Charles & Freya Departure

With Freya as my companion we ventured forth from the depths of the tree bridge which we had hollowed out the day before. The laser now completely spent on the few sunroof style windows he had cut through. The light was key, but also we hung several leaf buckets for water all along the bridge under each window, as this was much easier access to water than pulling up the bucket and lowering it again.

The forest was dense and beautiful with large red and blue foliage on this side, much more so than on the upper western side, it must have been the root system of the forest’s more readily available access to water. The first day we travelled through the deep blue rose bushes the size of my head, which gave birth to large blackberry tasting berries, which Freya gave leave to eat. The red flowers rippled themselves birthed amongst the blue, but on a different bush, with no thorns at all. Not like the blue blackberry bushes at all, whose thorns seemed as Raptor claw, able to leave deep gashes in my arm or take my hand off, if not careful.

Much of our day was spent ducking and weaving through the bushes until we found a small clearing before dusk, as we did so we could hear, what I could only guess to be, drum beats far off in the distance somewhere before the marsh or body of water I guessed to be the opening in the forest canopy from our vantage point atop the cliffs at home. Here we built a small fire and rested the night, Freya spoke much of the forest’s beauty and danger, but we were both too tired from our day’s trek to remember much, for soon we knew nothing but the darkness of sleep without dreams.

In all hopes of returning,
Charles & Freya

World's Over Journal XIII Silent Night

In the early hours of the morning, as the sun rose into the sky, dawning yet another green day, I found myself missing the red or even blue light of our old sun. I sat silently, buttocks firmly planted on the front steps this had become one of my favourite spots, besides the backside of the Golem Rock under the sunlight at mid-day. I find myself here often, upon the steps, during the day both before and after the daily chores of the garden and fetching water was done.

With my journal in my lap, I began to write, ‘sorry I couldn't manage last night,’ I pause to take in a deep breath and ponder a moment over last night’s events. An awful silence filled me with dread, it occurred as my pen hit the paper to begin writing. No bird or creature could I hear outside or roaming around the halls, as they often seemed to enjoy doing in the hours of darkness. At first I thought it was just my mind wrapped up on itself, too deep in thought to recognize the external, but soon I realized that nothing beyond my self was making any sound.

Then, I heard it, deep footsteps in the hall just beyond my door. I heard the raspy breathing of, what I could only guess, the troll from the other day. She stood in the hall way for a time, I could make her out amongst the shadows, standing there one arm outstretched before her. I heard the sound of scratching, as a finger nail upon a chock board, I dared not think beyond the immediate sense in the moment for fear of arousing her to my presence, though I was almost certain she knew I was there, for my heart beat was loud as my breathing was long and hard in preparation for flight or fight. Suddenly she turned her gaze from the wall and two bright orbs of yellow pierced the darkness, stealing my breath away, and she was gone


In earnest anticipation of,
Jane
Without Charles

World's Over Journal XII The Beauty of Dread

Today the loneliness left by Charles and Freya’s departure was lost and forgotten for what I felt after a strange encounter encompassed my whole day. I saw a troll, a female to be sure. I had been sitting upon the steps in the early hours of the day, remarking on the size and structure of the dark alder brown footprint against the light tan pine steps when I saw her. She was standing beyond the fence of the yard in the open clearing before the ravine, the dawn’s green refractive light glowed green upon her pale white skin.

She was looking up the tree line along the ravine so I could not make out her face, save for two large tusks protruding from her mouth, up and slightly out. Indeed from that distance all I could not make out just how large the troll was, for she looked to be hunched over, almost kneeling. She seemed no taller than myself, nor did she seem to be of great bulk, a beautiful yet terrifying slender creature. Her long white-gray hair was draped nearly to the ground. It was kept up in several braids of various sizes which were held together with binds woven of black and lavender cloth, the main middle one seemed as large as both my arms put together. Despite the vast amounts of beautifully kept hair, it seemed to be receding, that or trolls just had larger foreheads than we humans do.

Amidst her many braids were her ears, which she had four of. I could see that her left ear, the one closest to me, had several piercings with red hoop or bone though them and stuck out at least a six to eight inches above her head, as I’d imagine some elves do. Behind and just below the tall front ear was a smaller ear, with no piercings at all, but it was much like the first. It seemed to be pulsing, that is how I noticed it at first, hidden amongst the braids.

She turned slightly away from me, then I realized she was beside the water basin. The troll lifted a brown leather pouch from the basin held in a white hand with but three broad fingers, with great talon like nails and held it flask to its lips. As she did the tension in the air fell away and her foot long pointed ears relaxed to rest on her shoulders which her cloak of gray, brown and green draped over, all the way to the ground availing the details of her form from my eyes.

Only after her ears relaxed did I dare move, before that I had been bound by fear and intrigue, trying to take in every aspect of the beautiful yet terrifying creature before me. As she lowered the flask of water her face tilted towards me, ever so slightly. I could have sworn that the troll’s great yellow, cat like eyes, flashed in the sunlight. From what I recall of her face, it was not ugly, though I was held in dread for a moment by her eyes and could not take in the its full beauty. It was of purest white, with but two large tusks which protruded as high up as her forehead, though she had six lesser fangs, a set each going up and down on the inside of the larger tusks.

The troll remained perfectly still with extraordinary balance motionless and beautiful as a stone gargoyle. I suddenly found myself at the bottom of the steps, and as the flask was once again hidden from sight underneath her cloak that my bare feet touched the grass. In that moment she knew me, my presence was known, her eyes flashed their full glare upon me, I blinked and saw only the green light of the sun reflecting when I opened my own and she was gone.


In earnest anticipation of,
Jane
With Charles

World's Over Journal XI Footsteps of Doom

There came the sound of a great crash from inside the house. I had just left the kitchen after brewing some tea which Freya had taught us how to make with various herbs, and was now sitting upon the frost steps. Fear struck deep within me, for Charles and Freya were gone off on their quest for the past three days now and there was no other entrance to our tree home but the second level doorway and I sat upon the threshold.

‘Nothing big could have gotten by me’, I said to myself, nothing I could have seen that is. As I stood up there beside my hand was a footprint upon the wooden step. It was twice as large as mine, the ball of a foot and three large toes. Whatever it was, it was very large, for the foot print was of dried mud, but fresh as if by the sheer weight of the creature had it been left. There were only two other footprints upon the whole entrance way and staircase, which were before the threshold, as if it had leapt from ground ten feet to our mid stair and then landing once again before the doorway.

There was no sound but the breeze and a flock of several birds not far off high above in the trees, nothing else after the loud crash. I decided that since I had been in the house or upon the staircase that whatever it was, surely would have noticed me, so I called out. ‘Hullo’ I had said, no response came, so with all my nerve I entered. I saw no one and heard nothing else that day, save the birds and the wind.

In earnest anticipation of,
Jane
With Charles

World's Over Journal X The Tree Bridge

Well Charles is finally off on his adventure beyond the tree which fell over the ravine. He had been debating with himself to go see if the gap in the tree line was a source of water for several days now. Freya went with him, to give him advice about what plants or small creatures he may not want to touch. She also mentioned that if they come across any angels it would be best if Charles had a local representative with him, to persuade them not to take him captive or kill him on the spot.

We had spent a few days preparing for their adventure, taking supplies from Bahamut’s belly. The portable laser we had moved to were the tree had fallen and hidden it for the night, it was to be used only to carve a passage through the tree to the other side, a bridge inside the tree if you will, was our purpose. A supply of several days’ worth of water was brought up from the river at the bottom of the ravine, Charles had built a large crank as to lower a large bucket down on a cable, there were several gears so even I could do it without tiring myself out after one load.

No one else had woken yet, though it seemed as if Priscilla had moved, though when I had checked her heart and pulse, she was just as asleep as she ever had been, as they had always been. Charles and Freya had left very early just before the sun had rose above the tree line far beyond the ravine, a bright fiery orb of the most delightful and radiant blue which flickered to white or green, before turning it’s bright red at noon.

In earnest anticipation of,
Jane
With Charles

Ps. Charles said that we’re still on earth, that the sun is the very same sun we’ve always looked up to. He rambled on, over morning tea on the front steps, about particles scattered in the sky or turbulence in the atmosphere which, along with the angle of the earth’s trajectory orbit around the sun, had given us longer periods of a refractive effect. Something which normally only happened for short periods before sundown. Also, I could have sworn I heard him mumble something about radiation, from the war.

World's Over Journal IX Odd Rock

Today I went for a walk up the gorge above the river, a suggestion given to me by Freya, who seemed to have become my shoulder companion lately. She often said it was easier than walking beside me, and I enjoyed her presence there, so close to me. After walking not more than a kilometer we came to a small meadow, its edges bright with a most lovely purple flower. In the center of the glade was a large rock, a very round rock it was, almost perfectly so.

‘That’s a rock golem,’ whispered Freya into my ear, ‘don’t worry though he’s been there for an age of the earth or so it seems.’ She leapt from my shoulder and clambered off amidst the tall grass. I didn’t see her until she appeared again scurrying up the rock side. After reaching the top she turned to me, gave a sweeping curtsy and struck the rock twice with the end of her staff.

‘See he won’t wake, silly old creature,’ Freya pronounced with confidence. ‘Not unless by some feat of unspoken magic he wakes, but that will not happen,’ she said with a wink of her blue eye while a smile danced upon her tiny pink lips.

‘Don’t toy with me like that,’ my mouth retorted before I could withhold and with that I stepped into the glade amidst the tall grass, ‘for I do not know anything of the deep magic.’ I heard Freya let out a tiny giggle underneath the brim of her hat as she stooped over pretending to be interested in something upon the Golem’s back.

‘Come and sit upon the rock for it is warm as if the sun shown endlessly upon it,’ Freya beckoned to me, ‘It is not very often that I’ve come this far north. Always our family knights hunted in the glades, but the bugs that dwell here can get big, even I may have trouble fending them off alone if too many gathered or I wondered into a nest,’ she finished with a heavy hearted sigh as she sat down and crossed her legs.

Once I had gotten closer to the Golem I found that even as it was, all curled up in a circle, it was nearly as tall as I was. Courage I mustered up as I moved my hand to find a grip as to pull myself up. My fingers clamped down and my foot found a small ledge, the large rock Golem did not stir, though I found it very warm indeed. We spend the rest of the day sitting upon, what we presumed was, the Golem’s back watching the sun go down west into the trees. Charles met us there and together as a family, we walked home. Though I was certain not for the last time from the spot where the Golem lay.

In earnest anticipation of,
Jane
With Charles

World's Over Journal VIII First & Fast Friends

Freya and I had become fast friends over the course of the past few weeks. You see, she had lost all her family to an owl while moving to a stump of a fallen sapling beside the creek which ran underneath it and off into the ravine. I was sad for her, but they were not dead she said, the owl bore the markings of a wise one, he would not eat them once he had received them in his eyrie. Though there was little chance that he would bring them home to her as well. Owls, even the water aware ones, did not overly trouble themselves in the plights of others. Their energy was stored for the moon and the hunt.

So it was that she had made her home in our kitchen upon the counter, in the wall beside the window, which looked out to the stump and the gorge beyond. Freya told me she had left a note there for her family to find, ‘they were of a brave and loyal line,’ she had said, they would do all in their power to come home to her.

Much there was for Charles and I to learn of our new world, so every night we would gather together by the fire and listen to what Freya had to tell. Of great rock creatures she spoke telling us that all the animals were sentient, or at least they were at the dawn of the great war, and dragons she had seen, just beyond the gorge in the swamp beside the lake. Beyond that was another thick patch of dark forest, farther still was the great wasteland, mountains and plains where to water dwelt. There only the great earth worms lived, though it was said that legions of warriors without any stores were seen passing over it, always heading north. Freya had never seen such a sight, though she had seen small caravans of sickly looking people, caught somewhere between the afterlife and this world, making their way with great haste to the north, always northwards.

In earnest anticipation of,
Jane
With Charles

World's Over Journal VII Freya

It didn’t take long before we had our first encounter with a living creature in our new world. Not but a week in the tree house did I come across a dear little one. Before I go one, you must throw out all notions of the creatures you know from the world around you. In fact, imagine not even your own world anymore, whoever mother earth was, she is something much more magnificent, wondrous and beautiful now. The world around me moves the soul inside of me to keep living, for its beauty and discoveries yet to be, for Charles and the others still sleeping inside of Bahamut.

I had seen it out of the corner of my left eye over my shoulder. A small pink creature scurried across the floor between the island and the kitchen counters. It was a mouse, I could have sworn it! But how could such a thing be a mouse, for the moment it knew I had seen it, it stopped and turned its head over its shoulder to see acknowledge me. Large bright eyes glared up at me, one blue the other green, from a white face under the brim of an overly large red wizard’s hat. I knew then that it was not a pink creature, but white mouse garbed in a pink and red waist coat which hovered just above her feet when she stood still. It turned to face me, standing tall on its hind legs. In its left hand was a tiny staff of wood with a bronze head, like that of a dragon.

Ever the smile did not leave its pleasant and beaming face, not until: ‘Hullo Jane,’ it spoke softly with a voice sweet yet powerful like an angel. I knew then that it was really a she. As the little miss bid me good day she swept the hat off her head with her right hand and fluidly stooped, but a little, into a most gracious curtsy. That is how I met Freya.

In earnest anticipation of,
Jane
With Charles

World's Over Journal V Redwood

I know it’s been a few days, lots to catch up on, though as I write this... I don't know if I have the heart to tell you of the past few days. Charles managed to engage the fusion core, we were both so thankful to have more light than the unstable emergency ones. We got the external cameras online and were able to take in our surroundings.

Our tomb was in the centre of a forest of the most majestic trees either of us had ever seen. We stared in awe at the two monitors as they panned back and forth over the forest floor. The Bahamut was propped up against a most unnaturally large tree, gigantic Sequoia, larger than any we had ever laid eyes on. Charles decided that the moment needed some tension defusing.

'It would seem that a trek into the wild wouldn’t be such a wise move since we know next to nothing biology of the flora and fauna of the region,' Charles had said, in an attempt to defuse tension. He quickly noticed that it did not work, he promptly leaned in for a kiss, I turned to him and he got one. I had been mesmerised by fear of the unknown. Lucky for me, my husband knows me well, even if his humour never evolved, his mind stuck in the stone ages of dreary scientific logic.

Later that day Charles ran some tests and discovered that there was enough power left in the fusion core to use the secondary laser three or four times, depending on length of use per shot. After that there would be enough to charge the laser saw twice before all being completely drained.

After that I managed to find some food while rummaging through the compartments which had been power locked. My day was made and I sat back happy with my hands tearing at protein bars and a special cranberry juice, which was still quite tasty. Seeing that I was content Charles kept up his work in front of the computer screen. Later on he advised me that he was devising a plan to make a tree house. But that it would take meticulous planning before he could implement it.

The plan was to cut down the tree which Bahamut rested against and make our home in the hollowed out stump with the laser saw. Charles decided to stop the tree from disturbing the forest floor next to the tree by using the cable launcher to pull it over so that on its trajectory down it would hit the mightiest branch of the neighbouring tree, but that the cables would be fired then, pulling it over the branch so that it acted as a leaver. The tree would then be slide off the far end of the branch and down a slope, sliding away from the our would be home.

The next day the forest would wake to a calamity, a blizzard of wood chips, branches, leaves and earth. A might thwomp that shook the forest's floor as it slid down the slope towards a ravine. Then we would leave our tomb forever...

In earnest anticipation of,
Jane
With Charles

World's Over Journal VI Day's Light

When first we took in the sight of our surroundings it was dawn, the light was streaming through a dense forest of the largest and most wondrous Redwoods I’ve ever seen.

‘Sequoia darling,’ Charles corrected me as I gasped ‘Red…wood,’ slowly taking in the immense sight beside us. It was nearly a seventy feet round, its bark was thicker than Charles’ arm and so red it seemed as though the blood of all the warriors who died in the last war had stained it so. The tree was nearly the height of a towering sky scraper and at its top were boughs of dark green, beautiful. All around us in every direction, save east, for as far as we could see, the canopy of Giant Sequoia trees surrounded us. Immediately our eyes were drawn to the dense undergrowth of beautiful purple flowers, much like a giant Orchid. There were many other unique flowers nearby, though we did not linger long in them for our eyes were drawn to a second species of tree that grew close together underneath the Redwood, they were Arbutus trees. They had formed a second canopy below the Sequoia's, the trees had managed to create a twisting labyrinth as the branches that formed their boughs grew together. It was an amazing sight to behold.

Our little hollow, was but a glad in the majestic forest which was to be our home the Bahamut resting silently against it, our comrades hibernating inside. Beyond the tree, to the East, was an open field of tall grass before the slope. The rock was dark red though here and there were large blots of gray stone. Flowing steadily nearly a few thousand feet below us was a river of deep blue.

Next Charles mapped out a floor plan for our home, powered the laser saw and went into the tree about fifteen feet from the ground, he promised to build me a grand staircase. It took him a few days, but he managed to hollow out two floors for us to live in with a fantastic, broad and deep step staircase, I was very impressed. After that, the fusion core flicked out and all was silent inside Bahamut once again. We left a note in the hand of each of the comrades, though we posted one to the casing which held three of them captive inside the gunnery core of the right arm. We left the Bahamut’s large rear hatch open, for the angle it sat on no weather could get inside, though at night we closed it for fear of… Whatever might be out there, in our massive new world.


In earnest anticipation of,
Jane
With Charles