As one old enough to have read a great deal of fantasy in the 1970s I was tempted to name this image of an old ivied tree trunk out my back window ‘Red ruin in the mysts of Gondaluria’ and concoct a tale about the magician Atralan needing to find this old tree as a landmark in his quest to steal the Jewel of Old Cartasia ™. If you read that stuff you’ll actually know the rest of the story: the buxom but treacherous wench with her eye on the jewel, the wraith who lives in the tree trunk but which has a secret weakness the hero can exploit, the fallen warrior too fond of his drink. Such, such were the joys of growing up then.
Or was it crossover fantasy-sf of the 1940s or 50s? Is this (figure 2) the last of the once magnificent well tended trees still barely standing outside the ruins of a palace on the planet we crashed on? Nature is reclaiming the once impressive works of the now long-fallen Empire of the Stars ™. But might some unsavory revenant beings be found still living among the ruins? Watch out for 6-legged giant ocelots with tendrils for whiskers!
Until the day break and the shadows flee away . . . (figure 3) . . . revealing that we are still home in merrie old Scranton and the only people about are wholesome young persons heading to early class at Marywood.
