The Castle On The Hill

Part 2

Part-2

Parker circled around the hill with her jeep, trying to determine from which side the intensity of the sound seemed stronger. The road on which she drove, wrapped around the hill from the south to the west. But the cliff was on the north side and the sound too was coming from there. So, she parked her jeep at the end of the road on the west side and got out. She walked down to the ditch and peered down.

There were some uneven earth below the ditch that seemed to make a path to the north side. Sam also stopped beside her and saw that the earth that made up the path were quite muddy. But he feared that this piece of ground might be the only path that was connected to the north side and that's where the base of the cliff was. He looked down and saw that the ground went down steeply for about a couple hundred yards and then took a sharp right turn that went behind the walls of the hill.

Parker opened her mouth, still peering down,

"You said to look for ground paths. Well, there you have it. Wanna go down?"

Sam didn't reply immediately. He was trying to mentally picture where the base of cliff was. Surprisingly, the path appeared quite near the cliff base in his estimation. He broke his thoughts and turned to Parker,

"It looks like this path could lead us near the cliff base. But I have doubts about the integrity of the soil." He pointed at the muddy ground.

Parker also noticed the muddy soils. But she was confident in her ability to navigate through that. She turned to Sam and offered after eyeing his lanky build for a second,

"You can hold my hand if you are scared about falling down."

Sam stared at her outstretched hand for a while and then smiled,

"Don't mind if I do."

Parker's hand was small but coarse and tough. Result of practicing some kind of martial art-he thought. The healed boxer's knuckle on the middle finger confirmed his thought. He felt the slight push from her hand as Parker already started going down. He couldn't just stand there, so he also climbed down on the uneven muddy path.

They climbed down slowly and carefully because the ground was quite slippery. Sam's hiking boots helped him a great deal, without the spikes underneath the boots he would have already fallen down a few times. The sound seemed to become more louder the more they walked along the path.

After reaching the sharp turn, Sam voluntarily let go of Parker's hand and balanced himself by placing his hands on the body of the hill. The road ahead was too narrow for them to walk side by side. Sam could also see the end of the road some dozens of yards ahead. As expected, Parker took the lead and Sam trailed below. Ocean water crashed not that below them in waves and the droplets were reaching them and wetting the calf of their pants.

Parker stopped at the end of the path and was pleasantly surprised. There was a crevice on the body of the hill and it stretched inward creating a small ravine. The water from the ocean flowed through the middle of the ravine but there were patches of sand on one side of the stream. She measured the distance between them and the sandy patches below and was confident that she could reach them if she jumped. Heck, even Sam could also reach it. She turned to look at Sam and saw that he also stopped and was curiously observing her. Sam could see the crevice but not the ravine inward. So, she opened her mouth and said,

"We have to jump."

"What?" Visible confusion spread over Sam's face.

"Come here." She beckoned Sam to take her place as she moved away from the edge. Sam stepped over and saw the ravine and the patches of sand below. The sandy floor was not that much below them, maybe a couple of meters below. Now he understood what Parker meant by saying that they had to jump.