Even with that thought in mind, he still waited for Casper's explanation.
As if reading his thoughts, Casper said,
"I know you must be wondering why the bridge is still in place yet there was a plan of destroying it"
Jean nodded.
"The bridge was supposed to be destroyed according the initial plan. But a group of people suggested that there was a way that they could coexist with the bridge. This was the moment they came up with the second plan. The second plan suggested a barrier to be set up on the bridge. This way, it could still serve its purpose of providing a crossing path over the stream to a few individuals but at the same time barr dangerous beasts from crossing over it."
At this moment, Jean was somewhat confused, but still, he gave the guy a listening ear in order to clear his doubts.
'Then what happened for such possibility to come to fruition?'
Jean pondered.
During this moment, the bike was moving at a medium speed in order for the conversation to go on smoothly.
"After the plan was set, a few individuals decided to come and execute it. Since they couldn't risk lives of many individuals, it was only a few willing ones that were best suited for the job that were sent to the bridge. When they got here, the plan was to make the bridge safe for skilled individuals and dangerous for the dangerous beasts.
"So, according to their plan, they were to use a spell that would be used to differentiate humans from beasts by scanning their soul cores."
With that he paused.
At this point, Jean was taken aback to the fiery tells about the powerful individuals he used to hear while in the village and at school. Although these stories were said to be true, Jean still found it hard to believe them since none had been proved in his lifetime.
It was when he experienced the mysterious force while in the forest at his current residence in Kili City when he started believing on the tales.
Now that he had started believing on such tales, Casper's statement didn't surprise him, despite the shock he was in.
At this point, his intuition was suggesting that he might be near the borders of the powerful individuals if not in their territories.
'Those are the only stories that I ever heard that word being mentioned.'
Jean mused.
The term that Jean was referring to was 'soul core'. He had met the term in multiple stories and tales about the powerful individuals but the stories never went in details about the term itself. It just brushed over it.
Heaving a sigh, Casper continued...
"The spell was to be planted along the bridge. During this period, the bridge was still in its impeccable state. When the time for planting the spell came, seven powerful individuals together with the most powerful among them all, who was supposed to plant the spell as the rest watch over him, travelled to the bridge.
"Since that moment, they never set their eyes on the seven individuals again. So, they assumed that the beasts could have attacked them during their mission. But as time passed by while they were in the process of creating another group of powerful individuals to go and complete the mission that they had sent the first group on, they noticed something strange. "
Pausing for a moment, Casper gulped and lingered.
"They never experienced the beast invasion since that moment. There came a time when some other people grouped themselves and came in search of the seven individuals. That was the period they came to notice the precarious state of the bridge, but this was after some of the had fell off it while trying to cross to the other end of the stream. When the few remaining ones were hit by this epiphany, they decided to go and inform the remaining population about what had happened.
Although someone could say that people that plunged in the stream could have swum out, since they weren't just normal people, none of them made it alive out of the stream. Since that moment, people fear visiting these parts of the stream. They believe that something dangerous resides under the waters of these parts of the stream. Although this could be shocking, but what I am about to tell you could shock you even more."
With that, tense silence settled between the two.
Jean's ears perked up as he waited for Casper's next statement with bated breath.
Since the thought of the people that plunged in the stream swimming out of the stream was what came in mind when Casper mentioned the incident, Jean's interest on the matter was heightened once his thought was invalidated by Casper's statement.
He could have asked some questions during the narration, but he felt that it would be better of he didn't interfere with the narration.
With a snort, Casper resounded once again.
"With many lives being ended by the two partners in crime; the bridge and the stream, it came a day when some of the witnesses discovered something about the bridge."
Casper then paused to allow Jean digest the information.
During this moment, Jean was leaning forward for him not to miss out on anything that Casper was telling him.
"...the bridge had turned out to be weak but could not beak. It would only vibrate and the moment the vibrations exceeds a certain level, it could sway to the side and throw the users into the stream. The bridge was like it was being controlled by a strange force that was thirsting for blood."
Jean shuddered as his heart skipped a beat.
"When this was discovered, the remaining ground of powerful individuals came and discovered that the force was planted by someone. So, using their own abilities, they dismantled the force and this was the moment the discovered that it was the same force that was keeping the bridge in place. Therefore, immediately they delt with the dangerous force, the bridge crumbled under their feet but it didn't fall off. And immediately this happened, the guys started falling off the bridge as they plunged into the stream below it one after the other whenever they could try to run from it.. It was only a single individual that made it to the other end after discovering that the only way of avoiding this doom was lessening the thumbing of his steps.
"It was through the surviver that the rest of the population came to know how to use the bridge. However, it is a rare occasion to witness someone using the bridge since the incidents. Even if someone was to use it, where could the person be heading to? To hunt just like I do? I don't think so, because the beasts they were trying to avoid could end the individual's life the moment they notice the pesky intruder."
This was the moment Jean saw an opening of asking a question. And without wasting even a second, he asked.
"If you knew that the bridge was this dangerous, how comes you allowed me to cross it on my own before briefing me?"
Lingering for a moment, Casper sighed.
"I was just putting your wit in test and you passed the test. And if the worst could have happened, I would have still saved you. I wasn't airheaded to subject you to such dangers without a possible solution in the case of things going south."
Throwing the matter at the back of his head, Jean asked another question.
"If you say that they could use the bridge when going for hunting, does that imply that these parts of the forest that we are currently in don't have such beasts?"
Lingering for a moment, Casper responded.
"The answer is right before your eyes."
When Jean heard Casper's statement, he immediately understood what the guy was trying to imply, but still gave him a chance to explain his point.
"If the population was against the beast for all these years, there was no way they could have coexisted with them all these years considering how dangerous they were. So, in simple terms, my point is that these parts of the forest were almost devoid of beasts. That's why their mission was only focused on cutting the connection of the other section of the forest from this other section rather than killing the beasts on this section of the forest. And what you don't know, this section is rarely a quarter of the other section. It is too small as compared to the other section."
Just at that moment, Jean discovered something about this section of the forest.
It had numerous undergrowths and the tree species was mainly composed of trees that were relatively short as compared to the trees on the other section. Birds were numerous in these.parts of the forest. It seemed safer than the other section due to the lively atmosphere that the bird chants imposed in the area.
It was already 8AM in the morning and the two had been on the journey for a period of more than 4 hours. With the sun now being barely visible in the sky due to the clouds in the sky, the temperatures were still low. But since Jean had taken the pill some hours if not minutes ago, he had become immune to it.
Since crossing the bridge, it had passed almost twenty minutes but Jean couldn't see a sign of them getting to their destination as Casper had previously estimated that it would take them thirty minutes.
Compelled to ask this question, Jean leaned forward and sighed.
"I hope we are at least ten minutes away from our destination."
Although Jean wasn't that good at estimating time, this time around he was sure with his guess.
As soon as Casper heard this, he scoffed.
"Add another thirty minutes on top of that."
Immediately Jean heard this, he let out a frustrated sigh and frowned.
"So, you lied to me when you told me earlier that we were just thirty minutes away? And don't tell me the small time we have wasted at the bridge is what is causing this change in time."
Jean whined.
Immediately he was done with his statement, he noticed the trees in front of them swaying. The air in the surroundings changed from cold to warm.
Just as he was still trying to comprehend what was happening, the bike shot through the trees and entered a clearing. When he raised his gaze he noticed that they were out of the forest.
m(__)m