Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Quasi-historical fiction
Expedition Denial*
©February 4th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Water-plants choked the river. Below, lurked hungry crocodiles. They’d already gone far enough. Food on board was dwindling. The natives they’d met on the shores, strange dark-skinned people (indubitably, cave-dwellers), looked unfriendly. The soldiers on the ships were now close to mutiny.
Their leader sighed. It was all going so wrong, when it had started so promisingly. How was he to face everyone back home?
“We’ve no choice,” he said, announcing his intention to turn around and head home. “Nero’s expedition has failed, because water-hyacinths blocked our passage to the Sudd of Nubia.”
Cheers erupted. He permitted himself a smile.
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- For further context, listen to my favorite composer-singer, the mysterious Moondog, who wrote a song about this topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1px3kPBusCA - Another cute piece of information on the Sud, or Sudd of Nubia: http://pendletonanderson.com/delights_spring_2014/where_is_the_sud_or_sudd_of_nubia/
Thanks, again, to our benevolent Fairy Blog-Mother host, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, who runs Friday Fictioneers, and to Erin Leary for that evocative photograph-prompt.