The sun was a bright light against the blue of the sky and blurred our vision as we walked along the sidewalk actually it was a lot more like trudging along the sidewalk that led to school. We stared down at the ground to avoid being completely blinded by the light. The conversation was moot because it was the first day of school and neither of us could believe we were back again. The summer was already beginning to fade and look more like a distant memory as we closed in on our school. I took in a deep breath and sneezed like a shot gun, it echoed in the surrounding landscape. I looked at Kate my best friend and stared at her, she was laughing so hard her eye's were closed and she was leaking tears.
"Oh, yes that was soooooo funny I forgot to laugh!" I said and sent a quick glare her way before closing my eye's taking a deep breath and screaming at the top of my lungs for a moment then stopped.
We were falling, all of a sudden. It was like the very ground beneath us opened up and swallowed us whole. Then we were falling or floating it was hard to tell since we couldn't see anything except for blue both beneath us and above. I turned to the side and watched Kate's face and thought now would be the perfect time to laugh in her face. I sighed and joined in the screaming again cause like there was anything else to do. After awhile we both just stopped and stared at each other and said in unison " Shouldn't we have landed or something by now" and blinked. Then we hit the water which was ice cold.
"Holy , that's ka ka ka cold" I said after our head's broke the surface and then we swam to the shore. Amazingly our knapsacks had landed on the soft sand as well as our shoes and purses. Our clothes were soaked but we both had extra clothing in our knapsacks in case we had gym this semester. We were both wearing shorts and T-shirts. I was wearing a sopping wet dark blue shirt and black shorts. Kate was wearing soaked black shorts and a red T-shirt.
"Where in the world are we...?" said Kate and looked around at our surroundings. From where we were it appeared that we were surrounded in a never ending forest, there were bushes, ferns, tree's of every kind especially coniferous one's and other very leafy vegetation all around. Even the ground was covered in lush green grass that was knee high. Behind us there was a small beach with crystal clear blue water that licked the shore softly and then would retreat back into the water which we assumed was a very big lake or maybe a river. It couldn't be the ocean because the water had no salt and I could attest to that since I had swallowed a large quantity when we had landed in the water. The beach was about 8 to 9 meters long before it ended in a jagged patch of dirt that sprouted form the ground and rose to meet the tree's that towered above us. This place reminded me of a Rainforest because of the vegetation but I couldn't see any tropical kinds of animals or anything that looked overly much like Rainforest kind of material other than by the amount of green tree's and plants. Although I couldn't see much of anything since it was dark out here nice change. I know I hadn't wanted to go to school but this was ridiculous.
"...and how did we get here?" I finished staring into the thick brush that surrounded our current position. "I know I was wishing that the sun would shine a little less bright but this....this is..."
"Crazy?" she supplied and looked at me grinning. "Be careful what you wish for you may just get it"
"Too bad the rest of my wishes wouldn't come true then we would have lots of fun huh, Kate" I said winking and nudging her shoulder. I sighed and looked back at the water as my gaze drifted upward towards the moon. "No, I mean it how did we get here....wherever here is...this place reminds me of a Rainforest you know!"
"Yeah I know, that was my first thought when I looked around here...sure is a lot of tree's and plants, and grass..."she said but I cut her off.
"And dirt and bugs and a whole lot of questions...." I glared at her getting annoyed at her demure attitude.
"Would you chill, would you rather go back to school?" she said seriously.
I just stared at her open mouthed and said" Do I really have to answer that?"
" No, I just wanted to get you calmed down a bit so we could work out a plan as to what to do or rather where to go in the morning and I need your head to be unclouded by anger.." she said tapping my head "..so that we can plan out what to do. Kay?"
"Uhhhh, okay" I said making sure that okay sounded like two words. I pulled out a spare pair of clothing, a black v-necked T-shirt and black baggy pants that I had purchased in a dojo that I had trained in and my baby blue belt that held my pants up as well as my black sports bra. I quickly changed into my dry clothes and put my wet one's onto a tree limb to dry out When I turned around Kate was dressed and putting her wet clothes up on a tree limb as well. She was wearing a plain black T-shirt and black slightly baggy pants with a purple colored belt to add color to her outfit. I shook my head and sat down on the sand. I motioned for her to come and sit down and she did. "Well since it's night time I guess we should go to bed, huh?" I said and yawned to add emphasis.
"You, sleep to much but since I can't see to well at the moment I guess we have no other choice....but we just woke up like an hour ago you know this is kind of dumb. Now I wish I had brought my c.d. player" she said whining as she pulled out her black coat and rolled it up into a make-shift pillow and laid down.
"Well can't say you don't mind the company" I said and pulled out my long soft hooded black sweater out of my knapsack and imitated Kate's pillow and laid down a few feet away from her facing the water. " Well , at least we brought a coat of sorts to make into a pillow. Too bad we didn't have a blanket or something to use as a blanket to go with it but yeah!"
" Okay , I am so bored now" she said and moved so that she too could see the moon. "Amber?....Ammmmberrrr.....you awake?" she shifted so she could see my face." I can't believe you are already asleep....euahhhhh!"
I woke up to the smell of smoke and saw a fire burning a meter away with Kate hovering over it with a fish on a stick. "You caught some fish!" I said it like a statement "How...did you catch it?"
" Well, sleeping beauty finally lets her presence be known, oh hail the mighty Queen Sleeps A-" she said until I interrupted her.
"Well soooorry, I can't help but be a pain in your ass! That's my job" I said and glared at her until we both fell into riots of laughter. "Okay I don't care how you caught the fish, can I have one?" I asked and motioned towards the fish.
"Yep, you can have it I already ate anyway, See!" she said and waved the remains of her fish in my face like one would do with a smelly sock.
"Hahhahhahhahha, okay .....okay shall we..... set out .....trying to find..... a way out of this... forest, now huh!" I said between bites of fish and some drinks of freshwater. After we had finished our meals and bottling some water from the lake into some separate water containers that we had brought in case of an emergency. We packed up our stuff and walked up to the edge of the forest and looked into the greenery.
The forest looked just as thick as it had last night and it also looked just as dark. "Uhhhh....and how do we get through here again Kate? Hmmmmmmmm! Cause I would really like to know! Seriously I would really like to know!" I said and continued to stare at the forest.
"Ummmh. Well just give me a second! and I'll think of something...." she said (yeah that's it) and tapped her head thinking of how to get through the forest with out seriously damaging ourselves and the forest.
"Well...have you got it yet huh?" I said and smirked "Guess your not so smart after all huh Wise Guy" and then laughed. "We sound like a corny movie you know that?"
"No.....You sound like a corny movie and just to add to it and If you think your so smart why don't you " she said poking me on the chest and making me back up to the edge of the forest" think of an idea huh Smart Alec!"
"Okay then I will!!! "I said grabbing her hand and falling backward into the forest pulling her with me as we fell down and rolled down the hill log roll style until we hit the bottom of the hill and smack into a tree. "OWWWWW!!!!!!" we said in unison and quickly got up off the ground and dusted ourselves off. "See I told you I would think of something" I said and smirked. We were now inside the forest and realized why it was so dark in there. The whole place was like a tent that was covered from the edge of the forest and the roof or canopy if you will that covered the entire ceiling of the forest. Very little light was filtered through the canopy top but there was enough once you were inside the forest to see where we were going but not enough to distinguish detail.
"Sometimes I could really hurt you and this is one of those times" she said and glared at me then sighed " But then what would I do without you in a strange place that I know nothing about. Consider yourself very lucky that I won't kill you at least not today"
"Isn't' that my line? Anyway as long as you don't start singing Just the 2 of us I will be fine and as to trying to kill me cause that is all you could do. You wouldn't want to kill me cause then who would you talk to if I weren't here huh" I said and then laughed "And besides your inner voice"
"But I like to talk to my inner voice .....Just the 2 of us you and I" she sang just to annoy me.
"Okay that's it your , Poke attack!" I exclaimed and ran after her, poking her in the sides as she tried to avoid my attacks.
"Noooooooooooooooooo. Run away!" she yelled and ran through the forest as fast as she could.
" You can run but you can't hide actually you can't run away either" I said just as I cut her off and knocked her over landing on the soft moss covered ground. We both laughed hysterically until we ran out of breath and our sides began to hurt.
"Okay, okay. Now seriously we need to find our way out of here, any idea's this time?" I said and began to look around for any particular direction that may lead out of the forest
"Ummhhh...Well actually no I don't. Every direction looks the same from here and it's to dark to really see any differences in direction...so the only choice we have is to get a better idea of where we are by....climbing up one of these tree's and scouting to see which direction we should head in to get out of here. Yep, that's my idea!" she said proudly.
"Wow, you had an idea.....that's amazing I can' t believe you had and idea!" I said in mock shock.
" What do you mean me....you had an idea too remember when you pushed us both into the forest" she said in a sarcastic tone.
"I did wow we must totally congratulate ourselves lets give ourselves a pat on the back for thinking" I said and mock patted our backs and then we started to laugh again... "Okay... you go climb the tree." I said after we had calmed down a bit.
"What do you mean me... you are going to climb the tree!" she said getting angry.
"No you are!" I said also getting annoyed.
"No you!" she retorted.
"No" I said.
"Yes" she said.
"No"
"Yes"
"No
"Yes"
"No"
"Yes"
"No"
"Quack" she said and started to smile.
"And then" I said also beginning to smile.
"No and then"
"And then"
"No and then"
"And then
"NO AND THEN" she yelled.
"All right I'll climb the blasted tree but you owe me big time for this. Here hold onto this for me" I said passing my knapsack over to her along with my purse as we both walked over to the biggest tree with the lowest branches and that reached right up to the canopy top and beyond. " You had to chose the tallest tree, didn't you?" I said and began to climb up the tree slowly but efficiently." YOU KNOW THIS TREE IS VERY TALL" I shouted down to her after I had reached about 50 meters up the tree.
"YEAH. I KNOW BUT IF WE CHOSE A SHORTER ONE YOU WOULDN'T GET A GOOD VIEW OF OUR SURROUNDINGS SO THAT WE CAN GET OUT OF HERE" She shouted back.
"YEAH. I KNOW BUT I DON'T HAVE TO LIKE IT" I yelled right back. After about another 20 meters we were out of shouting range, so I continued up the tree slithering up and around the limbs that were covering the trunk in abundance. When I say slithering (that's what it looked like seriously),I mean slithering cause I had to bend in and around the tree limbs to get up the tree. I could only imagine what it was going to be like when I went down. I sighed and continued my ascent until I reached the top of the tree. This tree was one of the tallest in the valley and rose above all of the others that were in immediate vicinity and was higher then them by at least 20 feet. I looked around the summit of the tree and attempted to find a way out of the dense forest that was now below me. "Great! Just great there is no immediate exit! Damn it! We're going to be here for at least another couple of days just to get to the mountain over there." I said talking to myself and pointing North towards a mountain that was poking out of the forest." Maybe if we go there we'll get a better idea of where to go. I just hope that this isn't a small island cause our supply of food is going to run out soon unless we get some more and I really fish!" I sighed again and turned towards the east " Nothing there but endless forest " I turned southward" More nothing and even more of an endless forest! Yippee" I was beginning to become annoyed" Okay, One more side to look at" I turned to the West and looked at a opening in the forest that led to a stream that flowed past the mountain that was North. "Thank You, Finally something to work with. It's about time." I said and sighed as I looked upwards to look at the sun before I began to climb down the tree trunk.
"Well?" Kate said and looked at me with hopeful eye's. "Did you find away out of her?"
"No, we are completely surrounded by tree's but to the North there is a Mountain which I am hoping will give us a better view of our surroundings and there is a stream to the west that passes the mountain. At least we will have some fresh water as we journey to the mountain and the stream isn't' t that far but it is concealed a little by overhanging bushes which is why we can' t see the stream from here. So I will lead us there since I have seen it already and know where it is!" I said a little out of breath from my climb up the tree and then back down.
"Well then I guess we should start heading to the water at least then we will be able to see again? and who knows maybe we will be able to see a village or something down the path of the river. You know what they say where's their water there's usually people.. or something like that ...anyway" she said smiling and handed back my knapsack and purse. "Here, you can have this back now k."
"All right thanks for holding onto my knapsack for me I appreciate it and now you can follow me!" I stated and quickly headed in the streams direction. After about 20 minutes of walking we reached the stream and quickly re-established our supply of water and looked around for something to eat. Eventually we found some berries and some fruits that we both knew were not poisonous and ate them. After we ate our fill we both rested under the shade of the nearest tree. (Not like we were in short supply being in a forest and all.)
"So do you want to head down the stream towards the mountain or shall we head the opposite way which I know from my scouting that if there is a village down there it is a long ways away. You can decide this one Kiro cause I want to be able to complain if we never find anything and we die a horrible and painful of boredom. Dun Dun Duh" I said over exaggerating just a little.
"Okay....Whatever you say....Ummh anyway I think we should head over to the mountain because then we can get an even better view of what's around us k." she said and grinned.
"Yeah, that's what I would have chosen had I decided that I wanted to chose which direction we would go." I said.
"Yeah, I know I just wanted to head this way since I am pretty sure that South is where we came from when we first got here." she said.
"Hmmm yeah your probably right okay lets go" I said and extended my arm until we held each others arms via the elbow and did The Wizard of Oz dance for a little way down the dirt path. We kept on walking down the path until it started to get dark then we set up camp and went to sleep to wait for the suns first rays before we set out again.
It was early next morning, really early, like six o'clock in the morning early. I guess this is where I'm supposed to say "The Early Bird Catches The Worm". Anyway, we woke up, caught some more fish and ate some more fruits that we found along our route. The path before us was curvy but eventually wound up to the base of the mountain. We continued to travel in silence along the path not because we were angry but because we were bored for 3 days now we had been walking endlessly only stopping to sleep or eat and to use the facilities every now and again. I couldn't wait to actually have a toilet cause leaves were just a no no anyway I also wanted to say what the famous actor Robin William's said "Yes, no more banana leaves!" I really was hoping to very soon be able to use those words but enough about number one's and number two's if you know what I mean. We were really bored after all who really thinks about going to the bathroom. Ewwwwww.....
"I'm bored!" I said just to start a conversation.
"Me too...." she said off in space.
"No really!" I said sarcastically.
"Yeah....really" she said still off in space. Whack! "OWWWWWWWWWWWWWW" she yelled glaring at me not even bothering to say What did you do that for?
"Well then stop ignoring me" I said glaring right back at her.
" I wasn't ignoring you! I was just ....well off in space.. okay okay I was ignoring you but not on purpose!" she said admitting her fault.
"Wow, oh mighty Queen PAIN IN THE ASS! You have admitted that you were ignoring me how dare you I shouldn't even apologize for it but since you were man enough to admit it I apologize " I said bending in half to bow low and mocking "For swatting your self righteousness"
"Uhhh okay......running now" she said and looked over towards the mountain.
"Oh no you don't you ain't goin anywhere!" I said grabbing her arm and holding onto it so she couldn't run off again. "at least things are getting interesting again!"
" Yeah but I'm still bored...let go of my arm" she said glancing down at my grip on her arm.
"Don't you mean remove your clutching device from my buffness" I said once again mocking her.
"STOP with the wise already......hahhhahhahhahhaha" she said bursting out laughing at my latest comment. Unfortunately as soon as she laughs I shortly must follow. I guess its part of the Monkey see, Monkey do rule. Shrug. Oh well.
"Okay enough jokes....for now...well I'll try to...I can't guarantee it cause I don't know how to do jokes they ...kinda...just ...come out" I said shrugging and then continued the walk down to the mountain.
"Oh all right...I guess I will have to trust you on that one" she said talking from behind me and staring at me as I walked away sloooooowly. Then I heard quick footfalls and then she was beside me once again walking with me.
"Yep! I guess you'll just have to trust me on that one......Is it getting louder or is that just me!" I said and began to look around for the roaring sound that had a appeared out of nowhere...or maybe we just noticed it now. The mountain was really close now at least the base of it anyway. We could clearly see the Mountain now it was only another 30 minute walk from our current position. However the top of the mountain was fairly high up above the ground. That could cause us some problems.
"I thought it would be smaller not taller then that damned tree I climbed!" I said getting annoyed. "Well at least you will becoming with me huh?"
"Do I really have too....?" she said sounding very whiny but somewhat happy to have another thing to do.
"Yes you do...WHAT IS THAT NOISE!!!!!! It's driving me crazy it sounds like a waterfall or something like a bee droning away...I wish it would stop!" I said" Hey! Wait a second! If it's a waterfall then the river water should be moving quicker lets head closer to the water!"
"I hope it's a waterfall!! Then we can see if there's a cave or something inside and then we could take a shower and then..."she said trailing off, as we noticed that indeed the water was picking up and only flowed quicker as we got closer to the mountain.
"Come on lets run over to the end of the river and look over the waterfall" I said grabbing her hand and running to the edge of the precipice." See...huff...it didn't take us too long...huff... "I said out of breath but amazed by the beauty of the view that it provided.
"Yeah...huff...let's rest for...huff...awhile!" she said and plunked herself down on the ground a couple feet away from the edge of the waterfall and pulled me down along with her.
"Sitting is evil...." I said finally catching my breath.
"Yeah just like you!" she said and laughed.
"I thought you said no more jokes...but if you really want to start that again I guess I could accommodate you!" I said and laughed then we were silent as we looked over the edge and saw all the beauty that was the water crashing into the sharp rocks that protruded from the shallow water at the base of the waterfall.
"No no nononononononono more jokes at least for a little while longer k." she said looking at me and showing a little bit of malice at the thought of more cheap laughs that caused immense pain in the ribs and abdomen...need I think more...
"Okay but you have to follow the rules to you know!" I said staring right back at her without blinking.
"Okay I will follow the rules....is that smoke coming from over there" she said pointing across and over the waterfall towards some tree's that looked as if the tree's were on fire.
" It looks like it...Are you pondering what I'm pondering Pinky?" I said mocking a really strange cartoon.
"Ummh washing black socks that aren't dirty? Brain" she said holding back more laughter only beginning to get p v 'd off.
"Haaaahahhahah okay I'll stop it right there but you were asking for that one you have to admit that...anyway I was thinking maybe we should jump off the waterfall and head over there you know what they say where's there's smoke there's a match being lit by people ..." I said grinning right before I stood up and estimated the length needed to jump the distance and land in the deep end of the waterfall.
"It looks like it's about a 3 meter jump to get half past the shallow end but if we angle our decent we should be able to make it into the deep end." I said beginning to turn the wheels of thoughts that ran through my head every now and again.
"Yeah it looks like that is the right distance and altitude...good job.. but we'll have to throw our knapsacks first so that we don't carry them causing our descent to increase again because of the extra weight oh and we should get changed into our bathing suits so we don't have to dry our clothes again like last time." she said all scientific like as we both very quickly got changed and put our stuff away in our bags.
"All righty then here you go... "I said passing my knapsack over to her for her to throw. She was the baseball player and I was the soccer player so she threw well and I kicked well. " and I'll start figuring out where best to jump from"
"Okay that's a good....ewwwh Idea" she said tossing the bags over the side after covering them with a balloon like bag that protected the bag from getting damaged on the landing.
"All right this is the best place to jump from" I said pointing to the other side of the falls. "We can cross by the tree above and jump on that extended plain of land but we'll have to jump at the same time because I doubt that ledge will last long if we both jump at different times"
" Okay let's do it!" she said and started to climb over the tree trunk and crossed the tree limb and swung herself over to the other side. She waved me to come over just as I climbed up the trunk and crawled along the limb and then did a flip twist as I fell off the limb and twirled onto the other side of the river. The distance form the one side to the other was about 5 meters but the tree's were so thick that they criss-crossed the river in places and that place was just one of them.
"Show off" she said and grinned.
"Okay, I guess we had better jump before the people who created the fire in the first place leave and then getting wet will be useless.....okay take my hand and on the count of 3 start to run and jump k." I said as she took my hand and squeezed to reassure both of us that it was going to be all right
"Okay I'm ready when you are!" she said and took a deep breath. We weren't scared of the jump it was just the fact that we might miss the likely hood of us making the jump was about 1000 to 1 so you could see why we were sweating bullets.
"1......2........3333333333333333333333333333333" I said as we both started to run toward the ledge and just as we took the leap off the ledge we could feel the ground give way but only after we were airborne. As soon as we were in the air we let go of each others hands and took our diving positions and closed our eye's. We could feel the air rush past our skin and hear the hiss of the water rushing below. Now was the time when we many people would pray to God or whomever they worshipped but both me and Kate just kind of thought about what we would do in the afterlife if it came to that. Then we hit the water, at first I froze unable to move and thinking that this was the end and once again what it was going to be like in the next life and whether it mattered where you died. Then I found I couldn't breathe and quickly rose to the surface to get a great gulp of air. Immediately after, I was looking for Kate's body but was reassured instantly by the cough of Kate's voice from behind me. I spun around in the water and laughed Kate's long brown hair was completely covering her face making her look like cousin It.
"Ha, ha very funny ...you look good yourself" she said pointing at the leaves and twigs that were in my hair.
"Okay, now were even." I said and began to swim over to where Kate had thrown our bags. I got out of the water and once again got changed back into our slacks and shirts." Okay now we can head over to the fire let's go k." I said smiling and looking smug as if there was no chance of us being killed.
"Sure why not, that's the whole reason why we jumped remember!" she said and looked up to where we jumped from. " The ground just fell right as we ran across it that was fun.."
"Let's not do that again or at least not unless we have a parachute!" I said and smiled as we began to walk toward where the smoke was coming from.
" I wonder if the person who is building the fire will guide us to a village or something hmm!" I said as Kate was trying to look annoyed. "What?"
"You know there is a good chance that that fire is just a tree struck by lightning or that the fire was doused and the people gone!" she said trying not to get us to expectant.
"Yeah, I know but it's better than the alternative." I said and began to look around for any other options of high ground " Well at least on the bright side we had our shower and our hair smells nice again. huh"
"Yep! but it would be nice to have a cooked meal instead of fish again. I fish!" she said as we continued to walk toward the smell and sight of smoke.
"Oh, what I wouldn't give for some rice, chicken and potatoes yummy!" I said and licked my lips and brought out my water bottle and took a sip.
" Please be there , please be there, pleaseeeeeeeee!" she said hoping and imagining a warm not fish in any way meal. We kept up walking and went silent hoping to hear voices or any human sounding sound that could tell us whether or not our efforts were worth it.
Grumble, grumble" I guess my stomach is really looking forward to a meal also." I said and stared at my belly.
Grumble, Grumble "Is there an echo in there?" she said and also looked at her belly.
"Apparently there is" I said and rubbed my stomach as we continued our walk down a path cleared by many feet.
"Yes! It looks like there are people here or at least were" I said and began to look around for any more signs of people. We closed in on the camp fire and looked around some more. It seems that was our only purpose at the moment, to scout. " HULLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOO" I yelled to see if the people were close by.
"HULLLLLLO" Kate echoed trying to help locate people. We looked around, apparently we were to late. Whoever had been here were gone but they might come back since this area looked well used. We decided to stay the night and wait to see if they came by tomorrow morning since it was already late and the sun had begun to fall but we still had around 2-4 hours of sunlight left before complete darkness fell on us.
" Ooooooooo, it's not fair I was really looking forward to a meal instead of more crappie fish. I could really learn to fish, you know!" I said and began to set up our sleeping area's for the night. " Well now we have a campfire though" I said as Kate began to blow on the embers to start the fire going again.
" Yeah no more stick rubbing" she said as the dry leaves she had gathered caught fire and began to burn as I came out of the mini forest with a couple of sticks that I had seen around the campsite.
"There now we have logs to put on the fire and we have chair like logs to sit on too" she said and smiled "Wanna tell scary stories just for the fun of it?"
"Sure why not, nothing better to do right now" I said and tried to think of a good story to tell " You go first though k?"
"Oh...all right if I have too.." she said pouting then stuck out her tongue. "Oh wait I think I have some energy bars or something that I forgot about....."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY! YOU'VE BEEN HOLDING OUT ON ME ALL THIS TIME.... UHHHHHHHHHHHHH you are SO !" I said and put my hands around her throat and fake strangled her.
"I'm sorry I completely forgot about them till now and I wasn't holding out on you, I haven't eaten any of them either" she said and handed me and 'energy bar' which was chocolate bars for all those who don't know our lingo.
"Oh-Kay I guess I can forgive you since you have my fav chocolate bar" I said and opened up the chocolate bar and ate it slowly savoring the flavor of the chewy chocolate covered peanuts and caramel. " Yummm, ahhhhhhhhhhhh chocolate...energy...."
"You are so easy to appease.. you do know that right" she said and shook her head before she took a big bite out of her chocolate covered cookies.
"Uhhh... weren't we going to do something now...." I said scratching my head in confusion.
" Ummh...I don't remember chocolatey goodness has interfered with my brain cells" she said.
" We have brains?" I said looking at her even more confused.
"Ummh, I don't know do we?" she said staring back at me.
"......" I said opening my mouth and sticking a finger in the air and then closing my mouth and shrugging. We were like that for the next hour or so in between bites of chocolate bars and open mouth silence. The sky grew darker quickly then we had thought and we were disappointed at not being able to remember what we had wanted to do earlier. Not like it truly mattered but you know.
" I am soooooooooooo bored" I said with my feet on the log as I lied down on my back.
" Uh, huh" she said half asleep.
" I hope those people come back tomorrow" I said.
" Uh huh"
" Are you listening to me"
" Uh huh"
" If your not listening to me say that again"
" Uh, huh"
" Oy " I said and smacked myself in the forehead.
" Uh Huh" she said.
Then we both fell asleep but only after I whacked her on the forehead and built up the fire again. It had been 4 days now since we had come to this strange but beautiful land without any buildings, so far. I wondered where we were and what this place was like for all we knew we were in a land where the people here were cannibals or something. I hoped not, but with our luck so far that's what would happen most likely.
"Stop thinking, I can hear those rusty wheels turning in your head" she said and rolled over covering her face as the sun began to rise.
"Can't help it, nothing better to do right now" I said and covered my eye's with the crook of my arm.
" I wonder if those people are going to come today or if today is a holiday or something" she said.
" You know what?" I asked.
"No, What?" she said.
" Do we even no what day it is? " I asked.
" Hmmm...well that's a nice question, no I actually have no idea what day it is! I hope it isn't Sunday cause if it is there's a good chance they might not be coming do to religious things ya know" she said angrily.
" Ya I know well we better get up and look for another path or something" I said " You know just In case it is like some religious holiday"
" Uhhhh, maybe In a another hour or something cause it's like 5 o'clock in the morning" she said and went back to sleep.
"K. Yeah more sleep" I said and fell asleep instantly. It wasn't until mid afternoon that we woke up and got brunch ready. I'll give you one guess as to what it was.
" Shouldn't they be here by now," she said.
" Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.. this isn't fair" I said. Then we heard crunching coming from a distance and voices off in the distance as well. We decided to play it safe for once and hid behind bushes to scout out the newcomers. Only after we had packed up our stuff and cleaned up any trace of ourselves from the area.
" I wonder if they are going to be human or friendly" I whispered to Kate.
" Me two" she whispered back.
" I wonder if they look cute" I said.
" I hope not, then we would have problems getting away from them knowing you" she said.
"What do you mean by that? I said smiling ly.
" Just kidding" she said rolling her eye's.
"I know" I said just before as we both fell silent. We listened to the voices as they came closer and closer to the campsite. Until they fianlly were in our view but we wern't in their's. There were 3 men heading our way . One of the men left the group and went down to one of the tree's closer to the storage shed looking thingy maybe an outhouse. Which we so were not going to use. He picked up some things behind a tree. It looked like a hatchet and a saw. The tallest man in the group was carrying an assortment of long axe's and carving knives along with a few rifles. Guess you can't be too careful in the forest. They looked like they were tree cutter downers. Actually they looked more like furniture makers especially the medium sized one.
"Hey! Phil, Where did ya go?" the tallest man said.
" Sorry, I fergot the axe and saw yesterdey Joe" replied 'Phil'.
" How many times do I have to tell you, Don't ferget the damn hatchet" said Joe (the tall one).
"Oh would both of ya stop yer belly acken" said the medium sized one. "We have work to do.. in case you've fergotten! Now get a move on we have to get them tree's yonder-" he said pointing to a few tree's in an area that we had noticed earlier as being cleared which was why we were hoping for them to return"-too Nancy and the others so we can start production, you get that boys!"
" Yeah we got that James" Phil and Joe said in unison.
"Good! now lets go and cut down those tree's" said James and started to head towards the tree's that had already begun to be cleared. Then they were out of hearing range and chopping away cheerily or was that chippier.
"Okay, so what do you want to do now! Follow them or try to find civilisation ourselves" I asked Kate.
"I don't want to do much more walking and since there cutting down tree's they have to have a truck or something to carry them in to take them to wherever this Nancy person is...so I say that we should probably ask them for a ride into town so that we can contact the police and ask them to send us back to our world" she asked in a questioning like voice.
"Oh...I guess we hadn't quite thought that far a head... but I would rather be in a city and maybe somebody will know someone who can tell us how to get back home in case we want to go home cause I don't want to go home" I said sounding confused" How about we get to town then we can plan our next step!"
"Sounds likea plan to me, let's do it!" she said as we got up from our hiding places and followed the 3 men in the direction that they had headed towards.
"You are doing the talking " I said and kept on walking as she stopped.
"Excuse me!" shes aid shocked "I am not talking to complete strangers Amber"
"Hmmh, I seem to remember you owe me a BIG favor for making me climb that tree. I repeat you will talk to the country bumpkins and ask for a ride" I said and smiled and thought I knew that favor would come in handysooner or later!
" Shoot, I forgot all about that. Damn! Fine but that's the only thing I am going to do for that favor. " she said angrily and walked quickly infront of me stomping a bit of the way then calmed down and turned around smiling " Are you coming or am I only going to ask for one passenger?"
"Deal!" I said as I caught up to her and walked with her all the way to the clearing where the men were chopping down a tree! Well atleast Phil and Joe were chopping down the tree while James was sharpening his hatchet since it had dulled a bit from I suppose yesterdays excursion.
"Ummmmh, Excuse me!" Kate said as we walked right up to the men. Phil and Joe were in there 30's and James was in his 50's maybe he was there father and Nancy the mother. Family Business perhaps was there job.
"Well I'll be, I never expected to see anybody up here. What can I do for you?" James said as he stopped sharpening his hatchet and stood up from the stump he had been sitting on.
" Were kind of lost and we were wondering whether or not...you could give us directions to where the nearest town is so we can talk to the police" said Kate motioning towards me.
"We were walking to school when we kind of well.......appeared here..and we need to talk to the police so that we can get back home" I said.
"Hmmh, you got lost way out here....There are no schools in this area..so why do you want to go to the cops for" said James.
"If you want the truth you wouldn't believe it" I said" All we ask is for a ride into town or just directions you can choose"
"Whoa, hold on there missy..I meant no direspect I believe that you were going to school and that your lost but why do you need to go to the police?" said James.
" To find out if there's anyone who can take us home" I said.
"Now that, I beleive" he said " We'll give you a ride cause it's to far to walk to but, we need to finish cutting down 6 tree's and strip them of there bark and twigs. That might take awhile are you in any hurry or emergency?"
"No, but we would be willing to help you with the tree's " Kate said "In exchange for the ride to the nearest town"
"We couldn't let you do that it's to much work" said Phil and Joe together.
"Oh, and why not" I said" Is it because I'm a or is it because you think I can't swing an axe or use a saw on atree" I said getting really off.
"Hahahhahhahhahahha" said James" Now do you understand boys, why I told you two to leave s alone and let them handle what they want to handle."That was all it took to pick up an axe ask which tree he wanted cut down and in one swing cut it down. (This is the end for now...)
"Oh, yes that was soooooo funny I forgot to laugh!" I said and sent a quick glare her way before closing my eye's taking a deep breath and screaming at the top of my lungs for a moment then stopped.
We were falling, all of a sudden. It was like the very ground beneath us opened up and swallowed us whole. Then we were falling or floating it was hard to tell since we couldn't see anything except for blue both beneath us and above. I turned to the side and watched Kate's face and thought now would be the perfect time to laugh in her face. I sighed and joined in the screaming again cause like there was anything else to do. After awhile we both just stopped and stared at each other and said in unison " Shouldn't we have landed or something by now" and blinked. Then we hit the water which was ice cold.
"Holy , that's ka ka ka cold" I said after our head's broke the surface and then we swam to the shore. Amazingly our knapsacks had landed on the soft sand as well as our shoes and purses. Our clothes were soaked but we both had extra clothing in our knapsacks in case we had gym this semester. We were both wearing shorts and T-shirts. I was wearing a sopping wet dark blue shirt and black shorts. Kate was wearing soaked black shorts and a red T-shirt.
"Where in the world are we...?" said Kate and looked around at our surroundings. From where we were it appeared that we were surrounded in a never ending forest, there were bushes, ferns, tree's of every kind especially coniferous one's and other very leafy vegetation all around. Even the ground was covered in lush green grass that was knee high. Behind us there was a small beach with crystal clear blue water that licked the shore softly and then would retreat back into the water which we assumed was a very big lake or maybe a river. It couldn't be the ocean because the water had no salt and I could attest to that since I had swallowed a large quantity when we had landed in the water. The beach was about 8 to 9 meters long before it ended in a jagged patch of dirt that sprouted form the ground and rose to meet the tree's that towered above us. This place reminded me of a Rainforest because of the vegetation but I couldn't see any tropical kinds of animals or anything that looked overly much like Rainforest kind of material other than by the amount of green tree's and plants. Although I couldn't see much of anything since it was dark out here nice change. I know I hadn't wanted to go to school but this was ridiculous.
"...and how did we get here?" I finished staring into the thick brush that surrounded our current position. "I know I was wishing that the sun would shine a little less bright but this....this is..."
"Crazy?" she supplied and looked at me grinning. "Be careful what you wish for you may just get it"
"Too bad the rest of my wishes wouldn't come true then we would have lots of fun huh, Kate" I said winking and nudging her shoulder. I sighed and looked back at the water as my gaze drifted upward towards the moon. "No, I mean it how did we get here....wherever here is...this place reminds me of a Rainforest you know!"
"Yeah I know, that was my first thought when I looked around here...sure is a lot of tree's and plants, and grass..."she said but I cut her off.
"And dirt and bugs and a whole lot of questions...." I glared at her getting annoyed at her demure attitude.
"Would you chill, would you rather go back to school?" she said seriously.
I just stared at her open mouthed and said" Do I really have to answer that?"
" No, I just wanted to get you calmed down a bit so we could work out a plan as to what to do or rather where to go in the morning and I need your head to be unclouded by anger.." she said tapping my head "..so that we can plan out what to do. Kay?"
"Uhhhh, okay" I said making sure that okay sounded like two words. I pulled out a spare pair of clothing, a black v-necked T-shirt and black baggy pants that I had purchased in a dojo that I had trained in and my baby blue belt that held my pants up as well as my black sports bra. I quickly changed into my dry clothes and put my wet one's onto a tree limb to dry out When I turned around Kate was dressed and putting her wet clothes up on a tree limb as well. She was wearing a plain black T-shirt and black slightly baggy pants with a purple colored belt to add color to her outfit. I shook my head and sat down on the sand. I motioned for her to come and sit down and she did. "Well since it's night time I guess we should go to bed, huh?" I said and yawned to add emphasis.
"You, sleep to much but since I can't see to well at the moment I guess we have no other choice....but we just woke up like an hour ago you know this is kind of dumb. Now I wish I had brought my c.d. player" she said whining as she pulled out her black coat and rolled it up into a make-shift pillow and laid down.
"Well can't say you don't mind the company" I said and pulled out my long soft hooded black sweater out of my knapsack and imitated Kate's pillow and laid down a few feet away from her facing the water. " Well , at least we brought a coat of sorts to make into a pillow. Too bad we didn't have a blanket or something to use as a blanket to go with it but yeah!"
" Okay , I am so bored now" she said and moved so that she too could see the moon. "Amber?....Ammmmberrrr.....you awake?" she shifted so she could see my face." I can't believe you are already asleep....euahhhhh!"
I woke up to the smell of smoke and saw a fire burning a meter away with Kate hovering over it with a fish on a stick. "You caught some fish!" I said it like a statement "How...did you catch it?"
" Well, sleeping beauty finally lets her presence be known, oh hail the mighty Queen Sleeps A-" she said until I interrupted her.
"Well soooorry, I can't help but be a pain in your ass! That's my job" I said and glared at her until we both fell into riots of laughter. "Okay I don't care how you caught the fish, can I have one?" I asked and motioned towards the fish.
"Yep, you can have it I already ate anyway, See!" she said and waved the remains of her fish in my face like one would do with a smelly sock.
"Hahhahhahhahha, okay .....okay shall we..... set out .....trying to find..... a way out of this... forest, now huh!" I said between bites of fish and some drinks of freshwater. After we had finished our meals and bottling some water from the lake into some separate water containers that we had brought in case of an emergency. We packed up our stuff and walked up to the edge of the forest and looked into the greenery.
The forest looked just as thick as it had last night and it also looked just as dark. "Uhhhh....and how do we get through here again Kate? Hmmmmmmmm! Cause I would really like to know! Seriously I would really like to know!" I said and continued to stare at the forest.
"Ummmh. Well just give me a second! and I'll think of something...." she said (yeah that's it) and tapped her head thinking of how to get through the forest with out seriously damaging ourselves and the forest.
"Well...have you got it yet huh?" I said and smirked "Guess your not so smart after all huh Wise Guy" and then laughed. "We sound like a corny movie you know that?"
"No.....You sound like a corny movie and just to add to it and If you think your so smart why don't you " she said poking me on the chest and making me back up to the edge of the forest" think of an idea huh Smart Alec!"
"Okay then I will!!! "I said grabbing her hand and falling backward into the forest pulling her with me as we fell down and rolled down the hill log roll style until we hit the bottom of the hill and smack into a tree. "OWWWWW!!!!!!" we said in unison and quickly got up off the ground and dusted ourselves off. "See I told you I would think of something" I said and smirked. We were now inside the forest and realized why it was so dark in there. The whole place was like a tent that was covered from the edge of the forest and the roof or canopy if you will that covered the entire ceiling of the forest. Very little light was filtered through the canopy top but there was enough once you were inside the forest to see where we were going but not enough to distinguish detail.
"Sometimes I could really hurt you and this is one of those times" she said and glared at me then sighed " But then what would I do without you in a strange place that I know nothing about. Consider yourself very lucky that I won't kill you at least not today"
"Isn't' that my line? Anyway as long as you don't start singing Just the 2 of us I will be fine and as to trying to kill me cause that is all you could do. You wouldn't want to kill me cause then who would you talk to if I weren't here huh" I said and then laughed "And besides your inner voice"
"But I like to talk to my inner voice .....Just the 2 of us you and I" she sang just to annoy me.
"Okay that's it your , Poke attack!" I exclaimed and ran after her, poking her in the sides as she tried to avoid my attacks.
"Noooooooooooooooooo. Run away!" she yelled and ran through the forest as fast as she could.
" You can run but you can't hide actually you can't run away either" I said just as I cut her off and knocked her over landing on the soft moss covered ground. We both laughed hysterically until we ran out of breath and our sides began to hurt.
"Okay, okay. Now seriously we need to find our way out of here, any idea's this time?" I said and began to look around for any particular direction that may lead out of the forest
"Ummhhh...Well actually no I don't. Every direction looks the same from here and it's to dark to really see any differences in direction...so the only choice we have is to get a better idea of where we are by....climbing up one of these tree's and scouting to see which direction we should head in to get out of here. Yep, that's my idea!" she said proudly.
"Wow, you had an idea.....that's amazing I can' t believe you had and idea!" I said in mock shock.
" What do you mean me....you had an idea too remember when you pushed us both into the forest" she said in a sarcastic tone.
"I did wow we must totally congratulate ourselves lets give ourselves a pat on the back for thinking" I said and mock patted our backs and then we started to laugh again... "Okay... you go climb the tree." I said after we had calmed down a bit.
"What do you mean me... you are going to climb the tree!" she said getting angry.
"No you are!" I said also getting annoyed.
"No you!" she retorted.
"No" I said.
"Yes" she said.
"No"
"Yes"
"No
"Yes"
"No"
"Yes"
"No"
"Quack" she said and started to smile.
"And then" I said also beginning to smile.
"No and then"
"And then"
"No and then"
"And then
"NO AND THEN" she yelled.
"All right I'll climb the blasted tree but you owe me big time for this. Here hold onto this for me" I said passing my knapsack over to her along with my purse as we both walked over to the biggest tree with the lowest branches and that reached right up to the canopy top and beyond. " You had to chose the tallest tree, didn't you?" I said and began to climb up the tree slowly but efficiently." YOU KNOW THIS TREE IS VERY TALL" I shouted down to her after I had reached about 50 meters up the tree.
"YEAH. I KNOW BUT IF WE CHOSE A SHORTER ONE YOU WOULDN'T GET A GOOD VIEW OF OUR SURROUNDINGS SO THAT WE CAN GET OUT OF HERE" She shouted back.
"YEAH. I KNOW BUT I DON'T HAVE TO LIKE IT" I yelled right back. After about another 20 meters we were out of shouting range, so I continued up the tree slithering up and around the limbs that were covering the trunk in abundance. When I say slithering (that's what it looked like seriously),I mean slithering cause I had to bend in and around the tree limbs to get up the tree. I could only imagine what it was going to be like when I went down. I sighed and continued my ascent until I reached the top of the tree. This tree was one of the tallest in the valley and rose above all of the others that were in immediate vicinity and was higher then them by at least 20 feet. I looked around the summit of the tree and attempted to find a way out of the dense forest that was now below me. "Great! Just great there is no immediate exit! Damn it! We're going to be here for at least another couple of days just to get to the mountain over there." I said talking to myself and pointing North towards a mountain that was poking out of the forest." Maybe if we go there we'll get a better idea of where to go. I just hope that this isn't a small island cause our supply of food is going to run out soon unless we get some more and I really fish!" I sighed again and turned towards the east " Nothing there but endless forest " I turned southward" More nothing and even more of an endless forest! Yippee" I was beginning to become annoyed" Okay, One more side to look at" I turned to the West and looked at a opening in the forest that led to a stream that flowed past the mountain that was North. "Thank You, Finally something to work with. It's about time." I said and sighed as I looked upwards to look at the sun before I began to climb down the tree trunk.
"Well?" Kate said and looked at me with hopeful eye's. "Did you find away out of her?"
"No, we are completely surrounded by tree's but to the North there is a Mountain which I am hoping will give us a better view of our surroundings and there is a stream to the west that passes the mountain. At least we will have some fresh water as we journey to the mountain and the stream isn't' t that far but it is concealed a little by overhanging bushes which is why we can' t see the stream from here. So I will lead us there since I have seen it already and know where it is!" I said a little out of breath from my climb up the tree and then back down.
"Well then I guess we should start heading to the water at least then we will be able to see again? and who knows maybe we will be able to see a village or something down the path of the river. You know what they say where's their water there's usually people.. or something like that ...anyway" she said smiling and handed back my knapsack and purse. "Here, you can have this back now k."
"All right thanks for holding onto my knapsack for me I appreciate it and now you can follow me!" I stated and quickly headed in the streams direction. After about 20 minutes of walking we reached the stream and quickly re-established our supply of water and looked around for something to eat. Eventually we found some berries and some fruits that we both knew were not poisonous and ate them. After we ate our fill we both rested under the shade of the nearest tree. (Not like we were in short supply being in a forest and all.)
"So do you want to head down the stream towards the mountain or shall we head the opposite way which I know from my scouting that if there is a village down there it is a long ways away. You can decide this one Kiro cause I want to be able to complain if we never find anything and we die a horrible and painful of boredom. Dun Dun Duh" I said over exaggerating just a little.
"Okay....Whatever you say....Ummh anyway I think we should head over to the mountain because then we can get an even better view of what's around us k." she said and grinned.
"Yeah, that's what I would have chosen had I decided that I wanted to chose which direction we would go." I said.
"Yeah, I know I just wanted to head this way since I am pretty sure that South is where we came from when we first got here." she said.
"Hmmm yeah your probably right okay lets go" I said and extended my arm until we held each others arms via the elbow and did The Wizard of Oz dance for a little way down the dirt path. We kept on walking down the path until it started to get dark then we set up camp and went to sleep to wait for the suns first rays before we set out again.
It was early next morning, really early, like six o'clock in the morning early. I guess this is where I'm supposed to say "The Early Bird Catches The Worm". Anyway, we woke up, caught some more fish and ate some more fruits that we found along our route. The path before us was curvy but eventually wound up to the base of the mountain. We continued to travel in silence along the path not because we were angry but because we were bored for 3 days now we had been walking endlessly only stopping to sleep or eat and to use the facilities every now and again. I couldn't wait to actually have a toilet cause leaves were just a no no anyway I also wanted to say what the famous actor Robin William's said "Yes, no more banana leaves!" I really was hoping to very soon be able to use those words but enough about number one's and number two's if you know what I mean. We were really bored after all who really thinks about going to the bathroom. Ewwwwww.....
"I'm bored!" I said just to start a conversation.
"Me too...." she said off in space.
"No really!" I said sarcastically.
"Yeah....really" she said still off in space. Whack! "OWWWWWWWWWWWWWW" she yelled glaring at me not even bothering to say What did you do that for?
"Well then stop ignoring me" I said glaring right back at her.
" I wasn't ignoring you! I was just ....well off in space.. okay okay I was ignoring you but not on purpose!" she said admitting her fault.
"Wow, oh mighty Queen PAIN IN THE ASS! You have admitted that you were ignoring me how dare you I shouldn't even apologize for it but since you were man enough to admit it I apologize " I said bending in half to bow low and mocking "For swatting your self righteousness"
"Uhhh okay......running now" she said and looked over towards the mountain.
"Oh no you don't you ain't goin anywhere!" I said grabbing her arm and holding onto it so she couldn't run off again. "at least things are getting interesting again!"
" Yeah but I'm still bored...let go of my arm" she said glancing down at my grip on her arm.
"Don't you mean remove your clutching device from my buffness" I said once again mocking her.
"STOP with the wise already......hahhhahhahhahhaha" she said bursting out laughing at my latest comment. Unfortunately as soon as she laughs I shortly must follow. I guess its part of the Monkey see, Monkey do rule. Shrug. Oh well.
"Okay enough jokes....for now...well I'll try to...I can't guarantee it cause I don't know how to do jokes they ...kinda...just ...come out" I said shrugging and then continued the walk down to the mountain.
"Oh all right...I guess I will have to trust you on that one" she said talking from behind me and staring at me as I walked away sloooooowly. Then I heard quick footfalls and then she was beside me once again walking with me.
"Yep! I guess you'll just have to trust me on that one......Is it getting louder or is that just me!" I said and began to look around for the roaring sound that had a appeared out of nowhere...or maybe we just noticed it now. The mountain was really close now at least the base of it anyway. We could clearly see the Mountain now it was only another 30 minute walk from our current position. However the top of the mountain was fairly high up above the ground. That could cause us some problems.
"I thought it would be smaller not taller then that damned tree I climbed!" I said getting annoyed. "Well at least you will becoming with me huh?"
"Do I really have too....?" she said sounding very whiny but somewhat happy to have another thing to do.
"Yes you do...WHAT IS THAT NOISE!!!!!! It's driving me crazy it sounds like a waterfall or something like a bee droning away...I wish it would stop!" I said" Hey! Wait a second! If it's a waterfall then the river water should be moving quicker lets head closer to the water!"
"I hope it's a waterfall!! Then we can see if there's a cave or something inside and then we could take a shower and then..."she said trailing off, as we noticed that indeed the water was picking up and only flowed quicker as we got closer to the mountain.
"Come on lets run over to the end of the river and look over the waterfall" I said grabbing her hand and running to the edge of the precipice." See...huff...it didn't take us too long...huff... "I said out of breath but amazed by the beauty of the view that it provided.
"Yeah...huff...let's rest for...huff...awhile!" she said and plunked herself down on the ground a couple feet away from the edge of the waterfall and pulled me down along with her.
"Sitting is evil...." I said finally catching my breath.
"Yeah just like you!" she said and laughed.
"I thought you said no more jokes...but if you really want to start that again I guess I could accommodate you!" I said and laughed then we were silent as we looked over the edge and saw all the beauty that was the water crashing into the sharp rocks that protruded from the shallow water at the base of the waterfall.
"No no nononononononono more jokes at least for a little while longer k." she said looking at me and showing a little bit of malice at the thought of more cheap laughs that caused immense pain in the ribs and abdomen...need I think more...
"Okay but you have to follow the rules to you know!" I said staring right back at her without blinking.
"Okay I will follow the rules....is that smoke coming from over there" she said pointing across and over the waterfall towards some tree's that looked as if the tree's were on fire.
" It looks like it...Are you pondering what I'm pondering Pinky?" I said mocking a really strange cartoon.
"Ummh washing black socks that aren't dirty? Brain" she said holding back more laughter only beginning to get p v 'd off.
"Haaaahahhahah okay I'll stop it right there but you were asking for that one you have to admit that...anyway I was thinking maybe we should jump off the waterfall and head over there you know what they say where's there's smoke there's a match being lit by people ..." I said grinning right before I stood up and estimated the length needed to jump the distance and land in the deep end of the waterfall.
"It looks like it's about a 3 meter jump to get half past the shallow end but if we angle our decent we should be able to make it into the deep end." I said beginning to turn the wheels of thoughts that ran through my head every now and again.
"Yeah it looks like that is the right distance and altitude...good job.. but we'll have to throw our knapsacks first so that we don't carry them causing our descent to increase again because of the extra weight oh and we should get changed into our bathing suits so we don't have to dry our clothes again like last time." she said all scientific like as we both very quickly got changed and put our stuff away in our bags.
"All righty then here you go... "I said passing my knapsack over to her for her to throw. She was the baseball player and I was the soccer player so she threw well and I kicked well. " and I'll start figuring out where best to jump from"
"Okay that's a good....ewwwh Idea" she said tossing the bags over the side after covering them with a balloon like bag that protected the bag from getting damaged on the landing.
"All right this is the best place to jump from" I said pointing to the other side of the falls. "We can cross by the tree above and jump on that extended plain of land but we'll have to jump at the same time because I doubt that ledge will last long if we both jump at different times"
" Okay let's do it!" she said and started to climb over the tree trunk and crossed the tree limb and swung herself over to the other side. She waved me to come over just as I climbed up the trunk and crawled along the limb and then did a flip twist as I fell off the limb and twirled onto the other side of the river. The distance form the one side to the other was about 5 meters but the tree's were so thick that they criss-crossed the river in places and that place was just one of them.
"Show off" she said and grinned.
"Okay, I guess we had better jump before the people who created the fire in the first place leave and then getting wet will be useless.....okay take my hand and on the count of 3 start to run and jump k." I said as she took my hand and squeezed to reassure both of us that it was going to be all right
"Okay I'm ready when you are!" she said and took a deep breath. We weren't scared of the jump it was just the fact that we might miss the likely hood of us making the jump was about 1000 to 1 so you could see why we were sweating bullets.
"1......2........3333333333333333333333333333333" I said as we both started to run toward the ledge and just as we took the leap off the ledge we could feel the ground give way but only after we were airborne. As soon as we were in the air we let go of each others hands and took our diving positions and closed our eye's. We could feel the air rush past our skin and hear the hiss of the water rushing below. Now was the time when we many people would pray to God or whomever they worshipped but both me and Kate just kind of thought about what we would do in the afterlife if it came to that. Then we hit the water, at first I froze unable to move and thinking that this was the end and once again what it was going to be like in the next life and whether it mattered where you died. Then I found I couldn't breathe and quickly rose to the surface to get a great gulp of air. Immediately after, I was looking for Kate's body but was reassured instantly by the cough of Kate's voice from behind me. I spun around in the water and laughed Kate's long brown hair was completely covering her face making her look like cousin It.
"Ha, ha very funny ...you look good yourself" she said pointing at the leaves and twigs that were in my hair.
"Okay, now were even." I said and began to swim over to where Kate had thrown our bags. I got out of the water and once again got changed back into our slacks and shirts." Okay now we can head over to the fire let's go k." I said smiling and looking smug as if there was no chance of us being killed.
"Sure why not, that's the whole reason why we jumped remember!" she said and looked up to where we jumped from. " The ground just fell right as we ran across it that was fun.."
"Let's not do that again or at least not unless we have a parachute!" I said and smiled as we began to walk toward where the smoke was coming from.
" I wonder if the person who is building the fire will guide us to a village or something hmm!" I said as Kate was trying to look annoyed. "What?"
"You know there is a good chance that that fire is just a tree struck by lightning or that the fire was doused and the people gone!" she said trying not to get us to expectant.
"Yeah, I know but it's better than the alternative." I said and began to look around for any other options of high ground " Well at least on the bright side we had our shower and our hair smells nice again. huh"
"Yep! but it would be nice to have a cooked meal instead of fish again. I fish!" she said as we continued to walk toward the smell and sight of smoke.
"Oh, what I wouldn't give for some rice, chicken and potatoes yummy!" I said and licked my lips and brought out my water bottle and took a sip.
" Please be there , please be there, pleaseeeeeeeee!" she said hoping and imagining a warm not fish in any way meal. We kept up walking and went silent hoping to hear voices or any human sounding sound that could tell us whether or not our efforts were worth it.
Grumble, grumble" I guess my stomach is really looking forward to a meal also." I said and stared at my belly.
Grumble, Grumble "Is there an echo in there?" she said and also looked at her belly.
"Apparently there is" I said and rubbed my stomach as we continued our walk down a path cleared by many feet.
"Yes! It looks like there are people here or at least were" I said and began to look around for any more signs of people. We closed in on the camp fire and looked around some more. It seems that was our only purpose at the moment, to scout. " HULLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOO" I yelled to see if the people were close by.
"HULLLLLLO" Kate echoed trying to help locate people. We looked around, apparently we were to late. Whoever had been here were gone but they might come back since this area looked well used. We decided to stay the night and wait to see if they came by tomorrow morning since it was already late and the sun had begun to fall but we still had around 2-4 hours of sunlight left before complete darkness fell on us.
" Ooooooooo, it's not fair I was really looking forward to a meal instead of more crappie fish. I could really learn to fish, you know!" I said and began to set up our sleeping area's for the night. " Well now we have a campfire though" I said as Kate began to blow on the embers to start the fire going again.
" Yeah no more stick rubbing" she said as the dry leaves she had gathered caught fire and began to burn as I came out of the mini forest with a couple of sticks that I had seen around the campsite.
"There now we have logs to put on the fire and we have chair like logs to sit on too" she said and smiled "Wanna tell scary stories just for the fun of it?"
"Sure why not, nothing better to do right now" I said and tried to think of a good story to tell " You go first though k?"
"Oh...all right if I have too.." she said pouting then stuck out her tongue. "Oh wait I think I have some energy bars or something that I forgot about....."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY! YOU'VE BEEN HOLDING OUT ON ME ALL THIS TIME.... UHHHHHHHHHHHHH you are SO !" I said and put my hands around her throat and fake strangled her.
"I'm sorry I completely forgot about them till now and I wasn't holding out on you, I haven't eaten any of them either" she said and handed me and 'energy bar' which was chocolate bars for all those who don't know our lingo.
"Oh-Kay I guess I can forgive you since you have my fav chocolate bar" I said and opened up the chocolate bar and ate it slowly savoring the flavor of the chewy chocolate covered peanuts and caramel. " Yummm, ahhhhhhhhhhhh chocolate...energy...."
"You are so easy to appease.. you do know that right" she said and shook her head before she took a big bite out of her chocolate covered cookies.
"Uhhh... weren't we going to do something now...." I said scratching my head in confusion.
" Ummh...I don't remember chocolatey goodness has interfered with my brain cells" she said.
" We have brains?" I said looking at her even more confused.
"Ummh, I don't know do we?" she said staring back at me.
"......" I said opening my mouth and sticking a finger in the air and then closing my mouth and shrugging. We were like that for the next hour or so in between bites of chocolate bars and open mouth silence. The sky grew darker quickly then we had thought and we were disappointed at not being able to remember what we had wanted to do earlier. Not like it truly mattered but you know.
" I am soooooooooooo bored" I said with my feet on the log as I lied down on my back.
" Uh, huh" she said half asleep.
" I hope those people come back tomorrow" I said.
" Uh huh"
" Are you listening to me"
" Uh huh"
" If your not listening to me say that again"
" Uh, huh"
" Oy " I said and smacked myself in the forehead.
" Uh Huh" she said.
Then we both fell asleep but only after I whacked her on the forehead and built up the fire again. It had been 4 days now since we had come to this strange but beautiful land without any buildings, so far. I wondered where we were and what this place was like for all we knew we were in a land where the people here were cannibals or something. I hoped not, but with our luck so far that's what would happen most likely.
"Stop thinking, I can hear those rusty wheels turning in your head" she said and rolled over covering her face as the sun began to rise.
"Can't help it, nothing better to do right now" I said and covered my eye's with the crook of my arm.
" I wonder if those people are going to come today or if today is a holiday or something" she said.
" You know what?" I asked.
"No, What?" she said.
" Do we even no what day it is? " I asked.
" Hmmm...well that's a nice question, no I actually have no idea what day it is! I hope it isn't Sunday cause if it is there's a good chance they might not be coming do to religious things ya know" she said angrily.
" Ya I know well we better get up and look for another path or something" I said " You know just In case it is like some religious holiday"
" Uhhhh, maybe In a another hour or something cause it's like 5 o'clock in the morning" she said and went back to sleep.
"K. Yeah more sleep" I said and fell asleep instantly. It wasn't until mid afternoon that we woke up and got brunch ready. I'll give you one guess as to what it was.
" Shouldn't they be here by now," she said.
" Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.. this isn't fair" I said. Then we heard crunching coming from a distance and voices off in the distance as well. We decided to play it safe for once and hid behind bushes to scout out the newcomers. Only after we had packed up our stuff and cleaned up any trace of ourselves from the area.
" I wonder if they are going to be human or friendly" I whispered to Kate.
" Me two" she whispered back.
" I wonder if they look cute" I said.
" I hope not, then we would have problems getting away from them knowing you" she said.
"What do you mean by that? I said smiling ly.
" Just kidding" she said rolling her eye's.
"I know" I said just before as we both fell silent. We listened to the voices as they came closer and closer to the campsite. Until they fianlly were in our view but we wern't in their's. There were 3 men heading our way . One of the men left the group and went down to one of the tree's closer to the storage shed looking thingy maybe an outhouse. Which we so were not going to use. He picked up some things behind a tree. It looked like a hatchet and a saw. The tallest man in the group was carrying an assortment of long axe's and carving knives along with a few rifles. Guess you can't be too careful in the forest. They looked like they were tree cutter downers. Actually they looked more like furniture makers especially the medium sized one.
"Hey! Phil, Where did ya go?" the tallest man said.
" Sorry, I fergot the axe and saw yesterdey Joe" replied 'Phil'.
" How many times do I have to tell you, Don't ferget the damn hatchet" said Joe (the tall one).
"Oh would both of ya stop yer belly acken" said the medium sized one. "We have work to do.. in case you've fergotten! Now get a move on we have to get them tree's yonder-" he said pointing to a few tree's in an area that we had noticed earlier as being cleared which was why we were hoping for them to return"-too Nancy and the others so we can start production, you get that boys!"
" Yeah we got that James" Phil and Joe said in unison.
"Good! now lets go and cut down those tree's" said James and started to head towards the tree's that had already begun to be cleared. Then they were out of hearing range and chopping away cheerily or was that chippier.
"Okay, so what do you want to do now! Follow them or try to find civilisation ourselves" I asked Kate.
"I don't want to do much more walking and since there cutting down tree's they have to have a truck or something to carry them in to take them to wherever this Nancy person is...so I say that we should probably ask them for a ride into town so that we can contact the police and ask them to send us back to our world" she asked in a questioning like voice.
"Oh...I guess we hadn't quite thought that far a head... but I would rather be in a city and maybe somebody will know someone who can tell us how to get back home in case we want to go home cause I don't want to go home" I said sounding confused" How about we get to town then we can plan our next step!"
"Sounds likea plan to me, let's do it!" she said as we got up from our hiding places and followed the 3 men in the direction that they had headed towards.
"You are doing the talking " I said and kept on walking as she stopped.
"Excuse me!" shes aid shocked "I am not talking to complete strangers Amber"
"Hmmh, I seem to remember you owe me a BIG favor for making me climb that tree. I repeat you will talk to the country bumpkins and ask for a ride" I said and smiled and thought I knew that favor would come in handysooner or later!
" Shoot, I forgot all about that. Damn! Fine but that's the only thing I am going to do for that favor. " she said angrily and walked quickly infront of me stomping a bit of the way then calmed down and turned around smiling " Are you coming or am I only going to ask for one passenger?"
"Deal!" I said as I caught up to her and walked with her all the way to the clearing where the men were chopping down a tree! Well atleast Phil and Joe were chopping down the tree while James was sharpening his hatchet since it had dulled a bit from I suppose yesterdays excursion.
"Ummmmh, Excuse me!" Kate said as we walked right up to the men. Phil and Joe were in there 30's and James was in his 50's maybe he was there father and Nancy the mother. Family Business perhaps was there job.
"Well I'll be, I never expected to see anybody up here. What can I do for you?" James said as he stopped sharpening his hatchet and stood up from the stump he had been sitting on.
" Were kind of lost and we were wondering whether or not...you could give us directions to where the nearest town is so we can talk to the police" said Kate motioning towards me.
"We were walking to school when we kind of well.......appeared here..and we need to talk to the police so that we can get back home" I said.
"Hmmh, you got lost way out here....There are no schools in this area..so why do you want to go to the cops for" said James.
"If you want the truth you wouldn't believe it" I said" All we ask is for a ride into town or just directions you can choose"
"Whoa, hold on there missy..I meant no direspect I believe that you were going to school and that your lost but why do you need to go to the police?" said James.
" To find out if there's anyone who can take us home" I said.
"Now that, I beleive" he said " We'll give you a ride cause it's to far to walk to but, we need to finish cutting down 6 tree's and strip them of there bark and twigs. That might take awhile are you in any hurry or emergency?"
"No, but we would be willing to help you with the tree's " Kate said "In exchange for the ride to the nearest town"
"We couldn't let you do that it's to much work" said Phil and Joe together.
"Oh, and why not" I said" Is it because I'm a or is it because you think I can't swing an axe or use a saw on atree" I said getting really off.
"Hahahhahhahhahahha" said James" Now do you understand boys, why I told you two to leave s alone and let them handle what they want to handle."That was all it took to pick up an axe ask which tree he wanted cut down and in one swing cut it down. (This is the end for now...)