farawayeyes4

Hey,

It's been another month, and now the next Journey chapter is ready to go live.

In reality, however, it's been another year. Almost a year ago now (give or take ten days), I received a wonderful review from doggieearlover. This review inspired me to pick this story back up and fall in love with it all over again. In the last year, I've done just that and found solace in writing it once more. It's been a journey (pun intended) to get a chapter written for each month of this year and now into next year (we're not there yet on 2017, but we're working on it). I had gotten some sporadic reviews here and there through the years of dormancy, but this one really struck a cord and prodded me to re-read the story. In some ways, it felt foreign as if someone else had written it. I found myself forgetting little details and eager to see where things went. By the end, I had to keep writing because no one else was going to tell this story. And I decided that would be a true shame.

So here's her review from one year go:

I came back and reread this entire fic from the very beginning. Even though I'm no longer writing myself, I have hopes that one day you'll come back and finish this outstanding piece. I still think it's one of the very best, most original and well written pieces of fanfiction I've ever read. The characters are so real and it's near impossible to not get involved in this story. I know how hard it is to come back as I made myself finish my one last unfinished piece. I keep hoping that you will come back and finish this and let us know what happened to everyone, how Rin saves Sesshoumaru and how they defeat Naruku and get back home. I know you had a lot left to write, but am ever hopeful that you will one day complete this story. Otherwise I hope everything is going well in your real life.

I don't know if this story fits all of these high praises. I don't know if it's the best or most original or one of the most well written, even. I don't know if the characters feel that real to anyone else besides me or doggieearlover, but they are still very old friends and getting to know them again is worth it. I love that she wants to see things like Rin saving Sesshomaru. I love that the question of the Inu Gang ever going home remains tantalizing. (Hint, I've known the answer since I started and I'm not telling.) As for completing this story? Well, nothing really ever truly ends, does it? Really, the fact that any single person felt that strongly to reach out after so long---I had to answer. The only way to answer a review like this was to truly sit back down and write more on it.

And so here we are. This month, we're returning to see what is happening with Rin. I'm really proud of this chapter and what it sets up for Rin's future and character in so many ways. This is the chapter that she truly starts to take some real control and shows us her real strength. It was a pleasure to write this one and set her story in full motion for what will happen as we progress further into the world of Eddings and that pesky Journey to the City of Endless Night.

We also get some more insight in on some of our Eddings cast---at least I hope the reader will. It took some memory jogging, but I establish something in this chapter about Belgarath, the unquestioned leader of our band of adventurers. When you get to be 7,000 years old and have put out as many world crises as he has, you get to be defacto in charge rather you want to or not---and believe me, he probably doesn't as he's prone to be a bit lazy (ask his brother, Beldin. Ask Belgarath himself. Laziness is his default, really.) He's a complex fellow with a lot of history and it is really entangled with the foe of this chapter. He's been the extremely powerful sorcerer, the irritated old man, the unquestioned leader, and more. Belgarath has so many hats and he carries them all so well. I feel I captured a few of those roles and some in this one, too. So much of this story focuses on the Inuyasha side, and I like that we see a bit more into the Eddings gang.

That being said, I feel this chapter really gives us some meat and a real growth for Rin that I hope the reader will enjoy as much as I did.

You can find it at AFF.org MM.org and AO3.

Until next month,

Far Away Eyes