The Giants of Shattered Swamp

by Eddie Patin

  With a deep sigh, Jason stood, shaking his head to clear it, then walked over to his tool rack and picked up his pruning shears again.

  Once again, he pruned the troll, cutting the macabre growths all the way back to the holes in the case. The tendrils bled fluid like green oil. When Jason was finished, he wiped the pruning shears off onto his armored leg, returned the tool, and gathered all of the pieces in one hand even though it repulsed him to do so.

  He wasn't going to set the garage on fire again.

  Jason used the focus key back to the Shattered Swamp, opened a roaring, sputtering rift, then stepped into the forested bog where they'd started. After releasing the rift back to his garage, Jason opened a new rift to lava world, and discarded the troll's pieces with a blast of heat.

  Then, with that portal closed as well, Jason wiped his hands on his legs, and put away the focus key. He pulled up his OCS and found the bookmark "Under the Castle".

  What if he just teleported there without shifting universes? Maybe he could just use the third dimensional coordinates to make sure that he went to the same place but stayed on the same world...?

  He didn't want to go back to that unknown universe, and he also didn't want to go back in time and get shunted off again.

  Jason made sure that only the third and fourth dimensions were selected. He learned back during the Maze World bounty that he needed to select the fourth dimension as well to teleport within the same universe. Since it took a few seconds to rift and step through, he'd have to keep moving forward in time, after all.

  "Just to the place," he said to himself as he focused on the coordinates. "Not the time."

  Jason rifted, waited until he could see through the portal, then stepped through when he saw that the sky was bright instead of black.

  On the other side, Jason immediately looked up at the castle...

  It was gone.

  "What?!" Jason muttered under the roar of his sputtering portal. He released the rift then was suddenly surrounded again by the noises of the many bugs and tiny animals droning on around the boggy clearing.

  The castle wasn't here. There was only open sky.

  Jason pulled up his OCS and took a reading of the world.

  Universe 1243, the Shattered Swamp.

  "What the hell?"

  He looked around for the dead body of the ettin that he'd just killed, then realized that he'd sent the monster to its doom on lava world. It wouldn't be here.

  Besides, Jason thought. That was actually on another universe. It wouldn't be here, anyway.

  "Then, what's going on?"

  Jason looked to the west, searching the wide clearing that stretched out endlessly in that direction toward the troll's cave. He saw the giant's footprints in the distance, paler than the surrounding bog and ending a good ways away from where he was standing.

  He'd screwed up somehow—he knew it.

  Or had he?

  Jason frowned then scowled. He felt a creeping sadness and numbing fear overtake him. His friends were lost. He'd never find them.

  Maybe he'd been wrong about the giant taking them to the same place in that other universe as he had in this one. Maybe in u1243, Voro had actually taken his friends in a different direction, and his entire plan and actions back on that unknown world had been for naught.

  "Fuck!" Jason shouted, kicking at a lump of moist earth, red with algae.

  Jason suddenly felt like sobbing, but he held it down.

  He looked around. He was just in a wild bog with wilderness all around him as far as he could see. Thinking about the dark horizon, he looked to the east. The sky was clear. The wide clearing just kept going on and on as far as he could see with the towering mushroom-shaped woods to the north and south. Looking all around, Jason saw it was darkest to the south through the trees there, up the hill. It was hard to see through the massive alien trees, but maybe the black horizon was in the same place that it had been back when ... back when he'd rifted away from the village.

  "In the future," Jason said.

  No, he thought. Now.

  God damn. This time travel stuff was nuts.

  Rifting to the site under the castle without the higher temporal dimensions selected should have put Jason to where he'd left off in real time. So ... the storm being in the south ... made sense...?

  "But where's the damned castle?!" Jason cried out to the lonely swamp.

  Now what was he going to do?!

  Jason faced west. He looked at the last footprints, where they ended. He recalled that the first time he'd followed the tracks, he ended up heading into the southern forest. That ettin village was there.

  "Back to that again?" he asked himself.

  What would going to the village accomplish? He wasn't going to try communicating with the ettins again. Maybe all that Jason could do now was to pursue the dark horizon through the forest. What else was there?

  Jason sighed.

  "But what's the point?" he asked. "I don't know where the stupid castle is!"

  It's all you've got, he thought.

  He had to do something. He couldn't think of a single other—

  His radio suddenly squelched. He heard Gliath's voice come through faintly:

  "Jason Leaper 934," the leopardwere said. "Jason Leaper 934, do you hear me? This is Gliath. I heard a slug gun firing. Is that you?"

  Jason stared at the orange plastic radio on his backpack strap.

  What?!

  He scrambled for the button.

  "Gliath?!" he cried. "Gliath, is that you?! Is it really you?!" Jason held the button down for a few more moments, wanting to say more, but he just stared and grinned instead. Then, he realized that he was keeping the Krulax from responding so released the button.

  "—near a village," Gliath said immediately after that. "Where can I find you, Jason Leaper 934?"

  Jason smiled broadly, feeling a flood of hope in his chest. "Gliath—where are the others?" he asked, then added, "Over. I mean—are you guys okay? Did you get away? Over."

  "No, Jason Leaper 934," Gliath replied. "I am alone. Ranaja and Morgana Soloster are inside the giant's castle. Where are you? I have been instructed to find you."

  Jason laughed.

  He felt a heavy pang in his heart when he heard the words, but it felt so goddamned good to hear that even just Gliath got away. The leopardwere probably knew the way back to the floating castle—wherever the hell it was—and together, they could probably rescue the others!

  "Okay! I ... uh ... I'm in the clearing a long ways east of the troll cave. Where are you? Um ... over."

  "I am near a village. I heard three shots from a slug gun come from there. You are not in the village?"

  Jason looked to the south. He pulled up his OCS, unlocking the screen and navigating to his third bookmark for this world.

  "Um, no. Not anymore. But I can get there. Let's meet up outside the village, on the north side. I'll rift there now, okay?"

  "Very well, Jason Leaper 934," Gliath rumbled through the radio, his deep voice tinged with static and sounding very far away. "I will find you there."

  "Copy that. Over and out. I mean—I'll see you soon. Over." Then he paused. "Wait, Gliath—are they still alive? Are Riley and Morgana okay?"

  There was a delay, and Jason felt his heart crash with fright.

  Gliath's voice came back. "They are alive, Jason Leaper 934. Or, they were when I left. They are trapped in cages."

  Jason stared at the trees. Cages?!

  "Okay," he replied. "I'll see you soon, Gliath. Over."

  Jason released his radio and looked back at the bookmark. He could just unselect all of the temporal dimensions and head straight there, but he could also go back in time a little and ... maybe give his friends a few more minutes? If Riley and Morgana were still in the giant's castle and still alive, then they could probably use as much time as Jason could buy them.

  There would be a delay, he knew. He'd have to wait until the past version of himself rifted back
home after setting the third bookmark initially before Jason stepped through himself. Otherwise, he'd be shunted off to another unknown universe.

  Jason started to focus on the coordinates then stopped and thought of something else:

  He'd get to test that theory from earlier.

  On this universe, a certain amount of time had passed between when Jason had set the 'Ettin Village' bookmark and when Gliath had just established communication with him as he stood where the castle was supposed to be. If Jason went back in time to somewhere in between, he'd be existing in two physical places at the same time for a short while.

  He struggled to wrap his head around it.

  Does that mean that you're there now already? Jason wondered. Has another version of himself ... the same version, actually ... been waiting for Gliath's call there at the site of the bookmark while Jason was also standing in the clearing?

  Then, he realized that it wouldn't work, because when Gliath called again, he would be listening to himself talk over the radio. Since ... well ... but ... what if he didn't say anything...?

  Jason frowned.

  He'd do it. For science.

  Opening the rift with a snap, Jason watched the vertical portal as it whirled and roared and spit sparks all over the bog. When his vision to the destination side cleared, he saw himself standing there, outside the village, playing with his OCS. As expected, his past self was at that point in time right before going home to resupply and wash off in the ocean of u271.

  Other Jason—through the portal—was covered in orange muck from his boots to his short hair. Jason 934 watched as his past self snuck away from the rift's perspective, toward the village. He made his way to the outside of the first building—barely in sight of the rift—moved slowly forward, then suddenly stood bolt upright, raised the muzzle of his rifle, and fired off three quick shots with his AK-47 that Jason 934 couldn't hear. The muzzle flash was bright and yellow. Then, Jason on the village side of the portal scowled, reached into his orange-goop-filled collar, and rifted home.

  Jason waited for another minute as his whirling rift roared and spit sparks out onto the mud in the wide-open clearing.

  Then, he stepped through to the other side.

  Chapter 24

  The first thing he had to do was hide.

  Jason hadn't thought about it back in the clearing, but when he'd waited a minute or so for his past self to leave the scene rifting there himself, he didn't recall that the other Jason had been escaping ettins that were coming to catch him...

  Fortunately, Jason had set that bookmark from a hiding place, so he had a moment or two to orient himself then get the hell out of there.

  As several of the eight-foot-tall brutes stomped over to where orange-goop-covered Jason had rifted back home, Jason 934 ran back to another tree farther away from the village. He was tempted to just hide behind the root structure, but then he remembered that the ettins were showing quite the aptitude for noticing things.

  Good 'spot' checks, Jason thought, thinking back to DnD. For as dumb and savage as they seemed, there were probably benefits to having an extra pair of eyes and ears.

  Jason frowned at the huge root structure, then grabbed the webbing of his left hand and turned on the image intensifier in his right eye. As the pitch darkness inside the bramble of thick roots was washed with pale hues of green, Jason was happy to see that there were no giant insect faces staring back at him. Holding up his rifle, he slipped in between two brown roots as thick as his arms, then backed into the dark nest of rotting vegetation within.

  "I've been in worse," he said, trying not to shiver at the idea of all of the soft mulch and God-knows-what parting behind his body like wet, muddy pillows. Jason thought back to the time he had to shimmy himself into a rotting tree trunk on the ground to escape the Albertosaurs in the Wilderlands. That experience was downright horrific; his skin crawling with biting insects as he struggled to avoid making a peep. If he'd moved a muscle or let out the barest whimper, those monstrous carnivores would have plucked him out of the fallen tree and pulled him to pieces.

  Jason watched the village.

  Three ettins were searching the area where the other Jason had departed. One carried a huge spear made of wood with bone-spikes driven into one side. The others carried the same spears made from the long reeds in the clearing. They were huge, broad, and filthy. Their skin looked thick with rot or disease, and—he could definitely see it from up close, now—they were wearing disgusting pelts of those large rodents and the hairless skin of something else.

  Jason wondered if they ever ate each other. Maybe they made clothing from the skin of their dead.

  Each ettin had a larger head and a smaller head. The larger one had a heavier jaw and more robust features. The smaller one appeared a little less developed but had a small, curved horn growing from the forehead.

  Strange.

  Inside the tree root structure, Jason couldn't smell anything other than rotting compost, sulfur, and the sweet, earthy odor of mud. He was glad, too. Those three ettins no doubt smelled atrocious.

  Eventually, the three brutes wandered back into the village. Jason felt the ground tremble as they moved their bulky legs and stomped at the ground with their huge feet.

  Then, Jason's radio squelched.

  "Jason Leaper 934," Gliath's low voice said. "Jason Leaper 934, do you hear me? This is Gliath. I heard a slug gun firing. Is that you?"

  Shit!

  Scrambling to snatch the radio from his backpack strap, Jason quickly turned the volume down.

  He heard himself respond, which blew his mind.

  "Gliath?! Gliath, is that you?! Is it really you?!"

  Jason looked up at the distant ettins just inside the village. One of them had stopped and turned. It scoured the surrounding swamp, holding one free hand over the brow of the larger head.

  "—near a village," Gliath said on the radio. "Where can I find you, Jason Leaper 934?"

  "Gliath—where are the others? Over. I mean—are you guys okay? Did you get away? Over."

  Jason turned the volume down until he could barely hear the transmissions.

  "No, Jason Leaper 934," Gliath said. "I am alone. Ranaja and Morgana Soloster are inside the giant's castle. Where are you? I have been instructed to find you."

  Watching, feeling his heartbeat quicken, Jason stared at the ettin, hoping that it would turn away. Just hearing things, right? Go back to your ettin stuff, he thought. If that thing came over and started reaching for Jason through the roots, how the hell would he rift home from inside here?

  Kill it with your lava key then climb out, he thought in response.

  Jason felt a little less afraid. He felt at the molten bit of metal on his left wrist.

  "Okay!" Jason's faint voice in the radio said. "I ... uh ... I'm in the clearing a long ways east of the troll cave. Where are you? Um ... over."

  "I am near a village," Gliath replied. The leopardwere's voice was so deep and rumbly that Jason almost couldn't hear him with the volume down so low. "I heard three shots from a slug gun come from there. You are not in the village?"

  So, he was listening to himself in the past—which was the future at the time, compared to now—talking over the radio in the current moment. Jason was in two places: both next to the village and out in the clearing at the end of the giant's footprints. How was this possible? If Jason was still in u1243, then that would mean that his own personal timeline was always meant to have him in both of those places at the same time. Jason looked at the radio. If he were to press the button right then, and talk to himself and Gliath, then he'd probably get shunted off to a universe where that had already happened. Er ... was meant to happen...?

  "Um, no. Not anymore," Jason's voice in the radio said. "But I can get there. Let's meet up outside the village, on the north side. I'll rift there now, okay?"

  "Very well, Jason Leaper 934. I will find you there."

  "Copy that. Over and out. I mean—I'll see you soon. Over
." Then he paused. "Wait, Gliath—are they still alive? Gliath, are Riley and Morgana okay?"

  Jason aimed his OCS's scanning laser through the gap in the roots at the lingering ettin, who was now turning around and losing interest. He shot the monster with the invisible beam.

  Unknown. Lore: Ogre, 85% match. Ettin, 87% match. Universe 1243, The Shattered Swamp.

  Gliath spoke after a small delay. Jason remembered the flight of heartache he'd felt in that moment the first time around.

  "They are alive, Jason Leaper 934. Or, they were when I left. They are trapped in cages."

  There was a pause. "Okay," the other Jason said.

  "I'll see you soon, Gliath. Over," Jason said softly to himself from within the roots.

  "I'll see you soon, Gliath. Over," the same voice echoed in the radio.

  Jason smiled, looking down at his OCS.

  So he was still in the Shattered Swamp. His theory had been correct. He could travel through time in the same universe as long as he didn't upset that universe's timeline. He could time travel to a place where he'd already been as long as he, himself, back then was none the wiser. Otherwise—Jason's head was starting to hurt again, wrapping his mind around it all—he'd end up in some other universe where whatever he'd changed ... was already due to happen.

  "Time travel is weird shet," he said to himself with a chuckle.

  Jason waited.

  He waited for several minutes, then began to think of calling for Gliath on the radio. He knew that by now, his other self had already gone back in time and was now him again, so there was no mucking things up.

  At any rate, there were no ettins in sight from the roots. He could climb out.

  Jason carefully emerged from the root structure, brushing mud clumps and rotten junk and unknown masses of moist plant entrails from his armor and jacket. He cautiously made sure that his AK's barrel was clear of root crap, then climbed around to the back of the bulbous network of roots. He quietly pulled himself up onto the massive growth and settled into a dip that would let him hide while providing a good prone rest for his rifle. Hopefully, he was well concealed him from sight. He turned his night vision back off.