Masters of the Arches Ch. 06

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Dangers on the river.
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Part 6 of the 23 part series

Updated 10/20/2022
Created 08/19/2007
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lucsmith
lucsmith
447 Followers

On both sides of the river, the landscape was now gradually changing again. Boulders with plenty of grass in between them were replacing most 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 the abundance of animal life was surprising. Many groups - and so many different kinds - of grass eaters could be seen that after a while, Vincent finally gave up in his attempt to try to identify some of them. A couple of hours later they were slowly moving through a region where there were no trees at all on both side of the river. Only boulders and short grass was covering the land now.

They agreed to stop as soon as they could find a place to anchor the raft around a rock near the shore. There was no way that they could pull the raft partly up the bank since it now consisted of rocks that stood a couple of feet above the level of the water of the river

Soon the sun was below the horizon and it became urgent that they stopped for the night. As soon as they found the right place to anchor the raft, Vincent tied it to a rock then he got a fire going before it became too dark. Of course he knew that the bright flame from his fire in the darkness of the night could be a beacon for the predators. But on the other hand, the fact that there were no trees anywhere around them and that the grass was relatively short, met that anything getting too close to their camp fire could be detected relatively easily also.

The instant that the meat was cocked and the coffee was hot, they put out the fire and ate in the darkness. That night they slept on the raft since it was safer. They placed their sleeping bags close to one another - they each had their own sleeping bag now - but before falling asleep, Vincent did make love to Nika. He did it with much eagerness and with a passion that he never though he still had.

While making love to her that night, he was extremely shocked to discover her complete lack of inhibition while taking her pleasure from his cock. He had had sex with at least a dozen different women up to now, but Nika was in a category of her own. Nothing was out of bound to her and she was willing to do anything he would propose to her. The fact that he was able to continuously have sex with her for well over an hour did surprised him since his body was showing a level of virility the he never thought possible.

This was the first clue that he detected which pointed to the fact that Nika's world was having an effect on his body.

The following morning, he felt extremely good and he was glad to be alive, he had this "joie de vivre" that he hadn't experience in years. 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 ulcer was no longer bothering him.

He began to suspect that something was happening to him. Later that morning, as he was checking the raft so as to see if the logs were still secured together, he saw his reflection in the calm water. He was shocked to see that new hairs were growing well in front of his receding hairline. Even the scar that he had on the bridge of his nose, a scar that he had lived with since he was a teen, was almost gone and he definitely looked younger.

After washing themselves in the river they ate breakfast then they got all their things 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 the landscape. Very far in the distance, to their right, they could now see a low range of mountains. It could have been a part of the same range of mountain of which the tall peak where the cave containing the arch was, but he had no way to be sure of that.

Both banks were still much higher than the level of the river and everywhere they looked they saw grass covered plains where stags with towering racks of antlers were grazing. In other places, there were hundreds of deer or deer- related animals with their skittering fawns on long thin legs, and all were eating peacefully. On another part of the plains, on the left bank, he noticed a group of antelope-like grass eaters along with woolly looking bison-like creatures, each group being very near one another. But from their position on the river, they also saw a pack of dire wolf and other predators that he couldn't identify. All were roaming on the edge of the herds while trying to hide in the taller grass.

But what actually struck Vincent most of all was the tall mammoths. They were of all ages and sizes; some were no more than a few weeks old. The older ones had reddish brown thick woolly fur while the very young tended toward the yellow or gold. There could be 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. The passage of the raft near them didn't warrant more than a glance from one or two to the great beasts.

A thought then occurred to Vincent, it there were mammoths in this world, then there was no reason that there shouldn't be saber-tooth tigers also since on Earth they were living in the same era. 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. He knew that hunters and also biological experts from Earth 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 realized 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 dangers 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 in a spot where it made a sharp turn. At that particular place, the bank was barely four feet high and was not as steep as it had been 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 if they didn't light a fire and to spent the night on the raft again. With the raft tied to the rock with a long rope, it was completely surrounded by water; this 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 would have to do would be to untie the raft and let the current take hold of it.

It did prove to be a very wise decision later. 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 to which the raft was tied and they were preparing themselves to jump aboard when he saw them. At the time, the only thing that seemed to prevent them from jumping was the four or five feet distance from the raft to the rock. Either they were afraid of the water or they were very prudent. In all evidence it looked as if they were trying to make up their mind whether to jump on board or not.

But then he saw something that chilled his bones; he realized that they were much more intelligent than their counterparts on Earth. One of the two wolves 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 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; they were no longer tied to the rock.

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 the shoreline. For the next few minutes, the raft came as close as ten feet from the place 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 wolves were following them along the bank. But as soon as they were well past the sharp turn of the river, the raft remained well away from the shore without the need of any steering or pushing.

During the rest of the night, he or Nika remained awake in case the current of the river would propel them near the bank again. As soon as the first light of dawn was on them they were able to see six of the wolves with their pointed ears and glittering teeth, following them on the now much higher bank of the river.

He was about to shoot a couple of them so as to scare the rest away, after all with the scope on his riffle it would be impossible to miss, but on second thought he then decided against this. If they were as intelligent as he first judged them to be, he figured that it would be wiser not to show them the deadly accuracy of his riffle.

There was no doubt in his mind that at this range he could probably kill two or more of them, but the rest would simply move further away and continue to follow the raft 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 simply not give up their pursuits and 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 a solid rock wall on both sides of the river which had also become much narrower now.

In all evidence the flow of the water had eaten away through the solid rock throughout the ages and it had made a channel by eroding the rock out. They had seen no traces of the wolves for the last hour probably due to the fact that they had been moving too fast. But now that they had gotten rid of the wolves they were facing another danger. It was impossible to stop the raft, the current was much too fast and they were also moving between two solid walls of rock with no place to anchor the raft or even climb ashore.

That night they had to remain on the raft 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 waterfall. The raft was being sucked toward it and there was nothing they could do about it. A couple hundred yards before the water went over the edge, the river separated in three different channels with the main branch 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.

All of a sudden the raft struck a rock that was splitting the water between the central and the right channel. It stopped there and remained in equilibrium as if it had a mind of its own. At that instant of extreme danger the position of the raft reminded him of some of the clients he used to know when he still had his business. Just like the raft that was in a very unstable equilibrium, it seemed that it was always impossible for these people to take a decision whenever it was time to do so.

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

The amount of water going to that smaller branch of the river was only a fraction of what was 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 branch of the river, the chances of making it alive through those rapids would be small indeed. He could see rocks everywhere sticking out of the fast moving water and if the raft were to hit any of them, they would almost certainly be crushed to death.

But they had no choice now, over the fall it was certain death for them while if they went through the smaller branch, their chances were just a fraction better. He took one of the poles and he indicated 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 creating - he was able to make her understand that he wanted her to drop her pole and to help him push with the one he had. With the two of them pushing at the same time and on the same pole, they had only one points of contact with the rock and all of the force of reaction on their feet against the logs of the raft was not partly spent in canceling the push of the other pole.

Nika did as he asked and after a few seconds, the raft – while scraping the side of the large rock – slowly began to move in the direction of the smaller channel. Then as soon as the current took hold of it, they began to move fast on the turbulent waters of the smaller river.

When it reached the first rapid, the raft began to spin around and it tilted left and right many times then it almost overturned completely. Had their supplies not been well secured with ropes, they would have been thrown overboard. Vincent estimated that their speed was near thirty miles per hour and it was putting too much strain on the ropes holding the logs together. At first they were lucky and they didn't hit any of the many rocks that stood here and there in the middle of the rapids.

After they had gone through the first section of turbulent water they came into calmer water for a short time. But there were no places to stop since the shoreline on each side was well above their heads. Beside they were still moving too fast to even try to stop the momentum of the craft. A couple of minutes later they were in the next section of rapids.

The water there was not as turbulent as the previous rapids but it went on for a long stretch of time and on many occasions the raft did make contact with 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 Vincent to be an eternity, they were again floating on calm waters. But it was only a reprieve for what was lying ahead. The noise coming from downstream was far worse than anything they had heard so far. Then Vincent saw a beautiful rainbow in the sky just over the river about a hundred yards in front of them. It was as if the river ahead of them had disappeared all of a sudden, he then realized that they were being sucked toward a fall and there was no way for them to avoid it.

He placed his arms around Nika's shoulders and he looked her in the eyes. She knew that it was his way to say farewell and she gave him a weak smile in return as she threw her arms around his neck. 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.

(to be continued)

lucsmith
lucsmith
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