Three Men, a Woman and a Kiss of Dry Wood

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 9889

Simon looked at the warrior-woman and said, "You seem unusually quiet, Astra. I think p'haps I can guess the reason why. These days have been quite something for you. We go now on a chase to the north, p'haps to the Northern Wastes even as we've all talked! We chase far from your home, girl, what of your kinsfolk? Will you ne'er see them again? You seem tied to us and we to you, but let our troubles be witnessed as Trials from the Holy. Let us carry our Burden as good clean children, for then whether we die or live, we shall ultimately prevail!"

Astra looked upon the old man and smiled. He was simple in his thoughts, there was no deceit, and Astra liked that.


voices..... "where are we going? We aren't likely to find my friends by just wandering..."

images.... a warrior-woman, a bearish man, an old fool, a friend of Hell.....

scents.... a whiff of grass, the odor of bark, the smell of burning wood....

"NOOOOoooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!" screamed the woman who wasn't human. Her fingers flared in rage, her body shook, her brow quivered in shock and fear and anger. Yet what was done, was done, and life must go on.

Time. Time is relative. Yesterday, tomorrow, today. Time. That is something for mortals. Let the dwarves dig it, the elves climb it, the giants smash it, and the humans die in it. Time is not for the Fey.

But Revenge is.


The humans were gone. The Tree was gone. The Fey were gone. But the Wood, in all it's twisted majesty and arcane tomfoolery lived on. It was broken, that's true. It was old and withered, true again. Yet it still lived. And it remembered.

It remembered how few the Fey had been. It remembered the pompous Queen and her dais of brambles. It remembered the imp and the huntsman and the green man. It remembered the intruders, too.

The intruders had left, gone their own way. The Fey had left, gone their own way. But the Wood remained, it kept it's way. It would grow anew, the rains would come, the winds and the sun. New growth would be, and the slitherings would come, the crawlies and the hoppers and the climbers and the flyers and the walkers, too. The Wood knew, it always knew.

And then came the Surprise.

The Wood felt the Green, the Green was the world. The Wood knew the way of the Green; its bulging and bloating, it's breaking and blossoming, its unfolding in the grand scheme of....Green. But then the Wood felt a pinch, a pull, a push, a shove. It felt juices flow where dry stick had only been, if felt roots sprout from nothing but germs. It felt the earth quiver and quake in minuscule detail. It felt the sprig shoot out of the dark dry earth and its twigs flash out and leaves grow on and then it felt the twig...uproot...itself! The Wood felt horror, it felt betrayed, -this creature was not One with the lush warm Green, this creature was Uprooted!

And in the middle of that old dying forest there appeared a figure as of pure wood, it's arms were branches and it's legs massive roots. It lifted its head high and stared with brown eyes that seemed more moss than tissue. It stared into the cloudless sky and smiled with lips of soft bark and leaf. It was the Blasphemy, it was the Avenger, it was the Stick Man!


The quartet had reached an out-of-the-way spot some distance from the main roadway. They had set up camp and their fire was ablaze with warmth. They knew nothing of the dangers that faced them in the frozen north, they knew nothing of the dangers that faced them in the wooded south, they only knew that within a few short hours the sleeping heavens would be illuminated by the orb called Lady Moon. Astra was breathing deeply, concentrating on the calming rituals taught to her back home; the men, too, were preparing, --though they would be magically protected if their companion changed-- any unlucky sod on the open fields would probably be torn to bits and eaten for dinner.

  1. Full Moon

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6/6/2000 8:06:00 PM

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