When Stars Fall

Chapter 22 - The Silent Passage

Branches bent rustlingly, then snapped back again, and the murmur of offended leaves died out at some point, joining the muffled sound of their footsteps on the forest floor. They walked for quite a while, and the forest enclosed them tightly and mercilessly. Everywhere nothing but dark patches under the dense green, tree to tree, and only now and then smaller clearings, which they first searched suspiciously and then carefully crossed.

Every rustle made them pause in alarm, and Peter clasped the handle of his dagger tightly, which seemed much smaller and less threatening in the man's hands. There were enough adventurous dangers on this island under normal circumstances. Now, however, they had to constantly reckon with a creature like the one before attacking them from the shadows, which had become noticeably darker and blacker than usual. That was another reason this was anything but an easy walk, even before they reached the first cracks in the earth. The closer they got to the mountain, the worse it got. Trees had been uprooted. They lay crisscrossed as if an angry child had torn them out. They had to bypass some places because hissing; pungent fumes were coming up from the depths.

"Come on, it's not far anymore," Peter kept saying, holding her hand firmly and securely. He helped her over the fallen giants of the trees, hovered with her over those they couldn't avoid, and confidently guided her over a fallen redwood above a maw of glowing lava when she was frozen with fear. "I am with you. I'll always catch you," he kept promising her, and somehow, it calmed Sitara. Peter's nerves and muscles were tense.

"That's the way out of the forest up ahead. There are already the foothills of the Never Peak mountain!" Peter explained to her and quickened his pace. The adventure was in his blood; you could tell with every step. And yet something had begun to drag this boy in the last hours and days to something he never wanted to see in himself.

The forest cleared ahead of them and faded into flat land. Sitara swallowed hard, and Peter's features hardened at the sight of the mountain, for from here, they could see the huge fissures in the otherwise immovable grey rock. They cut through the rock everywhere, had loosened debris, and in some places, the waters of the underground springs, previously trapped in the mountain, flowed out into the open. Where they met lava, the wind drove away huge clouds of smoke. Never before had Neverland looked so ... broken. And all this was just the beginning.

"We have to find a star before the volcano inside the mountain erupts," Sitara said anxiously. If they did not reach the chambers under the mountain before the liquid fire or the waters perhaps flooded them... then all would be lost.

☆

It was anything but easy to recognize the old entrance. Eventually, however, they discovered it in a hidden crevice. Sitara knew that the fate of the island depended on them alone. Still, she felt a sinking feeling as they plunged into the darkness of the mountain.

For the first few meters, it seemed like a simple crack in the mountain or a cave like any other. After that, however, the walls became smoother, visibly hewn, and worked. Still, it was damp, cold, and dark. It smelled of moss and mushrooms, and one could hardly make anything out. A soft splashing sound of an underground spring drifted towards them from somewhere. After a few meters, the last vestige of light that would have filtered in from outside was completely engulfed. The only thing that guided them now was the glow around the star, whose white glow made the grey-white walls of the mountain shine damply. Because it was safer, Peter led the way with his dagger, the dull glow at his back. The further they got into the mountain, however, their steps became increasingly slower and noticeably less ... motivated in view of the pitch-black darkness.