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Message: <blockquote data-quote="seasong" data-source="post: 530830" data-attributes="member: 5137">The Broken TempleTo three 17-18 year olds, recently out of Service and orc enslavement, the walk downriver was actively fun. It took a few days, at their easy pace, to get to the canyon, and they took a few swims, raced a few miles, stopped at a few farms and spent Hurath's coin on goat's cheese and wine, and laughed and swapped stories with the locals.It was the best few days they'd had in a long, long time.They reached the canyon by evening, and decided to camp until dawn before hiking along its narrow paths. Dawn came quickly, and, full of energy, the trio began marching along the riverside, occasionally swimming when the steep cliff sides plunged too directly into the water, at other times clambering along trails put there by some thoughtful warden. The river was normally traversed only by boat, but no one wanted to buy a boat they wouldn't keep after.By noon, roughly a third of the way through the canyon, they came to Glass Trout, an extremely deep, tiny lake where the river slowed to an invisible crawl. The cliffs here plunged directly into the water, and disappeared into shadow deep beneath the surface, and Athan, Merideth and Greppa gave themselves a thrill considering what monsters might lurk in those depths.Merideth quietly quoted part of the song..."Halfway down, a third back up,There is a tree, a ball, a cup,""Halfway down, a third up, isn't that the same as a third down?"Some quick figuring, and the boys agreed with her, so she continued, "Well, we're a third down the canyon river, and it seems like it's sleeping... so maybe we should take a good look here?"So they racked brains and eyes, swimming slowly about in the chilly water and looking at the cliff-like sides of the lake."I don't think any trees..." Athan trailed off.Greppa wasn't looking for trees, however. He was looking for anything that looked like a tree. And he spotted a crack in the cliff wall that might, if you screwed up your eyes and imagined very hard, vaguely resemble a tree with very few branches and a slight case of rot.He swam toward it, and Merideth, when she saw where he was headed, noticed something else... "Hey, Greppa, look at the top of the crack. That's not a solid cliff!"Indeed it was not. Instead, there was a short cliff wall, and then, well behind it, and blending almost perfectly, was the remainder of the cliff.The crack itself turned out to be barely wide enough for a tall child... Merideth could almost fit, if she crawled, and Athan wouldn't have fit if the gods themselves decreed that he must.Greppa groused, but finally crept through, making his way somewhat noisely through the crumbly crevice. As he neared the top, natural caution overtook, and he remained as hidden as he peeked out of the other side.On the other side, in a small natural micro-valley, was the twisted tree, and the wooden sphere chained to a boulder. They were considerably larger than in the dream, and the wooden ball seemed as wide as Greppa was tall.<img src="http://seasong.home.texas.net/sh/broken_temple1.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />He quickly scrambled back through to tell the others, and they discussed getting Athan through. Ultimately, they decided to head back to civilization, to get rope.</blockquote>

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