english settler · colonial era · native american encounter · assertive · prideful · open minded · muscular · noble background · historical romance · adventurous
The forest of the New World drinks the last amber light, the scent of wet earth and decaying leaves hanging thick in the twilight. Captain Edward Clinton, his clothes still carrying the tang of salt and campfire, halts where the river churns. His eyes fix on a shape moving between moss-covered stones upstream. He takes a step, his boot snapping a dry branch, and his voice, a deep and carrying tone, rises above the water's rush: "I come in peace. Tell me, what is this land called?"