307. Odysseus, 6

(Rose)

Ana flew ahead of us.

A massif, a long chain of aging mountains stretches ahead. We see more of these natural barriers that are long to cross. Beyond them however, we believe there will be finally the sea.

I still have no answer for Bleue.

At least she left me to breathe in peace since it happened, and never came back to tease me about it.

We're continuing our travel together in this world I love. I'm happy like that.

I don't know what could happen next.

I already have enough.

We follow the roads down the small valley below our mountain first. Everything is quiet and calm in there. There's very little wind.

We eat some canned food we had found in the resort and carried. Summer soups. Cheese that has an impressive smell. Biscuits and chocolate, still very good.

We move forward peacefully.

~

In the valley, the road split after the ruins of a small city. One side goes to climb the next mountainous paths. Another one seem to go straight through it. A tunnel is open, still only a tiny dark spot in the distance.

It's not the first one we would wander through in the world. We're aware however that this kind of place are likely to host new lifeforms. So it's always a bet.

B - But a nice bet. Am I right?

I smirk. It's bad, but she's right.

R - Yes. I'm curious too. That's part of the charm.

B - Charme? Ah, yes, I agree.

So we reach and enter the mouth of the mountain there. Anything could lurk inside.

All we find over the first hour of walk are puddles and pale flora. Plants and mushrooms grow, gradually becoming more colourless, white or grey the deeper we go.

Some of these things react to the light of our lamps, by changing rapidly of colour. Walls of translucent moss seem to keep track of our lights as if we were painting them around with the glow. The surfaces we focus our look on get bluish tints as if they chemically reacted to our presence and sight.

Interesting flora, and seemingly no fauna to be found. Not even the crawling shadows that are now inhabiting many caves elsewhere.

The heart of the mountain is even quieter. I expected to hear a soft rumble, or even a deep and slow heartbeat, but it's just my imagination wandering.

B - Look, a star.

I can't see it right away.

Ahead, roughly, is a single star in what could be a dark night sky.

We walk and progress for hours in the tunnel. The star doesn't change.

We go around large boulders that collapsed from the ceiling a long time ago. Huge blocks of stone sometimes spanning more than half the width of the tunnel.

The star ahead barely changes, becoming just slightly larger over time. Maybe brighter too?

Ana is bored and keeps pecking at my shoulders and neck. I end up passing her over to Bleue.

Ana is displeased and rips a lock of hair out of my head, to nibble on it.

R - I wonder how Ana would taste if we were to roast her.

A - Hyaa! Hyaa!

B - I think she disapproves your idea.

R - Too bad.

As we walk next to each other, Ana sometimes leans aside and comes to hit my head with her beak.

R - Come on! What's up with her?

B - She probably just wants to play.

A - Play!

Oh... Did I hear that right? Bleue is laughing now. Maybe it was just my imagination.

Anyway, the star is now a diffuse glow in the distance. We're getting closer. It grows, very slowly as we approach.

We pass beside a few wrecks of vehicles, stained from death.

Then Ana bursts away, cawing loudly.

She vanishes beyond what we can see.

We go after her, but at our careful pace. The glow ahead becomes even more diffused, as the light of the upcoming exit gradually invades the darkness. It looks a little as if a dawn was rising ahead, but it's the tunnel's end.

And then we see the sky, and the ocean everywhere. The black sea. There's nothing black about it.

The air is nicer as suddenly as we step outside this artificial cave.

We see birds flying around over the shores. Seagulls?

The mountainous edge we're at, is actually the remaining half of a collapsed shore and cliff. That was not the original end of the tunnel, but the limit after which everything collapsed into the sea. Our path ends on an abrupt cliff, high above jagged water and rubbles.

The mountains east and west are lush, covered with forests. Protruding rocks like sharp small islands here and there below us also harbour lush flora, and birds flying around.

The valley we left behind was still dry and rather dusty, but on this northern side, we're back in Europe climate and environment from the looks of it. We can guess that the mountains made a barrier against the dusts and drought to some extent.

We find Ana eating a bird she caught, no less.

She helps us hunt another, reluctantly, for our own dinner.

She's not eager to hunt unless she's hungry, so I made her angry.

A - Hyaa! Hyaa!

R - Why do I get thee feeling that she's insulting me?

B - Come on Ana, be good.

Ana behaves better under Bleue's commands than mine.

We burn some wood a little further along the Cliffside, where we have a nice sight to enjoy, sheltered from the sea winds. We roast the bird. Ana eats her own raw. Bleue keeps most of the feathers we laboriously plucked, to craft clothes later.

She's thinking of making threads go through feathers, like a necklace with pearls, and to repeat that over many layers until it makes a coat or a dress. I like the idea and ingenuity.

Ana's feathers could also help us craft arrows in the near future if needs to.

We spend a nice night there, above the sea we seemingly discovered, hidden behind the mountains.

Hearing the waves. Seeing the stars. Feeling the changes in the air.

We won't be heading straight north any longer. We'll have to follow the jagged coastline. The big question is, heading East or West?

We'll figure it on the morrow.

For now we sleep well and nicely.

On the next morning, Bleue the shrewd used an arrow coated in sap, attached to a hook and our rope likewise weightless as it soaked in it as well.

She shot the arrow straight to the top of the mountainous cliff above us, to the summit of the peak. After a few tries, the hook caught something sturdy enough.

We began climbing the cliff toward the summit, our back to the sparkling sea.

From up there, we'll see where we will go next.

~