“Shit,” Blanc muttered, trying to make distance between himself and the waterfall, as he swam towards the shore.
The current was strong, but not strong enough for his Raw Vita-filled body, since, in less than a minute, he was on the mud shore, walking slowly towards the edge of the river.
“I know we walked some distance,” Blanc whispered to himself, as he looked at the position of the sun, “But it’s barely afternoon.”
He was confused about how it was possible to be near the Moose Path already.
From his calculation, they should have been inside the cave system, walking and harvesting for about five hours now.
Which created more questions in his head than answers.
“It’s weird, however you put it,” Blanc sighed as with each step he drew closer to the edge, towards the gap and the Garden beyond it.
From what Blanc could tell as he walked, the distance this time between this part of the Jaguar Path and the Moose Path was less than before.
About a hundred feet. Still, a distance they could not traverse or simply jump over.
However, it looked more promising, no matter how one looked at it.
With that in mind, Blanc drew ever so closer to the edge, to look down upon the half mile of emptiness before the most violent of rivers came into view. Official source ıs novel~fire~net
And there it was, still the same as the last time they saw it.
Water crashing into the walls of the Gardens with a strength that Blanc knew only by witnessing it, that it would shred him apart.
“How did the people who made the records pass through the Gardens?” Blanc wondered as he looked at the distance between him and the snow-filled taiga, a small distance away from him.
As he looked at the conifer trees on the other side of the Garden, a thought popped into his mind.
The cave system below should come to an end pretty soon since we are so close to the gap, he thought.
He then remembered the cavern, how it stood on the left side of the corridor, how deep it was, and the distance it took them to arrive at the waterfall inside, how he swam over twenty feet to the right to get to this shore.
“The corridor should be seventy feet to the right of where I stand, which means,” Blanc muttered, opening his eyes as he looked down into the gap in the general direction he thought the corridor would be.
And Blanc’s eyes couldn’t believe what he saw.
A rock platform stood there, with a large opening on the side of the Garden.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
A narrow rock platform that crossed the gap to the next Garden.
But the narrow path only led to the side of the Garden, which had no entrance side did.
It only had a rock wall that, as Blanc looked, had to be climbed.
A rock wall that, if they were to fall, they would be lucky to fall onto the narrow bridge, or fall straight into the Gap to be ripped into pieces by the river below.
The wall looked hard to climb, with not that many openings, but it was only a short climb to the ground.
It was difficult, that was for certain. Difficult but doable.
The issue was the coincidence of it all.
First, on the day they just so happened to be checking the river, a turtle came from an underwater tunnel that, when followed, took them to a cave system that just so happened to have the turtles they were desperately hoping for, while also leading them straight into the path towards the next Garden that they were looking for.
If this were a story from one of Kael’s books, Blanc would have believed it.
But it was in many ways too good to be true.
Blanc believed the Vita was smiling upon them at last, but this wasn’t a smile; this was a whole damn grin, teeth and all.
Something was definitely wrong, and he did not intend to risk the lives of anyone around him.
He entered the rainforest, looking for a boulder, and when he found one, he took it in his arms and went straight above the bridge, throwing the boulder as far away as he could.
When the rock path and the boulder made contact, the rock path crumbled as if it were made of sticks, sending everything down towards the river, which made quick work of the falling stones.
“Figured as much,” Blanc sighed.
But then, as if something ripped pieces from the rock walls themselves, rocks came floating down slowly, and by the next minute, another rock path stood in its place.
Are the Gardens themselves making the path? Blanc wondered as it got up onto his feet and went to look for another boulder.
Which, when found, had the same destiny as the one before it did. To be hurled towards the rock path.
When the boulder made contact with this new path, it crumbled just as before, but not as easily.
“Interesting,” Blanc muttered, looking at the path as it was once more being rebuilt with pieces from the sides of the Gardens themselves.
This one looked stronger but had to be tested.
Another boulder hurled, another path broken, this one too, not breaking as easily as the one before it.
Another path built, another minute looking for a boulder to hurl, another path bro-
It got destroyed on one of its sides, but it was still standing.
He rushed to get another boulder, which, by the time he came back with it, the part of the path he had broken earlier was back to normal.
He threw the boulder and didn’t even look at the damage he had done.
He rushed back into the rainforest, looking for more.
He threw one after the other in a rush, ripping pieces of the bridge, which became sturdier after, until, after about thirty boulders thrown, it looked safe enough to pass.
He did not understand the way all this worked. He had theories, but nothing certain.
So, as a final test, he went into the rainforest and took the largest boulder he could carry, which he slowly brought to the edge of the gap.
With a groan, he picked it up and, using all his strength, he hurled it right into the middle of the path, which, upon making contact with the large boulder, stood unaffected as the boulder rolled off it, straight into the gap.
“Now we’re talking,” Blanc exhaled, slightly exhausted, before he turned towards the direction of the river to rejoin the rest and tell them what he found.