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"Uprising In the Green Kingdom"
Oct. 24th, 2022 08:57 am"Speaker For the Green Empire"
4/2-4/5/1991
I.
"Is this the craziest sight you've ever seen?" asked Millicent Elmendorf. In the damp early Spring breeze, she thrust her hands into the pockets of her light windbreaker and shivered. "It really made me wonder if I'm starting to lose it. I made it to sixty-seven without any Senior Moments, but this...!"
Standing next to her, Cindy Brunner smiled reassuringly. The petite blonde was still wearing her insulated waist-length Winter jacket that would keep her comfortable in a chill much worse than this April dawn. "I wouldn't worry about it, ma'am," she said. "Jeremy and I are reaching the same conclusion. This is pretty weird but then the world is a much weirder place than most people realize."
Jeremy Bane made no comment. He walked along the forty foot length of the fallen oak and glared down at the exposed roots. At the best of times, the Dire Wolf was a grim unfriendly presence and now, faced with a mystery like this, the pale grey eyes grew more intense than ever. "This tree wasn't cut down, obviously. But I can't imagine any way it could have been pulled up out of the ground without using a giant crane that would have torn up your yard. The ground is undisturbed."
"Look at the bottom of that tree," the older woman said. "See how it's split vertically? Doesn't it look as if the damn thing had, well, LEGS...?"
"It didn't grow this way, either. You can see where the bark split as the trunk was forced apart to make the two parts. I guess you could drive wedges into the tree to force it to separate like that, but it would be a lot of work. And why would anyone do it anyway?" Bane was scowling more than his usual sullen expression showed. "And all this was done in one day? No footprints, no signs of heavy machinery? The ground is sure soft enough this time of year."
Cindy had walked back a hundred feet past the end of the property line and now she turned around to call, "Oh, it gets crazier! Check this out." She pointed down at where a wide hole ten feet deep was surrounded by upturned dirt and small stones and broken-off roots.
"This is impossible," Millicent mumbled as she followed Bane to the site. "That's where the oak stood, all right. It was already big when I was just a little girl. What power on Earth could have uprooted it like that? Not a tornado, surely. There weren't any storms this whole month and nothing else was damaged."
The Dire Wolf retraced the path from the hole in the ground to where the mighty oak lay. As he dreaded, distinct depressions sank in the damp lawn at intervals, alternating left and right on either side of the center line. "Mrs Elmendorf, there IS no rational explanation for this. I have to tell you that this was the supernatural touching your life. The Midnight War is here."
"What do you mean? I can't handle this uncertainty, tell me what's going on!"
Cindy Brunner stepped closer to the older woman and softened her tone. "It may seem impossible but look at the scene. Somehow, don't ask me how, that oak tree got up out of the ground and was walking on two legs toward your house."
"I never heard of such a thing," Millicent said, "It's insane. And yet... I don't know what else to think."
"There's something even scarier to consider," Bane told her. "Accepting for the moment that the tree somehow became animated, WHY was it heading straight for your house?"
( the rest of the story )
4/2-4/5/1991
I.
"Is this the craziest sight you've ever seen?" asked Millicent Elmendorf. In the damp early Spring breeze, she thrust her hands into the pockets of her light windbreaker and shivered. "It really made me wonder if I'm starting to lose it. I made it to sixty-seven without any Senior Moments, but this...!"
Standing next to her, Cindy Brunner smiled reassuringly. The petite blonde was still wearing her insulated waist-length Winter jacket that would keep her comfortable in a chill much worse than this April dawn. "I wouldn't worry about it, ma'am," she said. "Jeremy and I are reaching the same conclusion. This is pretty weird but then the world is a much weirder place than most people realize."
Jeremy Bane made no comment. He walked along the forty foot length of the fallen oak and glared down at the exposed roots. At the best of times, the Dire Wolf was a grim unfriendly presence and now, faced with a mystery like this, the pale grey eyes grew more intense than ever. "This tree wasn't cut down, obviously. But I can't imagine any way it could have been pulled up out of the ground without using a giant crane that would have torn up your yard. The ground is undisturbed."
"Look at the bottom of that tree," the older woman said. "See how it's split vertically? Doesn't it look as if the damn thing had, well, LEGS...?"
"It didn't grow this way, either. You can see where the bark split as the trunk was forced apart to make the two parts. I guess you could drive wedges into the tree to force it to separate like that, but it would be a lot of work. And why would anyone do it anyway?" Bane was scowling more than his usual sullen expression showed. "And all this was done in one day? No footprints, no signs of heavy machinery? The ground is sure soft enough this time of year."
Cindy had walked back a hundred feet past the end of the property line and now she turned around to call, "Oh, it gets crazier! Check this out." She pointed down at where a wide hole ten feet deep was surrounded by upturned dirt and small stones and broken-off roots.
"This is impossible," Millicent mumbled as she followed Bane to the site. "That's where the oak stood, all right. It was already big when I was just a little girl. What power on Earth could have uprooted it like that? Not a tornado, surely. There weren't any storms this whole month and nothing else was damaged."
The Dire Wolf retraced the path from the hole in the ground to where the mighty oak lay. As he dreaded, distinct depressions sank in the damp lawn at intervals, alternating left and right on either side of the center line. "Mrs Elmendorf, there IS no rational explanation for this. I have to tell you that this was the supernatural touching your life. The Midnight War is here."
"What do you mean? I can't handle this uncertainty, tell me what's going on!"
Cindy Brunner stepped closer to the older woman and softened her tone. "It may seem impossible but look at the scene. Somehow, don't ask me how, that oak tree got up out of the ground and was walking on two legs toward your house."
"I never heard of such a thing," Millicent said, "It's insane. And yet... I don't know what else to think."
"There's something even scarier to consider," Bane told her. "Accepting for the moment that the tree somehow became animated, WHY was it heading straight for your house?"
( the rest of the story )
