The Marsh Adventures: Of Times and Places

By Steve Patton

An enchanting tale set in the idyllic world of a marsh, it follows the journey of four insect friends: Mepho, Mark, Glower, and Wenzel. These unlikely companions discover that a long-standing legend might actually be true, threatening the very existence of their marsh home. The legend, once dismissed as a mere fairy tale, now demands their atten

• Language: English
• Publisher: Indy Pub
• Release date: Mar 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869303509

Steve Patton

I live on a ridge in Southern Indiana with my wife and son. We enjoy hunting and fishing and spending time together doing different events around the area. It is a great place to live, and it's a great place to write!I have always written stories. My earliest memories will be in 2nd and 3rd grade in elementary school, but in first grade I won our reading contest. I loved books and I loved to write.In 4th and 5th grade, my teacher let me set up a table and sell my stories for 25 cents each (this would have been 1979-1980). Not only did I sell stories to the other kids who loved them, but some of my teachers would buy the stories as well...not to show support mind you, but they just enjoyed the stories.In 5th or 6th grade I went to the young Author's convention, with a story Ray Sting and Everything. It was a story about a secret agent (think of James Bond meets Mission Impossible) on a mission in the jungles of South America. A teacher had it bound for me (not published) and I believe it was 12 pages long. I continued to write through middle school, and on into my freshman year of high school. During study hall I wrote a 350-page novel down the lines of J.R.R. Tolkien. At the end of the school year, I didn't know what to do with this massive folder (it was all hand-written on 8 1/2 x 11 paper) so I threw it in the trash on my last day of study hall - yes, I do regret that decision to this day. I remember the name of the novel, As the Crow Flies, and the concept, and wish to also reboot it to a more modern time as a published book down the road.In my junior year in high school, I wrote a one-page story about an Arabian fighting a desert tribe, it was a brief encounter. It was the closest thing to a perfect paper I had ever written, with only one slight mistake found by my English teacher. She was constantly wanting me to write short stories for magazines of that nature, but I never followed through on it.Although I did well in college English, and was encouraged by my professors, I only wrote to write good papers for grades. "Real Life" was setting in and the need to begin focusing on a career took the time away, as well did marriage and a job that paid the bills. I did little if any writing, at least that I recall, after my junior year in high school. But the yearn to write was always there burning like a strong flame that I just did not, for whatever reason, follow through on.Fast forward some 30 years...yes, that is right, some 30 years. My son was 5 and he was home schooled - he had a strong engineering mind and even at age 5 the children's books just didn't fit him. Let's just say, he was not a "see spot run" kid. He wanted tangible, real, no fantasy stories with action, learning, and logical endings. Try to find that kind of book for a 5-year-old. So, I opened the laptop and began penning a chapter a night of what was originally just The Marsh Chronicles. My son loved it. As soon as it was finished, I followed with The Sun Also Sets and then a while later, The Message.At the completion of The Message, I looked back and thought I had a good book in what was now called The Marsh Adventures: Of Times and Places. I submitted it to a publisher, they loved it, and as they say, the rest was history. One thing in all those 30 years - I would write down story concepts as they came to me, unique ideas and story lines out of the ordinary - so it behooves me to say, I have a lot of writing to do, as I would like to bring all these stories over the past 30 years to life. I am, just a writer on the ridge.

Book preview

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my son, without whom this story would never have been written. Jacob is homeschooled, and we couldn’t find children’s books that fit his interests, so I started writing for him. The Marsh Adventures - Of Times and Place was the first story I wrote from him. We hope you enjoy this book. Jacob gave it two thumbs up when we finished!

I also want to add a ‘thank you’ to Ms. Daerr, my high school English teacher who encouraged me to submit my stories for publication – you were a teacher who did make a difference.

Acknowledgments

I grew up watching Watership Down in the 1980s. I do not recall how old I was, but most likely between the ages of twelve and fourteen the first time I saw it. I really didn’t have any intention of watching the movie. I was flipping through channels and came across it, fortunately, at the beginning. I had always been drawn to the animated classic series—well-done cartoons based on classical books. This looked to be of that nature, so I settled in to watch.

I was enthralled. I was mesmerized. I was left with my mouth gaping and a feeling of longing and loss. The feature song, Bright Eyes, by Art Garfunkel, just added to the overall mood. It would be many years before I actually read the book, and although in a different way than the movie, it still left me with the same feelings as the movie did. I didn’t want either to end.

I found out much later that Richard Adams was just a dad telling a story to his two daughters on a long car ride and that he was encouraged by his daughters to write it down. I also read of his struggles to get the book published. It is such a shame. What a literary loss it would be without a classic like Watership Down¹.

So, where am I going with all this about my book?

First, I am not comparing myself to Richard Adams; let’s set father writing a story for his son. However, the point that I want to make is the storytelling aspect from a parent to a child and the special place that holds. This same thing is accomplished by a parent reading a book to a child. Second is the feeling left with you when you finish a good book. I wanted to capture both in this book. I want readers, young and old, to say as they close the binding, I really didn’t want that to end.

But end it must, as all books must come to some end. I only hope, for you, the reader, the ending suffices. Everything is summed up and explained, and I hope the heroes live up to your expectations, regardless if they win or lose in the end. I want the child, and the adult for that matter, to say or feel, "I wish that didn’t have to end, but I love how it ended."

Steve Patton

¹ I would be amiss not to give credit to Rankin/Bass studios for their incredible version of Watership Down.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER 1: Introductions

CHAPTER 2: Kincaide

CHAPTER 3: The Dragon Hunters

CHAPTER 4: Mark

CHAPTER 5: Damsel

CHAPTER 6: Wenzel

CHAPTER 7: Alder

CHAPTER 8: Courage

CHAPTER 9: Glower

CHAPTER 10: High Dragon Flies

CHAPTER 11: Australia

CHAPTER 12: Latricia

CHAPTER 13: Cowardice

CHAPTER 14: Ecclesiastes 3:8

CHAPTER 15: The Stuff Legends are Made of

CHAPTER 16: Radek

CHAPTER 17: Vlad

CHAPTER 18: Retribution

CHAPTER 19: The Last Stand

CHAPTER 20: The Final Battle

CHAPTER 21: Epilogue

CHAPTER 1:

Introductions

He loved feeling the wind in his face. Faster, faster he went—first thirty miles an hour, then forty miles an hour, now seventy miles per hour. He believed he could go faster. It wasn’t that he was really going this fast, but he believed he was, and that was the only opinion that mattered.

The trees went past him as blurs. All sound was wrapped up in one continuous roar. He loved it. He knew he could go faster still. He pushed himself even harder and lost all sense of how fast he was really going. No longer were the trees a blur, but now one solid mass he was going so fast. Again, he loved it—speed.

In an instant, he stopped. He went from a speed unknown to now a standstill, all in less than half a second. Yes, he was that good. He perched on a thin reed, and he had hit it so hard and so fast that the reed had bent over and dipped in the water, rising back up and dripping with little droplets off of its tip. The droplets fell softly in succession down to the dark, still waters below.

A bead of water rolled down the reed toward him, and he sucked it up. It was refreshing after such an exhilarating ride. He scanned around him…first his full right side, then his full left side…without moving his head. This was his marsh, and it was a wonderful place to live and be alive. You see, he was known as Mepho, and he was a…dragonfly.

Not just any dragonfly, mind you, but an Aeshnidae aeshna, otherwise known as the mosaic darner dragonfly. Mepho was black with blue spots down his abdomen and four strong and very fast wings. He could see far and clear all around him. His legs were strong and prickly to grasp his prey. He is the most feared hunter in all the marsh…

HEY, MATE! came a voice from above and behind him. Mepho’s wings fluttered at the sudden surprise, always ready to flee in the face of danger. Talkin’ ‘bout yourself again, I see. The voice laughed in a deep baritone sound.

Mepho was only slightly embarrassed. Hey, Mark, Mepho replied, you know I hate when you sneak up on me like that. Mepho drew his front legs in alternating fashion between his mandibles to look like he was cool.

Yeah, but if you’d quit daydreaming, it wouldn’t happen. What if I was a heron or a crane, you’d be my lunch, said Mark.

and a tasty lunch I’d be…. Mepho sneered back sarcastically. He’d all been through this with Mark before…many times.

He could now see Mark. He’d been there ever since Mepho had landed, just above and on a reed behind him. Mark was a great blue skimmer and was the largest of the dragonflies. He was even larger than normal, easily reaching five inches in length, or so he claimed. He had an uncanny ability to sneak up on anyone, or rather, he had the uncanny ability to sit still for hours until someone landed near him unbeknownst.

Mark also claimed to have flown all the way to Australia and back once.

Ever since then, he used this strange talk, saying things like "G’day, mate, talking about other insects as blokes, and always referring to the marsh as the bush. He even claimed Australia is where he grew so big because the place was called down under…that when he left, he was a miserable three inches long (the same size as Mepho, mind you) and came back a full two inches longer. Mark said it was because he was stretched over a barbie" once while there and barely escaped with his life.

Mepho just thought he was "going off like a frog," something Mark often used when