{"id":378,"date":"2010-11-21T17:46:41","date_gmt":"2010-11-21T22:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=378"},"modified":"2010-12-05T07:49:01","modified_gmt":"2010-12-05T12:49:01","slug":"into-the-swamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=378","title":{"rendered":"Into The Swamp"},"content":{"rendered":"

NaNo has been going really slowly for me, and I’ve lost interest in working on it at the moment, hence this story, which is the first in a short series. Hopefully I can pick things up in the next couple days.<\/em><\/p>\n

\tWith a twang, the rope snapped. Fryca cursed. \u201cThe bloody thing broke again. We’ll need another day or two to reset.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tEllgis patted her on the shoulder. \u201cIt’s nothing, we’ll have it sorted out soon enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cNothing? Nothing? How can you say that! We’ve got those damn Wheelies breathing down our necks, and if this doesn’t work, they’re going to capture us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe have enough. This one doesn’t matter that much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cBut it does! If we’ve trapped them on the path through the swamp, this will sweep them into the murk and bury them there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tEllgis looked out over the path, where dead logs and hidden trips and pressured stones covered the ground. If the device worked, it was supposed to fire branches as spears, swing dead logs across the path, and then drop mud on those in the water. He was sure the Knights of the Broken Wheel would have never seen something like this before. And they still wouldn’t have if they didn’t get the counterweight working. Three times they had tried to attach it, but each time the ropes had failed. <\/p>\n

\tThey’d used stronger weaves, and more of them, but each time the massive basket of stones failed. And with the scouts reporting that the Wheelies and their soldiers were little more than a day away, if this contraption didn’t work, well, the village would have to flee deeper into the swamp. And that meant losing all of the inventions they had created.<\/p>\n

\tTo Ellgis, the machines were more important than the villagers. People could be replaced. Years of experiments could not. Fryca felt the same way, and so the two of them were out here, late at night, trying to fix that blasted basket. If they saved the rest of the villagers as a result, well and good.<\/p>\n

\tThey fumbled in the dark for some time, but without enough light to see, they became more and more frustrated, until Fryca threw her lantern into the swamp and stormed off. Ellgis followed, and the two went home. <\/p>\n

\tThe next morning they resumed their work, but they found the basket of stones had sunk into the swamp, and they had to spend many an hour digging it out of the muck. By the time they were ready to lift it into the air again, the scouts had fled back into the village, and the Knights of the Broken Wheel were at the edge of the swamp. This would be a trying time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NaNo has been going really slowly for me, and I’ve lost interest in working on it at the moment, hence this story, which is the first in a short series. Hopefully I can pick things up in the next couple days. With a twang, the rope snapped. Fryca cursed. \u201cThe bloody thing broke again. We’ll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[36,4],"tags":[21,46],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pRIK4-66","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":646,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=646","url_meta":{"origin":378,"position":0},"title":"Into the Swamp","date":"February 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The first installment in a new short story, one of three from the upcoming Splintered Lands: Volume One. With a twang, the rope snapped, and Fryca cursed. \u201cThe bloody thing broke again.\u201d Ellgis patted her on the shoulder. \u201cWe'll have it mended soon enough.\u201d \u201cWe've got Knights of the Broken\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":651,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=651","url_meta":{"origin":378,"position":1},"title":"Fever Dreams","date":"April 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The sixth installment in a new short story, one of three from the upcoming Splintered Lands: Volume One. Weeks passed as Ellgis and Fryca hid in their hut, nursing their wounds. Ellgis had been struck in the meat of the shoulder as he lay on the skiff, and the impact\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":648,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=648","url_meta":{"origin":378,"position":2},"title":"A Village Alone","date":"March 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The third installment in a new short story, one of three from the upcoming Splintered Lands: Volume One. The skiff bumped land, and Ellgis crept from it to peer through the tangled brush. Little stood of the hamlet now, with stumps showing where the huts had once perched. The stench\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":393,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=393","url_meta":{"origin":378,"position":3},"title":"Wheels of Persecution","date":"December 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This story is a continuation of Into The Swamp \u201cBugger! Bugger! Bugger!\u201d Ellgis cursed long and loud as the bucket of stones was hoisted into the air. Even with his inventive pulley system, the strain still showed in his back and face. Fryca watched anxiously, slowly paying out a guide\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":647,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=647","url_meta":{"origin":378,"position":4},"title":"Wheels of Persecution","date":"March 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The second installment in a new short story, one of three from the upcoming Splintered Lands: Volume One. \u00a0 Ellgis cursed long and loud as the bucket of stones was hoisted into the air, his back bent into a curve from the strain. Fryca watched anxiously, slowly paying out a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":652,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=652","url_meta":{"origin":378,"position":5},"title":"Returning Home","date":"April 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The seventh and last installment in a new short story, one of three from the upcoming Splintered Lands: Volume One. Once Ellgis had healed sufficiently to use an axe, he set about building a raft, while Fryca organized their notes and belongings. Once both tasks were complete, they set out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}