A long hike up to a slope means huge perspiration and heavy breathing. Even halfway there, my legs buckle up and wobble making it even harder for me to climb a thick root sticking out to the ground. I grab a lone branch but it snaps off almost toppling me back below.
"Ow!" squeak Mr. Stewart when I bump to the side, reaching a thing to hold on and gripping the hell out of it.
"This is harder than I thought," I mumble, still shaken.
"But we're almost there, Ali, just up there and head straight north will be the river." I take in a lot of air before puffing it out and making my way up once more.
At long last, which take a half time from my house, we arrive at the clearing. The river looks majestic in the moonlit night that flows from the top of Cool Mountain towards the Mountains behind the Mirth Town and streams out to the sea.
The water is so clear it reflects a boy with long dark hair almost covering his thoughtful brown eyes. My grandmother used to tell me how my eyes were so beautiful that it's envied with the townspeople, making it clear to cover them with the normal brown eyes the commoners have. The water ripples, distorting the image and my thoughts clears.
There are also fishes swim in the slow current of the river. It also embellished with cute pebbles in different color but one thing catch my eye. A beautiful aureate stone, glinting in its magnificent golden color. I take it in my hands and look closely at it. It has markings with two lines racing from top to bottom and a line across the middle.
"It's beautiful," adores Mr. Stewart.
"It is," I say. It is a smooth oval stone, glittering when I flip it to the side. "Woah!"
"Let's take it!" Mr. Stewart says enthusiastically.
"But it belongs to nature," I say, tossing the stone back into the water. "The water is clean, let's take a short break before we head straight to Lost Town." I drop my bag beside the water and stoop down to scoop up some water to drink. Mr. Stewart jumps off into the water and take big gulps.
"The water taste good, right?" I smile. Mr. Stewart floats on his back and has a look of complete bliss.
A rustle echoes into the night. I look up abruptly behind me but I don't see anything weird. I crouch down, straining my ears to my surrounding.
A twig snap just a distance off. I gesture Mr. Stewart to hop in the bag if we need a sudden flight. Growls resonate among the buzz, follows by a screech and a flock of crows flying into the distance. This is bad, it looks like some kind of beast living in the Angry Forest.
We only manage to get this far, so it is not surprising to encounter an animal or two. But it still does scare a few in me. I might be small, but hearing that same growl from dog-lion-like creature I forgot the name, I think I might take a chance since it says in the books of creatures and whatnots how badly they are afraid of water. Even a single splash will make them running with their tails between their legs.
I move closer to the river and sit upright with my bag shaking on my stomach. Mr. Stewart looks just as scared as I am, but I try to maintain stoic face for crucial reasons.
I hear flapping of wings fly straight towards our direction and low growls that sends my hair stand on end. The growls emanates as each passing second but before it jumps into the clearing I splash a handful of water and scream the hell out of me. Crucial reasons aside, my face looks in utter terror as a single big toco toucan fly past us and perch atop a tree on the other side. My eyes follows the toco toucan, dumbfounded.
Mr. Stewart faints inside my bag and my heart is not calming any minute now. The bleary-eyed toco toucan growls on the tree while staring at me shaken in the night. It seems like this animal is capable of imitating sounds it hears inside the Angry Forest. I almost had a heart attack because of that.
"What a disturbing animal you are. You had Mr. Stewart caught out of his wits," I say, dusting off my pants. I take a huge breath. "You almost sound exactly like the beast in the book. I guess you met them and registered their sounds, right?" It caws. "Now, you're crying like a crow. What incredible ability." It caws so loudly and flaps its wings before flying off deeper into the trees on the other side. "You're leaving?! At least take responsibility for what you've done. You scared me!" I exclaim. "I guess, let's head now to Lost Town, Mr. Stewart before anything else starts appearing..." my voice trails off.