on this question, much as the entire second half was hung up before I could figure out who sailed the ship to Tenjiku.
So far I have two ideas, but both of them have the same significant problem- that of being too childish.
The first is a lacquered carriage drawn by the sable coated sika deer of Japan, and driven by the same grinning, pointed eared Tanuki creatures that have a ramen stand high up in the Nishimachi mountains.
The second is a coal powered train, staffed by the aforementioned Tanuki.
I'm not writing a children's book, but it sure as hell feels like it, at the moment.
At first, I was able to ignore this whole question because T'ien-lung personally carried them to Minami City. Now I realize that this won't work. It's illogical. T'ien-lung and Tenshio cannot both leave the shrine at the same time.
Tenshio is not going to call down the wind just to catch a ride into the city either. Besides, I decided that it won't carry passengers; it will only carry the person sealed to it.
Besides, it's not like your typical daemon is going to have a celestial dragon available to them for their every travel need; there must be some other, more pedestrian mode of transportation available to the general public.
Horseback? Maybe the Nishiyama town keeps horses stabled at the bottom of the rice paddies and there's a system in place that's kind of like the Pony Express.
But I'm tired of writing about horses. Ceallach is nothing more than one long journey by horseback. I'm horsebacked out.
Sea journey? The daemon do fish the coastal waters around the Touzainanboku mountains, though they don't venture out into the deep waters of the Kagamihara unless they're true, ocean faring daemon.
But that just seems so tiresome. Though, actually, it does make the most sense. It would be the fastest way of travel, by far, because it could cut across the distance, instead of following the coast the long way around.
But no. That just makes the whole culture too sea faring by far. I want the average mountain daemon to be terrified of the ocean and subject to bouts of seasickness, as Tenshio is.
To tell the truth, I want like hell to make it a train. I want there to be a train and I don't want to explain how that's possible. I want it just to be- just throw it out there, logic be damned.
Just be all- Yeah, that's a train, you got a problem with that? You want to know why they don't use that technology elsewhere, if they have it here? You want to know where they mine the coal from, how they get it to the train, who works the mines, all that crap? Well, I'm not telling you. So there.
Sigh.
I'm not going to make it a train. I make it a train and boom! I'm writing a children's book. Everyone knows that, it's clear. Every story from the Polar Express to Hogwarts to Narnia has a train. I can't put a damn train in my story. I already have a dragon and a talking dog, for god's sake.
That leaves me with the carriage. It's not a bad idea and having it drawn by deer is pretty interesting, though not entirely original, of course. I think I can describe that in a fairly adult way, but then the story gets this strange, pseudo-British flavor.
The Japanese did have coaches, but they were way, way back in the Heian era, and they were actually very slow and uncomfortable ox carts. The imperial family still uses horse drawn carriages, but they look suspiciously British, upon close review.
The Japanese nobility did have peasants run them around by foot in these little dangling, ornate boxes, but that's just ridiculous.
Maybe horseback is best. Tenshio can dress up like a samurai and it can be all shades of Shogun and Ran.
Bonzaiiiii!
I hate this crap.
Wait. Maybe it should be completely British. After all, I have an English convent center stage in the second half of the story. Why not add one more of the same element, and just have the stage coach be completely British, with all the trappings, like muddy leather boots and luggage. It'll still driven by the Tanuki, much as the convent is for daemon in the full regalia of Catholic nuns.
That's more bizarre and yet less childish than the other options, and it's balanced. I can even throw in a stone ale house/inns as way stations, and English pastures/farms where the horses are stabled and bred.
Hm. I like it. I think I'm going with it.
