Green Rain
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 3223
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Fred left the shocked were-fox and made his preparations to leave the
island. He was no fool, he knew that he could not swim an ocean's
distance by simple muscle and will power. He needed a boat and
provisions. So he began by felling numerous trees and making a makeshift
raft. It was tied with the hand-made ropes that the others on the Island
had learned to make during their stay. A few of the younger residents
would watch Fred, day after day, as he worked on the sturdy raft, or
collected foodstuffs, or hollowed out the coconuts that would serve as
storage vessels for water. The children began calling Fred by the name
'Christopher.' When Fred asked why, they said that's the name of the
biggest adventurer of all. Fred had never heard of any Christopher in his
land, but he knew that the people here came from the many strange and
exotic places of the world.
Finally all was ready, as ready as he would ever be. Three months had passed since his coming. In that time he had not seen any trace of Alicia; her thoughts and his were too far apart. On the night before his leaving Fred had a visitation by an old badger of a man. "Well," began the man-badger. "Looky at Christopher all ready t' leave. You won't git far, no one ever does." Fred had seen this man-badger before, sometimes limping down the trails, sometimes creeping in the shadows. At times the old one would be surrounded by children screaming for more stories. At times he would seem to be the loneliest of all the beings cursed by the dragon-magick. Fred looked at him and asked, "Why has no one ever left this place?" "Why should we?" "Because this is a prison, not a home." "So says the Christopher, HA!" "Old man, Elder in any other place, why do you call me that? Why do the children do the same? Who is Christopher?" "You say you came from the 'Great' Kingdom and you do not know?" "The world is a big place and not all heroes are known to us." "Oh, Christopher was no hero. He was an adventurer, a wanderer in the woods, a soul who sought to see the world in the tiniest of flowers or the grandest of trees or in the mind of a simple bear. He is the great Christopher Robin who lived in the 100 Acre Wood. But that was a long time ago in a world far away." Fred did not understand so he changed the subject. "I will be gone tomorrow." "So you say." "You doubt me?" "You will be back, the wind blows to the Island, not away from it." They talked through the night and finally the dawn came. But with the dawn also a horrible sight. With hushed whispers and rasping curses, the multitude of mutated peoples looked upon a sky turned green! The East had a grassy sheen to it and streaks of fire shown through the air. The fire began pelting the Island and everywhere it hit the earth burst asunder in dust and flame!!! The were-folk ran as they had never before and the rain of fire grew worse. The flame hid within it rocks and stones that seemed to come from the upper skies, and these boulders great and small alike struck the land with such a ferocity that they dug themselves into the earth. The primitive townships created by the were-people were destroyed in a matter of minutes and the folk had little option but to turn inland, and into the territories of the Wild Things. They ran screaming and shrieking and with terror at what was behind and what was ahead. They ran into the domain of the savage creatures yet what they left behind was even worse. Though they knew it not, the fire boulders were seeds from far away, and the seeds would grow in the soil of the Island, and the seeds would sprout and from within would unfurl the Triffids - deadly flora that had the capability to move from place to place and that fed upon the blood of animals. It would take at least some six months for the first of the seedlings to sprout its 'legs', yet without anyone who knew the danger the time would pass and the day would come, and the Triffids would start their march!
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YY
7/30/1999 10:43:45 PM
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