The Last Beacon

XVII

The sun was directly overhead when they first heard it.

Lion was the first to notice the steady sound, and he quickly stopped in his tracks and perked his large ears up, trying to get a better idea of what and where the sound was. Laurenz and Sascha stopped behind him, confused as to what he had heard.

Lion suddenly turned to them, his eyes swimming with curiosity and realization.

"I believe there's something up ahead that could potentially be the next part of the prophecy. Perhaps we should go and investigate," he said, trying his best to conceal his excitement.

Sascha shared a look with Laurenz, before turning back to the enfield. She nodded and smiled, encouraging him to lead the way. The creature's eyes lit up, and he spun around, spreading his wings and beating them once, causing his small body to fly into the air. He rose several feet from the ground, and he glided for a moment, before hitting the ground again and breaking into a bouncy trot in the direction of the noise.

Laurenz chuckled at Lion's excitement, and both him and Sascha followed quickly behind.

Sascha soon heard what Lion was drawn to. It was a steady sound, as if it were a type of white noise. She racked her brain for what the sound could be, and then it hit her.

It was the sound of rushing water.

"I think this could be it," she mused aloud, becoming surer of herself as the sound progressively got louder.

Laurenz hummed in response, seemingly agreeing with her. They quickened their pace.

Soon, as they continued, the roar of the water was almost deafening. Lion halted in front of a wall of greenery, branches and leaves intertwined together, reaching the canopy of the surrounding trees.

"Come along, friends," Lion said, "there are inconsistencies in the bush, which means you should be able to slip through quite easily."

Sascha hesitantly followed closely behind Lion, wincing as the leaves tickled her face and arms.

As she ducked through the bushes, she was met with a spectacular view.

Before her stood an enormous ravine, as if the earth had opened its jaws and refused to close them. It was almost fifty feet wide, and it appeared to be several hundred feet deep. To Sacha's right the ravine ended in a steep cliff. And streaming down from the cliff, in all its glory, was a monumental torrent of water cascading into the gorge below.

A waterfall, Sascha thought, as if the cliff is crying. This has got to be nature's tears. It seems significant enough to be a prophecy clue. She closed her eyes for a moment and breathed in the fresh moist wind currents driven up from the churning wash at the base of the falls.

"That has to be it!" She exclaimed. She glanced briefly to the left, noting that the other end of the ravine was too far away to be visible.

"Nature's tears! We've found it!" Lion added, overjoyed.

"Although, we have a problem," Laurenz interrupted. Sascha sent him a questioning look, to which he replied by gesturing to the dirt path beneath their feet.

She looked down to see that the path ended abruptly at the edge of the ravine.

"Well," Laurenz observed, "there's some good news and bad news. The good news is that the path does seem to continue. The bad news is that it's on the other side of the ravine."

"There's got to be a way across," Sascha said, eyebrows furrowed.

"Then we spread out," Laurenz stated, "and find a way to get over there and meet back here shortly."