They left the beautiful forest behind and headed into the swamp. They had stopped and filled five bottles from the stream before leaving. They reached the top of the hill that looked out over the forest stopping to take one last look before walking on.
They walked for hours not feeling tired because of all the running they had done, Tim on the other hand was lagging after two hours. "Silvia…. Please can I ride Lilly? My legs are killing me."
Silvia looked at Lilly. "If we all have to walk then you do…" Silvia said as they stopped beside a body of black murky water sitting down to take off her shoes.
They waded through and once they got across, they made camp on the other side. They ate some of the dried meat and then lay down on the ground to sleep.
Lacey awoke and soon was followed by the others; they ate a little before beginning the journey again. They walked through the swamp; at the end of the day it was dryer as they came closer to the mountain.
They slept that night with little water left in their bottles. The next day they headed for the base of the mountain. "So where is this place where we can get through the mountain?" Asked Silvia when they were getting breakfast, Lacey was away, behind a bush changing into her dress.
She had been wearing her small deer skin dress for the last two days. When she was finished tying her skirts up, she joined them around the fire they had built to cook their breakfast.
"Well I don't know if it goes all the way through the mountain, but it's on the left side of the mountain, it's hard to spot without knowing where it is." Ray said.
"You brought us up here without knowing if its goings all the way through." Silvia said disappointed, Ray smiled sheepishly while rubbing the back of his neck.
"Well let's go see if it goes through. I'm ready for some adventure." Tim stated and got up. Silvia just shook her head and got up too.
They headed out again and a couple minutes later reached the base of the steep cliffs of the mountain and headed left following Ray.
They walked alone the cliff, finally Ray stopped. Lacey came to a stop beside him as Silvia and Tim followed. "Who wants to go first?" Ray said, pointing to the crack in the cliff that was a little bigger than enough for a person to walk through, Lacey stared, not knowing how she had missed it when she had run to the side of the mountain.
"I will." Silvia said moving into the crack followed by Lilly, who barely fit inside. Tim immediately followed her, Lacey hesitated but when Ray motioned for her to go ahead, she stepped in too.
Lacey followed behind Tim as they headed into the small hall in the cliffs and was followed by Ray, the crack seemed to go up slowly and steadily as they walked, after a little bit it came to more of a cave.
they stopped, and Silvia unpacked the torches off Lilly which they had made a few days before and lit them.
Handing one to each of the others they then continued. As the small cave curved, it continued going up. They had been walking for a good part of the day. Suddenly the cave opened and began to get bigger in size. Soon they could walk side by side, but they continued in a line.
The cave seemed to begin to go down as it got bigger. They came to a spot where the cave opened into a room, it had another cave on the other side. "What's this place?" Lacey asked. "No clue." Ray said.
The room was filled with writings that covered the walls. They left the room and continued going through the next cave, continuing down in a small decline, with twists and turns along the way.
They walked for a while longer before they saw light at the end, it was spotty like it was coming through rocks that covered the entrance.
"There's something blocking the entrance." Silvia said coming to a stop, everyone stopped behind her, then she started again. Lacey stared at the site of a dark pink mist as it fluttered like butterflies around Silvia, then as fast as it appeared it was gone.
Silvia jolted then bent over and coughed then straightened. "Wow…" Silvia exclaimed. "What happened?" Tim said, stepping to stand beside her. Silvia shook herself. "It's nothing." Silvia rolled her shoulders.
"Came on. I will get the rocks out of the way." Lacey nodded, this must be where the barrier stopped. She followed Silvia as she headed for the entrance, but stopped as the safe feeling washed over her.
She looked down at her dress, it was blue, then it deepened, then changed to the soft pastel green, then yellow, then red, then pink, then back to green, then blue again. All while the color was changing the skirt that was tied up, started to undo, and now she stood in her full-length skirt, then sleeves to her wrists.
The dress then turned yellow, Lacey turned to look at Ray as he took a step towards her. Her eyes went wide as she got a sense, they were all in danger. "What?..."
She turned and ran towards Silvia who had started to pick up a rock, as she passed Tim who had been shocked into stillness from the color show of her dress.
Her dress pulsed red, orange and yellow as she ran, the fabric of her dress moved as she pulled Silvia and Tim close to her. They were wrapped in the pulsing fabric as a burning heat hit them, then the fabric glowed even brighter.
-to be continued