THE CINDER ROAD - The Cast

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~ The Cast ~

Here's everybody in Chapter One. There are more people in the valley than these three, but they haven't walked onto a page yet. The portraits are from the character sheet I drew before I started page 1, so I'd keep everybody looking like themselves from week to week.

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Maren: a girl with short choppy red hair and freckles, scowling, in dented plate armor much too big for her, her helmet under one arm and her sword at her side, with Corvus on her shoulder

MAREN
Sixteen. Farm girl. Going to be a knight.

Maren grew up on a farm on the green side of the valley, the last farm before the ash begins. She has short red hair that she cuts herself (it shows), a lot of freckles, and a temper she's working on. She has wanted to be a knight for as long as she can remember, and when the knights at the castle told her to go and fetch a scale from the last dragon, she went the very next morning. Nobody has ever told Maren something was impossible and had her believe them.

The armor is borrowed. Who she borrowed it from is a Chapter Two story. It's so big on her that the helmet falls down over her eyes, which is why she carries it under her arm. The sword is the wooden practice sword she's had since she was ten.

Carries: one sword, one helmet, and, as of page 4, one dragon's scale.
First page: page 1

Corvus: a glossy black crow with a gray beak and a skeptical, half-lidded look

CORVUS
A crow. Talks. Thinks this is all a very bad idea.

Corvus is a glossy black crow with a gray beak and a look on his face like he's heard it all before. He can talk, which Maren says crows can't do, and he's never told anyone how. He says he came along to watch her fail. He hasn't left yet. Maren hasn't pointed that out to him, and neither have I.

His name is the Latin word for a raven, and it's the first half of the crow's scientific name too. (I looked it up at the library.) Corvus would tell you it's a very lazy name for a crow. He'd be right, but I liked it, and it's my comic.

Rides on: Maren's shoulder, her helmet, or whatever is highest.
First page: page 1

The dragon: a huge old gray-green head with a long drooping face, tired eyes and a wisp of smoke at the nostrils

THE DRAGON
The last one. Very old. Very tired.

Most people in the valley will tell you there aren't any dragons left. They're almost right. The last one lives in a cave in the side of the Mountain That Breathes. He's enormous, with dull gray-green scales, a long droopy face, tired golden eyes, and smoke that curls out of his nose whether he means it to or not. Knights have been climbing that mountain to fight him for a very long time, and he is extremely tired of knights.

He has a name. Maren hasn't asked him for it yet, so you'll have to wait with her.

Shedding: yes. A few scales every fall, the way a tree drops leaves. There aren't any trees with leaves left in the valley, so he's the only one who does it now.
First page: page 3 (the eyes), and all of him on page 4

~ The Valley of Ash ~

The story happens in the Valley of Ash: a wide gray valley of ash and burnt trees under a smoky sky, where nothing grows. Right at the edges it turns green again, and that's where the farms are, Maren's included. In the middle stands the Mountain That Breathes, which smokes day and night, with the dragon's cave in its side.

The Cinder Road is the old road across the valley, from the green side to the mountain. It's the only road that goes all the way across, and it's where the comic gets its name. The knights' castle is back on the green side, and the knights don't come out this way much.

People in the valley don't agree about what burned it. The old stories say dragons did it, a long time ago. Other people say it was the mountain. I know which one is right. It's in my notebooks, and it'll be in the comic, eventually.

The whole map is four feet long, on brown paper, and too big for the scanner. I'm drawing a smaller copy, and it'll go right here when it's done.

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Questions about the cast or the valley? Write to me: [email protected]

Last updated Wednesday, September 22, 1999
THE CINDER ROAD and all its characters © 1999 Wendy Hennig