The Fourth Man

Trails

Trails

Siggy, Exo, and Quaker stood on the foreign beach. Neither of them could relate it to any area they had ever seen. The fog still rolled in lightly off the sea, gently covering the mostly rocky beach. Dark grains of sand decorated the rest, before a large cliff face isolated the three teenagers to the coastline.

"We should get back in the boat," argued Quaker

"And just get lost in the fog again?" Siggy countered

"We should stay," Exo agreed "There will be some sort of civilisation here, we just have to look along the beach for any sign of one."

"Look across the beach?" Quaker snorted "We don't know how long it is, we could be searching for hours; days even, and we don't have supplies to last that long."

"I see we only have one option," Siggy exclaimed with a sense of finality "We search on the beach for any sign of civilisation."

"Two votes to one," said Exo democratically

"Fine; let's go walk to our deaths," Quaker sighed.

For the most part Quaker seemed to be correct. The scenery never changed; the light fog continued to roll in off the sea, the largely rock based beach stretched on endlessly, and the encompassing cliff face carried on by their right in all it's vastness.

However, when the sun was dipping down through the lower tiers of the afternoon and into early evening they came across a trail of some sort. They seemed to be footprints, but unhelpfully the tide had began to set in, leaving only a vague imprint. As best they could the three boys followed the tracks, until they seemed to disappear straight into the cliff wall, but upon closer inspection they found an entrance erected into the stone.

"Well are we going in?" Quaker asked, seeing the looks of apprehension on the other's faces

"After you," Exo offered

"Hey!" Quaker lifted his arms in expression "You were the ones who wanted to come out here looking for people; you go first."

"Fine," Siggy sighed, heading into the small passageway cut into the cliff.

The passageway was narrow, and the boys had to progress in near darkness in single file. However it wasn't very long until it spilled out into a small room, lit by an eerie electric bulb glow.

Four walls were constructed from the stone of the cliff, and at the base of each cliff was a door. There were also several alcoves around the walls too. In the centre a circular stone platform bore some strange markings and symbols. Siggy, Quaker, and Exo exchanged confused glances. This certainly didn't seem to be the work of any Fontaine Island inhabitant.

Suddenly a figure stepped out from one of the alcoves, tall lean and not much older than the boys. Defensively they turned on him, Quaker at the fore

"Who are you?" he asked

"Who are you?" Quaker demanded more fiercely "and where the hell are we?"

"I'm Nerpato," said the boy "And I was hoping you could tell me that."