Charles & Freya Into the Red Marsh

It was quite a marvel to begin learning about the great history of the earth which was hidden from man for so many an age of our history, almost twelve thousand years of occupation by man upon the soil of the earth and all we had to show for it was a polluted atmosphere, countless graveyards and water which was lethal.

The time had come to continue our journey, Edgarory had the notion that I should meet with the tribes angelic leaders and become known amongst the villagers that a friendship might be born. He truly was a very pleasant being, stern of face yet surprisingly swift to smile, especially at Freya who knew his buttons well. She sat upon his shoulder as they looked out into the mist which clung to the marshes like icing upon your favourite cake, as I finished up packing up from breafkast our remaining provisions.

Edgarory lead me, as Freya continued to sit upon his shoulder, down a long fallen log, which was odd it seemed to me though I knew not why at the time, but as recall it now, the tree was like an oak! Not a Redwood or Manzanita tree at all. Down along it's firmly unplanted structure we went out into the mist.

We travelled together in the fog for nearly an hour, for the most part over fallen logs which had been laid down, or so it appeared to me, upon small piles of rocks. Edgarory pointed out that the rocks were set upon the firmest areas of the bog, he also said that agile and nimble people could walk across the bog's unsteady turf with ease. He proved this quiet easily as he leapt off the log out into the tall grass and bounded off into the distance until I could no longer see him.

Since I was no longer staring at Edgarory's back my eyes began to dart this way and that about the marsh as I followed down the thick logs which were barkless and had no moss about them. Here and there where the bog turf was solid enough there were small groves of what appeared to be fruit trees, they were not much taller than I. They were pale and the white bark looked sickly, moss did hang from the trees in the groves instead of leaves under which grew the tall dark bog grass. This place must once have been an lush orchard, but of course no fruit actually grew under the vale of mist.

I stopped and looked back when I got to the end of my latest log, nothing but mist could be seen over my shoulder upon our left, no glimpse of the shoreline, for Edgar described the bog much like a lake, only mist and deep shadow drifted over the bog; though it could be guessed at that at least some of the shadows were the small fruitless trees, while other shadows belong to large creatures. Over my right shoulder it was more obvious that the shadows mingled here and there about the mist were groves of trees, this was mostly true because that is where the majority of the groves had been seen, in fact, now that I recall I hadn't seen a grove to our left this whole journey. With that thought I carried on, stepping onto the next log and off into the shadows.

After a short while I caught up to Edgarory sitting cross legged under a large rock statue made in the likeness of a most foul looking troll, a warrior to be exact for he had many tusks borne forth, armour adorned his thick hide and in his right hand he held a spear aloft over his head in readiness for to launch the dart, in his left hand was a great shield made of skulls, the bottom skull of the triangle was still attacked to a corpse, which dangled there under the rest of the shield.

I stepped off the log and ventured up the slope to great him, as I reached them Edgarory handed me, what he called, an apple. It was divided into thirds, each of a different hue and flavour. The first was violet and tasted much like a blueberry while the second was a fiery orange and tasted much like honey-do and lastly there was a bright green which, much to my surprise, tasted just like an apple. When you mixed the flavours together in a single bite, no matter which two, you achieved a most delightful explosion of excitement within your mouth which lasted quite some time, so long in fact that it makes you want to eat the apple ever so slowly.

Here I was bid to wait by Edgarory, he explained that we had come to the very edge of his village and that before I should be allowed entry, permission would have to be granted by the town's Angelic Counsel. So here I sit, back against the leg of a mighty stone warrior, awaiting the return of my friends.

In all hopes of returning,
Charles & Freya, with Edgarory