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From: mandil_k@hotmail.com (mandil)
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NNTP-Posting-Date: 10 Jan 2002 03:59:39 GMT
Subject: {ASSM} Masters of the Arches  chapter 6
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 06:10:04 -0500
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Masters of the Arches
by Mandil



                               Chapter 6





On both sides of the river, the landscape was now gradually changing.
Boulders with grass in between them now replaced much of the trees.
The bank on each side was also beginning to slope higher and steeper.
In some places it rose as much as five feet. It seemed that the river
had eaten the rock over the ages and had carved its way through the
bedrock.

Still there was a lot of animal life to be seen everywhere. After many
hours they came to a place where there were no trees at all on either
side of the river. They both agreed to stop as soon as they could find
a place to anchor the raft around a rock near the shore.

The sun was now below the horizon and it was time they stopped for the
night.

As soon as they found the right spot to anchor the raft, Vincent got a
fire going before it was too dark. The bright flame in the darkness
could be a beacon for anyone spying on them. But on the other hand,
since there were no trees around and the grass was relatively short,
anyone approaching could be detected relatively easily also.

The instand that the meat was cocked and the coffee was hot, they put
out the fire and ate in the darkness. That night they slept close to
one another in their sleeping bags, -they each had their own sleeping
bag now - but before falling asleep, Vincent did make love to Nika
with a passion he never imagined he still had.

The following morning, Vincent felt extremely healty and he was glad
to be alive. As a matter of fact, he hadn’t felt like this since
he had been in his twenties. His back was no longer hurting - not a
day had gone by in the last few years without his experiencing some
kind of back pain - and even his stomach ulcers were long forgotten.

He began to suspect that something was happening to him. Then when he
looked at his reflection in the calm water of the river, he noticed
that new hairs were growing well in front of his receding hairline.He
was definitely looking younger also.

After washing themselves in the river they ate breakfast then they got
back onto the raft and they let the river carry them downstream once
again. The river continued in a general southwest direction and the
further they went the greater were the changes in landscape. Very far
in the distance, to their right, they could now see a low range of
mountains. It could have been part of the same range that contain the
tall peak where the cave containing the arch was, but he had no way to
be sure of that.

The banks on both sides were still much higher than the sand bank of
the river itself, they could see grass covered plains in the distance
where stags with towering racks of antlers were grazing. In other
places, there were hundreds of deer with their skittering fawns on
long thin legs, and all were eating peacefully. On another part of the
plains there were groups of antelope-like animals along with woolly
looking bison-like creatures, each group being very near one another.
But from their position they also saw packs of dire wolfs and other
predators that he could not identify. All were roaming on the edge of
the herds while trying to hide in the taller grass.

But what struck Vincent the most was the tall mammoths. They were of
all ages and sizes; some were not more than a few weeks old. Some had
reddish brown thick woolly fur while others tended toward the yellow
or gold. There was no mistake about their being mammoths, their thick
trunk and long circular tusks were proof enough of that. Numerous
birds were following them and some could be seen actually resting on
their backs. A few of the great woolly beasts could be seen in the
river ahead and as they went by, barely a few hundred feet from the
closest of the noble animals, their presence didn’t warrant more
than a glance from one or two to the great beasts.

It then occurred to Vincent that if there were mammoths in this place
there was no reason that there shouldn’t be saber-tooth tigers
also. It was probably a saber-tooth tiger that Nika had seen roaming
near the field when she had been held prisoner.

Over their heads could be seen circling, hawks eagles, and great
condors. All of them much larger than he could have imagined. It
occurred to Vincent that hunters from Earth and also biological
experts would give plenty to be allowed into this place to hunt or to
study the wild life.

But there were many dangers here also he realised as he watched a
couple of wolves bring down an antelope that had been caught grazing a
little farther than the rest. To cross this plain on foot would be a
very foolish thing to do he told himself. There was no place to hide
here except in the grass, and even in there, it was certain that
snakes and other predators were waiting.

Everywhere he looked the land was flat, except for the mountain far
away on his right. They were able to see for miles in every direction
since there was no pollution or smog to hinder the view.

By late afternoon, they stopped on the left bank of the river at a
point where it made a sharp turn. At that particular spot, the bank
being barely four feet high, was not as steep as it was everywhere
else. More important still, there was a large rock half in the water
and half on the bank and they used it to anchor the raft. Because of
the many predators they had seen that day, Vincent decided that it
would be much safer for them to sleep on the raft that night. Since it
was almost completely surrounded by water, it would give them an extra
edge against the numerous hunters of the night. Beside if they had to
leave in a hurry, it would be much quicker that way since all they had
to do was to untie the raft and let the current take hold of it.

It did prove to be a very wise choice. In the middle of the night they
were awakened by the sounds of growling and of splattering water. When
Vincent looked carefully, he was able to see in the dim starlight, the
outline of five or six of the tall wolves that he had previously seen
that day. Two of them had even managed to climb on the rock anchoring
the raft and they were preparing themselves to climb aboard when he
saw them. The only thing that seemed to stop them was the four or five
feet distance from the raft to the rock. Either they were afraid of
the water or they couldn’t swim. In all evidence they were
presently trying to make up their mind to jump on board or not.

But then he noticed something that chilled his bones; he realised that
they were much more intelligent than their counterparts on Earth. One
of the two that were on the rock began to chew on the rope as if it
understood that once the raft was set free without guidance, the
current would push it against the bank where the others were waiting.

It took the fiery-eyed creature less than a minute to go through the
nylon rope and before Victor had time to reach for his rifle, he felt
the raft moving in the darkness. Putting his rifle away, he reached
for one of the long poles and he told Nika to help him to push the
raft away from shore. For the next few minutes, the raft came as close
as ten feet from the shore where the other members of the pack were
waiting.

It took all of their strength to keep the raft away, and as soon as
they stopped pushing with the poles it would come near the shore again
where the wolfes were following them along the bank. But once they
were past the sharp turn of the river, it did remained well away from
shore without the need of any steering or pushing.

During the remainder of the night, he or Nika stayed awake in case the
current of the river would move them near the bank again. When the
first light of dawn came they were able to see six of the beasts with
their pointed ears and glittering teeth, following them on the now
much higher bank of the river. He almost made up his mind to shoot a
couple of them so as to scare the rest away, but he then decided
against this. If they were as intelligent as he had first judged them
to be, he figured that it would be wiser not to reveal the deadly
accuracy of his riffle. He was certain that at this range he could
probably kill one or two of them but the remainder would simply move
further away and continue to follow them while remaining out of range
of his bullets. Beside there was also the chance that the noise of his
shooting would attract more of them.

By noon, the current of the river was much faster and the wolves were
now in a half run trying to keep up with them. Nika seemed to know a
lot about the wolves and she explained to Vincent that they would not
simply give up their pursuits but would stay with them as long as they
could. In the middle of the afternoon, the embankment on both sides of
the river was now over ten and twelve feet high and it was solid rock.
In all evidence the flow of the water had dug away through the solid
rock throughout the ages and had made a channel for itself by eating
the rock out. They had seen no traces of the wolves for the last hour,
but at the same time it was also impossible to stop the raft since the
current was much too fast and they were moving between two solid walls
of rock.

That night they remained floating on the river while the fast current
was carrying them almost in a straight southerly direction. They took
turns staying awake and watching but Vincent knew that there was
nothing they could do to stop the raft or even guide it now. Then
before noon of the next day, he heard the noise of rapids ahead of
them. Before they had time to react they found themselves in extremely
fast water and a few minutes later, they were at the head of a very
high waterfall. The raft was being sucked toward it and there was
nothing they could do about it. Barely a hundred yards before the
water fell over the edge of the fall, the river separated in three
different directions with the main part of the river going over the
fall.

The volume of water going over the edge was tremendous and even in
their situation of eminent disaster, Vincent found himself thinking
about the number of kilowatts such a fall could generate with this
combination of height and volume.

Then the raft struck a rock that was splitting the water between the
central and right channel. It stopped there and remained in
equilibrium as if it had a mind of its own. It did reminded him of
someone he used to know, someone who found it impossible to make a
choice whenever the time came to do so.

Vincent used that pause to tighten their supplies more securely to the
raft, he then tied a length of rope around his waist, and he tied the
other end around Nika’s waist. Only then did he take time to
examine the right channel.

The amount of water going through that smaller channel was only a
fraction of that going over the fall and instead of falling straight
down as it did in the main branch, it cascaded down into a series of
rapids. He knew that even if they were to guide the raft so that it
would follow that direction, the chances of making it alive through
those rapids would be small since he could see rocks everywhere
sticking out of the stream. If the raft was to hit any of them, they
were certain to be crushed to death.

But they had no choice now, over the fall it was certain death for
them while through the smaller channel their chances were just a
little better. He took a pole and he signalled to Nika to take the
other one. They pushed against the rock so as to change the static
equilibrium of the raft. But the swift current was pressing them
against the rock and the force they were exerting was not great enough
to unbalance the raft.

By mean of signs with his hand - since there was no way that he could
be heard above the maelstrom of noises that the falls were emitting -
he was able to make Nika understand to drop her pole and to help him
push on the one he had. With the two poles pushing at the same time,
they had two points of contact with the rock and much of the shove
that one pole was exerting was cancelled by the other one.

She did as he asked her and after a few seconds, the raft slowly began
to move in the direction of the right channel. Then as soon as the
current took hold of them they began to move faster on the turbulent
waters of the smaller river.

At the first rapid that they encountered, the raft almost overturned
and had their supplies not been well secured with ropes, they would
have been thrown overboard. Vincent estimated that their speed was
well over thirty miles per hour and this was putting too much strain
on the ropes holding the logs together. They were lucky and they
didn’t hit any of the many rocks that stood here and there in
the middle of the rapids.

Then they were in a region of much calmer water. But there were no
places to stop since the shorelines were well above their heads and
beside they were still moving very fast. A couple of minutes later
they were in the next series of rapids.

These were not as bad as the previous rapids but it went on for a long
stretch of time and on many occasions the raft did hit rocks and a
section of rope holding the raft together did break under the strain.
But the remaining two ropes did their job of holding the raft
together.

After what appeared to him to be an eternity they were again floating
on calm waters. But it was only a reprieve for what was lying ahead of
them. The noises coming from ahead of them was far worse than anything
they had heard so far and Vincent could see an immense rainbow in the
sky just over the river ahead. He then knew that there was a fall
ahead and there was no way for them to avoid it.

He placed his arms around Nika’s shoulders and he looked at her
in the eyes. She knew that it was his way to say farewell and she gave
him a weak smile in return. All of a sudden, the raft was pulled out
from under their feet and they were in free fall. Everything then went
black for Vincent.




                             ( end of chapter 6 )

                          <http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/mandil/www/>

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