Circle Seven - The Burning Plain

ZOMG! Check it out!

Our intrepid heroes have made it to the burning plain. In my version, they have to stop for the night there. So here's the final description of them huddling together:

"An icy wind began to blow, swirling the ash around them like a dirty, grey blizzard, except the sickening snow stung like ground glass. Dante drew his knees up and pulled a blanket over his head, crossing his arms in front of himself to pull the fabric tight across his cheeks, leaving just a little gap for his eyes. He watched the others do the same, their movements slow and stiff, like the motions of ghosts or dreams. They could’ve been four survivors on the Anatolian plains, with the ashes of fallen Troy raining down on them as they bided their time for the inevitable, fated rebirth of their people. Or they could’ve been four of the damned on the outskirts of Gomorrah, the salty, poisonous exhalation of an unknown, jealous God wearing away every trace of them, as they waited for a sunrise they would never see. The feeling of Bogdana’s beloved body pressing against him could not tell Dante which of these two worlds they now inhabited; it could only tell him that he could endure either. "

Now, please excuse the overdone, nineteenth century style. It's my shtick. But besides that - loook what I did (w/o knowing it!): on the burning plain, Dante places three categories of sinners - homosexuals, usurers, and blasphemers. As you could guess, I don't classify the charging of interest or the erotic love of those of the same gender to be sins. BUT - check it out! The usurers are described as huddled on the ground with their arms around their knees; and the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah is taken as synonymous with homosexuality. So in my description of our heroes, I've used the imagery of the two sins that I excluded! Get it? See?