Cycle of Time

8.1

Their travels had this time brought them to a gorge, the forest receded unable to pierce the stony outcrop that led to the gorge. The gorge by its mere existence spilt the forest into two. Only a few animals ever knew what it was like on the other side of where they lived. And now, it had also put a halt to the journeys of the three travellers. If a bird were to see it from above it would appear like a giant crack in the carpet of green, that otherwise seemed to envelope everything. The birds being able to fly to both sides seemed the only ones who had access to both these worlds. The gorge was so rocky and craggy that the water underneath, barely visible from above, did not appear to flow with the ease that it was used to. While there were crooks and crevices filled with a murky kind of water, there were also elevations and rocky points that the water had been unable to penetrate for a long time. The fish in the crevices would be lucky if the big rains came before they ran out completely. It seemed that the water had covered the whole breadth of the gorge only for the briefest of periods.

Noah found himself contemplating on these matters, having totally given up any though of moving to the other side. It was left to the other two travellers to find a way.

"Crossing this is not going to be easy, but I can't help feel that there must be a way" Liam was unusually optimistic.

"Maybe we can make a temporary bridge to the other side" he continued, as he started to look around for suitable things to make a bridge with.

Ava was doubtful this time "It's a pretty deep place to fall into, do you think we should just go back?"

"Go back, never" Liam was the defiant one today.

"Have you got anything on you that might be useful for us?"

"No, nothing that's of any use" Ava said as she dug in to her pockets and came up only with a crumpled piece of paper." As Liam kept looking, Ava was fiddling with the paper only to realise that it was the one that was given by the old man in the hut. She unwrapped the ball of paper to see the hurriedly scribbled mass of pencil marks that made no sense at all. But now that she was here in this place, her attention was drawn to a couple of thick pencil marks that looked very much like a crack!

Now that she was paying attention, the drawing did not seem all that abstract; the random marks began to suddenly appear to be not so random. As she disentangled the paper, she remembered the words of the old man, "if you believe in it will come true". She found herself saying the words aloud, and as she said it she realised that Liam was looking at her in surprise.

"Oh sorry, but you won't believe what I think I have found. You can stop looking; I think the old man knew we would get stuck. This looks like a map".

As Noah and Liam gathered around, Ava repeated the old man's words" if you believe in it, it will come true." This time neither Liam nor Noah were laughing.

"I don't know what you believe in Ava but I can't really make any sense of this. It's all a bunch of scribbles that I can see" Liam said after a while.

"Well can you see the crack it's shaped just like the one over here." The more they peered into the piece of paper, the more it started to make sense. While the gorge seemed inaccessible and inhospitable, looking at the "map" and then at the gorge alternatively for several minutes, and Ava could spot a barely visible track exactly at a place indicated by a thin scribble on the "map".

Peering over the gorge ever so carefully, the more she looked at it, the more the path became clearer. It was almost camouflaged as the gorge itself; but there were symmetrical indentations in the rock among the rocks and crannies that had to be steps of some sort. It was so narrow, that only one person could possibly go down it at one time. The only thing one could hold would have to be the jagged rocks on one side. On the other side was only the thin musty air to grasp, and long fall down afterwards.

To use this devils staircase, courage alone would not suffice; such a task would require nerves of steel to keep our heartbeat steady, and fears in check. Ava wasn't sure if she could hold her fears long enough to cross the gorge; it would take a couple of hours to cross. The path would take them right to the floor of this deep slit. Luck would also play a part, for a heavy rain upstream would flood the gorge very quickly and without notice. There would likely be no escape in such an eventuality. Without the experience to know the signs, muster the courage and have the nerve you would have to believe that it was possible and that luck was on your side all the way.

"Hey guys, I think I see a way to the other side, but you are not going to like what you see", as Ava pointed out the path, the others gradually began to see what she had already seen.

"That old man really was crazy" Liam said without thinking. But there was a strange craziness in his own voice that seemed to drown out the fear.

Noah too, seemed in awe as he gazed at the path. As Ava witnessed how her two friends responded to the daunting prospect, her fear too lessened just a bit. It was Just enough for her to realize that this was something you had to do when the mood was right. This was one of those things that thinking could not improve .With that, she took the lead and started climbing down with a certainty she barely felt. But being with others added to her spirit and she felt a certain high.

It was only after they had gone some way into the gorge that Liam realized that this was indeed a descent into a place that there might be no return from. There was mud and a few remaining pieces of moss on the craggy walls now, indicating that at some point the gorge would have been filled to this level. The walls were slippery and smoothed out by the flow of water. Climbing back up to where they had started, was slowly becoming a less viable alternative as the light too became less and less.

Light it seemed no matter how fast it travelled was unable to shift. Around the obstacle on the winding road down to the bottom, nothing that travelled in a straight line could penetrate the depths of this gorge. Although their eyes adjusted gradually to the dimness they could adapt only so much. They had to light up the torches. Noah was very careful with lighting the torches, the air down here felt heavy and musty. With so little space to maneuver, an explosion would surely drop them into the abyss down below. As a small corner of the gorge lit up, and no explosion happened, the three travellers were able to see a bit better. What they saw made them hold their breath in awe for a few moments.

While they couldn't see far, what they could see indicated a vastness that they had not anticipated. In this darkness their other senses too were keenly attuned and what they sensed seemed to confirm what their eyes barely perceived. The droplet of oil that fell down from the lights, into the precipice burnt for a brief moment before going out. When they went out they went out gently, and in that brief time they could see bits and pieces of the places that they were yet to descend into. It was not a welcoming sight.

Noah was the first to break the silence", I don't know about you two, but if I stay here too long my courage is going to leave me". He said as he tried to hurry the other two on.

"Stop stop! I can't see", Ava screamed at that very moment, as she grabbed on to the slippery walls. With the light now only illuminating what was just in front of them and the path now barely discernible from the rest of the gorge Ava could not discern what was the path and what was not.

"I don't want to climb back, I think we are just going to die in here, Ava was suddenly panicking. Ava was having regrets, regrets for believing that the scribbled piece of paper was a map, regret for having brought the other two into the gorge, and regret for believing. It her moment of doubt as she stood there unable to move, Liam passed her almost running down. Without thinking Ava and Noah ran after. There was no choice but to follow him.

The next few moments were a mixture of numbness, fear and strangely joy as well. Once there feet had started moving fast, the safest thing was to keep going. Slowing down would be dangerous, as was going any faster, which would make them lose control. Thus the best option was to maintain speed within that blissful corridor. They were partly numb to the dangers, not that there was no fear, but the numbness kept the fears suppressed and at bay. The joy was in the feeling of movement of not having to make choices and of momentarily being free of fear. But this joy suddenly ended when they ended with a thud at the bottom. When the joy faded away they started to feel the pain of all the bruises and cuts. Not long after the fear returned.