When Jean turned his attention to Casper and noticed him gazing in the same direction, he lingered.
Just at that moment, Casper turned to him and told him to come off the bike.
After hesitating for a moment, Jean did as instructed. He didn't know why Casper had told him to this, but since he didn't want to pester the guy, he just did what he was asked to do.
As soon as he stopped on the ground, he immediately directed his gaze towards the group of beasts that was approximately fifty meters away.
The group of beasts was composed of the bison like creatures with golden fur and shades of grey just like the one they met a while ago. From a close distance, one could tell that the creatures bared no difference in terms of size when it came to the one they met earlier. Although there were young ones in the group, they were barely visible due to the the denomination that the mature ones imposed on them.
Among the group, there were also some deers that had grey fur with shades of white around their necks.
With the bison creatures outnumbering the deers, it could be easy for one staring from a distance to mistake the deers as their calves, if not for their colour difference.
"Go and cross the bridge, I will be joining you in a jiffy."
Casper commanded.
For a moment, Jean didn't understand why Casper was telling him to cross the bridge on foot yet they could still do the same with the bike.
Jean hesitated for a moment, but after estimating the chances of the beasts attacking them since they were currently on the same side of the stream, he stepped forward and approached the bridge.
When he looked closely, he noticed that virtually every part of the floor of the bridge had some cracks and fissures. It was looking like it was going to collapse any minute.
Doubting his chances of making it to the other end of the bridge, Jean tilted his head to the back and gave Casper a dubious look.
As if waiting for this reaction from Jean, Casper who was still on the bike pursed his lips and gestured him to move forward.
As soon as Jean got an assurance from Casper, he inhaled deeply, put a foot forward and stepped on the bridge.
Judging by the condition that the bridge was in, it was easy for one to tell that the bridge was rarely used. Some plants had started growing on it, making virtually fifty percent of the bridge look green.
As he pulled the remaining foot forward and stood on the bridge, he slowly turned back and gave Casper a furtive look.
When he confirmed that the guy hadn't changed his mind, he sighed and started taking vigilant steps forward.
With each step he made, the bridge vibrated under his feet as if on the verge of collapsing.
The stream below the bridge was strong and deep. And it was approximately twelve meters from the base of the bridge.
This was enough to instill fear in him, considering his low chances of survival incase the bridge collapsed.
Time seemed to slow down as he tried to make his steps gentle.
After what felt like an eternity, it finally came to an end as Jean stepped off the bridge.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Jean quickly turned around and faced Casper on the other end of the bridge. Just at that moment, Casper send the bike forward in a jolt and stopped right at the edge of the bridge.
He then gestured at Jean to move to the side.
Without even wasting even a second, Jean side stepped and moved to the side.
In the next moment, the bike released a vroom sound as a cloud of smoke shot from its exhauster. In the next second, Casper send the bike forward in a supersonic speed as it shot across the bridge.
In less than two seconds, the bike cruised past Jean as a gust of wind resulting from its movement blew his hair to the side.
When Jean witnessed this scene, he was bewildered. But when he followed the movement of the bike, he was baffled.
As soon as the bike was off the bridge, Casper stepped on the brakes as the bike made a one hundred and eighty degrees spin and faced in the direction of the bridge before jolting to the side.
Just as the bike was about to hit the ground, Casper outstretched his right foot and stepped on the ground, bringing the abrupt fall of the bike into a halt. In the next moment a cloud of dust rose in the sky, enveloping Casper that was now barely twenty meters from where Jean was standing.
Jean was awed by this scene. At this point, he was truly mesmerized by Casper's exceptional skills of riding a bike.
At this point, his intuition was telling him that there were so much about the guy that he was yet to know.
As the dust cleared out, the two gazed at each other and smiled simultaneously.
Without further hesitations, Jean started approaching Casper.
When he got to him, he sighed and stared at him with a questioning look.
"What is the stare for?"
Casper asked.
"Why did you had to pull me off the bike before crossing the bridge? Was it because you were worried that I could fall off from it because of the speed that you could ride it with?"
Jean asked as if not having a clue to why the guy did that.
He knew very well that if the two were to cross the bridge on the bike, there were higher chances that the bridge could have collapsed under their weight considering the condition it was in.
He was even aware that for the guy to successfully cross the bridge on a bike, he had to depend on the speed of the bike which could lessen the weight exerted on the bridge if it was to pass faster.
"I think you already know the condition the bridge is in. If the bridge could barely support your weight, what do you think could have happened when the two of us together with the bike would have crossed it in one go?"
With that, dead silence settled between the two.
A minute later, Jean gazed in the direction of the bridge with a distant look.
"I get your point, but still, I have a question."
With that, Jean turned to Casper and gulped.
"Why is the bridge that way, because I am pretty sure that it wasn't that way some times back?"
For a moment, Casper lingered.
"I have to admit that you are a very observant individual. At times, you seem unaware of what is going around, only to come up with a question about something that is hard to notice."
Pausing for a moment and giving Jean a thumbs-up.
At this point, Jean couldn't help but let out a genuine smile.
"Just as you said, the bridge has not been in this condition all this while. But before I tell you what actually transpired before the bridge's condition was compromised, get on the bike. We are yet to get to our destination."
Jean was about to object, but immediately found Casper's words making sense.
They were on a long journey and wasting even a single minute was akin to reversing their progress. So, at this point, he found it important to continue with the journey as they progress with their discussion.
With the condition that the bridge was in, Jean didn't expect the beasts on the other side of the bridge to attack them.
'Unless they were tired living.'
Jean mused as he got on the bike.
Immediately he got on the bike, Casper turned it around and left the vicinity and disappeared into the forest on that side of the stream.
"Now let me tell you what really transpired before the bridge was in the condition it is in."
With that, Casper lingered.
"Some years back, beasts on the other side of the forest used to cross to this side by the bridge. And whenever this could happen, the beasts would cover miles and miles of distance after which they will get to people's residence. Whenever this could happen, there would erupt a human and beast conflict and since most of the beasts were stronger, many lives would be lost in the process.
"One of the reasons to why these beasts would travel this long distances, was because they preferred human residents since they were populated with foods which could sustain them.
"Although the forest also provided the beasts especially those that feed on plants enough food, most of the beasts could find themselves in human residents due to fleeing from the prying predators that were after them."
With that, Casper paused for a moment to allow Jean digest the information.
"The worst case scenario was when the predators could also enter the human residents. Since most of these beasts are among the rulers of the forest, it was easy for them to decimated a human settlement within a blink of an eye. It took a lot of efforts and powerful individuals to take down such beasts."
With a gulp, Casper continued.
"Now coming to the main point of the condition of the bridge. Since these incidents seemed to increase over the years as many beasts kept on discovering the presence of the bridge, the victims labelled the bridge as the source of their plight. That was the moment they came up with a plan of destroying the bridge in the efforts of barring the beasts from crossing over to this side."
For a moment Jean's mind was in a maze.
'If they were to destroy it, how comes it is still in place?'
p(^-^)q