The Founding of Ex. (extract taken from Understanding the past, a school textbook by Prof. Mufudazi Flowers) Chapter 7. In The Year of the Falling Rock (1114) a small group of Goolooian explorers sailed north down the Fly River, bribing their way through the aristocratic states of Art, Quake, Frostbitten, Music, Rhubarb and Small. Eventually they battled through the Forest of Ex and arrived at the northern coastline where they discovered a bay of great beauty. Delighted by what they had seen, they hurried home only to find that no-one else wanted to know about it. The Culture and Natural History Museum rejected their carefully stuffed and dried specimens, and also the beautifully-written and -illustrated journals which are today mandatory reading for any Umbagollian scholar worth his salt. The Gum Gooloo governor refused to acknowlege their expedition. From the official point of view, it looked as if the explorers had risked the lives of everybody in the city for the sake of their own amusement. What if they had stumbled across the persecutors, the sinister "They" who lurked in the corner of every brain in Gum Gooloo? Civilisation as Goolooians knew it might have come to an end. Fear became open vilification, as we know from 'Featherstone,' still one of Umbagollah's most popular childrens' games: Featherstone, Featherstone, why is she? She wants to kill you, and she wants to kill me - the children then scatter, and whoever is caught falls down 'dead.' Sarah Featherstone was the young woman who led the expedition. Deciding that the people of Gum Gooloo Gum Jublet were, "A collection of invertebrate fuckwits," - to quote one eyewitness - she led another, larger expedition back to the forest and the bay. Here they founded the city of Ex. Ignorant of this, the Gum Gooloo Governor declared them 'dead,' a memorial plaque was erected by their parents and the tale of the Forty Foolish Travellers passed into folklore. Featherstone was the driving force behind Ex. One of the other travellers later wrote, "She told us from the start that this was going to be a city, not a settlement, but a proper city, a place that would put Gooloo to shame. It seemed insane; there were only forty of us after all. We could barely have populated a town. She informed us that our buildings would be tall, not flat, and that we would fool the world by surrounding ourselves with a complicated hedge maze. It was completely the opposite of everything we knew. We were skeptical, but enthralled. It seemed impossible, but - what if it wasn't? She had pulled that great charismatic trick of hers: she had convinced us that we were part of something heroic. As it turned out, I believe we were." " Go ahead to the next chapter, The Triumph of Ex or back to the Timeline.