"Here on the savannas of Africa, you can see the activites
of the African lion, stalking its prey," Brittany mock
narrated, then pretended to swing a camera around to face
Mike, who was jabbing at the dune grass with his sword.
"No comment," he replied, taking a swipe at the long brush.
"Hmm," she said, looking around. They'd come about a
quarter of a mile down the beach, and except for the places
were the forest took root, most of the journey had been
through this grass. It'd been pretty enough at the Dunes,
but here, on this flat plain, it just sucked. Just plain
sucked.
She let out a sigh, and then turned from Mike and walked
toward the sea, where Jared was. Between the sea and this
grass there was somewhat of a small hill, which she
scrambled down, landing on bone dry sand.
"It has no tides," Jared said, and her head snapped up. He
was a couple feet away, and she skipped once to stand near
his side. "The moons up there, I don't know, they seem to
have no effect. The sea is as flat as a can of soda that's
been sitting open for two days."
"But how? It has two moons!" she said.
"I thought I just addressed that," he snapped.
"Jared, what's wrong?" she asked, her voice piercing his
shell. He gave her one look, one long look, then said,"You
remember that I pride myself on control, right?"
"Yes, I do," she said.
"Well, I lost it back there. With that damn spider. And
for some reason, it's affected me hugely," he said.
On impulse, she said,"I don't think that's your fault,
Jared. I think your having problems because of this red
beam thing...."
"Guardian," he interrupted. "It's called the Guardian."
"I think he..."
"It...it was unisex, I think..."
She sighed. "Fine, I think IT has something to do with
these problems."
"Why do you say that?" he asked.
She opened her mouth, then stopped and bit her lip. The
answer had just seized her when Mike called,"Hey you two!!
Time to move on!"
They silently clambered up the hill and back into the
group. "What an odd island," BrightHeart murmured. "It's
so mixed up!"
"Well, she probably designed it that way," Mike said.
"It's an it, Mike," Brittany sighed.
"Only a she could design this," he said proudly, following
the joke with some quickly cut-off laughter.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the sand under their feet became
grass. Not grassy sand, either, but the pure, green grass
that cows eat. It felt like turf under Mike's feet, thick
and bouncy, but wonderfully cool after the hot sand.
"Where in the hell did this come from?" Jared wondered.
"This island doesn't believe in transitions. It has to be
one thing or another, not two things together."
"I guess we can assume it takes everything straight then,"
Brittany sighed. "Sprite or Dr.Pepper, but never the two of
them together. Rum or coke, but never rum and coke."
"Verbs or nouns, but never verbs and nouns," Mike added.
"Caring or sharing, but never caring and sharing," Brighty
jumped in. The three stopped their ceaseless motions and
looked down at him. His purple eyes peered back up, and a
trace of a scowl marked his features. "What!" he cried out.
"Yours made as much sense."
"True," Brittany said. "True. But shall we carry on?"
"Uh-huh," Mike said, and they walked on. This time, the
island did transite; the ground became irregular slowly, and
after some time they found it was actually craggy.
"This is wonderful," Mike scowled. "Now I can say I've
walked up a cliff face horizontally."
"You rock climb?" Brittany asked.
"Do you?" he snapped.
"Actually, I like to climb. It's one of the things I'm
better at," she replied matter-of-factly. "But you didn't
answer my question."
"It seems like fun, actually," Mike commented, but the tone
of his voice shut out all other inquiries.
They walked on for a couple more minutes, the grass
continually thinning underneath their feet until it finally
became something like a mixture of sand and rock. Jared,
who at the time wasn't preocuppied with thinking, suddenly
cried, "The beach!"
The other three all stopped and looked. "This island is
weird!" Brighty whistled. "Sand, savannah, grass, irregular
ground--and then the tops of caves."
"The land back there must have sloped up gradually,"
Brittany added.
"How far is it to the ground?" Mike asked Brighty.
Brighty scanned, something he'd forgotten to do during the
melancholy of the trip. "About 10 feet. Enough to twist an
ankle, or break a leg if you have rickets, or..."
"GAO CHI!" Mike interrupted, his voice rising to a
crescendo of emotion as he lept from the top of the cave.
He landed in a small dune and his feet crumpled beneath him;
he rolled for a couple feet then turned to look up at the
others. They all stared at him, mouth's wide open.
"What?" he asked.
"The dune...." Jared started.
"Came out of nowhere!" Brighty finished.
"It was incredible!" Brittany yelled. "The hump just sort
of...sprung up!"
Mike looked at the sand beneath is feet, then back at the
three. "Are you telling me the beach had an erection?"
Jared and Brittany laughed, and Brighty looked at them,
confused. Then he turned back to Mike. "A minor one, I
guess."
That started off MORE giggles, until Brittany had to sit
down on the rock face in fear that she was going to fall off
of it. Jared controlled himself, but still ended up wiping
tears from his eyes.
Brighty stared at them dumbly, then asked,"Umm, did I miss
something?" His voice was questioning, yearning, and
innocent, as if he felt he'd done something wrong. It
caused the others to forget their mirth for a second and
look to him.
"NO," Mike finally answered hoarsely.
Silence as Brighty accepted his answer. Mike broke it
with, "Come on. Get down. We still haven't explored the
inside of this island."
The three took their turns--Jared going from a stand,
Brittany hopping from a sit, and Brighty sort of floating
down--then turned toward the entrance.
The wind picked up then, brushing aside the palms,
revealing the trail that almost seemed to beckon to them for
a second. For a moment, a chill went through the three
humans; Brighty seemed impervious to the haunting moment.
It passed, though, making itself known for just a brief
instance.
"Ready?" Mike asked.
"Ready," Brittany replied simply, and the others just
agreed.
They walked the trail in two's, as they'd down on the way
back, until they came to Jared's cliff. Now, there was
something different--three paths branched off, as if this
place was a crossroads.
"Hey!" Brighty said suddenly as the other three registered
the change. "The water....the pool is deeper!!"
Jared and Mike examined it and agreed; where there had just
once been a small pool now was a shallow pond of clear
water. In fact, it was deep enough for Jared to sink his
hand all the way up to his elbow.
"Strange," Mike said.
"Not as strange as this," came the far off voice of their
female companion. They looked around--she wasn't there.
"Hey..Britt!!" Mike called. "Where are you?"
"Aqui," she called, appearing at the rim of the trail that
seemed to go past the cliffs.
"What is it?" Jared asked, coming closer.
She smiled softly, mysteriously--like she was hiding a
secret--then replied, "You have to see it."
"Can't you tell us?" Mike asked.
"Words aren't adequate," she replied, then vanished down
the trail.
"Eloquence is one of her strong points, is it not?" Brighty
asked.
"Don't flatter her," Mike replied as they picked their way
to the trail. The trees overshadowed her, throwing their
darkness across the path. Still, the light beat the dark,
and the guys could see--but just barely.
"Brittany!" Mike called.
"About fifty more feet!" she yelled back.
"One, two, three..." Jared started.
Mike sighed, and after about fifteen more seconds, they
came to the clearing. Mike and Brighty immediately stopped;
Jared, who muttered persistantly under his breath,"Fifty-
two, fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty...." before he ran into
Mike, was puzzled by the statues of his friends. They
blocked his view of whatever was out there!
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Look at that," Mike replied.
"Look at what?" he asked.
Mike moved out of the way, letting him come forward. He
looked into the chasm and gaped, gasping out a small, "By my
stars!!!"
In front of them was a valley; no, a gorge, a canyon, a
chasm would be better words to describe it. The cliff face
seemed to shoot straight up from the ground below it, it's
crags and wrinkles well marked in the rock. Below, though,
was a river valley, a beautiful place the believers in Eden
would have killed to see. In the middle, curving gently,
was a thick, silver snake of a river. Surronding it were
trees and thick meadows, all blooming in lush greens and a
myriad of rainbow colors. This cliff top height also
illuminated the straight paths of dirt (or something) that
followed the course of the river. Well, in their own way.
"Bitchin'," Brighty whispered.
"What??!" Mike asked.
"Beautiful!" Brighty exclaimed. "Beautiful!"
"He didn't say that," Jared muttered to him.
"Looks like your friend is more than one dimension,"
Brittany said.
That made no sense, Mike thought in reply. He looked down
to the valley, and sighed. "It's paradise."
"Shall we explore it?" Brighty asked, pulling out his
Scanner and swinging it in circles.
Mike looked down again, sighed, and said, "No."
"NO!!" Brighty yelled.
"No," Mike said again. "We don't have a lot of time to get
lost in the depths of a steamy and luscious plain of plant
life that swirls around the curls of a silvery, smoothly
flowing river."
"Wow," Brittany said. "I'm impressed."
"Yeah Mike," Jared said, clapping a hand on his shoulder.
"That was awesome!"
Mike nodded, then turned away from the cliff face to walk
down to the trail. Jared and Brittany, after taking their
last looks, followed him. Brighty gazed once more into the
temptingly lovely abyss, sighed, and whispered,"Bitchin'."
Then, he followed them into the jungle.
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