Chatper One: One Step Forward

You all made hard progress through the Hedge the rest of the day, the Thorns and other dangers of Hedge and natural swamp sapping your energy. Much of the day was spent trekking through knee to waist high water and by mid-afternoon, you had made decent progress despite that. Looking around, you saw that the swamp had become somewhat more mundane, which caused your spirits to soar, you were getting closer to the edge of the Hedge. Judging by the way the Thorns were receding but more than that you could feel the innate flow of Glamour all around you and it was growing less and less intense the closer you got back to reality. From all the signs around you, you knew you had perhaps half a day of travel left before you would break through the Hedge. Your choice would be whether you would brave a night travelling through the swamp and the greater danger it would bring or whether you would bed down for the night and hope that the Hunt would pass you by.

The noise of the swamp surrounded you as the night drew in around your group. You continued to move despite the cold and the damp. As the day gave way, the cold became almost unbearable and soon your movement was the only thing that kept you from catching hypothermia.

As you moved through the night, witch lights danced in the darkness, tempting you from the path and back into the thorns but they held no temptation. Lights that seemed to come from what you guessed were lanterns also shone in the darkness but once again, they held no interest to you. Progress was slow but you knew you were making progress when you began to see needles, shell casings, plastic bags and other trash floating through the waters you trod in.

Finally, as the sky began to lighten but from the west for a reason that was not known to you, you came to a number of mangroves that grew together to form a large doorway. The trees were inscribed with a number of strange runes that were not familiar to you but for the moment the door was dormant and passage back to the material was not possible until it was activated.

Activation roll

It took you almost half a day before you could work out how to activate the portal but it was honestly the best you had experienced since you had left Arcadia. The group managed to higher ground that was drier than anything around it and you even managed to get a small fire going after a while. While some of the group studied the portal, the others gathered what food could be found and some water to boil. After days without a real rest, the boiled swamp water and small crustaceans that you ate was like manna from heaven.

In time, studying the portal the group agreed that it needed to be given an offering of blood as the day died. The sunset came and the portal was given it's offering. As the blood coated the portal, the vines began to move and glow and the light grew in power and began stretching out and connecting in pockets until the entire portal burned a deep amber.

One by one, each of you passed through the portal, leaving the Hedge and its glamour rich environment behind. Each of you felt the change as you moved through the Hedge back to the mortal work and for a moment, you felt an insane urge to turn back, the power of the Hedge calling to you. Resisting its siren call, you found yourself in what looked to be a bus depot. After a moment, you recognised it as the Grand Junction bus terminal. The whole place smells like diesel and bum piss, and the oil in the lingering smoke makes sure both of those smells will stick with you long after you leave the terminal.

Grand Junction was the waypoint for all visitors coming to or leaving Newcastle 50 years ago. The buses used to stream into Grand Junction from all points of the compass, full of bright-eyed tourists and hopeful businessmen with the Next Big Idea. Now, not so much, since rail and air travel is more dependable and less desperate. At this time of night, the terminal was for the most part empty, except for a dead-eyed ticket vendor who was watching a small portable TV, a bum who seemed to be passed out against the entry to the lady's bathroom and it looked as though a bus full of people were just arriving. Overhead, you saw that the sky was blotted out with heavy clouds that promised rain.

None of that was what you were focused on though, you were all too busy regarding each other with something approaching awe. Each of you, had floating over your head a crown, a crown that was fused with your mantle.