*TUNING INTO 1000 AM RADIO ACROSS THE THAUMANTIC COMMUNAL ORDER*
Fern Maguire: "When'ya ken might be the last time you walked barefoot along the path of Kings? As we did return to Nieveland this week in avoidance of this next stage in the World War we was askin' what plans were for folks on their way out of the service. For most the return up-Nievie means cycling back to factory work, relief of honest labor, and assignments predetermined by parish elders enriched with communal obligations . . . But for some, perhaps the most adventurous of all, they claim to be keen on finding another adventure.
Several troopers we interviewed say they are interested in forming parties, or daresay individually, attempting King Padraig's Gauntlet. The barefoot journey of penance the first King of the Thaumantic isle took to absolve himself of the sins one comports themself with when forging an empire. A near 500 kilometer trek one wonders how such an act were possibly and why so many recreate it today. I asked a so-called Trail Faerie, known along the Gauntlet as 'Miss Ma'am' how those of us residing in this modern world do this today."
Miss Ma'am: "I'll let ye in on a secret, dear Fern - and it is that only a handful of the tens and hundreds of Thaumanticans and visiting foreign ones who march the Gauntlet every year attempt so with bare feet. Of course I do believe that royal one did so, and I have seen with me own eyes men of hardened hooves, but when I set out on me own journey some 30 years ago I did do it with boots common to all communalists and to be sure we watch those with plastic, synthetics, and all manner of strappings . . One does'na trek on god given paws unless, being terribly honest, they carry then heaviest demon to cast out along the way."
Fern Maguire: "Was there a demon in ye the first time you trekked that trail?"
Miss Ma'am: "Aye, I was so very angry and I started it alone in 1993 . . There were things were happened, things done in the DMZ that I needed to get away from. So, as many do, I started alone down-Lexkirk and that was already stressful enough because you must indeed rustle through an Engwahlian city, and at that time them and theirs were quite angry with Nievish folk and those Engwahlian teens of bare heads would lock arms and ask for ye to find a way past them along the urban set of the path. From growing up in the DMZ, must harder Engwahlians, I called them out as . . so sorry Fern, but I knew they were hand-peters, had not mounted and would'na me because they was pretendin' weren't they?"
Fern Maguire: "Do all in Engwahl spit at Niomonnach?"
Miss Ma'am: "There were good Catholics in Engwahl outside of Lexkirk that were at least indifferent to the trail, and then some too who would sit out there and offer a plastic bottle to exchange of water with my empty one or point advise on how far the next good shelter might be. I learned soon that they was Faeries. And as you embark, or as you rest in such a shelter, you find that Engwahlians are along this path with ye too. Their lives and their reasons for trekking the gauntlet were not so different such as me, whether it were exorcising a wee demon or pure curiosity . . There were foreigns out there I met, atheist ones, who were quite enraptured by the nature itself and saw this differently than we."
Fern Maguire: "And were you so alone at the end, did the demon subside?"
Miss Ma'am: "I was alone all through Engwahl but when I was approachin' that DMZ I stopped for 2 days, I could'na do it alone and I were afraid when some I had met came back for me - a Cannie couple who had walked the Aboriginal Walkacross of some 3500 kilometers. They sat and listened this time about why I were afraid to go back through the DMZ and told me they would not leave me side there or never beyond eye until we had made it across the isle. And so we did walk, and picked up other trail trash and riff raff such as me there and along the way."
Fern Maguire: "Now 30 years later you remain along this trail, and I repost my original question, how and why?"
Miss Ma'am: "There's a majesty to the land, a uniqueness to the people you meet there is beyond common, and yet ye find a common spirit with those you find along the trail. I keep a hostel in the DMZ now for trekkers, and we keep it like an alms hall of foods, water, and gears to post. There are so many struggles and triumphs in life, and on this compacted trek some experience their toughest and greatest. To pass through here, the DMZ, with communalists was my greatest triumph - hardly reaching the north, for that was triumph for Wee'PapaPa who I did marry after our trek."
Fern Maguire: "And so we did learn that Miss Ma'am, after this short interview, would be trying the trek again this year again after the death of her husband from the cancer. She will be joined with their Nievish Terrier of short strides, and I am sure, many Thaumanticans and foreign ones approaching warmer seasons with a sense of adventure.
Fern Maguire: "When'ya ken might be the last time you walked barefoot along the path of Kings? As we did return to Nieveland this week in avoidance of this next stage in the World War we was askin' what plans were for folks on their way out of the service. For most the return up-Nievie means cycling back to factory work, relief of honest labor, and assignments predetermined by parish elders enriched with communal obligations . . . But for some, perhaps the most adventurous of all, they claim to be keen on finding another adventure.
Several troopers we interviewed say they are interested in forming parties, or daresay individually, attempting King Padraig's Gauntlet. The barefoot journey of penance the first King of the Thaumantic isle took to absolve himself of the sins one comports themself with when forging an empire. A near 500 kilometer trek one wonders how such an act were possibly and why so many recreate it today. I asked a so-called Trail Faerie, known along the Gauntlet as 'Miss Ma'am' how those of us residing in this modern world do this today."
Miss Ma'am: "I'll let ye in on a secret, dear Fern - and it is that only a handful of the tens and hundreds of Thaumanticans and visiting foreign ones who march the Gauntlet every year attempt so with bare feet. Of course I do believe that royal one did so, and I have seen with me own eyes men of hardened hooves, but when I set out on me own journey some 30 years ago I did do it with boots common to all communalists and to be sure we watch those with plastic, synthetics, and all manner of strappings . . One does'na trek on god given paws unless, being terribly honest, they carry then heaviest demon to cast out along the way."
Fern Maguire: "Was there a demon in ye the first time you trekked that trail?"
Miss Ma'am: "Aye, I was so very angry and I started it alone in 1993 . . There were things were happened, things done in the DMZ that I needed to get away from. So, as many do, I started alone down-Lexkirk and that was already stressful enough because you must indeed rustle through an Engwahlian city, and at that time them and theirs were quite angry with Nievish folk and those Engwahlian teens of bare heads would lock arms and ask for ye to find a way past them along the urban set of the path. From growing up in the DMZ, must harder Engwahlians, I called them out as . . so sorry Fern, but I knew they were hand-peters, had not mounted and would'na me because they was pretendin' weren't they?"
Fern Maguire: "Do all in Engwahl spit at Niomonnach?"
Miss Ma'am: "There were good Catholics in Engwahl outside of Lexkirk that were at least indifferent to the trail, and then some too who would sit out there and offer a plastic bottle to exchange of water with my empty one or point advise on how far the next good shelter might be. I learned soon that they was Faeries. And as you embark, or as you rest in such a shelter, you find that Engwahlians are along this path with ye too. Their lives and their reasons for trekking the gauntlet were not so different such as me, whether it were exorcising a wee demon or pure curiosity . . There were foreigns out there I met, atheist ones, who were quite enraptured by the nature itself and saw this differently than we."
Fern Maguire: "And were you so alone at the end, did the demon subside?"
Miss Ma'am: "I was alone all through Engwahl but when I was approachin' that DMZ I stopped for 2 days, I could'na do it alone and I were afraid when some I had met came back for me - a Cannie couple who had walked the Aboriginal Walkacross of some 3500 kilometers. They sat and listened this time about why I were afraid to go back through the DMZ and told me they would not leave me side there or never beyond eye until we had made it across the isle. And so we did walk, and picked up other trail trash and riff raff such as me there and along the way."
Fern Maguire: "Now 30 years later you remain along this trail, and I repost my original question, how and why?"
Miss Ma'am: "There's a majesty to the land, a uniqueness to the people you meet there is beyond common, and yet ye find a common spirit with those you find along the trail. I keep a hostel in the DMZ now for trekkers, and we keep it like an alms hall of foods, water, and gears to post. There are so many struggles and triumphs in life, and on this compacted trek some experience their toughest and greatest. To pass through here, the DMZ, with communalists was my greatest triumph - hardly reaching the north, for that was triumph for Wee'PapaPa who I did marry after our trek."
Fern Maguire: "And so we did learn that Miss Ma'am, after this short interview, would be trying the trek again this year again after the death of her husband from the cancer. She will be joined with their Nievish Terrier of short strides, and I am sure, many Thaumanticans and foreign ones approaching warmer seasons with a sense of adventure.