I roleplayed many years ago with others in our fantasy tabletop game activity. We all went in our separate directions, I never found other friends I could interest in this role-playing, what I had worked on for preparation for it got buried and stored away, while it was still a long time before I connected with others using online access. That background was still a powerful influence in directing me toward writing works of fiction that I have been doing. When I did come online, I sought others who would roleplay with me, while I thought of the tabletop games still, through social media. This was still not fruitful so I went on writing even more. I eventually figured out others had ways to roleplay online, and when I figured out that I could search for that, I already knew about forums and had started using forums too. So it was natural then to look and find out if roleplay happened through forums. Lo, they did. There were several possible options to choose, I copied the addresses of several, and then had to think about how I would make time for that in my schedule occupied by a lot of things now. I decided at some point to jump into it and find out. The address to this forum, that I stayed with, was that first online address of several that I tried out. I didn't look at the others and those addresses would be buried somewhere.
So I am trying a new thing here. I responded to an idea once posted by someone in the forums who did not remain to see a response, and no one showed interest in what I might do with it. So, I am trying out a series that would be based on that, still I don't know how long I might continue with it. But I am one who just likes to write, too.
What Child Is This?
The small caravan had come far, from the land of Egypt, through wilderness area and among rugged hills, on toward the country of Galilee. It dwindled along the way, as individuals disembarked where they came to significant settlements along the way. Finally only Mary with her husband and her young child, along with another more aged couple, were still continuing, as the wagon they still occupied went on northward to reach its destination.
It came to a stop suddenly, and unexpectedly. The door to the wagon was abruptly ajar. A man with thick beard and holding a long blade, with other men behind him, stood there. He shouted, "All your money and valuables, hand them over, now!"
The older man still traveling handed over a bag with jiggling coins as his hands shook. Mary's husband then took a bag holding coins, full though it was smaller, and held it out. The man with the thick beard snatched it from his hand.
"What do you have in that box under where you sit?! Tell me!"
"There is frankincense and myrrh, eastern fragrances, in it."
"Pull it out. I will take that too!" That man held out his long blade toward them. The other men with him were similarly armed.
Once he had a grasp of the box, he had another man who had been behind him help him carry it out from the wagon, and they both departed, with the others with him. After a little more time the wagon they were on continued on.
Mary said, sadly, "Now we come back with nothing."
Her husband said, "We come back, with our lives."
The child, who watched what was happening outside the wagon said, "And we come back with our God." He smiled.
They looked outside, and saw the earth open up under the bandits, they were suddenly swallowed up.
Mary said, surprised, "Judgment has come on those men! But, we are still without anything now, that we had traveled with."
The child said, "Are we? See what we have under our seats."
Mary and her husband looked. There sat a box just like there had been there, previously. And next to it was a coin bag just like the one they saw taken from them.
The couple were brought in the caravan wagon to one of the small towns in the country of Galilee, occupied yet by some of the empire forces. They departed from the wagon through the dusty street to where the home Mary's husband, Joseph, was going to inherit from his aged family. They had been gone several years due to all the circumstances they had, since leaving for the tax count.
What was different now was an infestation, where rats came first, now there were aggressive snakes here. One soldier of the occupying forces had been bitten, and an old uncle in Mary's family had been, too.
When Mary came to see her uncle, with the child she wanted to introduce, she was astonished and very concerned to see that uncle's condition. Then she learned about the aggressive snakes, which could give people here a poisonous bite. The child disregarded the concern, and came to give the great uncle a hug. Right after that, Mary's uncle looked all better, and he was no longer suffering.
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