"Bigfoot (Part 8)" by Randy Long

[If you haven’t read any of Randy Long’s epic fantasy-adventure story, yet, you can start from the beginning HERE. Meanwhile, strap yourselves in. We’re heading back to Randy Land!!! ---RFY]
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The water from To-Wonga Falls seemed magical. It seemed to give all in our party new energy. I’m thinking the water has something to do with the anti-aging of that world, and To-Wonga Falls was the headway. That’s why the water glows there.

That planet has the Fountain of Youth. Only it doesn’t keep you a child, but it does keep you from growing old.

After drinking the water at To-Wonga Falls, we all emptied our water containers and filled them up again at the falls. We all felt better than we had in years. It had only been a day, but I already had more of a spring in my step.

So we were off to Oasis Village, the high desert village. We hadn’t seen any Bigfoot people in two days. The average days were 80 to 85 degrees, and sunrise was at 5:00 A.M., Twin Phoenix time. Sunset was about 10:00 P.M. The closer we got to the high mountain desert, the longer the days seemed to be.

What I wouldn’t have given for some kind of transportation other than walking, but as long as we had To-Wonga River water, we all had more energy.

We eventually ran across some humans heading west, and they said we were two days away from Oasis Village. One man pulled me aside and said, “Why are you with that Bigfoot lover?” And I asked him what he meant. He told me Tracy was a spy for the Bigfoot people and to watch out. She had gotten someone he knew into trouble.

She had told a Bigfoot about his friend, and from then on, that friend had to live in Bigfoot City and was watched constantly. I thanked him and told him I wouldn’t mention his name. And then I told Ed that Tracy couldn’t be trusted.

He got mad but understood, and he said, “I knew she had a secret. I just didn’t know what.”

I told him that we needed to talk to her. “Tracy, come here,” I said, “We need to talk. I was told that you’re a traitor to your own kind.”

She said, “Now that I know the real truth about what we discovered at To-Wonga Falls, and the Bigfoot people said they were the Ancients… Now I know that’s not true. I know I’ll have to earn your respect and trust in me. I will try by best.”

“Why did you tell on your own kind?” I asked.

“I was told that those humans were eating animals and trying to kill the Bigfoot.”

I told her I understood, and I asked if she was told to spy on us. She said, “Yes, but after getting to know you all, I wouldn’t. I consider you family and know you wouldn’t harm anyone.”

Oasis Village was just over the next rise. It was an all human village in the high desert. As we walked into the village, we noticed that is was huge and had a lake in the center of town with an inlet and outlet streams. The water in the lake glowed just like To-Wonga.

But we were still on a mission, and we talked to the elders, and that night we had a fish fry. The elders told me there were caves to the west, and they had heard there might be someone living there, but they weren’t sure if it was who we were seeking or not.

The next morning, I told everyone to stay there and stock up on supplies. I was going to the caves and would be back in 3 or 4 days. It was most of a good day’s walk to the caves, and I proceeded to look through the caves, but didn’t find any sign of anyone living there.

Well, two days had gone by, and I decided that, on the third day, I would head back to Oasis Town. I went to sleep that night, and about an hour before daylight, I was awakened by a sound. Someone was standing over me and screaming, “What are you doing in my cave! GET OUT! Don’t come back!”

I was half asleep, and I said, “Bill Johnson sent me.”

The man stopped screaming and said, “Do you know Bill?”

I said, “Yes, I do. Bill told me to find you.” I asked his name. Bill told me his name was Kermit the Hermit, and if he didn’t say Kermit, if he answered with anything else, he wasn’t who I was looking for.

He said, “George.”

“My friend Bill says, if you say anything but this specific name, you’re not who I’m looking for,” I said and turned to leave.

And he said, “Wait a minute. Bill taught you well. I’m Kermit the Hermit.”

“Wow! I’ve been looking for you for at least 6 months. I’m looking for the Golden Compass.”

In reply, Kermit said, “Show me the Golden Key.” From a cord around my neck, I pull the Golden Key out of my shirt. Kermit said, “I didn’t know it actually existed. Now the Golden Compass… Well, it’s like this. I couldn’t keep it on me, from fear of the Bigfoot, so I hid it in a dark place deep in the caves.”

I said, “Do you know about the Ancients at To-Wonga Falls?”

Kermit said, “Yes, we all do around here. Oasis Town and the surrounding area. Some of the people near Bigfoot City even know there, but they can’t talk about it. They’re afraid of the Bigfoot people.

I said that wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

“Well, let’s go in the cave and get the compass,” I said. We started walking.

After a while, Kermit said, “I have to warn you, I have a friend in the caves.”

I thought, “How bad could that be?” and as I turned a corner in the cave it opened up into a great big, giant room, and in the corner of the room was a Bigfoot sitting in a dimly lit area. I looked at Kermit and said, “What the…?”

And Kermit said, “Relax, it’s not what you think. This is…well, I call him Ralph, but his real name is Rafe-Gun, but you can call him Ralph. He’s actually the King of all Bigfoot, or he’s supposed to be, but there are too many Bigfoot that wanted to rule everyone instead of the way it’s supposed to be. If Ralph could become King again, like he’s suppose to, the Bigfoot people would be the protectors, not the rulers.”

“Hey Kermit,” I said, “about the---ya know…”

“It’s okay. Ralph knows, too,” Kermit says to Ralph, “He’s come for the Golden Compass.”

Ralph had it camouflaged, but he handed it to me. Ralph looked at me and said in my head, “I need help to get control of my people again.”

I looked at Kermit and asked, “Is he serious?”

And Kermit said, “Yes, and I trust him completely.”

“Okay,” I said, “with the Golden Key and the compass, we can make you King again. We need to go back to Oasis Town, so I can get back to the ones I came with and talk to the elders about Ralph.”
_______________________

[So now it’s getting serious! Revolution!?!? Tune in NEXT WEEK for the FINAL PART of Randy Long’s “Bigfoot” adventure!!!! And if you made it this far into the story but haven’t read the beginning, you should go HERE and read the whole thing! ---RFY]

---Randy Long

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"Bigfoot (Part 7)" by Randy Long

There were so many animals in that world that they needed to be regulated. Some of the animals were domesticated, and most all the animals were pretty tame ‘cuz there was no threat, from or against. Most humans lived by water there and were farmers. The primary food there was grown, and a few people threw nets in the water for fish.

Highland Town, I believed, was just on the other side of the next mountain. We came around the corner, and at the top of the mountain, there it was! We came into town and were met by the Elders of the town, and we asked if they’d seen Ed. They said yes! And they said he was on the other side of town. They proceeded to show us around.

They were very friendly people. I could see why Ed stayed there. It was a pretty big town for a human residence in that world. One of the elders said, “Let me see if they’re here.” He knocked on the door, and sure enough Ed came out and greeted us.

I guess I never seen anyone so happy to see anyone before. “Hey, good to see you two!” The elders left, and sure enough, Ed had a girlfriend. Her name was Tracy. Seemed real nice. I asked if Linda and Tracy would make something to eat.

Really, I just wanted to talk to Ed alone. Told him sorry he couldn’t go home, but we need to talk. I told him, the Bigfoot people say we can’t leave. “Well, between you and me, I’ve got a plan!” I told him I met a man named Bill, and he told me a story and we might be able to go home, but it won’t be easy.

I started telling Ed about the doorways, and asked if he remembered about the Golden Key I have around my neck. He remembered. I told him it came from the Bigfoot world. Bill told me this world has a bunch of keys, but it’s said there are only two Golden Keys. One was around my neck, and Bill gave me the other one. No one knows I have both, but it’s said that the Golden Keys will unlock any doorway, and might even allow us to go home, because there’s one thing that most people and the Bigfoot don’t know—there’s a magic doorway!

The magic doorway only appears in certain spots on this planet and at certain times, but needs a Golden Key to open it, and then the magic doorway will take you where you want to go.

But, of course, there’s a catch! There’s an old man who lives in a cave on the other side of the desert where a mountain starts and the desert ends. There’s a hidden cave in the side of the mountain. The old man knows when and where the door will appear. Bill said not to let the Bigfoot people find out. He said we would need one other thing, a compass. The compass will show us where the door will be. Bill said the old man in the cave can tell us where and how to find the compass. But above all, never let the Bigfoot people know anything!

We stayed a couple days, and we were all going to leave and look for the compass and the old man. Ed and his new-found friend, Tracy, were pretty chummy, and we asked her if she wanted to come with us. She said she did. She said she’d been there all her life.

Ed and I decided not to tell her our plans right away, just that we wanted to explore the planet more and that she would make the perfect guide. So we headed out of the village: myself, Linda, Ed and Tracy. (By the way, my name is Randy.) I told Tracy we would like to go to the high desert mountains to the human village of Oasis. I was told by Bill that the old man in the cave lived near there, or so Bill had heard. Tracy said it was a long journey away. She said she’d never been there but that she thought she knew how to get there.

So we were off to Oasis village in the high desert. Tracy said it was at least 3 or 4 weeks away.

Tracy and Ed were pretty close, but Ed said there was something about her. Maybe it was just that she was born there, or maybe something different. She was a bit secretive, like maybe she was hiding something.

Well, we were off. Tracy said we should first head to the Great Falls of To-Wonga. The Great Falls are the only place that an ancient statue still stands from the ancient people who lived there before the Bigfoot. This is the only remnant of the ancients left on this world that shows what they looked like, and Tracy said that at the Falls the water glows even at night!

I was real curious to see the statue of the ancient beings and to see what they looked like. We headed southeast through the Forest of Weer. They say the Forest of Weer’s trees are the oldest on that planet. The trees are blue, they say. When the planet was young there was less oxygen in the atmosphere and the trees grew blue, and some of the trees were thousands of years old. They say the largest one is 980 feet tall and over 30 feet around.

The Forest of Weer is the biggest forest. It’s said it’s a hundred million acres. We were only going through one edge of the forest, about 20 miles across. Amazing! Blue trees! Looking up and seeing as far as you can see, to the tops of the trees! There was thick brush and a small trail heading through the forest. It took three days to pass through the edge of the Forest of Weer.

While going through deep in the forest, we seen the blue jackalopes, the only place the jackalopes are blue, from eating plant life in the Forest of Weer. I was told by Tracy that it’s good luck to see blue jackalopes because they’re rare. After leaving the Forest of Weer, the trees became less dense and were back to green and normal foliage.

I noticed that the further southeast we went, the dryer the air became. There were also less trees, and the foliage was changing, becoming more desert like. There were also less Bigfoot people. It was odd not seeing Bigfoot people after seeing them all the time.

It had been a week since we’d run across any water. It was a good thing we had plenty of water with us.

A week and a half since we left the Forest of Weer, and we had three or four days more before we reached the Falls of To-Wonga. One more day passed, and we reached the River of To-Wonga. It seemed a flock of gryphons lived near the rocks next to the To-Wonga River. Tracy said it was two more days until we reached the falls.

Now that we were at the river, we stocked up on water and fish. I was amazed that the gryphons were friendly. They are legendary creatures with the head, talons, and wings of an eagle, and the body of a lion.

One more day passed uneventfully. We got up bright and early the next morning, so we could get to the falls. Finally, around noon, we showed up at To-Wonga Falls. To my astonishment, the ancients were humans. People who looked just like us were the first that ruled this planet!

The writings on the stone statue explained all: the humans left that planet and went through the doorways long ago. They left the planet so the animals would prosper and left the Bigfoot people in charge to protect them. It’s kind of funny—it went full circle. The true secret of that world is that the ancients knew. Humans would kill all the animals, and to preserve the planet, they all left.

Then we forgot that world.

They left the marker at To-Wonga Falls so anyone looking could find out, but it would take a long journey to find out. On one hand, I felt ashamed, and on the other I wondered how we lost our intelligence—and how many other planets did we go to through all the different doorways?

Knowing all of this changed how we looked at the world. We were all a bit more humble, but we still had a mission, and the next day we would be leaving To-Wonga Falls to go to Oasis village in the high desert.

—Randy Long

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“Bigfoot (Part 6)” by Randy Long

[In the last episode, our hero learned that the Bigfoot people will let certain humans come to their world, but that they never let them LEAVE! We now return to the exciting story, already in progress!!! ---RFY]

We told Bill, leader of the village we’d been staying in, that we would like to go home, and of course he said he’s been there about 100 years and has learned a lot about the land---and the number one rule is NO ONE LEAVES.

About then, Bill took me to the side and says, “Can I trust you? And how bad do you want to go back to Earth?”

I believe a man is only as good as his word, and if he don’t have that, he has nothing. And Earth is my home, no matter what, and I tell him so. Well, Bill begins to tell me a story. He says, a long time ago when he first arrived here through one of the forgotten doorways, he was told a story about a doorway that, once a week, it appears in, and stays in, a different area of the world. ONLY for a week, and then moves again. There’s an old man who lives in a cave on the other side of the desert where a mountain starts and the desert ends. There’s a hidden cave in the side of the mountain. That old man knows when and where the doorway will appear. He told me not to let the Bigfoot people find out what I was doing or they wouldn’t let me leave.

Bill proceeded to tell me that you need the Key to the forbidden doorway, and he pulled a gold key out of his pocket and handed it to me. He told me he got the Key to try and escape, but he’s been here so long that he wouldn’t know how to cope on Earth anymore. He said, “You must take the Key, get your friend, and find out when and where the doorway will appear. You will need one other thing. The Compass will only show you where the doorway is, and it’s said that the old man in the cave can tell you how to find the Compass. But remember, above all, tell no one of your plan, if you want to succeed.”

I asked he why me---why would he trust me? He said it’s too late for him. He’d grown accustomed to being there, and I hadn’t been there long. He told me, “Never lose sight of your dreams!”

We talked more. I told him of the progress Earth had achieved in the last 100 years, from automobiles to landing on the moon, from computers to two world wars… There was also a Sexual Revolution, and so many more improvements. We talked for hours and into the night. He said to watch out for the forbidden areas of the planet where the Bigfoot won’t go. There are spots on that planet with too much heat for the Bigfoot, and humans are dominant there, and said I should be careful exploring those places.

Linda and I decided to leave in the morning, find Ed, and find the forbidden doorway. We’d been in that world for about six months, and we’d been told by Bill that there were no seasons, just different areas with different climates. When it rains in that area it’s short showers, then the sun comes right back out and dries everything again.

That day, I saw a very large bird, 20 feet across. I was told that the bird was a Thunderbird, big and black, that stood about six feet tall on the ground. Those types of birds usually live beyond the desert zone.

Bill told me things that I was never supposed to repeat, especially around the Bigfeet, or even think them! He said, “Bigfoot people can tell what other Bigfoot people are thinking, but it’s harder for them to read humans, and practically impossible if you try to block them.” Bill also said the Bigfoot people have their own language beyond their telepathy, but with all the humans on their planet, they learned English, and that became the standard language on the planet, like a lot of places on Earth.

He also said it’s good to get in good with a Bigfoot that you trust. He says there’s good Bigfoot people and bad, and to just be careful. Bill also told me of the one great city of the Bigfoot people. It’s a place they hold sacred, and it’s told that the beginning of the Bigfoot people was there. The secrets of the Bigfoot people are hidden there.

Humans don’t live in Bigfoot City, and the only place the Bigfoot people won’t live is somewhere where it’s too hot, like the desert.

Bigfoot City is the Lost City. It’s said that before the Bigfoot people there was a race that occupied this world, then something happened to them, and the Bigfoot people claimed this world. There are secrets in the city that the Bigfoot people hide from humans. The Bigfoot City is over a million strong. There are some smaller settlements around Bigfoot City occupied by humans.

Bill also told me that there are many keys that will only fit a single doorway, but the key he gave me was the Golden Key, and only two are known to exist. They will open any door. There’s doors that take you from one side of the planet to another, from this planet to Earth, and different areas of other planets, but I don’t know how many other planets.

The next morning, we headed back east looking for the village called The Highlands, the last place the Ed was known to be. I figured at our present pace we could reach the Highlands village in about six weeks, but maybe he would be coming our way.

We’d been on the road a week and a half, and ever since we left we’d had a feeling we were being followed. If we were being followed, I was pretty sure it was a Bigfoot because we couldn’t see anything. It must have been camouflaging itself.

In the Bigfoot people, the men are dominant and the females are pretty passive, a little smaller, but they would still tower over me, and I’m six feet tall.

I was starting to think that I would never get over the twin suns of that planet. Every time I looked up, it brought me back to the reality that I was not in Kansas anymore---not that Washington state is Kansas or anything like that.

So we’d been on the road two and a half weeks, and nothing significant happened, but we still couldn’t shake the feeling we were being followed.

We decided to veer north a little, though still going mostly east, but we’d heard of a little town off the beaten path, a human town, and maybe if we were being followed, we thought, we could figure out by whom. After about four weeks since leaving Bill’s village of Johnsonville, we reached the edge of the town. The name of the town was Griphon, and the people there were pretty standoffish. We went to talk to the Elders of the town, and one pulled me off to the side and said, “I see you have a Bigfoot following you,” and he said he could help.

I said I knew someone was following, but didn’t know why. He said it was because we were new there and the Bigfoot didn’t know how to read us and were concerned. He said it was normal for them to follow new people. I said it was pretty intimidating, especially as big as they are.

We asked about the Highlands town and Ed. They told me that Highlands town was about two weeks away, and the last they heard he was still there, a stranger named “Ed.” We decided to stay in Griphon for a while and hoped the Bigfoot would get tired of waiting. After about three days, he did. We stayed another couple of days, just to make sure.

Linda and I thought Ed must have met a woman, or he probably wouldn’t still be at the village. Either that, or he was in trouble. After about six days, we were back on the road again and heading for Highlands town.

[MORE TO COME!!!]

---Randy Long

And here are the links to the previous sections:

BigfootPart 1

BigfootPart 2

BigfootPart 3

BigfootPart 4

BigfootPart 5

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“Bigfoot (Part 5)” by Randy Long

[It’s time for some more Bigfoot action, as Randy and Linda explore the strange world that they found beyond a mysterious cave in the woods! Let’s get right to it! (Links to the previous chapters will be included at the end of this post!!!) ---RFY]


I guess I should tell you about Bigfoot. The Bigfoot species, at adult, have an average height of eight to ten feet, and they weigh 400 to 600 pounds. They have a slender build, but muscular, and are usually in very good health. They are also very smart, in fact telepathic. They are also very quiet, especially for their size. They have very large feet and hair covering their entire bodies, except for their faces and hands and the bottoms of their feet. They do not smell, but I’ve heard them make a noise, I guess a yell, to alert other Bigfoot, a deep, mournful sound---absolutely scary when heard alone in the woods.

They can blend in the background, like chameleons. Their hair is thick and dark. They wear no clothes, but all I saw in their world was tropical type weather.

They are as old as time. I believe they’ve always been visiting Earth. All the old and mystical creatures of our ancient past come from their world, and they are still there and alive. The unicorns, the phoenix, so far nothing seemed to be afraid of us. We’d seen other doors, but I wasn’t sure if the doors lead to other places on Earth or other planets.

There was another village ahead of us, and we decided to enter it and found other humans, to our surprise! Some of the villagers said they were born there, and some came from Earth. I asked, “If we could find a doorway, why hasn’t anyone ever said anything about this place before?”

The village leader looked at me and said, “Don’t you know?”

And I said, “Know what!?”

He said, “You can’t leave. That’s the number one rule.”

I said that he must be mistaken. Our friend, Ed, went home, and he asked if we actually saw Ed go home. I said no, but I’d talked to the Bigfoot people, and they promised no harm would come to him and he was free to go.

The village leader said, “You are free on this planet, but if you return to Earth, everyone would know that Bigfoot were real and of this planet, and there’s no killing here and humans kill. The Bigfoot only allow people with a kind heart to enter, but NO ONE LEAVES.”

So Ed never went home and the other doorways that are open don’t lead back to Earth. Now we had a quest. We still wanted to explore, but we needed to find Ed and find a way home.

I understand why that world was secret. They have too much to lose, but it was still a prison, and that changed things. We found a group going east and asked them if they seen Ed to tell him we were alive and doing well. It was pretty primitive there, no electricity, no cars, no progress, but it did seem ENCHANTED.


A NEW FRAME OF MIND

This world was wonderful, but scary at the same time. We weren’t leaving much behind, but the decision on whether or not to stay didn’t seem like it was someone else’s choice to make. There was a whole world to explore. I’d found from talking to the Bigfoot people that they could only hear what you wanted them to through telepathy. Basically, everything there was like at home, only milder weather, maybe more tropical, but the forest looked like the Pacific Northwest on Earth, for the most part.

I’d seen a phoenix, a unicorn, and there were lots of creatures there that I didn’t know the names for, but most used to be on Earth or in the legends of Earth or were extinct but still thrive there. I’d seen a winged animal cat, like I’d seen small dragons, birds that couldn’t fly, but none feared us and seemed to have no anger toward us, either.

My wife and I both agreed, though, no matter how beautiful, it was still a prison. We’d figured out that the people there had the most knowledge and, possibly, knew a way for us to get home. We were still following the river and going west. The landscape had been changing the last few days, becoming more desert-like. Another thing I noticed since we’d been there, we hadn’t been sick---not even a sniffle.

There was a village coming up in the night last night. We seen fires in the distance up around the bend. This village was different: no Bigfoot people. Every other village we went to before had a Bigfoot as the village leader, but this village leader was HUMAN. We told the leader we were new to that world, and he asked us about our home and what year it was. I told him 2025, and asked him how long he had been there. He told me when he left Earth the year was 1901. He looked to be about 50 years old. He said he came to this land when he was 48, and he was now 124!

He said you don’t age there like you do on Earth. His name was Bill Johnson, and he said he would help any way that he could. He said that he’d had a good life there, but he was still a prisoner. “There’s some that adapt and some don’t. Everyone who lives in this village believes we should have the right to go home,” but he said not to talk about it in front of the Bigfoot people. He also said that the Bigfoot people don’t like the desert heat.

So we found out one thing, they don’t like the heat. We decided to stay there for awhile and see what we could learn. Some visitors from the east got there just before we did and said they seen a man they described who sounded just like Ed, and said he was okay and staying in a village called the Highlands Village near a mountain top. The village we were in was called Johnsonville after Bill Johnson, the leader of the village. Linda and I had been learning a lot, learning about the Bigfoot people.

[Will they be able to get home safely??? Stay tuned to find out! ---RFY]

---Randy Long

Here are the links to the previous sections:

Bigfoot Part 1
Bigfoot Part 2
Bigfoot Part 3
Bigfoot Part 4

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"Wild Man (AKA: Larry)" by Richard F. Yates

---Richard F. Yates
(Primitive Thoughtician and Grand Hoohaa of The P.E.W.)

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“Bigfoot (Part 4)” by Randy Long

[We return you now to the wild and woolly adventures of Randy Long and his band of explorers! If you’ve missed the first few episodes, I’ll include links to those at the end of this section. Meanwhile, let’s get back to the fun! ---RFY]

We were all pretty tired and slept peacefully during the night. Other than a few odd sounds, it was mostly uneventful. When I woke in the morning, my wife had coffee from the propane stove and breakfast cooking. I heard Ed rustling around in his sleeping bag, and I looked at my watch, and it said it was 10 minutes after 11:00. My wife said when she was getting up it was just getting light---about an hour before. I guessed that daybreak was at about 10:00 A.M. This must have been the summertime there.

It was an amazing place, and I decided to call it Twin Phoenix because of the two suns. The plant life there grew in abundance. I know that on Earth everything is grown and harvested by humans, but on that planet, Twin Phoenix, the bigfoot creatures are the main people. There was no other sign of civilization, but many signs of different kinds of animals.

The foliage there reminded me of pictures I’d seen of prehistoric Earth. All the plant life was huge and wildlife was everywhere. There was an animal there that flies, I guess a gryphon. I never seen a real one, but this looked like pictures in books that I’d seen.

I’d tasted the water the day before, and it seemed fine. I didn’t get sick.

None of the bigfoot creatures had approached us, but I did get the sense they knew we were there, and we were not the first. Ed seemed really freaked out, really nervous and jittery all the time. Linda and I just seemed to go with the flow. The wonders of that world were amazing.

Since we’d been there, about eight days, there had been long days and short nights. Summer like weather, and it had rained only twice for about ten minutes. The animals there, believe it or not, were all Earth’s mythical creatures, or so I thought. The mythical creatures must have come from that world. The doorway must have been open to our world in our ancient times, letting creatures from this world come through. I think the bigfoot creatures must have closed the doorway a couple thousand years ago. Some would come through the passageway. Just enough to get into our history books. Also, I finally understood why there were no bones or even bigfoot bodies. They made sure that all remnants of any bodies were brought back through the passageway.

All I can say is, that was an amazing place. We’d been walking west towards the sunset for the eight days we’d been there. We’d been following the river since we’d been there, downstream. The fruit and fish were plentiful. It was a tropical area.

In all the time we’d been there, traveling, we’d never run across a mean animal. A little curious, but nothing dangerous. We seen other animals fishing and eating fish, and there was definitely enough to go around. The fruit was also real similar to ours and in great abundance. The nights, so far, were no colder than the mid-50s. I don’t recall who said, “You learn something new every day,” but how true! Especially in a world such as this.

I left camp and went down to the river one morning. When I looked up from drinking in the water, a bigfoot creature was there. He started talking to me, only he didn’t speak. I heard him in my head. It was odd, but he said we’d been watched us since we came to that land, and as long as we ate fish and fruit, everything was fine. He said no one harmed animals there. He said we could fish and eat fruit. I asked how he could talk by thinking the words, and he said they’d done it for centuries. The doorways to our world used to be open all the time, but humans killed animals, and so they closed the doors centuries ago.

He said, “In our world there are some humans, but we are the dominant species, like humans are on your world.” We talked for quite a while. I told him we would obey their rules while we were there, then thanked him and went back to camp.

I told my wife and friend what had happened and the rules of the land. We made a pact never to let anyone know of that world. Something was said by the bigfoot, he said his name was Ko-Roo, and I remember he said “doorways,” meaning there was more than one doorway. He said that, depending on what region we were in, the animals would be different. Most animals there were much more highly evolved than on Earth.

I’d seen unicorns, dodo birds, phoenix birds, gryphons, small gargoyles…and all the usual animals, such as bears, squirrels, deer, elk, birds, ducks, horses, etc. So many more. All I can say, that place was amazing. My wife is like me and wanted to explore as much as we could, but Ed was getting homesick. Understandable. We’d been gone for going on two weeks by then. We’d learned everything is such a short period of time! We’d been marking our way and following the river. Ed had decided to leave the next morning to go back home. He promised not to say anything of his adventures.

My wife and I made it an early night, and before we knew it, it was morning. We said goodbye to Ed and figured if he followed the river, he should be able to get back to the doorway in two weeks or less. Now it seemed to us that it was time to explore more. Halfway into the first day without Ed, the river forked off in three directions. Of the two smaller forks, one went north and one went south, and the third continued west. We’d been coming from the east, so we continued west. The further west we continued, the more trails we ran across. Finally, we came into a pretty big village.

It was mainly a bigfoot village. I introduced myself to one of them, and he said he knew who I was. Ko-Roo had told him. He said his name was Mar-Gun, leader of that village, and he said all bigfoot are mentally connected. He hadn’t really seen Ko-Roo, but they spoke mentally. He asked where the third one in our party was. I told him Ed went home. He could tell, mentally, that they had nothing to fear from us.

Mar-Gun welcomed us and invited us to stay in the village for a while. We were overwhelmed with the idea. They seemed to be such calm creatures, but also a take-charge kind of people. They told us they have been visiting Earth for thousands of years, and that they were a migratory species. They told us they will reveal themselves to humans, but for now we just keep killing each other.

They said their species eat fish and fruit and other vegetation, but they never harm each other. They have visited us, and have been called Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti, Abominable Snowman, and others, down through the years. In medieval times, they were called trolls, and down through the years, they tried to get along with humans, but all the humans would do is try to hunt and kill them. They still visited Earth sometimes, but not like they used to. They tried not to be seen anymore, and they closed most of the doorways. Only the hidden doorways had been left open. They said that they’d kept their world simple without the so-called improvements that humans have made. They also said that the Native Americans of our world used to worship them, and that they would talk to the tribes, but that now the days of old were long gone…

[To be continued!!!!]

---Randy Long

Here’s how to find the other sections:

“Bigfoot” Part One
“Bigfoot” Part Two
“Bigfoot” Part Three

“Kid Valley” by Randy Long

When I was 10 or 11 years old, I had an aunt who lived in Castle Rock. She and her husband had no kids at the time, and she really wasn’t my aunt, but she used to be married to my uncle, my mother’s brother. So we all called her Aunt Val, and her husband was Uncle Grover.

Back to my story. She was a big woman and very affectionate. I was from the Longview / Kelso area, and at 10 or 11, Castle Rock was a long ways away, even though it was less than 15 miles. In Castle Rock, Val lived in town, in a second story house, Victorian style, on a double lot, and the whole second lot was a giant garden, with corn, beans, tomatoes, and a lot of other vegetables. Along the front row was a tall couple rows of sunflowers.

My first experience with fresh veggies, and it was great.

The next house was vacant, and they owned that, too. On the other side, on the corner house, there was a man, I don’t recall his name, but he was an ambulance driver, and when they had motorcycle races at the local fairgrounds, he would drive over to the center of the raceway and park. It was great because he took me with him, and I got to watch the motorcycle races. I stayed a couple weeks in the summer with my aunt and uncle in Castle Rock.

Her mother lived up by Mount St. Helens, at a little spot called Kid Valley. Her mother’s name was Josephine, and her husband was Stan. They owned the country store and gas station. In the back room of the store is where they lived, and they also had an upstairs with a couple more bedrooms. They also had a spot out front, that looked like a shack, that they called the burger bar. They sold cheeseburgers and milkshakes, and they were delicious. It was the last stop before you went to Mount St. Helens, although this was before the mountain became an active volcano and blew its top.

My sister, Colleen, stayed summers at Kid Valley. Josephine and Stan had us call her and her husband Grandma and Grandpa. My older sister would work at the burger bar, and later they would build a full size restaurant, but that summer, I got to stay with Colleen, which was great. She was 8 years older than me, and I always looked up to her. She was a short, very attractive young woman, and one of the hardest working women I’ve ever known. She always looked after me, like a big sister would.

I have fond memories of Kid Valley. I stayed upstairs in one bedroom and my sister in the other. I went fishing and hiking and exploring in the woods, and Grandpa and his friends would talk about Bigfoot’s feet, impressions made of plaster-of-Paris. There was even a local man who had a record on 45 of the song, “Legend of Bigfoot.” All the older men would stand around talking about Bigfoot and their sightings.

I remember waking up in the mornings in Kid Valley and looking outside and seeing deer standing in the field. I also remember seeing spiders the size of a 50 cent piece only up at Kid Valley. These were green with spots on their backs, and some were red. I’ve never seen green ones anywhere else.

Grandma would pay us kids a penny a worm for night-crawlers. She would sell them in the store to fishermen. I knew even then that she was selling them for a lot more than a penny a piece, but back then a hundred worms was a dollar, and that was a big bag of penny candy. And sometimes she’d throw in a candy-bar or two, when Grandpa Stan wasn’t looking.

I was told, don’t go past the cabins next to the store. The cabins were on the other side of a field in a half moon circle, kind of bordering Kid Valley, but there were trails behind the cabins that went into the deep woods. In front of the store and gas station was Spirit Lake Hwy. Across from that was a field and a house next to that, and behind those was the Toutle River, where people always went to go fishing at the fishing hole. There was a trestle and a bridge where a log train would come through, and a tunnel. You had to get through the tunnel before the train would come.

While fishing one time, my Grandma said to always wear a hat because she knew someone that once, at dusk, got a bat caught in their hair, and they had to cut it out. Scared the crap out of me.

I also went on my first snipe hunt at Kid Valley. After learning what a snipe actually was, the joke was on me. All in great fun.

A lot happened in a short time when I was a kid in Kid Valley. I would never trade any of my adventures for anything. I enjoyed my childhood.

—Randy Long

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