The Time Capsule

Chapter 23: Bridge in the Sky

The mist swirled around Angelica, blocking her vision until they finally came out to a precarious edge, the soldiers letting out surprised yells and holding the rest back, causing a trample back to the pool. Angelica fell on top of everyone else, grunting in confusion as her sword accidentally scraped someones side and drew a drop of blood. As they all stood and got their bearings, they wobbled on the thin layer of rocks that held them up. Angelica blinked in disbelief above the clouds. The white cotton balls dotted the outside of the bridge, winds whistling in their ears. 

"I say Ogden goes goes first!" Levi shouted. "He's the Rebel King, he should have the honor!" 

"He's also blind, in case you didn't notice!" Jillian snapped. "What we need is someone with perfect vision and an extreme mathematical capability to determine which rock is safe enough for us to step on and which will send us tumbling down below." 

"You're right," Levi said, not missing a beat. "I say Jillian goes first." 

Jillian exclaimed in surprise as Levi pushed her forward, everything happening at once. Ogden grabbed her elbow to keep her from falling off the bridge as the Insurgence scrambeled back and her foot landed on the first rock. The mist spread apart to reveal that the bridge moved on for miles until the other end was submerged in even more mist. A few stones were kicked off the bridge, no resounding thud ever heard from them again. A rotting smell of fish suddenly washed over their senses and the clouds turned dark and foreboding, thunder booming and lightning crackling from under the bridge. Angelica bravely took a step forward and held Excalibur aloft. 

"Come forth upon The Insurgence if you so dare!" Angelica shouted, trying out their way of speaking and rather liking it. "For we shall-" 

She stumbled over her words and couldn't think of what to say in time, but Gail rushed to her side and shouted into the mist. 

"For we shall take your army not by force, but by mere mortal intelligence, by far the greatest weapon man can ever possess!" Gail finished. "State your claim by which you mean to strike us down!" 

"What...he said," Angelica moved the sword forward into the whirling wind. 

There was a dreadful pause as the storm started to part, and a troll climbed out from a pristine white cloud, as if it had just woken from a night's sleep. It smelled as if it hadn't been bathed in weeks, and when it did it shared the water with dead and rotting fish. Flesh dripped from its shoulders along with bits of brown skin covered in warts, flies buzzing around its head. The troll stared them down from even his small height, changing his clawed ornate golden staff on the stones in response. 

"If we have to answer questions about Eastern or European swallows, I'm suing," Levi scoffed. 

"Eastern what?" Angelica asked. 

"Come off it," said Levi off her blank look. "Holy Grail. No? You've lost the right to speak to me for 20 minutes, that's the most sacred British joke of your culture. How you haven't been taught the Holy Grail is unacceptable to me." 

The troll inched its way across to them, Levi not seeming to think there was anything to worry about, but the terrified looks across half the Rebels faces told Angelica there rather *was* something to worry about, as they had just lost two of their crew members. The staff grasped in its claws was almost twice the height as he, but it didn't slow him own. Just like a Trickster, Angelica mused. Two minds of the same prestige come to meet. Two sides of a story connecting. 

"What is your mission on this bridge?" the troll growled. "The bridge that mere mortals will be chucked off into the clouds below, as seen by your fellow comrades." 

"We seek the Grail!" shouted Levi, earning a punch from Jillian. 

"Salvation lies before you," the troll said. "Safety lies behind. This bridge is alive, Angelica Sparrow. This bridge knows your deepest secrets, the troubles, the lies. The stones will give you the answers you need, but will soon send even the sharpest mind tumbling down.