So I’m writing the prologue of a Zodiac-sign based story (my NaNoWriMo project!), and I feel like this paragraph is a bit of an infodump. Like, quite a major one.
I might be wrong, but if it is, are there any ways I can change it? The main issue is with the paragraph in italics below, but everything else I’ve written so far I’ve put in a summary thing above it:
Prologue So Far
“The Talis Oracle is the youngest in the entire kingdom,” the tour guide (very necessary around these parts, somebody could get lost in these woods for days without one) said, waving a hand towards the bridge. “They’re also the only one who’ll see you, so that’s why we’re here.”
Privately, fourteen-year-old [name_f]Aerin[/name_f] [name_f]Liriel[/name_f] had little confidence in oracles to begin with, even if their very birth was prophesied by one to the exact date and time. The teen had never cared for the idea of staring into the future and speaking riddles for those who paid for the service. After all, the old Theran tale of Croesus was a good one to show that interpretation was a tricky business. Certainly there were official interpreters for Quasareian oracles, but even they weren’t always right.
However, after the Cerulis Oracle made their prophecy about Aerin’s birth even after their mother, Raewyn, was told in no uncertain terms that she would never have children, the [name_f]Liriel[/name_f] couple had trusted them absolutely. [name_m]Even[/name_m] considering that [name_f]Aerin[/name_f] had younger twin siblings, [name_m]Delmar[/name_m] and [name_f]Nerida[/name_f], and they weren’t mentioned in the prophecy at all.
But here they were, on their way to a random cottage in the middle of the Myrios [name_m]Woods[/name_m] to visit the ‘youngest oracle in Quasareia’. How young were they, anyway? Twenty-five? Twenty?
They dragged their feet after the rest of their family, barely glancing at the trees around them. The bridge creaked worryingly with every step they took, and they tried to block the horrid sound out as they walked. [name_f]Aerin[/name_f] couldn’t swim, and the river flowing beneath the old wood that served as its only crossing point was deep, they knew that. If the bridge broke… they didn’t want to think about that.
“Aerin, hurry up.”
[name_f]Aerin[/name_f] swallowed, shuffling forward a little faster. They didn’t like angering their father, and he could never abide people who moved slowly – be it in movement, work or life as a whole.
The cottage itself looked rather normal, with the only main sign that it housed anyone special a literal sign on the fence surrounding it – [name_m]Kellan[/name_m] Cottage, Home of the Talis Oracle – and the fact that every window looked to be covered with jet-black cloth except for one in the attic. [name_f]Aerin[/name_f] caught sight of a fairly young girl fleeing from that window as they walked through the gate.
Their guide stopped at the door. “They won’t let me in there with you all, so I’ll be outside when you’re finished. In you go, then!”
[name_f]Aerin[/name_f] was last into the cottage, and found themselves in a surprisingly empty living room of sorts. There were three people standing at the table: a man, a woman and a boy. All three had the pale grey eyes indicative of a Pisces, something unusual to see in a family. Raewyn [name_f]Liriel[/name_f] had the green eyes of Taurus; Callyx [name_f]Liriel[/name_f] saw through the light brown eyes of Virgo. [name_m]Delmar[/name_m] and [name_f]Nerida[/name_f] were named for their bright blue eyes, belonging to their sign of [name_m]Aquarius[/name_m]. Aerin’s own eyes were violet, signless, the mark of the Sight, though [name_f]Aerin[/name_f] had never shown any signs of possessing the ability to spy another person’s fate. Indeed, they viewed their world through eyes that spoke of a destiny that didn’t belong to them, eyes that should have shown the world that they were born under the sign of [name_m]Scorpio[/name_m], should have been so dark they were nearly black.
So yeah, if that paragraph is too much of an infodump, then how can I change it, and what do you think of the prologue as a whole if you decided to read the thing in the summary?
Side note, [name_f]Aerin[/name_f] [name_f]Liriel[/name_f] is possibly my favourite character name ever, though [name_f]Eirlys[/name_f] [name_m]Kellan[/name_m] (the oracle the Liriels have gone to visit) is a close second. Still have to make their middle names suitably strange.