FOUR FROM MANGROVE — James Robert Smith

Once, there was a land like no other. It was a city-state, a nation. The reach of its rulers sometimes spanned continents, and at other times reached no farther than the walls of a war-torn palace.Giants lived in Mangrove -- powerful kings and generals who ruled all within their sight; and lands far beyond. And it gave birth to the least of us--powerless serfs and homeless orphans who begged for the smallest coins. In times of greatness its armies plundered far and wide, trampling everything and everyone before them. And in days of despair its soldiers died in vain defending the gates.Its art and its technology and the skill of its wizards were unsurpassed. The books in its libraries and the men who put spells to parchment all burned together.Mangrove lived and thrived and its people strode across the planet. Mangrove died and was forgotten and no one remembered much about it, unless it was in legends and tales told to frighten unruly children or to satisfy curious sages.Mangrove lives, in dreams.Here, then, are four…four from Mangrove.