CHAPTER I: Hiking
It was a bright day on Sunday on the shores of Great Britain. Two lifelong friends, Michael James and Nathan Horde, were on a hiking trip through a very dense forest near their local areas. There was a biking path next to the concrete path they were walking on, and each of them had bags containing food and water - it was a particularly hot day.
The two friends worked in the retail trade, particularly in a gaming shop just down the road. They weren't just standard retailers like working in a shop stacking the shelves and putting out new stock, they were in higher positions. They didn't own the shop or have any ownership of it nor did they ever want to imagine the prospect of owning the shop, but they were at a higher position than most of the folks working there.
They'd make phone calls to the reps of other companies to negotiate the deliveries of new games, they were responsible for working out the margins required for a successful profit. Ultimately they had a lot more responsibility than just the standard retail worker.
As a result, both of them were very familiar with animated films, because most of the games their shop had for sale were based primarily on movies. And that did include Ice Age.
Michael James was 24 years old and he had a knack for wanting to explore other cultures around the world, going on holiday to achieve that. He wasn't a drinker or a smoker, but instead the 24/7 drinker of still water and ultimately just a laid back individual - he'd never ever consider drinking or smoking in his life, ever.
Nathan Horde was 28 years old, four years older than Michael, and he was more or less the opposite of Michael in regards to the drinking side of things. He was moderate in how often he drank, but he did enjoy a good party. Like Michael, he too enjoyed exploring and venturing to new cultures across the world.
Not that either of them could really afford to do that given the state of the cost of living nowadays, but they'd make up for it by hiking like they were doing right now.
Michael wore a pair of khaki coloured shorts, with white Nike trainers and socks, with a brightly coloured pink short sleeved top. His bag was a dark blue one and it consisted of a sandwich and heaps of other snacks, as well as drinks such as water. He loved the unusual bright tops and he'd wear shorts regardless of the weather.
Nathan had a pair of shades on, he had a black Nike cap, and he was actually wearing a black hoodie with white shorts on with his standard trainers which were coloured a pure black. Like Michael, he too had a bag with food and water in it, and the two friends intended on going for this hike for a good couple of hours. It made them feel like they were in a whole new world.
Seeing the swathes of green leafed branches surrounding them like a cover as the sun poked its shiny strands of light through the branches, with the scent of nature creeping its way into their noses, and the sounds of birds singing to the tune of summer itself, the two friends were in their element. It was always the highlight of a hike in their opinion, and this one was no different.
They walked carefully on the path as the concrete disappeared and emerged into a grassy pathway with twigs scattered, causing them to snap as they walked on them.
"I just feel like they don't believe I know what I'm talking about, you know?" Michael was saying to Nathan, as they walked.
"Yeah, there's just the odd customer who comes in and they take their bad day out on us lot, it's like...don't come out if you're gonna be moody." Nathan replied.
They were discussing certain customers and the ways in which they'd be with them. Some customers were grouchy, trying to be funny when particularly looking for a discount. It was the one aspect of the job they despised, the only one. Rude customers.
"It's because I don't look my age either haha, I'm literally 24 but I look about 16 or something."
Nathan couldn't agree more. "Yeah, so they're gonna assume you're some sort of work experience kid in the shop. It happens."
Michael could only nod and sigh. Sometimes, just sometimes, working in retail was painful. It was even better as a result that the two were able to book this day off to go on this hike.
As the two of them walked forward, with the trees still surrounding their upper vicinity like a dome, Michael looked to his left and noticed within the woods some sort of hole that had opened up quite significantly. The ground around it was like a small hill, slightly elevated, but the hole itself seemed to look quite prominent.
"Oh wow, come and look at this Nathan," Michael said, "this looks crazy."
The two friends walked off the path entirely and took a turn to the left, the sound of snapping twigs becoming ever louder as they stepped on the grass. When Michael and Nathan both approached the vicinity to the hole, they looked at each other in a stunned sort of surprise.
"That literally looks like we could fit through it, it looks like the ground level starts from the entrance and descends at a sort of 40 degree angle inside, that's safe enough for us to go?"
Nathan wasn't so sure. He hadn't ever come across a hole like this before. It almost resembled a fissure, and one that had only formed fairly recently. He could see the dry mud ending with some sort of stoney surface inside.
"We'd literally come across a dead end in there, do you actually think something is going to be inside?" Nathan questioned.
"We're on a hike to be fair, the whole point is to explore, it just looks like it's big enough for us to fit, and we've got our phone flash lights."
At that idea of using their phone flashlights to light up the inside of the supposed fissure, Nathan was on board with the idea to go inside it. They were both young, they both liked to explore, and nobody else was around near them. In fact, this part of the forest they were hiking in was completely isolated from any other human presence. Not that that'd matter anyways, but it just seemed like the perfect environment to do something like this.
The two friends took out their phones and tapped the flashlights on, and instantly they directed the lights towards the entrance of the fissure. They could see that the ground inside had indeed descended at a safe angle of 40 degrees. If it'd have dropped at a 90 degree angle it'd have been game over before they even took a step inside it.
"Alright, I think this actually goes quite long, can you see the space ahead?" Michael said to Nathan.
"Yeah, it looks like this could actually be something. We obviously need to be careful though, you seen those videos on youtube about people getting stuck in caves?"
"Oh god, yeah. We're only gonna take a small look inside here anyways."
The two friends started making cautious steps into the fissure. It felt surreal that they were gradually descending into the earth, into a fissure that looked like it had only just formed. But it was in their nature to explore, so they had no problems with doing so. As soon as their heads were covered by the roof of the fissure, seeing nothing more than a great big slab of rock above them as the lightning slowly disappeared from the surface, it felt even more surreal.
They continued walking forwards as the inside of the fissure continued to extend downwards. By this point the two of them could hear their voices echo and the entrance became more and more distant. Their footsteps against the cold hard rocks became ever more clearer to the ear.
"What the hell?" Michael said, as he couldn't believe just how far this fissure had actually extended.
It felt like it was going further and further down, still at a roughly 40 degree angle, but it kept decreasing in depth.
"Do you think we should take a step back?" Nathan asked, "we need to be careful here."
Michael still wanted to continue. He could see something in the distance, and at this point it was their flashlights on the phones which allowed them to even see anything.
"Our phones are 99% charged, I think I can see something ahead, like some sort of change of the structure or something, we just need to check this out and then we can head back for sure Nathan?"
Nathan complied. Even he couldn't contain the curiosity of the fissure and what's now quite clearly a cave.
The two friends continued pushing forwards, their flashlights being their only source of seeing anything. They were cased in by pure blackness otherwise, but there seemed to be a very very faint touch of light in the distance just from the area near where Michael could see.
Nathan moved his flashlight to the left and right out of curiosity, and out of nowhere now large stalagmites were prominent. They were scattered everywhere around here at this point in the cave, they were magnificent looking despite them being literally made out of stone.
"Look at these Michael," he said, pointing his friend to the stalagmites as he directed his phone's light to them.
"Oh wow," Michael said, "they seem to be everywhere here, it feels like a whole different sort of aura down here, they make it feel...I don't even know how to explain it?"
"Neither do I, but I can see what you mean now - that thing over there looks like it opens up into a gap of sorts, we'll have a look at it then head back, it actually looks like a hole opens up, but I think I can see something white hanging off the top too...and that bright bit of light near it actually looks like it lights up that part of the cave too."
At hearing all of this, the two friends' curiosity grew even bigger. They had no idea what they'd just embarked on, they were in a cave of sorts which was now starting to emerge with stalagmites which gave the cave an aura of being in a whole new ball game.
It was getting to the point where the flashlights on the phones were gradually becoming less needed due to the protruding light emerging ahead. So much so that the two friends could now visibly see roots from the trees above that had penetrated their way through into the cave. The more they saw these little additions, the more something about this place was familiar.
Finally, the two friends reached the hole they'd seen. They stopped right where they were as a big abyss was between them and an even more descended part of the cave, but in that descended part of the cave appeared to be the source of the light protruding. It was like the sun was directly within the frameworks of the hole that the light was coming from.
"Wait..." Michael said, looking up at the small dangling vines above and what appeared to be some sort of collapsed bones around the edges of the descended ground ahead on the other side of this black abyss.
Nathan looked at Michael as he too started detecting something rather familiar about this part of the cave. It was like they'd been here before or something.
"Step back a bit, that's a deep hole there, you can't even see at the bottom."
Nathan flashed his phone light to the abyss whilst Michael continued looking all around. On the sides of the abyss were small ledges of rock that looked like they could be balanced on safely to reach the other side, but the vines dangling, the collapsed bones on the other side, the overall structure of this particular part of the cave, it suddenly made Michael make a suggestion that would turn out to be the pure truth.
"This is like that cave in Ice Age 3 where they go into the dino world, you remember that scene?" Michael asked.
It helped that the two friends worked in a game shop with games based on movies - they were particularly fond of the Ice Age movies, mainly the first three. Then, out of nowhere, it hit the two friends like a brick. It felt like their hearts stopped, their was a severe ache of excitement in their chests as it dawned on them that it was true.
"It is!" Nathan proclaimed, as the two friends realized that this was the part of the cave where that dinosaur skeleton bridge was in Ice Age 3.
They had no idea how this was possible, but they didn't care. The realization had made them giggle out loud like a bunch of kids. And all of this meant that on the other side, where the protruding light was making its presence known, the dino world was right there.