Hellsborough Exposed — nether-human-culture

Netherlander surnames are clan names and there are only four of them — Wood, Ley, Marsh, Moor — singular for the person and plural for the clan, so Wilf Moor is of the Moors and will tell you so before he tells you anything else. Three of the four press on Owlerton and argue about it endlessly: the Moors from the north, the Leys from the south, the Woods wherever the treeline lets them in. Nobody mentions the Marshes in that argument, because the Marshes took the wet ground nobody else wanted and, as netherlanders themselves put it, skipped four hundred years of border trouble by being willing to have damp feet.

I never wrote up being followed in Beeley Woods until I went back and found a makeshift camp in the Dead Wood — a spit for turning meat over a fire, unused, and a vision that came unbidden of myself roasting on it. Close enough to the netherlands to see the border from there, which leaves one uncomfortable conclusion about who built it and what they were planning to cook.

Moldenke (singular: Moldenk) are always found in pairs, which is either a cultural practice or a survival strategy - the research is ongoing because extended observation has not proven popular. A subset of the humans in the nether lands -- the nethermen, they operate at the Wisewood edge, traveling by bike, skateboard, or other solo transport devices. Young, dangerous, acquisitive: that is the entire field notes.