The Lost Knight (Volume I)

Chapter 18: I'm Like...Famous

It takes another two days to leave the woods. They don't end gradually like they did at the beach. One moment we're surrounded by trees, and the next we're in a vast desert. Well, sort of a desert; it's more pebbles than sand. It's filled with low-lying, brightly colored plants and gigantic cadmium red and burgundy rocks. Many of the rocks are piled high in odd gravity-defying arrangements. Just looking at the mammoth boulders precariously heaped on top of one another makes me nervous. Walking next to them is both awe inspiring and heart stopping.

It's peculiar how these rocks managed to arrange themselves in this way. Some look freshly assembled and jagged while others have eroded away to form inexplicable shapes. We just passed one that looks like a donut on its side, if the donut was three stories high.

I'm liking this part of the journey because I can clearly see where we're heading. In the far distance is a wall of mahogany red rock, jutting up and down as high as the skyline of Manhattan, only stretching out farther. It's comforting in a way. It's familiar, even though it's rocks and not buildings. I wish I knew what a gorge was so I'd know exactly where we were going.

The sun is setting over the wall of rock, but the sky is brighter. When the trees, ended so did the night. A pink line, like a jet trail across the noon sky, marked night and day. I prefer the blue, even if the setting sun makes it kind of pink.

It only takes about an hour before I admit that this part of the journey is the worst yet. It's hot and extremely dry. There's no path, but the plants are spaced far apart, so it's easy to traverse the gravelly ground. My sneakers are worn through. They were cheap shoes to begin with, and they were never meant for hiking. I feel every stone under my feet, not to mention the tiny pebbles that love jumping into my shoes.

I don't know how long it takes us to arrive at Smivler's Gorge, but I've been staring at it for days. It's just a split in the rock. From far away it's a hairline crack in the mammoth skyline wall but now that we're up close, I can see that the opening is wide enough for the four of us to walk comfortably side -by -side and still leave room for the numerous plants and trees growing in it.

"Wow!" jumps from my mouth. With those few steps, I've entered another world. I spin in a circle, studying the cliffs on both sides. This is how tourists must feel when they visit New York City for the first time. The walls are so high that staring up at them makes me dizzy.

"It gets even more beautiful the further we go in," Jonah explains.

I want to climb the honeycomb rock face, sit on one of the frightening overhangs, and study the unusual striations that range from gleaming orange to blood red. The vertical cliffs on both sides are so tall they make me feel very small and inconsequential. I'm not worthy of seeing something this astounding.

The trees have long branches with poofs of tiny bright leaves at the ends that remind me of poodles. They add to the splendor by singing a low-tuned song that sounds like something I once heard coming out of a church. We follow the dirt line traveling down the center of the gorge, but just off the path are dense exotic plants with broad multicolored leaves that are bigger than I am.

I yawn and Jonah looks down at me. "Are you fatigued?"

"Yes, and I'm starving."

"Dathid, do you think it's safe to camp here?" Jonah asks even though he's already taking off his pack.

"Sure," is all Dathid says before dropping his bag. He might be tired too.

Jonah makes a fire and we eat dinner from the food the faeries packed. I sit on the ground with my back against the gorge wall and study my surroundings. Jonah soon joins me.