Carstober Prompt #14: Retribution
"To say that the Longhaulers and the Glenrunners weren't responsible for establishing Dawsonville would be an abject lie. The Longhaulers logged the woods, stripped the hills of their coal, and refashioned the scarred landscape into some of the best farmland this side of the Mississippi. The Glenrunners kept the Longhaulers in top, physical condition with their mechanical prowess, and made high quality fuel from Longhauler lumber and cash crops. To acquire rarer materials, they began to trade with the nearby Silver Creek Factory, and the settlement--tentatively named Arciniville (are-sin-o-ville)--began to grow by leaps and bounds.
But then the Factory Wars Began.
The Silver Creek Factory was beset by angels from the Atlanta based Brawny Motors. Once the Brawny angels learned of Silver Creek's involvement with the residents of Arciniville, they sent one of their angels to destroy the settlement and its inhabitants. The battle was brief and brutal; only a few dozen vehicles survived.
Of the survivors, Saren Glenrunner used his aptitude with mechanical engineering to design a catapult that could launch tree trunks like spears. The Longhaulers, led by Aren Longhauler, provided the raw materials and labor, and when the angel returned two days later to finish the assault, they shot it out of the sky.
Whether or not their victory caused Brawny motors to reconsider their methods is up for debate. All that is known is that their settlement was spared any additional violence.
The tree that delivered the killing blow had been harvested from the top of Dawson hill, and so the settlement was renamed Dawsonville to honor its sacrifice. While most of the wood was too damaged to be of any use, the Glenrunners and the Longhaulers stitched some pieces together into a mount upon which they proudly displayed their combined family crests...and the wings that they'd pried off of the angel's mutilated corpse.
Up until 1958, the crest had remained in the possession of Aren's descendant, Samuel Longhauler Sr. Upon his passing, his widow, Annette Longhauler, donated the crest--along with a large collection of artifacts and books--to the Dawson County Museum, where they can still be seen to this very day."
--An excerpt from Dawson County Georgia: A Brief History, pages 68-74.
