This tale was hosted on blogsome.com for several years from 2007 onwards, but because blogsome is sadly closing down I have transferred everything to wordpress as of December 2011.

It was my very first story in the English language, which is not my mother tongue; I started to write it when I was thirteen years old and remained faithful to its continuation for two years. Sadly it still lacks the final chapter, but I put a lot of work into it and it is a nice representation of my early teenage years, so I am quite partial to its preservation. Throughout the tale a development is visible of my game style, picture taking and writing style, as well as my regard of historical accuracy! (I apologise for the poor quality of many of the pictures; this is the ‘courtesy’ of photobucket compression, and my original images are lost.)

The tale reads like any Sims story and is published in blog style, so the last chapters are on top. On the “List of chapters” page you can browse the story posts in the same way, but those posts are interspersed with “non-story” babbling and background rambles, so you might want to look through the other categories as well (accessible in the sidebar).

I have deliberately left everything as it was on the blogsome blog, including the about and link pages (they make me giggle), much as you would preserve a bedroom of a grown-up child who has moved out of their parents house… What can I say, I have a penchant for anything old — that much would be clear from the setting of this tale ;)

Connected to that is that I have had a lovely experience keeping this story blog! It acquainted me with the international Simming community which has since given me many laughs, tears, and great conversations with wonderful people from all over the world. One thing binding us: a love of our own imaginary worlds, and a love of storytelling.

Then, I may start over! The neighbourhood is rather glitched and messy by now, and I tried rearranging the terrain, but starting anew with a fresh medieval landscape becomes more and more appealing.

In the meantime, if you would like to see and read some more about Tinn, you can do so here, in my Livejournal. There’s pictures (old and new) and also writing about rules and how I arranged things. A collection of all the explaining posts I did can be found in this post.

:)

He had never thought that girls could actually be pretty interesting. But now he found himself being quite attracted to one girl in particular.

Mary Lewis. There was just something in the way she glanced at him, the way the point of her nose turned up, the way she so elegantly moved. She was just a little girl, just like he was just a little boy, but nevertheless she had awakened in him the desire to protect her, shield her. He wanted nothing but to pull her close, and yet he was frightened by this strange new desire.

Luc had madly fallen in love.

Mary didn’t think so highly of herself. As the only child and daughter of the irritable pastor, she had often seen his outbursts of anger. She had fallen victim to it once, when she was very young. She couldn’t recall what it had been about, but she now guessed it had something to to with her being a girl, instead of a boy.

Luckily it didn’t come to another argument after that one. Her mother restored the peace and guarded it like an angel. And she knew her father loved her anyway. He had his weak moments, but in the end she knew he only wanted the best for his family.

At the wedding of her friend Robyn, Mary had seen Luc. He was about as old as she, so it didn’t surprise her that he had grown since she had last seen him. But it struck her that he had grown so handsome.

She found herself blushing when he looked at her. He no longer was the little boy she knew and had even played with sometimes, but he had developed a hint of the attitude his father had always had. An air of doing what he pleased, even if the authorities didn’t like it.

When Luc had ventured into the woods one day and did not return, Mary was worried. She had found herself being quite attracted to the unusual boy. Now that he wasn’t around, she realized how much she had grown to care about him. She missed him.

Ofcourse she did know it could never happen – the two of them together – for he was the son of the banned man. Her father would never allow, let alone agree with such a thing. She also thought Luc would never like a bouncy little girl like her. But that didn’t stop her from dreaming.

Luc did not return after a few days and Mary was worrying herself sick. His family was having sleepless nights, too. But Mary was far more sorry for herself, as they had at least been able to tell Luc they loved him. If he was never to come back – Mary shuddered at the thought – he would never know about her.

Mary liked to think of herself as brave. Trouble was, she wasn’t, really. She liked braiding her hair and having nice dresses and drawing imaginary signs in the sand, and she didn’t think those were the kind of things a brave girl would do. A brave girl would at least have the courage to ask a boy on a dance. A brave girl would at least tell a boy if she fancied him.

Mary daren’t.

She did have her little adventures, like when a sheep had fallen into the moat. She had had the presence of mind to pull the sheep out, and afterwards she felt brave. She liked that feeling. And right now, she felt like she had the opportunity to be brave once again. It would be very different from rescuing a cat from the roof, ofcourse. But she liked to think herself brave and this was an opportunity a brave girl wouldn’t let go!

So, once Mary had swallowed several times and inhaled deeply, she grabbed the opportunity with both hands. She would go after Luc to try and find him.

Mary told her parents she was going for a walk, which was a part of the truth, she thought. She would never really lie to them.

At first the woods seemed light and airy, but it quickly got denser. And although Mary tried to remember the way she had come, every tree looked like all the others. There was no real path, except for a deer track that was hard to follow because it disappeared every now and then. But it was the only thing that appeared to make sense to Mary and she tried to follow it, which was the best thing she could have done.

Mary called out to Luc many times, but when she got no response at all, she realized how enormous these woods really were. Would she ever be able to find him? And if she could, how would they ever find their way back?

When Mary stopped to rest and looked around, an unfamiliar, horrible feeling came over her. She had no idea where she was.

On a day like this, Luc had set out into the woods. He was determined to find what he was looking for: the secret beehives of his father.

Because of this he had brought someone with him, for he knew he could never find it by himself. Benjamin Miller, who knew these woods better than anyone (except perhaps the deer), was sure to know where to look.

They quickly left the village behind them and when they had been walking among the trees for a while already, Benjamin asked:’How would you know there are beehives in these woods when you’ve never even been there?’

‘Someone told me about it,’ Luc muttered. ‘Look, can you teach me the way to the beehives?’

‘Sure.’ Benjamin said, but eyed him curiously.

They followed the tracks of deer, who had made a little path because of all the times they had walked there. Sometimes they would come across a special tree, and then Benjamin would turn left or right. It were signs that told him where to go.

After they had walked another mile or so and had even come across a pond (Luc didn’t know any lakes other than the water between the hills, so he was very surprised), Luc noticed some activity. All around them there as a faint buzzing sound.

‘Why, I believe we’re there!’ Benjamin said happily. ‘Is this what you’re looking for?’

‘I think so,’ Luc said. The sight of all those bees made him feel a little uneasy.

Benjamin was either not the tiniest bit afraid, or hid it very well, because he walked to the hives without cringing and inspected them. He whistled softly between his teeth. ‘Looking quite messy, hmm, usually, it’s spic and span. Why did you want to see them, Luc?’

‘I.. I wanted to know if they were real.’

Benjamin burst out laughing and Luc felt very embarrassed. ‘As real as you and me, lad! My, why would you ever think the beehives in the woods were not real? They’ve always been here.’

‘About the way to the beehives, can you give it to me one more time, mister Miller, please?’ Luc said, quickly changing the subject.

Benjamin eyed him curiously, again.

‘So I know how to get here again if someone doesn’t believe me,’ he explained.

‘Sure, lad..’ Benjamin said insecurely. ‘Well, look, you know where to start, right? After the last field of sheep, you enter the woods. You go South for a while, cross a field, and back into the woods. And you keep the hills on your right.

Then, when you get at that little pond (remember? It isn’t more than a puddle, really,) you walk around the lake and turn left at that tree I showed you. Now you’ve got the hills at your back.

Well after that, you walk about a quarter of a mile Eastwards until you get at the fallen trunk, then you leave the deer trail and enter the grove, you cross the little heather clearing and there you are.’

Luc nodded slowly, trying to remember everything.

‘It’s not that hard, really. If you follow the deer track most of the time, you’re okay. You’ll remember the signs when you see them.’

Benjamin looked around and rubbed gleefully in his hands. ‘Unless you want to unravel some other secrets, I think we should better go. It’s almost time for dinner.
I say, Luc, lead the way!’

This is the living room of the Green family. They have a cat called Timber, but they recently found an orphaned kitten and adopted the poor little thing.

Mr. Green owns a grocery store, it’s in the process of setting up but I’m not entirely sure how to arrange him to get all the produce from the farms. The farmers have to make money too, somehow, and they should get paid for their produce.

But how many should they produce? How many fields should they have, to provide for the entire community? How do I distribute it evenly, so every family can have dinner every day?
Currently the Chandler family is one of the poorest, because Dorus is gone and no-one is making money at all. This would be logical. But if Frank moves in, he is going to earn something to provide for the family. That was the point. But how? I was thinking they would become farmers, because I want more than one farmer family and Frank is bringing the knowledge. But they could also sell candles to all the villagers, using the beeswax Luc is looking for in the woods.

Maria Green holding the new kitten in front of their house. They called her Bea. She’s a cute thing.

Robert Reese stopped by. He is settling in nicely. I found his glassless windows again, thanks to Ingeli :), so his house isn’t missing anything either.

As he is very experienced with shopkeeping (his parents in Windle owned Reese Grocery Store :)), I think he will employ at the Greenery. He will like working at a grocery store again.

I also visited the Weaver family, where Anne and her children live, including Louis. The apples are looking quite well, even if it just Midsummer! I found some really lovely apple trees that have a shape that’s much more real. Only thing is that they wear apples all the time. But they look great among the apple trees of the game.

Awww, isn’t he precious? This is Nick Taylor, the sweetheart of Jasmine Weaver. Jasmine has not been interested in boys earlier(unlike her twin sister), she liked it better to paint. But now this boy came along and stole her heart. They’ve courted for a while now and are going to marry in the middle of Summer.

Here we have got Katherine Meadowsweet. They upgraded their stove, walls and windows recently. I really like those windows, as they are glassless. Glass was ridiculously expensive. I wouldn’t mind having glass in my Sims’ windows, but this a lovely one too.

I see her husband, Sander, has caught fresh bass. It looks delicious on that plate.

Also at the Meadowsweet house, in the flower shop. Left to right:
1. Adam Meadowsweet, being cashier. He’s better at selling stuff, so the customers aren’t really happy with his clumsiness!
2. Jozias Green, owner of the Greenery. He bought some roses if I recall correctly.
3. Benjamin Miller. He runs the mill, is a ranger in his spare time and knows the forest like the back of his hand. His family also breeds dogs.
4. Mary-Ann Thatcher, wife to Eck Thatcher, who is a peasant with no real job.. They fish a lot, Mary-Ann has some crops to tend, and right now Eck is employed at the Taylor Shopp (Anne Weaver’s clothing store). She is a really sweet, shy woman, birthed a son and two daughters, has also had a miscarriage, but finds the strength to go on in her plants.

This is Mary Lewis’ bedroom, in the back of the wooden building behind the Chapel. From that window, she can look out over the water between the hills in Winter. When the trees bear leaves, they almost grow into her room.
It is a very tiny and dark house, but Mary wanted light wallpaper. It does look like bigger this way.

Just one floor down, her parents sleep. Sophia has a hard time not to be waken up by the earliest bells in the morning, which her husband has to ring. She can snuggle into the blankets for a little while before she also has to get up, but those bells are so loud!

They only have one child, their daughter Mary. There is no-one to hand the task of pastor to. If Jon dies (which, ofcourse, he will eventually do) Tinn will have no priest at all. That is why they are debating on taking an apprentice, for they are too old to have another child.

That apprentice could ring those bells, too, so Sophia can snuggle into the arms of her husband!

I found most of my cc back. Only thing I’m missing right now is the sack of potatoes you can see in the header. I think it was included in some set at Around the Sims 2 or something like it. Does anyone have a clue where to find it? I liked it. :) I’ll bake you a nice cake!

My computer was hit by a crash last week.
All my own fault, simply switching the electricity off when the pc was very busy quitting the Sims didn’t do much good. In fact, it wiped out the entire C: directory.

Which meant I had to install Windows all over again.

This has happened to me once before, and back then I took good measures to prevent losing anything worthwhile again. I split my hard drive into three parts (C: for windows, D: for personal stuff and E: for setups and backups) and backed up every time before turning off.
But that was a long time ago, and since then personal files have sneaked into My Documents and I haven’t been backing up frequently for a while. My last back-up was from just before the New Year.

Now, I didn’t play Sims that frequently any more either (I spend too much time reading stories and going on download sprees) so not much playtime was lost. (Only some graduating from Sims in my modern hood, which is a pity as they also had some babies, but can’t be helped.) The few new bits of the Tinn tale are safely online. I did lose a neat file with all kinds of names that I’d gathered from anywhere, personal names (both medieval and modern, common and fancy), last names, place names, pet names, street names, forest names, store names..

The tricky part was this. I have my downloads folder neatly split into three different maps: always, medieval and modern. (The newer downloads at least, many older ones are still just sitting in the main folder. Sigh.)
When I play Tinn, I store the modern folder on my desktop for the moment being. When I play Ambleside, the folders swap places.
At the last backing up I had forgotten to copy the medieval folder that was sitting on the desktop.

*headdesk*

Which meant I had no medieval downloads at all when I restored the backup.

*headdesk*

So I’m currently in the process of gathering everything I can think of that I used to have, and I found some great new cc in the process, which kinda makes up for it. I think I have almost everything now. Whenever I have time I will load up Tinn and check if everything’s still there, or if I’m still missing something. I really hope I still have some of my favourite tabled, it seems silly, but I found some great firm and stable hardwood tables that I really loved, and I wouldn’t know where to find them again.

In the meantime I have written the beginning of a new chapter, and I hope I’ll find the inspiration to expand it soon. Only two more days of school and then it’s happy holiday for me! A whole week off, that should be plenty of time. I hope to have the computer issues sorted out by then, too.

That would be the last real chapter. After that one I plan to write some bits, like an epilogue, ‘what happened afterwards?’ thing. I have this little storyline that I want to tell, but I won’t go into every detail. Just the rough thing with some bits of dialogue or stuff I’ve already written. I think there will be a few pictures to go with that, because pictures are fun.

Cheers!

‘I can keep a secret, Ma,’ Luc said.

‘Good. Because it is, you know, it’s quite a sensitive matter.’

Luc nodded sincerely.

‘You know your father is gone. Do you know why?’

‘Because he told the pastor that he was a liar. We shouldn’t disagree with the pastor.’

‘It is easier not to, yes. But your father did, Luc, and your sisters and I shared that thought. He was of the opinion that the Church took advantage of the people, that they exploited them in the name of the Bible.’

‘And did they?’

‘Well, you may think of that what you will. But we noticed many ambiguities in the pastor’s services and speeches over the past years. And things we knew he had distorted to suit his purpose instead of the Lord’s.’

Luc’s expression was one of deep thinking and she knew he was searching for memories that confirmed this statement.

‘Do you remember when everyone was running out of food in the winter before last and he said we needn’t worry, because he and the Earl would take care of us?’

‘Yes.’

‘And then next spring, the tithes were twice as high for the Baker and the Thatcher family, because, according to the pastor, they had the largest families and he had had to do more work for them to be fed. So, he said, they still owe me something.’

‘And he used the extra tithes for himself!’ Luc remembered.

‘Exactly. Well, you may think of that what you will, but..’

‘I see,’ Luc said, nodding slowly.

‘There are other examples too, like when he wanted only the finest flowers from the Meadowsweet family for Easter – do you remember? – and at first they felt honoured, but then they realized they had nothing left. And of course that was just before everyone else came to buy Easter bouquets..’

‘But, Ma, where does Pa come into all this?’

‘That’s what I’m wanting to tell you. The pastor was being dishonest with the people, and your father knew. He saw right through him. And so he didn’t like to go to Church anymore, because he couldn’t stand hearing the man deceive all the villagers.’

‘And the villagers didn’t realize?’

‘Well, some of them had the faintest idea, I imagine, but they were well cared for and didn’t complain.
So your father didn’t always go to the Sunday Service, and when he did, he was not exactly the role model of devotion.’ Jantine chuckled. ‘He made little remarks, not only at Mass but also in conversation with villagers. He even told Geofryc Baker that he, to be honest, didn’t think the pastor to be so innocent himself.’

Luc frowned.

‘That made people believe that perhaps he wasn’t that religious at all. The whispers spread quickly.. They even called him a heretic.’

‘He could get really worked up about that, you know your father.. He found it really hard to hold his tongue. That one day in Church, he just spat it all out.
And when the rumours reached the Earl, and the Earl realized who it was he was dealing with, well..’

‘All hope was gone.’

The door cracked behind her and Luc came bustling in.

‘Hi Ma!’

‘Why, hello dear boy!’

‘What brings you here so early?’

‘I was done helping mister Benjamin with his dogs already, Ma, and then I thought of you sitting in the house all by yourself, and I thought I would go and see you. So here I am.’

Oh dear Luc, Jantine thought, he is still such a sweet little boy.

‘How kind of you,’ she said.

‘So how are you? All on your own?’

‘I’m growing used to it by now,’ Jantine said with a sad little smile.

‘What are we having for dinner?’ Luc had spotted the kettle and headed over to it. ‘Hmmm. Smells lovely, Ma!’

‘Please, Luc,’ Jantine said, ‘I want you to sit down for a moment. I need to.. tell you something.’

Everything Dorus had told him seemed to be true so far. The place was deliciously green and the people prospered, Robert could tell. And it was a nice little community. How different from where he was born. Windlebridge was nice, oh yes, and big at that! He liked the old houses in Windle, and the ever buzzing community. He liked all the different people who came to Reese Grocery Store every day.
But Windle was huge! It had a large main town, but Windleport also belonged to it. Then you had the College town and some other bits and pieces.
It would be very pleasant to take part in a community that was just starting out, that had not yet gathered as many people. It would be nice to start his own family here.

He missed his family at times, oh yes! Whenever he did, he would close his eyes and look at the pictures of the memories in his head, the happy memories. He had quite a few of those and he cherished them. He would never forget his past. It was a happy one.
Then he would visualize the future that lay before him, his future in Tinn with a nice wife and a nice job, and he would gather his strength, pull himself together and hold his fierce head high. Robert looked forward to the bright future with the happy memories always in the back of his mind.

As he got to know some of Tinn’s inhabitants, Dorus’ story only got confirmed more. Everyone was really nice and welcoming to him. The only thing he didn’t understand about Dorus’ story was the pastor. He seemed just fine in Robert’s eyes, while Dorus had told him about all the dark things Jon Lewis was up to.

Robert bought himself a nice house, big enough to house his future family. Close to the Chapel, close to the shops, close to everything, actually. Tinn was so small it was hard not to. It took him a while to get used to that, but he decided it was a nice change. He was sure Tinn would grow over time. And he would proudly be part of it.

Thanks a lot Ingeli for sending me Robert! I’m having fun with him. It was nice writing this little adventure, it gave him an opportunity to develop a personality and I’m liking it. At first I was perplexed by the change of his face when I turned him into an adult, but it’s really growing on me now and I would never want it any different. I’m guessing the long journey would change him a bit, too.
I love the hugeness and buzzing community of Windle very much, and I admire Ingeli for pulling it off. I could never achieve that. So when I thought about Robert’s reason to like Tinn so much that he would want to live there, I came up with this angle. I think Robert would like being able to help a community grow, and taking part in it. He is very outgoing and very active, so he would love playing a big role in Tinn’s community.

Also, I’m creating a new category: Family tales, that I can use in the future for non-story posts that are related to a particular family, like this.
Hope to see you soon. Enjoy your Christmas holidays!

The couple was very nervous at first, but when the ceremony started they were just giddy with love for eachother. Their wedding was a very joyful one.

Afterwards there was much talking and fooling, but also romance. Luc hit it off with Mary. That girl seriously is very popular.

Is this serious flirting? Whatever will her father the pastor think? Is Luc, being the son of the banned Dorus, stepping into the lion’s den? And will the newly-wed couple be comfortable with being around eachother all day and all night?

We can only wait and see! Happy Christmas to y’all! :)