"Stop wiggling!"
"Can't you just hold on a bit tighter?"
"It's raining! what do you want me to do?!"
"uh"
Sitting on top of her shoulder, Michael starts to climb the side of the steep cliff. It feels like he's a kid again except now he's a twelve years old on top of another twelve-year-old. Layla carries Michael over and they start climbing. Michael got a hand while Layla got legs so, they combine them together.
Michael had to admit that this is not the brightest idea but, it somehow works. Climbing the hillside with this setup. Bit by bit they start to get higher. Their target is on a cliffside so, they have to climb quite a bit before they reach it.
The rain keeps getting worse. Before it was only a light rain but now it is a full-on downpour. This makes climbing the rocks ten times harder than it should. Both Michael and Layla are having a hard time staying on it.
"Layla, stop wiggling!"
"Maybe you should grab on to it better!"
"It's all wet! I can't hold!"
"Sh*T"
Amidst the arguing Layla's legs slip on the wet rock and they lost their balance. The two got pulled down by gravity and tumbled down the mountain. Luckily Michael could grab a hold of something with his hand while Layal got her leg stuck inside a bush nearby.
"This is not gonna work," Michael says with a broad face. This whole thing was Layla's idea and it isn't working.
"No, you just suck at climbing! We are doing fine until you mess up!"
"That's because you keep wiggling! How am I going to grab on to something if my lower half keeps shaking!"
"Ahh! Maybe with you had more power, we wouldn't have this problem."
"The problem is that your idea sucks!"
"No, they are not! You are just blaming because you can't do it!"
"Oh, yea? then let's try again then."
The duo got back up and start to climb the mountain again but this time they complain all the way through. The journey progresses smoothly while the two argue with each other. If it's not raining then all this arguing would attract some monster. However, if it's not raining they wouldn't be here in the first place.
"Shut up! how's that my problem!"
"You shut up! we are almost there."
"See! my idea works. You just suck at it!"
"No, your idea works because of me!"
At this point, no one is winning the argument. Michael grabs onto the last rock and looks up. There it is, in all of its glory, the Boniha main source of food, The Alma fruit. This one is not as big as the one Michael found in the Alma fruit tree but, it looks quite blue in color. If not for this slight blue one would have a hard time finding this fruit in the rain.
"Quickly bring it down"
"You don't have to tell me."
Michael extends his hand upward to bring the fruit down, however, the fruit move. It is asending upward. Michael reaches out and tries to grab it but the fruit slip through his finger.
"What!?"
"What are you doing? How could getting one fruit be this hard?"
"NO.. it"
"What? Just bring it down?"
"It flew away"
"Huh?"
Layla looked up and saw that the Alma fruit is being dragged higher. She was shocked. What's pulling the fruit upward?
"Follow it!" Layla yelled at Michael
"What!? It's too dangerous!"
"Then do you want to starve to death? We don't have to fight it, just snatch the fruit away from it then dip."
"....." Michael grits his teeth and continues climbing. with a newfound urgency, Michael hastens his climb. However, Michael did not look forward to this at all. The most dangerous monster is all inside the mountain and what's pulling the alma fruit has a high chance of being an Apex predator... wait... there is only an Apex predator here.
"Why did you stop?"
"You do know that there's only Boniha frog up here right?"
"...." Layal silence for a bit. She didn't think about it earlier but, now that Michael points it out she suddenly has a second thoughts about this.
"We just have to steal the fruit right?"
"From an apex? No chance we made it out alive!"
"Then we would die either way!"
"We could just venture out into the water," Mcihael suggests. Having seen the Apex predator drag a crazy woman down into the water leave a big impression on him. He didn't want to do this at all.
"With our condition? we would drown before any monster could reach us. If we wait for our wounds to heal we would also be dead by then. What do you want to do?"
"...." Mcihael grits his teeth "Fine, we will go up there and wait for the frog to go to sleep. Then we steal the fruit OK?"
"Agreed"
They both scale up the mountain. Following the fruit into a large cave on the cliffside. The cave is quite dark and sinister. Many skulls and bones decorate the whole cave making sure to intimidate everyone that enters this place.
The sight sends chills down both their spine. They could still remember how the pirate woman has been killed very clearly. Michael doesn't want to go in but, his stomach doesn't agree. They proceed into the dark cave that is filled with water puddles.
They sneak into the large opening that looks like the Frog's place to sleep. The large area is filled with water and lily pads. The monster is in the middle munching on an Alma fruit. It's a 4-meter-tall frog-like creature with a larger circle on its head. The circle had a wall that stood upward and held some water in it.
The creature is aquamarine in color, common on Boniha island. It also has a sharp amphibian eye that could see in the dark and underwater. The sight of this creature scared Michaela and Lyala witless.
It's the biggest monster that they have ever seen aside from what Micahel saw in the dream. On the side, there is a bunch of Alma fruit lying on the ground. Look like the frog is waiting for the fruit to mature before eating it.
"That's our target..."
Michael whispers to Lyala. They only want one fruit to survive, Now they only need to wait for the Frog to be asleep.
before entering the cave Michael and Layla also splash some mud on themself to add a layer of smell protection. So the frog hasn't noticed them yet. He and Layla sneak into a good position to steal the fruit.