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Join Date: Oct 2008
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Johnny Reb in 'Return to the Lost Valley' Part 6.
Character by Tim Frady Story by Wayne Clayton
It was now 1946 and Johnny Reb was once more at the mouth of the tunnel which lead out into the inner chamber of that Lost Valley he had first encountered over twenty years ago. From within he heard the birds singing just as they had done back then. Breathing deeply he began to follow the golden path down into the jungle paradise within, blinking in the radiant sunlight of the golden globe suspended from the vast chambers lofty roof he entered into the clearing by the pools of clear blue water.
There floating upon the water was the shimmering head of Kilaratuu smiling broadly at Johnny as he stood before him.
"JOHNNY REB.. WELCOME. ALL IS PREPARED AS KILARATUU PROMISED"
As he spoke his face began to fade revealing a new vista. There in the jungle paradise there now stood upon a marble plinth the bronzed figure of a great stallion, it's mane wild and flowing. Upon the plinth was carved a golden epitaph to the noble beast. It read..
" Bullet. My Faithful Friend "
But this was merely the centre piece of an array of momuments which now appeared, each one bearing the names of long lost comrades of Johnny Rebs, their names forever carved in the imagined eternal marble of this unearthly domain.
As Johnny walked toward them he reached up and plucked a single white flower which hung from the vines entwined about his head, and on reaching the great plinth placed the flower upon it and bowed his head before the guilded horse and remembered the time long ago when he had galloped through the glades back home beneath the shadows of the mountains, in a time before he had become the man known as Johnny Reb.
He also remember the pact he had made with Kilaratuu. An agreement whereby he promised he would return to Kilaratuu's Domain. At first Kilaratuu didn't not believe that Johnny would kept his promise fearful that he would like his Creator leave him alone forever, but Johnny requested only one requirement which would ensure his return. And that was that all who died by his side in battle would be remembered by Kilaratuu for as long as he watched over the Earth. So that by returning to the lost valley Johnny himself would never forget them. In this domain forever hidden from the shadow of War and the follies of man.
And so as promised he had returned to pay his respects to those fallen comrades and to add to them the names of those recently fallen,from Captain Travis and Private 'Shutterbug' Jones and to all the Maverick Men who fought along side him through the years since 1941.
And in return for this favour he pomised to show Kilaratuu those things which his Creator could not, the reasons why men acted as they did.
He only hoped that Kilaratuu the Scribe of History would understand even if Johnny Reb himself sometimes found it difficult to justify all the evil that men do upon the Earth. But at least in this place it was not them who wrote the history of mankind in their own twisted image.
All he did know was that there are those who watch history happen and there are those who made history, and as long as evil men existed be they leaders of nations or lurkers in the dark he knew which one he was fated to be until the final Judgement Day.
THE END.
COMING SOON..JOHNNY REB IN 'SHADOW'
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