As the group of wet fatigued girls started toward the small pond, they crossed an area of open dirt, and at once glance they saw it had several distinct footprints in it.
“Leena, look!” Shouted Penelope. They all stopped.
“One…two, three different sets.” Sarah showed them. “That’s an MJ Air Special.”
“How do you know that?” Becky giggled, as she knew full well how, and why.
Now Sarah giggled as she confessed that was what Joshua said he always wore.
The mood became instantly somber when Penelope asked, “Hey, that looks like blood, doesn’t it?”
Sure enough there were several small spots of fairly fresh looking blood; staining the dirt in several places. “Oh No!” Leena gasp. “Let’s find them!”
When they reached the willow like tree, they found more tracks and signs that the boys had been there. Under the tree there was also more evidence of an injury; as they found bandage wrappers and a slightly blooded bandage. The foot prints went on towards a hill, and they all hurried along. Everything around them was lush and alive.
Leena sighed, “If the guys were here everything would be perfect.”
“Yeah except we don’t know where we are.” Sarah reminded with foreboding.
“We’ll find them.” Penelope assured with confidence.
Leena felt the energy of trust, and love from the little girl, and it gave her strength. This place made her feel alive too, but until they found the boys, she wouldn’t let herself enjoy the mood.
Just then Becky shouted, “Its Joshua!”
“And William!” Sarah added, and pointed to the top of the hill. There at the top of the grassy slope William started into a run towards the girls, whooping and hollering; while Joshua limped upon a walking stick behind him. Joshua was also shouting with glee, as he hopped along as fast as he could. The girls were all running too, except Leena who wondered; “Where’s Tristan?”
After they all warmly hugged each other several times in joyous reunion, Leena insisted, “Where’s Tristan?”
“How bad are you hurt Josh?” Sarah cut in.
“Yeah, what happened?” Becky asked.
Leena shouted, “Where’s Tristan?”
Everyone shut up, and then Joshua said, “He went to get help.”
“Where?” Leena was confused.
“Come here, I’ll show you.” William started back up to the top of the hill. At the top he pointed out over some distant hills, and there on the horizon rose an impossibly tall, perfectly cone shaped spire. “There.” He said.
“Oh, wow!” Penelope beamed.
“Why did you let him go all by…How long ago?” Leena commanded.
William was calm, “About two hours ago.”
“We gotta go after him!” she was firm.
Joshua shook his head, “I can’t. At least not right now, besides Tristan took off jogging pretty fast, even up the hills. Said he wanted to make it before nightfall.”
Leena started thinking fast, what could she do? Then a plan became clear; “William, you and I will go after him. The rest of you will have to make camp here, until we come back.”
“I don’t think we’ll catch up to him Leena.” William was sure. “Unless he got hurt or something.”
“Which is exactly why we need to go quickly.” Leena expressed with earnestness.
They checked all the gear, food, and water in their packs hastily, and refilled the water from the stream. All the while Joshua answered questions about what had happened. It seems one of the monsters in the cavern’s lake had bitten his ankle superficially, but that he was sure he’d be fine soon. The girls listened with care. Then when Leena and William were ready to set off, she seriously educated the others to the plan.
“We each only have about two days food, if we stretch it, so stretch it. That means if we aren’t back within three days, you’d better come look for us.” Leena told them.
“What if we can’t find you?” Joshua asked.
Leena sighed at the possibility, “Then try to get to that structure. That’s where we are all heading, and we’ll leave a trail somehow. OK?” With that the four remaining kids sadly bid them safe and quick journey, and the two sojourners hastily left at a jog.
The gentle hilly country went on for some miles, and the two were quickly relegated to a brisk walk. Every time they stopped for water, and a brief rest, they left trail markings, either by scraping the grass in the shape of an arrow, or by rocks forming the same. After a couple hours the terrain became increasingly rocky, and uphill, so they took their first real sit down break of the trek. As Leena tipped her head back to sip some water, she looked up into the perfect cobalt blue sky, and almost choked on her water.
“Oh my god! Look!” She pointed into the sky.
William quickly followed her gaze, and was just as dumfounded by the sight of two small moons rising above the horizon. “What the crap!” He cursed.
“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” Leena was bewildered.
“We never were in Kansas to start with.” William chided. “We are supposed to be in Florida!”
Leena looked at William seriously, “We’ve got to find Tristan fast. We don’t have a couple days.”
“What do you mean?” William didn’t understand.
“I think we’re in big trouble here.” She was very pointed, making sure she had his attention. “This isn’t some contest after all.”
The truth was undeniable enough, and then William saw the severity of their predicament. “The other kids are going to be pretty scared.” He told.
“All the more reason why we better hurry.”
It quickly became much more rocky, and craggy sloping upwards even more steeply. Then it suddenly turned to a smooth slope, covered with a thick mossy turf that was spongy under their feet. This really slowed them down, and made them all the more exhausted. The peak of the ridge they climbed was covered in a mist, and it seemed so far away at their present rate of climb. As the sun now showed signs of late afternoon, they knew the rough compass points.
“That way is west.” William pointed. “Which means we’re headed roughly south east.” He breathed hard between the words.
“What do you think?” Leena breathed hard too. “A couple hours till sunset?”
William nodded.
She determined, “Let’s try to make the top of the ridge before then.”
----------
For much of the long afternoon, Joshua and Becky gathered firewood for the coming night. Josh couldn’t go very far, but he could get the stuff close by, and there was plenty of it. Soon the pair had quite a sizeable stack, plenty for several nights. Sarah and Penny meanwhile searched around the small valley for any sort of food source. Once they came upon a small bird’s nest with several small eggs in it. Both girls decided not to take them, as they weren’t yet starving, but they remembered where they were, just in case. Then they discovered a thicket of brush that grew a small purple berry that looked similar to a raspberry. As they looked nearby, they found many more thickets of the berry bushes, so they filled their packs about half full each, and made their way back to the pond, and camp.
Becky and Joshua were just putting the finishing touches on a crude lean-to shelter. It didn’t look like much, but at the very least it marked where their camp was. The two girls just returning excitedly showed the fruitful bounty they discovered. Joshua squeezed a berry, and tasted the juice. Then he popped it into his mouth and chewed.
“Tastes real good! Not too tart, and not too sweet.” He smiled.
“How do you know they’re not poisonous?” Sarah asked as if he somehow already knew.
Josh spit the berry pulp from his mouth.
Becky shook her head. “If he dies, we’ll know not to eat them.”
Just then Sarah stood up and gazed at the sky, “What on Earth?” She stammered.
The others fo
llowed her gaze and saw the twin moons rising.
“No, not on Earth.” Joshua was amazed.
Penny sided up to Becky, and turned to Joshua with a serious stare. “Do you think this might still be part of the Quest Josh?” Her voice betrayed her hopefulness.
“No. Not since I got bit in the cave, and now I’m certain it isn’t.” He was sullen.
Leena and William had just ascended into the mist they had seen earlier, and it grew thick quickly. William disappeared from sight ahead of her. She called out for him to wait, and he acknowledged. As he looked around him he saw he was in a thicket of bushes covered with small red berries. He picked one and tasted it. Instantly he could feel the natural wholesome energy from the fruit. “Hey Leena! You got to try these berries. They’re delicious.”
She panicked, “Don’t eat anything!”
“They are fine, I can tell.” He guaranteed
She reached him and looked the berries over before smelling them, and then tasting just the juice. It was sweet, with a touch of tartness, and seemed to taste edible. As William was already eating more of them, she tried a couple too. She thought he was right, they tasted fine. So they loaded up the packs as much as they quickly could, before heading upwards again, each staying within several feet of the other due to the thick fog.
----------
The parents were exhausted from worry, and trying to find a way out. The lounge loud speakers had started playing soft elevator music, and when this was suddenly pierced by the ringing of a cell phone amongst them, everyone became silent. None of their cell phones had a signal since the doors were locked.
“Whose is that? Get that!” Someone yelled.
Michael felt the familiar buzz of his phone. He quickly dug it out of his pocket, and answered it.
“Hello?”
“Put it on speaker phone!” Another demanded.
Michael complied, and they all heard the man’s voice; “If you would like to dial a number, please hang up, and try again.”
“Hello? We need help!” Michael implored.
“If you would like to dial a number, please hang and try again.” The voice sounded like a recording.
“Do you have a signal?” A woman shouted. “Because I still don’t!”
“Neither do I.” Came another voice.
Michael looked, and sure enough his phone had a signal. “I do!” he boomed. As several people told him to try 911, he was already hung up, and dialing. “911 operator, what’s your emergency?”
“We are being held hostage at Dreamland amusement park, my name is Michael Welsh. Our children have been taken from us against our will!”
“What is the address sir?” the man asked.
“It is Dreamland amusement park! We are locked in a lounge right off the Grand Hall.”
“Dreamland, and Grand Hall. Got it. We’ll send someone right out. Thank you for calling 911.” And the operator then hung up.
“What?” Michael, and Jackie both said in unison, followed by astonished gasps from others too.
“That’s not right! Try them again!” Yelled a man.
----------
Mr. Fielder touched a button on the screen and said, “911 operator, what’s your emergency?” He listened on his head set for a moment. “Rodger that sir, we already received that call, and are sending a unit out to investigate.”
Millie giggled between bites of her dinner.
“That’s correct sir. That is the location we have here. Not to worry sir, we’ll have those officers there soon. Thanks for calling 911.” Fielder hung up the call, and laughed.
Within ten seconds the line rang again, but this time Fielder hit a button activating yet a different pre-recorded message.
“I’m sorry, all of our operators are busy helping other clients at the moment. If this is a real emergency, please hang up and dial 911 again. Thank you for using 911 services.”
As the message started over again Michael let the phone be taken from him by another, without any resistance. He went over and hugged his distraught wife.
“It’s not real. Is it?” She asked between sobs.
He shook his head and looked up at the obvious security camera in the room, with a glare that spoke volumes. “They are toying with us.”
----------
Leena and William broke through the cloud enveloping them just as the sun was setting. Each was covered with water droplets from the mist, and they took a moment to brush these from their faces. Just ahead was the rocky ledge that was their goal for the day, and to their left the immense shape of the cone shaped spire rose from the other side of the ridge. It was much closer than when they’d last seen it from far away. Both increased their pace, and soon stood at the lip of an impressive phenomenon. They were on the edge of a wide, and vastly deep chasm. The cliff on their side wasn’t quite sheer, and it looked as though they could make their way down it safely, for a distance anyhow.
It must have been at least a kilometer across the chasm, and further than that in depth, although they couldn’t see the bottom as cloudy mist obscured it far down in the depths. To their left rose the spire structure, rising up and out of the far side of the canyon. It must have been a good kilometer tall itself, including its base that was formed into the opposite wall of the chasm. The only discernable feature they could see on the colossal building, was at the very sharp pointed tip, and this was sparkling with reflected light. As if were made of glass. There was a huge object of immediate attention in the gorge below the spire. A massive stone looking bridge spanned the rift from one side to the other just at the base of the large spire, and this seemed to be at the narrowest point of the canyon. Leena looked to William searching his face for the common recognition of awe, and it was there, as the scene spoke for itself. The sun was quickly setting, and the shadows were conquering the depths. Leena sat down to enjoy the fading view, “We’d better stay here for the night William. In the morning we’ll find a way down to that bridge. There’s got to be a path, or something to it.”
William sat on a smooth boulder, and took a deep breath while he gazed into the darkening maw of the chasm. His silhouette against the reddening sky made quite a picture Leena thought, as his golden suit reflected the crimson hues off its edges. His hair drafted in the slight breeze of the day’s end, and he had an air about him that reminded her of an explorer of old. Both were somewhat gritty from the long sweaty hike, but they were too exhausted to even eat, much less care about their grimy condition.
“It’s not too cold. Do you think we need a fire?” he drawled.
This caught her by surprise; the way he spoke and all. It just made the picture in her mind perfect. She was taking a long moment to answer, so he jumped down off the rock and sat by her.
“No.” she half mumbled, “We can cuddle if it gets too cold.”
“And we’ve got those emergency foil like blankets too.” He tried to be cheery.
They both sat at the edge of night, watching the sun drop from their existence for a while. Only one moon was visible by then, the smaller of the two, and as the darkness enveloped them Leena noticed that there were very few stars to be seen.
“This place is weird.” She said in a hushed whisper.
“Why are you whispering Leena?” William spoke out with volume. “We can be as loud as we want.”
Leena remembered her brother was out there, maybe even at the spire structure. She hoped up onto a rock overlooking the chasm. “Tristan!” She yelled as loud as she could. William got the hint and joined her shouting. After a moment of this she hushed him down, “Shhh, shhh; listen.” Both became quiet, and then they heard a faintish whistle from down in the gorge.
Leena quickly got the back pack from their make shift camp below, and got her flashlight out, while William whistled more. She rejoined him on the taller boulders and shinned the light towards the faint return whistles they heard. After a few mom
ents they clearly saw a small pin prick of light stabbing the darkness from where they remembered the bridge being.
“Its’ him!” She was overjoyed.
William shouted and whistled. Then he said, “It sure is.”
They both quieted as some very vague and faint shouting drifted up to them. “Ate..ill…orniy”
“What?” She asked William earnestly. He just shook his head in confusion.
The muffled shout again reached them, but slightly more defined this time; “Wait…ill..orniy.”
“Oh, wait till morning!” Leena translated for William.
“That’s a good idea.” He agreed.
Leena flashed the light on and off several times acknowledging Tristan, and then they both went back to the relative shelter of the boulders just below the ridge line.
It only took a half hour for both of them to doze off, even though each was quite used to staying up later, but both were beat from the very long day. It must have been hours later when William woke with the need to answer nature’s call. He was quiet and slow at first, not wanting to wake Leena, but then as he looked up in the sky, he threw that idea out the door.
“Leena! Wake up. Look!” he nearly shouted.
She rubbed her eyes, and tried to focus, but couldn’t at first as it was so dark.
“Don’t you see it?” William was beyond excited.
“See what?” She got a bit snippy.
“The galaxy!”
She looked upwards, when low and behold, there was the most awe inspiring sight she had ever seen. There dominating the small star field of perhaps only a dozen stars, was the amazing sight of a whole galaxy. It was about fist sized; tilted at an angle from them showing its’ spiral arms clearly well defined, and it was beyond beautiful. Neither had ever seen such a sight even, on the NASA web site, and both were now fully awake from the spectacle.
“It makes sense now.” William uttered with a reverent tone.
“Oh yeah. What?” Leena queried.
“Huh?” His attention was brought back from the infinite universe that was so kindly revealing itself to them.
“What makes sense William? Fill me in on it would you?” She prodded him.
He shook his head absently. “Oh, it’s just the stars, or lack of them. I understand why now.”
“What about the stars?”
“Well it obvious that we are not in our own galaxy any more. Otherwise we’d see a lot more stars.” He said with satisfaction.
“Yeah, and we wouldn’t see that.” Leena pointed to the galaxy.
William nodded. “We must be in a small star cluster outside of the Milky Way, maybe the clouds of Magellan.”
Leena brought a distinct possibility to mind, “If that’s our galaxy.”
William felt the lump in his throat and tried to swallow it unsuccessfully.
“At least we’ll all be back together tomorrow.” Leena was severe in tone, and purpose.
They again tried to sleep, but it was a fitful remainder of the night.
It became cold enough for them to start shivering, even with the reflective emergency blankets from their packs, and so they cuddled as close as possible for warmth. When the first glow of predawn light announced the suns impending return, Leena broke away from their survival embrace, and started repacking everything she’d brought out of the knap sack. William slowly followed suit after a moment’s grumbling about the cold.
“We’ll get warmer when we start moving.” She assuaged him.
He stretched and looked to the sky. The galaxy was setting in the west, and a brilliant morning star now rose from the east. ‘Too small to be a moon.’ He thought as he cleared his eyes with some blinks. ’Must be another planet in this solar system.’
“Come on.” Leena coaxed, “We can see well enough to walk now. Let’s find that tail down to the bridge.”
“If there is a trail.” William grumped.
“I bet Tristan is already on his way up to meet us. Let’s go!”
With that William hurriedly packed up, and they set off over the rim.
When they had gone only several dozen yards, their rustling over the rocks startled a large bird from its nest on the cliff beneath them. The sudden ‘Whomp, whomp’ of its wings sent both of them flinching towards the ground. As soon as he realized he was in no danger William rose to get a better look at the bird. “It looks prehistoric.” He told her. “Kind of lizard, or reptile like.”
“I hope the birds don’t get any bigger than that.” Leena breathed relief as she watched the creature disappear into the grey mist below.
They didn’t proceed too quickly, while they searched over the rim as they went along, looking for the trail that should be near; that led down to the bridge. Sure enough they found a 2 meter wide stair way had been carved into the rocks leading down. It looked old and quite worn, even dilapidated, and there were carvings that could still be discerned on the ornate rails.
Leena stopped and examined one of these. “These look similar to those carvings on the tunnel entrances, don’t they?” She motioned for William.
“Exactly like them.” He acknowledged.
As they followed the stairs down and across the ever steeper cliff side, they saw that it soon was only about one meter wide and right on the perfectly perpendicular cliff face. Peering over the short stone rails was a gaze upon a long fall, disappearing into cloudy vapor.
Just then the sun’s ruby gleaming first rays were blast upon the dim canyon, as it opened up to the east. The bridge was currently out of sight because the stairs wound around some larger crevices. After another sharp turn, they came to a spot where more than half of the carved path was simply missing. Both had to swallow hard before shimmying with their backs against the cliff; along the narrow precarious stretch. As both made it safely, but with dry mouths and wide eyes; they decided to stop for a quick water break and bite to eat.
A breakfast of chocolate energy bars with plenty of ripe berries might have been cold, but it warmed them against the damp dewy haze.
“You know, this reminds me of when we visited the Grand Canyon when I was little.” Leena made some conversation while they ate.
William looked around at the gorge. “Grand Canyon’s wider, but this is way deeper.”
Leena looked at him perturbed. “I just meant the feeling.”
“I’ve never felt like this before.” William was being persnickety.
“Yeah, I guess not.” Leena agreed reluctantly.
Just then they heard Tristan whistle again. “Let’s get going shall we?” She said.
William whistled back loudly, and then they heard some muffled shouting. “Eee…airful.”
“What?” Will wondered.
“Be careful.” Leena translated.
As they wound around several more crevices, finally the large cleft of vertical rock which had been blocking their view of the bridge, was just ahead. There they saw that the entire path had been collapsed, and their jaws dropped open. Nothing was left of the path, and a sheer vertical bowl of rock was all that was there. It was well over ten meters across, so they couldn’t jump it. They approached it slowly, and saw that there was one of the strapping lines from Tristan’s pack tied to each side of the bowl. It was fairly loose with slack, just enough to assist someone climbing across the rock basin. Unfortunately they also had to descend a fair way to reach the continuing carved stairway below.
“I can’t believe Tristan climbed down that!” William gasped.
“And alone too!” Leena added.
“I don’t think I can do this Leena.” William was quite honest.
“We can do this Will! Tristan and I learned some mountain climbing from our cousins Aiden and Owen last year. We call them the ‘Adventure Brothers’, they taught us how to tie-off, belay, and stuff.” Leena smiled assuring him. “Watch, give me your line from your pack. I’ll tie mine off to the zi
p line Tristan left for us, and tie yours around my waist. Then you wrap your end around that same stone post Tristan tied off to. You’ll let a little line out as I ask for it, OK?” William tried to follow, but he did as she said and soon Leena stepped out onto the sheer rock bowl. He let the line slip through the wraps he’d made, as she asked for more, and quickly understood the system. It was trustworthy, and he knew he would trust it, with his life.
When she made it down, Leena then wrapped her end around the stone post at the bottom, and belayed him for his traverse. William slipped, or rather lost grip as he started the downward slope near the far side. He slid fast about eight feet, and then dug his fingers into the rock hard. Leena was quick to tighten the rope, stopping him before the deadly part. Like a scared rabbit William clawed his way over to the ledge, and to safety. His fingers were bleeding, and a bit and torn up, but he didn’t even seem to notice them from trying to breathe again. As they each looked back on what they’d just done, they realized that the climb wasn’t really that hard, but when you added the panoramic three thousand meter drop into it, the pucker factor sure did come into play.
“No wonder he didn’t want to come meet us.” Leena thought out loud.
“I know how he feels. I don’t want to go back over that either.” William was truthful.
The steps kept descending rapidly as they wrapped around the last large cleft, then they could see the bridge very clearly. It was immense, even though still at least half a kilometer away. Parts close to the cliffs looked as though they were hewn straight from the cliff side itself, and only the middle section looked as if put together. The blocks putting it together were huge, and looked to be the same type of rock as the surrounding faces.
Leena scanned the entire length while slowing down the steps, yet she didn’t see Tristan. “Do you see him?”
“Not yet.”
She stopped and whistled. Then a loud whistling came back, an excited pitch, and they soon saw a silhouette on a ledge of a support tier beneath the bridge; jumping up and down while waving.
“What’s he doing down there?” She asked no one in particular.
Tristan looked so very small compared to the gargantuan bridge, but he still stood out from all the commotion he was making.
“I think he’s stuck!” William offered.
Quickly Leena and William made the last distance, and neared their side of the crossing.
Tristan hollered, “I hope you brought a line.”
“How did you get down there?” She yelled back.
“Come on out on the bridge, but watch out for that big hole in it.” He warned with a chuckle.
“Are you OK?” She added.
“Sprained my ankle a little bit, but yeah…I’m OK.”
She nodded to William, and then told Tristan; “Hang on.” They trotted out onto the wide flat surface, and saw debris everywhere. The imposing spire rose straight from the other side of the bridge, impossibly high above them. Much higher than any building back on Earth. As William let his gaze wander up the spire, he tripped over some debris.
“Watch were you’re going Will, you don’t want to join Tristan down there.” She teased, but also mean it. Then they saw the large gaping hole in the surface ahead. Coming up to the edge they saw Tristan about twenty feet down below on a wide ledge circling the support arch’s main column. He smiled at them broadly.
“Couldn’t you see this hole?” Leena was sarcastic, but warm too.
“It was really dark.” He tried to explain.
“Whoa!” William exclaimed. “You sure got lucky landing on that ledge.”
“Tell me about it.” Tristan looked down into the far away mist.
Leena added, “Lucky we came after you too.”
Tristan nodded. “Thanks Sis. How about tossing me a line?”
It took both lines; the first he tied around himself, and the second he had them tie knots in, and secured to a large chunk of stone debris; so he could climb up easier. Both the rescuers pulled up as hard as they could on the line wrapped around him, while he climbed up the other. Within a minute of actual climbing, Tristan pulled himself over the edge and onto the bridge surface.
“Thanks guys.” He breathed hard. “I guess I owe you one life each.”
“Yeah, well let’s hope you don’t have the opportunity to pay that back right away.” Will suggested.
8: Finding favor