quote:East and West were separated by a torrential river. That which the river separated, a single bridge united. There had been others, but time had taken it upon itself to knock them down, and no one had taken it upon himself to reconstruct them and, thus, only one remained. It was curved and built from stone, very old, unsecure. No one worried about this, since few had motive to cross from one bank to the other.
It isn't that East was enemy of the West. Neither were they great friends. There wasn't much that the eastern people wanted to do with the western. In the East, they planted much and sowed much; long stretches of generous land were covered with gardens and orchards. On the West bank, the woods were dominated by skilled hunters and the mountain herds bred vigorously in the hills. One side bought what the other produced. But, for this purpose, everyone agreed that a large ferry boat going back and forth in the river delta, there where the capitols stood, was sufficient. For the rest, the little stone bridge was enough.
It was this bridge that Haric needed to cross to marry a woman called Merissa, one he had never seen.
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