The Trail of Mysteries

Chapter 6

The

Trail

of

Decisions

The black of darkness was a lonely, silent place to be. The only sounds to be heard were gentle thumps.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Then louder thumps could be heard.

THUMP.

THUMP.

THUMP.

Then came the sound of thumps so loud that the vibrations themselves caused pain on every beat.

THUMP!!!

THUMP!!!

THUMP!!!

Sixty times a minute a wave of fresh pain surged through nerves to make the muscles of the body twinge. The surrounding darkness was smothering the drumbeat of the living. A single ray of light broke the outer edge of the impregnable blackness. Light and energy slowly crept in and lit up every crack and crevice. Steadily, the light formed rough images that came into focus.

Slowly, the blackness gave way to different hues of orange, yellow, and brown. Irregular shapes emerged into patterns and three dimensional designs. The air, warm and moist, hung still and unmoving. A different world had just begun to open up.

Coming back to reality, Ty's first sensation was of a throbbing pain to the forehead. Easing his upper body into a sitting position, slowly, made the pounding in his head dissipate.

Man, that was uncool, Ty told himself. I felt like I just fell off a cliff. But that's impossible because Liv and I were walking on solid ground before it gave way.

Liv!

The jungle trees were still and silent as Ty scanned hurriedly for traces of his sister. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he realized that this wasn't the same patch of jungle that they were in before. There were species of trees and plant life in front of him that he had never seen before. This was like a completely different jungle, Ty wondered confused. But how? And where was Liv?

Ty grimaced as he thought about the possibilities of where Liv was. His eyes watered as he remembered how easily the tiger had picked up Liv by her backpack and carried her off. However, there was something calming about the big cat even though it had a frightening look to it.

Given the enormous size of the creature, if it had wanted to eat one of them, all that would be left would be a pile of bones somewhere. Therefore, it must be doing something different. It was almost as if it was curious. That thought alone somehow calmed the anxiety in him, allowing him to focus, as dozens of different thoughts raced through his brain.

A gust of wind blew through the branches made Ty turn his head away from the oncoming dust and leaves to glance up into the canopy spider-webbed with crisscrossing branches. Leaves drifted down through the six foot hole thirty-five feet above him to gently fall at his feet. The light illuminating the immediate vicinity came from the hole. He then noticed that farther than twenty feet away around him, the forest was enclosed by shadows too dim to see if or where any one direction lead. There were several paths to take. He was currently sitting a few feet from a main junction in a narrow pathway. He stood to have a better view.