We walked further to the direction of the east from where we had met up again with Billy, and continued along the dried out swamp. There was actually nothing of interest along our way and Billy was saying that we should be already quite near to the outer section of the swamp before we could see the mountain again. However, suddenly an unusual sight was present right before our eyes.
It was the sight of some numbers of small fishes, jumping on the then muddy surfaces of a small section of a lower surface with small mangrove-like trees. Based on what I had seen, I supposed that the small section might be some sort of a pond or rather a tiny lake, with the depth of perhaps only six feet. I had initially decided to take a closer look by going closer to the shore of the pond, but Jessica suddenly held my left arm and told me to stay.
"Wait!" she suddenly said as she grabbed my arm. "Stay where you are!"
"What is wrong?" I asked her, curiously.
Then, Billy apparently decided to look at the trees around the pond in a little more detail, and it was not long before he quickly guessed that there seemed to be an unusual sign of drying up. When he asked Jessica about it, she quickly confirmed it to be true.
"Tunggu ini… Jess, ini tadinya kolam 'kan? Tapi tiba-tiba mengering?" he said to her, asking if the pond was initially filled with water but somehow suddenly dried up.
"Iya… keliatannya gitu…" she responded, saying that she also believed that was the case.
I began to feel like I was dumbfounded, and so Jessica explained to me briefly that what we had just seen right in front of our eyes might be a hint of an imminent volcanic eruption. She continued that prior to an eruption, there would always be more magma activity inside the earth that would trigger the temperature of the surfaces above it to rise up as a result. The dried up pond that we saw at the moment might still be filled with water just a few hours ago since there was still mud all over its floor.
When she finished explaining, I realized right away that the mountain in which we were heading to was actually not dead, but only inactive, or rather sleeping since the magma deep below it just did not show any rise of activity up until that moment. She also told me that another initial signs of a volcanic eruption was mostly an earthquake, but with a wide range of severity in scale.
Then, just after she finished explaining, the very same sign suddenly occurred all around us. The vibration of the quake that we felt was completely different than the one back when we were in the area above the underground room just before it collapsed. It was far more violent, significantly longer in duration, and also accompanied by what seemed to be a sound of an explosion in the distance, but definitely was coming from the direction of the mountain.
I almost fell to the ground, but I managed to get a grip on one of the trees nearby. Jessica also lost her balance, but thankfully Billy succeeded in holding her before swiftly holding on to another nearby tree. The earthquake lasted for about ten minutes, and as I looked towards the direction of the pond, I could not believe my eyes when I saw the muddy floor slowly dried out and turned into cracks of damp soils.
The ground around us also occasionally moved up and down a little, like it was small waves of water around the beach. If anything, I actually felt a little relieved for the jumping fishes since they did not need to suffer any longer in an environment with no water, but with the cost of losing their lives as well.
When the earthquake finally stopped, we first stayed where we were, not releasing our grips away from the trees and also not moving even an inch. Shortly after that, I noticed a faint smoke in the sky, and supposedly right above where the mountain was. Apparently, the earthquake just now was indeed the sign of a suddenly more aggressive magma activity right under the ground where we were standing.
"And that… is the initial ash venting…" Jessica said as she pointed her right hand towards the smoke in the sky.
"It is hazardous is not it?" I asked her as I slowly release my grip from the tree and slowly stood up straight again.
"Since it mostly contains silicate that could trigger silicosis, then I have to say yes…" she responded as she turned to me. "Do you have something in mind?"
"I was thinking that it might be somehow beneficial to us, since the aliens must more or less be panicking over it or at least be anxious. Especially considering that a volcanic eruption had wiped out some of their previous generations in the past." I answer her.
The prove which supported my thoughts seemed to come to us almost instantly after that, since all of a sudden I heard many flying sounds coming towards us in the distance, and right in front of us. When we wait for some more time, it was revealed that the sound was indeed coming from the rushing aliens from the direction of the ancient temple towards the direction of the mountain, or rather, perhaps to the crater.
The strange thing was that none of them seemed to bother activating their stealth camouflage, and therefore we could clearly see them from a relatively safe distance from them, since they were rushing from the other side of the pond. We waited until the flying sounds could no longer be heard again before I suggested that we were to follow the direction of the aliens.
"Do you have something in your mind?" Billy asked me just as we began to follow the aliens.
"Perhaps, although for now I still have nothing to suggest…" I told him short.
We kept on going in a faster pace, and within each step that we took I felt like the sky above me was also getting grayer. It was actually relatively easy to find out where they had been heading since Billy could spot scratch markings on the tree branches within every steps that we had passed. I supposed that the aliens were in a so much hurry that they accidentally left their trails on their surroundings.
About some time later, we began to see some sort of a clearing in the distance, which was supposedly and most likely the same area that we had come to during the dusk on the previous day. However, instead of a crater and also mountain in the distance, we saw a completely different sight than what we had expected to see.
It was the sight of a rather vast wild sugarcane field, and with a particular number of aliens there as well. I could not take a quick count on the estimation of their numbers since the ash hindered my sights a little, but I was completely sure that their numbers were no less than a dozen in total.
However, it also suddenly occurred to me that at least one or two Beetle Hovering Objects would also be most likely around there somewhere to watch the safety of their own teammates in the distance, especially since I had little to no doubt that the aliens' vision would also be seriously reduced due to the ashes, while the rest of the few others inside the object on the other hand, would have no problem since the ashes must have no effect to the object's vision.
Shortly after that, a strong wind blew directly towards me and the sugarcane field, similar to the ones that had blown back when we were in the meadow on the previous day. At first, I was pretty annoyed by it since it made some of the ashes stuck on my glasses, forcing me to remove it in order to wipe it off first, before putting it back on.
As it turned out, as soon as I put my glasses on again, I noticed, although only for very faintly, that somewhere in the distance towards the direction of the northwest, the ashes did not seem to fall down naturally. It appeared as if something invisible had blocked the ashes to completely fall down to the ground, and instead making some of the ashes piled up a little bit on its surface. It took me a little while, before it suddenly hit my mind that the invisible thing blocking the ashes was the hovering object in its stealth mode all along.
The strong wind blow did in fact give us an advantage to at least be able to predict the possible locations of where the invisible hovering object might be. With that in mind, I was about to tell both Billy and Jessica that I had found a way to evade the detection of the hovering object. However, I suddenly thought if we might also in fact utilize the current opportunity to at least put a dent on their numbers.
I fell silent for quite some time, until Billy patted my right shoulder and made me snap out of my trapped-in-deep-thoughts moment. Thankfully though, his action somehow also made me came across of an idea, although a very risky one that might result in reducing a great number of the aliens.
"You are a little scary whenever you are in a deep and serious thinking about something, you know?" Billy told me with a rather concerned expression.
"My apologies… but listen to me, I have an idea…" I said as I could barely contain the thrill, some excitement, and also perhaps the anxiety inside me. "Although, I have to tell you all that it will be extremely risky…"