This is the content from 2002, the year I actually completed NaNoWriMo.
Bonus Material: The Unrelated Short Story and Part 2
Excerpt Special: The Interview
... As with the villages we'd passed through on our journey, no walls surrounded this town. The difference was that well-armed guards manned towers at each of the three roadway entrances to town. Riverbank sentry posts could also be seen both upstream and down. The overall impression of the place was that of quiet, dignified merchant industry. This may very well have been the most sedate border town in all of human history.
"Begging your pardon, travellers, but would you be so kind as to state your names and your business in Sounder's Crossing?" The guard that stepped out in front of our party wore a friendly smile, considerable armor, a plumed helmet, and a sword that could probably have shorn the legs clean off of any of our mounts if a man had the strength to swing it hard enough. One could only hope that such a blade was merely ceremonial.
Thom urged his mount a short bit forward and sketched a half-bow from his saddle. "I go by the name of Thom, and this is my betrothed, Anna." Angelique blushed and smiled in that sickeningly sweet way that only a young lover can. "In the dark attire is my good friend Andrew." I smiled and waved. "And these two gentlemen are but recently among our company, being monks travelling to the royal city of Herndon itself for a purpose they did not feel necessary to disclose to men not sworn to the service of God. Their names are Carl," who nodded politely, "and William. I thought it wise to accompany them at least this far, for when a man faces the final judgement who knows how much it might help to have a man of the cloth speaking on your behalf?"
"Aye, it might indeed, young man. They say that one cannot fool God on that fateful day, though, so you might do well to live out the rest of your days in the cause of Light nonetheless."
Thom smiled and replied, "I shall take heed of your advice, good sir. It speaks well of you that you should take such care over even the eternal well-being of strangers."
The guard snorted in amusement. "Think on it more as an admonition to behave yourself down there," and he jabbed his thumb back over his shoulder in the direction of town. "We have a prosperous and peaceful life here. Those who cause disturbance are dealt with swiftly and seriously. Now, you haven't stated your actual business here, young Thom."
"No, quite right, I have not. I apologize. We are merely passing through, intending only to spend one night, at most two, to rest and provision ourselves. Have you recommendation for a particular lodging?"
"Hah! And have the guilds after me about playing favorites? You'll go into town and choose the inn that suits you, boyo. It's worth my pension to upset a half-dozen innkeepers, so it'll certainly be for more than just a pretty young thing and his lady."
I don't think Thom had ever been called 'pretty' before, and it took him a moment to recover. "Ah, you tread carefully with the merchants who pay your salary. It seems a most remarkable place you have here. Have we your leave to enter?"
"Aye, go right on ahead. I have your names and faces now, and you seem the types to mind your manners. Well, excepting you, dark-clad gent there."
I cleared my throat and said, "I'd sooner die than cause you trouble, neighbor. That, ah, is a truely massive sword you carry around."
"You like it?" The man actually hauled the blade off his shoulder where he'd been leaning it, post style, and swung it through the air. I think he liked the whooshing sound it made as the air fled the blade's mass.
"It's marvelous. Remind me not to cheat you at cards." I favored him with my cheeriest smile, hoping I wouldn't be the cause of some spurious detainment. The guard only laughed and waved us onward, settling the blade back against his armored shoulder and resuming his stance at the side of the road.
...
Look, one of the requirements of my job is that I travel. A lot. Sometimes it's worth the trouble, as some worlds boast truly remarkable scenery. Most of the time it's a damned pain in the ass. I feel like I've spent most of my career sleeping in strange beds under strange roofs eating somebody else's cooking. The cooking isn't always bad, but the beds are uncomfortable more often than not. And don't even get me started on being trapped in rustic settings without the benefit of heated plumbing and pest control.
Why do you think I built this Villa on the top of an isolated cliff-shored island in the middle of a huge ocean on an uninhabited planet? I like having a place to call home. Even better, I like actually being at that place called home. When I want company, I'll invite and probably handle the travel arrangements for whoever I want to have visiting me. There's no landing pad, no boat dock, not so much as an orbital spaceport anywhere near my home. I come here to recover from the rigors of being on the road for years on end.
Before you ask, no it's not necessarily better when I'm on assignment with a spacefaring society. Technological conveniences are one thing, but rarely is shipboard life luxurious. Water rations, meal rations, living space rations. Most such societies are spacefaring at least partly because of overcrowded planetary conditions, so dirtside accomodations are much like those aboard the spaceships. To be perfectly honest, I think I actually prefer the relatively primitive conditions of your average post-medieval assignment. At least there I can occasionally cheat a little without setting off alarm klaxons.
And that's about enough of this little side trip. It's not as though you haven't heard me complain about all of this before, and I'm now feeling a bit silly about making this diatribe part of the permanent record. Ah, well, such is life. I can stand to look silly now and then. ...
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