It's been so long since the bridge to Falloway Island was burned down that nobody really knows why we did it. All the stories say is that the island slowly became uninhabitable but there's no definitive reason given for how it started and why burning the bridge was out chosen option.
The rumour that's always gone around blames the coal mine hitting a plague pit and chucking up all sorts of old diseases that consumed the island so quickly that a forced quarantine was put in place by parliament itself. It's bullshit but believable bullshit.
Me and the other fisherfolk don't have the guts to correct them - it'd only start up more trouble than any plague pit ever could. I mean, who wants to know that the islanders didn't die, they just adapted and now they're some human-adjacent kind of people who shouldn't be trifled with.
It's bad enough that they spotted us a few weeks back and yesterday they were all standing tiptoes to the water's edge like they were expecting us to hop out of our boats and wander over to them. Now they might mean no harm but there ain't anything human left in their eyes and I'm not about to get close enough to double check.
I still reckon that if they wanted to cross the river they would.
No burnt bridge ever stopped a swimmer.
And they're starting to grow gills.
The rumour that's always gone around blames the coal mine hitting a plague pit and chucking up all sorts of old diseases that consumed the island so quickly that a forced quarantine was put in place by parliament itself. It's bullshit but believable bullshit.
Me and the other fisherfolk don't have the guts to correct them - it'd only start up more trouble than any plague pit ever could. I mean, who wants to know that the islanders didn't die, they just adapted and now they're some human-adjacent kind of people who shouldn't be trifled with.
It's bad enough that they spotted us a few weeks back and yesterday they were all standing tiptoes to the water's edge like they were expecting us to hop out of our boats and wander over to them. Now they might mean no harm but there ain't anything human left in their eyes and I'm not about to get close enough to double check.
I still reckon that if they wanted to cross the river they would.
No burnt bridge ever stopped a swimmer.
And they're starting to grow gills.
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