Chapter 5

It's been four days since I left the tree plantation. I haven't seen any water sources since. Vegetation was lacking and the reddish earth was practically devoid of vegetation. Only a few plants resistant to high heat and lack of rain were growing. From ancient times the plants adapt to the environment in which they live, and therefore the plants that grow in this environment with high heat and lack of precipitation instead of leaves have thorns, or have very small leaves being covered with something that seems to be a layer of wax that prevents the evaporation of water from plants. I think I'm bored saying these things. Most likely you already knew them.

Although I had been walking through these places without vegetation and with unbearable heat for four days, it seemed to me that I had been walking for a month. I don't remember there being such a climate and so little vegetation here. Like I told you. Things are changing, and the changes now are very obvious.

Finally, after another two days in the distance, a forest could be seen. Finally a little shade. I'll be able to breathe in a breath of fresh air. Due to the outside temperatures, I had to move more underground, and at certain intervals I would go outside, and when I did, the air was dry and hot, and I could hardly breathe. Finally we reached the edge of the forest. The given forest is the Carnivorous Forest. Once we reached the edge of this forest, we stopped the mole car and got out of it. I looked ahead at the trees though, at the wild flora that did not allow me to see more than five meters in front of me. I had a strange feeling that something bad was happening in this forest. The wisest thing would be not to enter this forest, but I have no encounter. If I surrounded myself I would lose a few precious days, days that could make a difference. I know I told you that in four months, if I go at the speed I have now, I will reach the pit that separates me from the City of Wishes, but the truth, folks, is that I don't know what changes have taken place on the great continent. I have no idea of ​​the obstacles and what dangers have arisen. There is a good chance that I will run into other obstacles in trying to get around the forest. The best and at the same time the worst is to go straight through the forest. That strange feeling that something was going on in this forest continued.

I took a deep breath, got into the mole car, and drove into the darkness of the forest. After traversing a bit through the wild flora, with plants that spread everywhere, with roots grown and chaotically out of the ground, we arrived in a cleaner area of ​​the forest, with only tall trees present that did not allow too much light to touch the ground. It was incredibly beautiful in this forest but something was strange. There was no sign of an animal or a bird. A grave silence was present in the forest. I was waiting for something to happen at any moment. Whenever it's too quiet, something's wrong. It is as if the predator imposes that state of tranquility on the environment, in order to instill fear in the prey. To be honest, I was a little scared as I drove through the woods, but that didn't stop me from continuing. Even if I was inside the car, that didn't guarantee my safety. Every ten meters I put a knot in my throat. Bubbles of sweat flowed all over my body and I became more and more anxious. Suddenly there were cries for help. The cries for help were like a slap in the face, waking me from the state of panic and confusion that had created in my soul. I took a deep breath and began to head for the source of the screams. The forest grew thicker, and the foliage of the forest blocked my path. Now other varieties of trees rose to the vault of heaven. The trees were very thick, requiring six people to hold one, and around them grew vines and all kinds of hanging plants. In this part of the forest the flora was much wilder. Besides the trees there were bushes of plants that had flowers of different colors, and besides the tall and thick trees, there were other smaller trees, some of them having flowers, others fruits. But I didn't know how edible these fruits were. The forest landscape for a second distracted me from what I was doing. For a second I had forgotten the cries for help that resounded throughout the forest. This state in which I was absorbed by the landscape around me did not last long. I slapped my face twice and woke up from that tempting state. Whenever I lose my mind or have no idea, or when I want to concentrate, I slap my face. It helps me get back to reality.

After slapping my face twice, I began to follow the cries for help again, which continued to be heard louder and louder. I was just panicking or anxious. To be honest, I was just curious. After a few minutes in which I had a hard time moving through the wild flora, having to tread with the mole car everything I encountered on the way. There was something besides the screams of help. It sounded like a continuous fall of water. To my surprise, the source of the sound was a waterfall. A river flowed through the forest. The water hit the large stones at the base of the waterfall, the water continuing on its way. A few meters from the waterfall on a fairly small stretch, the river is wider. In the given part of the river, right in the middle of it was a small islet, or rather a piece of land with a fairly circular shape with a diameter of about six meters. On this piece of land grew a huge and strange plant. For the first time I saw such a plant. It occupies almost the entire surface of this islet. The stem of the plant was very thick and looked like a sack filled with some kind of liquid. Out of the stem came something that looked like a tube of a length I could not determine, in which a man would fit freely and the given tube was bordered by what appeared to be the flower of this plant. The tube and stem of the plant were green, while the given flower had shades of red and yellow. The flower was huge, rather resembling in appearance a vessel in which you hold water, a vessel 50 cm high and 1 m in diameter. What was the vessel was red and what was inside was yellow. The given plant gave off a pleasant and attractive smell. But the strange part was that the cries for help could be heard from inside the plant. I got out of the car on a mole and sat by the river looking at the plant. The screams continued to be heard, and I thought there was someone inside this plant. I hadn't had a good time to finish the thought that the next moment I was slipping through the tube of the plant. The plant managed to stretch the tube up to me in a split second and then the flower that was actually the mouth of the plant grabbed me. I slipped on the tube of the plant until I found it in its bag full of a strange and quite viscous liquid that felt strange when the skin came in contact with it. For nothing in the world would I have thought that I would end up being swallowed by a carnivorous plant that wants to digest me. "Damn," I said when I hit the given liquid. The stem was almost full of the given liquid, and there was a relatively small space between the cavity where the tube started and between the liquid, and when I came out of the liquid with my head and when I touched it with my feet. the bottom inside the stem I realized that the liquid reached my neck, I having a height of 1m and 80 cm, I realized that the liquid rose to a height of about 1 m and 50 cm When I wiped my eyes, I could to see properly, I could see a little girl looking at me in fright, and she was hardly floating in the viscous liquid.

-You're fine, I had asked her.

She nodded, still trying to keep her balance and not sink completely into the liquid.

-What is your name?

"Milly," she replied hesitantly.

-My name is Alnert. Ever since you've been trapped inside this plant.

-For a couple of hours.

-I understand. You're good?

He nodded again. She was shy from what I saw.

"We have to get out of here or we'll end up being eaten," I said.

-We don't have to go out. I tried everything, and I was powerless.

It really seemed impossible to get out of this plant, because the walls were elastic and very strong. You couldn't even pierce these walls with a knife. Not with an ordinary knife, better said. You see, I have a more special knife, which is made of a meteorite rock. Yes, the rock of a meteorite. I think you're wondering where. When I was seven years old, while exploring the area where I was trapped by the walls, I came across a meteorite. Old Evrik analyzed it and found out the composition of this meteorite, which consisted of several chemical elements found in our world but also many other elements that were not found. And what do you think the old man did? He first thought of making a knife from the meteorite rock. I'm sure there will be some who say it's impossible because we didn't have an oven to melt the meteorite rock. You're right. Without an oven it would be impossible to melt the rock but luck was on our side. In the area where we were caught in those four years was a small active volcano. Old Evrik somehow managed to melt the meteorite rock with the help of the volcano. After the liquid composition, he poured it into a knife shape that the old man had carved in stone. After a full day of work he managed to make a knife blade of about 12 cm. Soon the old man became ill due to the work done but also due to the gases emitted when the meteorite rock melted. This blade was the only thing the old man made of rock. Eventually the old man put on a handle and the knife cut through everything. I'm not kidding when I say that. The more you cut, the sharper the blade. He could cut stones, through metal, and anything else solid. I always held the knife to me and with a simple push of a button the blade came out of the wooden handle.

So, I hardly took the knife out of my trouser pocket because of the viscous liquid. I pressed the button and the knife blade appeared. The blade had a special luster that you could see the reflection in it. The girl looked at me curiously and said nothing. I brought the knife closer to the elastic walls of the stem and stuck it. The knife pierced the wall and the tip came out. I grabbed the handle tightly and pulled the knife down. The next second Milly and I were drawn into the river. I closed the knife, put it in my mouth, grabbed Milly at the last moment and started swimming towards the shore. After struggling a bit, I managed to reach the shore. I lay on my back looking at the sky. I was breathing hard and I couldn't breathe. Because of the effort, I felt like I was suffocating. The sky was so blue and clear. So pure and clear. Nothing around just mattered. I was absorbed in the blue of the sky. It was just me and the sky. Everything around me was scattered into thousands of pieces. Now I was floating in the vault of the sky, feeling free, carefree. What a wonderful feeling. "Are you okay?" A voice said. My voice woke me from the trance I had fallen into. I often get absorbed in the landscape around me. My thoughts fly, and everything around me loses all meaning, being focused on only one thing.

The girl's voice woke me to reality.

-Yes, I'm fine, I said with a smile.

My breathing is regular and the little girl is still looking at me with her big blue eyes. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't voice his thoughts.

-How you got swallowed by the plant I just got out of.

He was about to tell me something, but suddenly nature became restless. When I left the plant, the liquid in the stem came into contact with the air and a repulsive odor spread through the air. The other carnivorous plants, maddened by the smell, came to take their roots out of the ground and began to move. The roots served as their feet and suddenly hundreds of such plants ran through the forest. The rustling of the bushes and the running of these plants could be heard in the distance. I didn't understand what was going on. I could only hear the rustling of bushes. All I knew was that something was wrong, that I was in danger.

-Milly is coming for me now.

-Why? What happened?

-Something strange is happening. We have to get out of this forest.

Milly followed me without saying anything else. I told him to get down through the hatch of the mole car. As I was about to enter, I saw the carnivorous plants coming out of the thicket of the forest. "Firar," I said. I quickly got into the mole car and started it quickly. I was walking as fast as I could along the river, in the opposite direction to the waterfall, and I don't know why, the carnivorous plants were following us. After a few minutes of trying to get rid of the plants, but to no avail, I saw a huge tree hanging over the river. "This is my way of escape," I said to myself. I took the mole car over the tree, thus managing to cross the other bank, and with the help of the mule car, I pushed the tree into the river. For a second I thought I had escaped. Carnivorous plants stirred on the other bank. Suddenly something had landed on the mole car. There were continuous beatings. A carnivorous plant beat with its roots and vines growing in it, in the mole car. Milly got scared. She crouched in a corner and stuck her head between her legs. I sped up and headed for the western part of the forest. More and more carnivorous plants appeared in the way, and fortunately they could not get inside. Unfortunately, not only were the carnivores alive, the whole forest itself was alive in the true sense of the word. The trees began to move their branches and stems so that they prevented me from moving. I was barely moving through the woods now, and then I got stuck. The trees formed a real wall of stems and branches in front of me and then I surrounded this wall. The forest was the predator, and I was the prey. I was caught. If I didn't have the mole car, I'd be dead. The mole car has many options for defense, combat, escape from dangerous situations. The presence of the ranks determined old Evrik to create the perfect machine. One of the options is the attack shield option. If the given option is activated, you could say metal spines come out of the whole mole machine, which rotate with incredible speed. The given thorns have the function of cutting everything they touch. Therefore, any carnivorous plant that tries to touch the mole will be torn to pieces. At the same time, the front of the bulldozer, which looks like a bulldozer, rotates much faster, being able to pierce anything, except the walls that rise and fall, which can not be pierced by anything. Once the top of the mole was set in motion, I broke through the wall of branches and roots. I was moving hard and the wall didn't seem to end. I kept going through the wall until I managed to get out of the forest. Once out, the carnivorous plants stopped following me and the forest returned to normal. I lay down comfortably in my chair and breathed a sigh of relief. Then I saw the blood dripping from a cut in my hand. Now I began to remember. When I was trying to get out of the river, I cut my hand because of a branch in the water. I hadn't even noticed that I was hurting because of the adrenaline. That's why carnivorous plants were after me. They were drawn to the blood dripping from the wound. Good thing it all ended well, and both Milly and I were safe.