The Story of Jhonna

I have this vision of a traveler or wandering merchant, who has entered the woods, or a forest. Obviously as it is a story, things will not go straight forward for them, I believe the forest itself will be malevolent and put obstacles in the traveler's way. But first things first I need to decide on who this traveler is, why he’s there, and what his background is. 

I think he should be a travelling merchant, that gives him a reason, purpose and need to get through the woods. I think he is a travelling jeweler; he makes the finest jewelry in his small home village where he sifts for gold in the nearby streams. No one knows where he comes from and he keeps it that way, therefore no one knows where his gold comes from. His technique and skills have been honed through generations, but it was he who had the vision to set forward out of the small Northern village and seek trade routes across the country. Now he forays out for two to three months at a time, returning home at the end of his long journey to turn the jewels he has traded into yet more finery, to continue to sift for gold and create yet more of the finest and intricate pieces of jewelry the country has seen. He spends the next six months creating his masterpieces, which is just long enough for his usual trade routes to be desperate for more to sell before he sets off again. In this adventure through the woods, he needs to be alone; jewelry is also light enough for him to carry all he needs on his back, no need for horse and cart. 

I also need a name for my jeweler, this is a fantasy world, set before the age of cars and electricity (as they often are) and so something less modern but still easily readable, so out with the John’s, Paul’s and Derek’s. Something the mind can pick up when the reader is immersed, without having to stop and concentrate on pronunciation; Jhonna. Now, we know Johnna was taught to be a jeweler through the generations, his father taught him, and his grandfather taught is father, but we don’t know anything else about his life. What drives him, what does he enjoy etc. This is Jhonna’s story, and his forebears, this is what leads him to be so far from home and end up in such a predicament. 

Johnna grew up in a small village, his childhood home was larger than the rest and stood aside from the village close to the river, where his grandfather had first discovered the gold when he was digging out stones to repair his old house. In his grandfather's youth the family had lived near the center of the village, in a small run-down house, at the time they were blacksmiths, so it wasn’t a far stretch for his grandfather to make the leap to jewelry when he discovered gold. The house still exists in the village but the old blacksmith hut on the side has been converted to a coop and the family that live in the little building keep chickens, supplying the village with fresh eggs daily. When his grandfather had succeeded in making the first rings and bracelets to come out of the small village, he was able to sell them in the next town, a mere four miles away, but in the wild, mountainous region it could well have been a continent away for all the village folk ever saw or heard of their Neighbours. Johnna’s grandfather used his newfound wealth to purchase land from the village and build a bigger and better house near the source of the gold, with purpose made space for his jewelry business. The village was awash with excitement and activity for months during the new home’s construction. While Johnna’s grandfather was happy with his wealth, he had always been a firm believer in sharing his riches with the village. In these remote mountains everyone needed to help each other “the stray dog does not outlive the pack” he used to say. As such the building of the home was a village-wide affair, everyone helped in whatever way they could, and were paid handsomely for their effort.  

Jhonna could not remember much of his grandfather; he passed away when Johnna was only five. He did not meet his grandmother and was shut down whenever he asked about her. Jhonna eventually concluded that his father was the result of an illegitimate affair at some point, the memory of which died with his grandfather, he managed to gather from some of the older inhabitants that his grandfather had disappeared one day when he was very young and simply shown up again ten years later with a small child. He did not care where Jhonna’s father had come from, and nor did the village, all anyone cared about was whether the wealth of the jewelry trade would continue to trickle through to them too. Which it did, Jhonna’s father had the same mantra instilled on him as a child which he in turn instilled on Jhonna. Jhonna’s father enhanced his father’s workmanship and invented newer, more innovative ways of refining and producing luxury products. He also started venturing further than the neighboring town to sell the fine products, which brought with it more income for the family and wealth for the village. It also brought with it Jhonna’s mother, whom his father met in a town down by the foothills, some forty miles away the villagers believed, for no one had ventured that far from the village in generations! Jhonna’s mother had grown up in a bustling town snuggled and sheltered between two outcrops of hills, offering fantastic views to the East where the morning sun would light up the valley and the main road down to the rest of the country would be engulfed in the sun’s fresh light as the day began. She enjoyed waking early and watching the rays spread across the land before her, reaching up into the town and lighting up the snowcapped mountains behind her in hues of orange and pink. Gleaming daily as though the tops had become enflamed by some mystical fire which, when receded, left the snow pristine and pure. She was the daughter of a wool trader whose flock made the winter garments for the town and all the towns and villages in the hills and mountains above them (including Jhonna’s).  

While she liked her town and life, she was fascinated by the mountains above, a fascination that became a flood of need to explore when she met Jhonna’s father who described the village he’d grown up in with such lyrical prose, painting a beautiful picture of the small village in the heart of the mountains that she so desired to see. It did not take her long to decide to venture West with him when he returned to his village, to take up his offer as a guide deep into the mountains so she could see, feel, experience and explore them up close. She had only intended to leave her home for a few days, to satisfy her curiosity and return home, but it was on that journey back to the small village that she completely fell in love with the mountains. Sparse pine coverings, wild mountain goats leaping from rock to rock, streams and rivers trickling down one hill and then roaring through deep cut valleys around the next corner, all had her encapsulated and enthralled. She was hooked, and couldn’t think of going back to her hometown, she wanted to live and die in these mountains, surrounded by life and beauty the likes of which she’d never seen. It was only natural that next on the list of her heart's desire was Jhonna’s father, who had opened this world to her and while he did not previously see the subtle magic of an eagle soaring overhead, or a warren of rabbits venturing out in the evening, that journey with her kindled the same love and fascination inside him. By the time they had reached the village there was no other person they’d rather be with or place they’d rather live.  

This shared love and passion was passed on to their son Jhonna, and his childhood days were spent either learning how to make jewelry with his father or exploring and learning about the surrounding mountains with his mother. By the time he was a young man he had made his own innovations to the jewelry making process and it was safe to say that out of this small, unassuming village, tucked away in mountains, lost to the memory of the rest of the country below, came the most precious and well-crafted jewelry any trader had ever seen. Jhonna learnt all about the trade routes his father had established when he reached eighteen and started to leave the village with his father to travel and trade with the nearby towns and villages. The first time he arrived at his mother’s hometown was the first time he’d met his grandfather and grandmother; travel was unusual in the mountains and it was considered too dangerous by the town’s folk from the foothills to venture into the mountains. His mother and father had visited on several occasions, but he had never ventured so far south. He was pleased to be greeted and taken in as part of the family and found an immediate bond with his grandparents and Uncle. He would continually stay there throughout his adult life when he took over the trading from his father a few years later.  

By the time Jhonna was twenty-one his father had decided to take a step back from the jewelry business and handed over complete control to Jhonna. He found a renewed sense of pride in his work and had taken to bartering for ever finer jewels whenever he spotted them along his father's old trade route, not that they appeared very often – trade of the finest of the country’s items such as jewels, silk and spices were reserved for the richer lowlands and rarely managed to trickle past the foothills. His parents had taken to venturing into the mountains for weeks at a time with his father's retirement, allowing them to truly envelop themselves in the mountains they admired. It was during one of these ventures that Jhonna found himself idly rooting through old boxes of paperwork his father had kept and had stored at the back of their roof space. In it he found notes from his grandfather and the ten years he had spent travelling in the lowlands. He had kept extensive diaries and maps of his journey and documented the vast wonders the country had to offer. He described riches beyond the villager’s imagination, cities so large the village would barely be considered one block. Huge temples of outstanding magnificence, with artwork adorning the walls and ceilings, higher than the tallest trees of the mountains. Far off places where there were no trees at all, or grass, or even water, only endless miles of sand and the heat was more than anyone could bear. His grandfather had passed through other mountains, where people had built great fortresses hewn from the very stone of the mountainside, where he had stood on the precipice and gazed across a land of grass and forest, hamlets and homesteads. As much as Johnna loved the mountain village, the diaries had set a spark inside him, he wanted to see these wonders for himself. He spent months piecing together his grandfather's route whenever he had a chance, long winter evenings were spent reading and re-reading the diaries by the light of the roaring fire; tracking, tracing and re-evaluating everything until one day in early spring he was ready. 

He’d put extra effort in the last few months towards producing more jewelry than usual, he left the amount they normally traded and employed one of his oldest and most trusted friends to run these along his usual route through the mountains. He then packed the extras he had made carefully away in specially constructed cases which fit neatly into his pack and stopped the chains, bracelets and rings becoming entangled. A clever and simple contraption which, ever mindful of the family mantra, he’d paid the local carpenter a month’s worth of wages for. Everything else he needed fitted snuggly around the wooden boxes, his home-made maps with routes and plans slipped perfectly into a side pocket, then he was ready. The route was meticulously planned, he would be away 3-4 months, back by the end of summer and ready to take up work again on his return to get the stocks back up to where they should be after the summer trading.  

His exploration went without a problem. Making his way down though his mother's old town in the foothills he stopped to see his grandparents and uncle, to explain his friend would be running the trade route over summer and he would see them again in August. The town folk were as apprehensive about travelling into the lowlands as they were about travelling into the mountains but wished him luck and good health and sent him on his way. With an excited nervousness he set off down the road he was more than familiar with but had never trodden, out of the town and down to the grasslands beyond. His journey was everything his grandfather had described, the first major city he came to was overwhelming and he stayed in the nearest inn he could find upon entering, barely venturing forth for the first three days, but eventually necessity drove him forward as he had to find somewhere to trade his jewelry in order to be able to afford another night. He was amazed to find the jeweler so piqued by the small selection he had decided to take on his first foray, which he described as “the finest selection he’d seen this far Noth in many years”. Jhonna was paid more than he had imagined for the selection in full and was filled with a sense of relief and confirmation that his plan would work. He then found the courage to continue to explore the city, which while nothing special, was the grandest settlement Jhonna had ever seen.  

And so, Jhonna continued his journey around the country, selling jewelry in larger cities where he discovered he could earn even more as he ventured south. He used his city sales to finance his way through the hamlets and villages dotted along his route. As he continued south, he encountered grander, finer cities until eventually the small towns resembled the first city he had seen, and the cities were beyond his imagination. He soon learnt that if he held his finer stock until he was closer to the capital he could sell it for more than he thought possible; soon he had made enough not to need to worry about selling the rest of his stock, but he did, nonetheless. He would, from time to time, treat himself to luxuries, the occasional night in a fine inn, the odd meal at the best eatery, he discovered something called a spa in some locations where hot water was drawn through the earth and herbs, oils and all other manner of substances he couldn’t name were used to clean and restore him. Along his journey, many of the traders he sold to expressed the want for more of his jewelry, and, as he came closer and closer to the capital, he discovered more and more jewels of an ever-increasing brilliance and beauty for him to purchase. A plan began to form in his head, he traded his jewelry for coin, gems and jewels, as well as an ingot of some new and brilliant metal he had found one trader trying to flog in the south of the country. He would then return home and turn these materials into even finer jewelry to then venture south with next year.  

By early summer he had explored everything his grandfather had described and was staying in the southern mountains, behind the fortified wall of a great city which, as described by his grandfather, had been carved from the mountain. He had found an Inn in the centre and his room backed on a corridor which was inside the mountain itself, the windows of the Inn were part of the natural rock face and the common room which had appeared as a small building from the outside actually delved deep into the mountain. It was here that two things happened, firstly, after experiencing new and unique cities, landscapes and mysteries through the country, it was the first time he had returned to anywhere resembling home, and he realised despite it all, he missed his quiet village, resting on the edge of the mountains, somewhere out there far to the North. Secondly, he learnt of a small town, hidden in the heart of a vast forest further off to the east. This town was said to have the finest jewels that could be found anywhere in the country. With this news came a stark warning, the forest couldn’t be travelled through at night. It was a full day’s walk through to the town, needing at least 8 hours of nonstop walking. He was advised to camp on the fringes of the forest and set off, following the main road as soon as it was light. While his yearning to return home was strong, his sense of adventure had not dissipated just yet and he resolved to venture further east than he had intended, to find the town and see these jewels for himself.  

He came across the forest no problem which was a few days walk from the great fortress city in the mountains. He paid attention to the warnings of everyone he has encountered, for the warning was repeated in each hamlet and farmstead he had passed when they learnt of his destination, and one bright morning in mid-summer, he awoke next to the great forest, packed quickly and set off. He ate on the move and reached the center of the forest to find a rather plain town, built of wood and thatched houses with a few farms and animals around the outside, all within a clearing of trees which extended some 50 metres away from any farmland or dwelling before meeting the vast dense woods surrounding the town. There was a quaint Inn and the people were friendly when they had recovered from the shock of his sudden arrival. He found the jewels he sought and was surprised to see they were the immaculate, beautiful, pristine gems that had been described. He was further surprised to learn that while the town folk begrudgingly accepted coin for the treasure, what they really desired were products they couldn’t manufacture themselves. On learning that Jhonna intended to visit again they asked for linen sheets for beds, one person desired to taste goat meat, the other had heard of a cheese that people further north were fond of which had blue mould running through it. Jhonna took note of their desires and again was warned of the dangers of travelling through the forest at night. He pressed for further information but anyone he asked changed the subject.  

He set off and made the long journey back North to his home village; his mother’s family were thrilled by his return and made him stay for days while they learnt of everything he had done in the “lowlands” as they called it. They were confused to learn that, while they had always called it the lowlands, there were in fact hills, and moors and mountains throughout the country. When he was finally released and arrived at his village he was met by the same enthusiasm from his parents. He explained to his father his plan, who thought it was a brilliant idea, and so, over the next few years he would journey out and around the country on the same route, returning home to replace and renew his stock and over winter in the mountains. The new metals and finest jewels he had located on his first journey allowed him to make the very best jewelry. When his father died he used the wealth he had made and the knowledge he had learnt from the fortress city and paid the village to allow him, and the local mason to carve a tomb into the mountain above, where his father could overlook his beloved town and spend the afterlife in the mountains he had dedicated his life to exploring. His mother was heartbroken and couldn’t bear to live in the place they had grown up, and old together, she moved back to the town in the foothills, Jhonna bought her a modest home near his Uncle (his grandparents had passed shortly after his return from that first trip) and paid a local to prepare her meals and keep the house clean. The lack of adventure and heart break took its toll on her also, she herself died barely a year after his father. He again paid the local stone mason to carve deeper into the mountain and had her placed next to his father, so they could explore the mountains together again forever more.  

For a time after his parent's death, he became disillusioned with his home village and took longer on his summer trading forays into the rest of the country. It was when he had decided to spend a week in one of the towns near the coast, with a spa where he could relax that he met Arian, he was immediately drawn to her eyes, which were deep oceans of blue. He had seen blue-eyed people from his journeys and was fascinated, no one in the mountains had blue eyes, but hers were altogether more profound than any he had seen before. He couldn’t help talking to her and although he normally kept to himself on his journeys, he felt so comfortable around her that he was unable to contain himself. He grew sweet and found himself asking if he could write to her when he left, to his surprise she agreed. At the end of his journey, he worked every hour he could to replenish his stock, just so he could return to her. On his third visit he couldn’t contain himself and asked if she would join him on his journey. By now she knew all about him and his work and he knew she lived alone in the town and had been orphaned at a young age. They had grown fond of each other through their encounters and writing; she did not feel as though she was being led astray by a stranger, but more that she was being given an opportunity for adventure by a new friend. As they continued along the trading route she saw the wonders of the country they called home. Jhonna had now become quite knowledgeable in the places he visited and was able to cite the history of the capital, renumerate the creation of the fortress city and explain the seasons and patterns of the farms and homesteads to Arian as they journeyed, in her fascination he saw a resemblance to his mother and her love and passion for the mountains.

He felt himself falling for her on that journey, much as his father and mother had fallen for each other on their trip back through the mountains, so many years ago. The disillusionment left him and in his renewed passion Arian also began to see a lively and energised young man, rather than the somber but kind friend she had begun to believe he was. When they had left the strange town in the forest, the point where Jhonna had always claimed he had to leave her to head back to his village, they couldn’t bring themselves to part ways, and so, as his father had before him, Jhonna arrived back in the small village with a new love.  

Jhonna and Arian were inseparable and accompanied each other on every trading trip around the country. Arian did further research and changed the journey to even further, far flung corners of the country, trading with sea farers on the south coast who would set sail for different lands and venturing into the tribe lands of the far east, further again than the strange town cloaked by its forest. There they found little in the way of trading but were some of the first from the “big country” as the tribes called it, to visit in many years. For three years they continued like this until Arian found herself pregnant, they were both overjoyed, but this left them in a predicament, they couldn’t leave home for months on end to make the trading journey with a newborn or small child. Over the years of following this route, Jhonna had made trusted associates whom he always visited, and a good friendship had developed with almost all of his trading partners. They had become more than people with which he bartered goods, he knew more about them, their lives and families than he did some of the villagers, likewise, they had known him since his father had been making jewelry, knew his village as though they had been themselves and his story from his grandfather to now. A plan had begun to form in Jhonna's mind, once it had blossomed from a seed of an idea into a steadily maturing and growing entity of its own, he ran it by Arian watching her face light up as he explained his thoughts and the realisation of what he was proposing dawned on her.  

Arian gave birth in spring, to a healthy baby boy. Jhonna was overwhelmed with love, the likes of which he had never felt before. He thought he had loved Arian with all his heart, but the birth of his son unlocked more depth and space from which his love could pour than he thought was possible for a person to feel. The entire plan he and Arian had spent the winter fine tuning almost failed at the first hurdle, but with great effort Jhonna set out once more on his trading journey, hopefully – if all went well, this would be his penultimate trip. He left behind Arian and his son – it was tradition in the mountains not to name the children until their first birthday – at the end of spring, once he was convinced Arian was healthy and coping. He didn’t know leaving a place could tug his heart so much and the plan almost failed again at least three times on his way to visit his family at the foot of the mountains. He wanted nothing more than to return home and be with the two most important people to him.

The pang in his soul eased when he met his family, who were all excited to learn of the arrival of his son, they were just as excited and eager to help when he explained his plan to them, not that he had any doubt they wouldn’t want to be a part of it. Knowing that he had to move on, in order to be able to stay and enjoy life with his small family in the future, he set off, attempting to draft or convince the friends he had made along his route of his plan and ideas. He was astounded to discover that almost all were happy to be involved, there were one or two reluctant yeses and some of the newer acquaintances from the towns and cities which he had been visiting with Arian could not be convinced of the idea. He was relieved by this; he wasn’t sure he knew enough about them to trust them to continuously uphold their part of the plan. When he reached the edge of the forest, he was elated that the plan was coming together and at the thought that he would soon be home. He wondered how much his son had grown in the months he had been away. Whether he was rolling over or crawling, maybe he would be making noises that were close to words – probably not at this age but he had heard of babies that could walk before one (one matriarch at the village swore there had been a child that could speak at eight months when she was growing up). It was with another firm grasp on his will that he stopped himself from ignoring the stark advice and continuing into the forest. It would have only shaved a day off his journey, but it would still have been a day sooner that he could have seen Arian and his son's face again. Making camp for the night on the edge of the forest his thoughts raced about how his plan was going to work, how he could spend all his days with his family, eventually teaching his son to make jewelry as his father and grandfather had – continuing the family business – which he was now streamlining in ways only the mighty guilds of the capital had been able to achieve. He would take his son to all the cities and wonders he had discovered over the years with Arian, and, although his plan did not include the tribes they had discovered together to the east, perhaps one day they could return, and he would introduce his son to the strange people. 

When he made it to the town in the heart of the forest, he was amazed to discover his good friend, the man he had met on his first trip who was responsible for the sourcing of the jewels was more than happy to go ahead with the plan. Jhonna was ecstatic, everything had depended on this and while he had been excited for the possibility of what he could achieve, doubt had always remained in his mind around whether his friend from the strange town would be included. This would be the first time in centuries that anyone from the town would have left or had any interaction with the rest of the country.  

It was a simple plan really, and Jhonna was amazed he hadn’t thought of it sooner. On his return to the town in the foothills he would give the money and instruct his family to build a secure storeroom and shop. He imagined this as a place where nothing would be on show, but anyone who was accustomed to his wares could arrive and ask for their usual order. He had instructed every one of his trading partners along the way of the location of this warehouse and finally, he had convinced the strange, forested towns jewel finder to also make the same venture and deliver gems and rarities in exchange for the usual goods required in the town. In some cases, where his partners were not willing to travel so far he had agreed for others details to be passed on, thus breaking a sacred bond of not revealing other purchasers, this had taken the most convincing of each of his partners, but all had eventually agreed seeing the benefit. One final trip was needed to inform each of his partners either the location of the warehouse, or the identity of who they would be obtaining goods on behalf of.  

Jhonna arrived home, informed Arian of the tremendous achievement he had made in uniting his partners and establishing a trade network across the country. He was amazed by the changes in his son but had the shadow of the forthcoming and final journey hanging over him. Where they had planned to spend as long as possible together, Jhonna could not bear the weight of having to leave again. He decided the only way was to leave forthwith. The sooner he had made this final trip, the sooner he could return, and this time he would not need to trade and replenish his stocks, all he was doing was informing each partner of who to meet or where to go. With his mind made up he kissed Arian on the forehead, cuddled his son, and set off, vowing to himself to be as quick as he could manage, not wanting to lose any more time with his family.  

This is how Jhonna came to the forest, and this is how Jhonna finally decided to forsake all warnings and previous experiences. He arrived at the forest shortly after mid-morning, with not wanting to waste an entire day and night he set forth with Arian and his son in mind, he attempted to make it but reluctantly had to set up camp, and this is where we will find Jhonna for our story.