Moss suddenly gave the signal to stop, and Kel nearly ran into the back of him as he had been looking the other way when Moss raised his hand in silent signal. After they had disentangled themselves again, Moss said,
‘I know what it is, we must be getting closer to the Greater Sun, it’s a lot lighter here.’
‘Or the top of the forest is not so high above us now.’ retorted Kel, who long ago had realized that the Greater Sun was always the same distance away, and the light level depended on how high up in the forest you were.
‘Yes, could be.’
They hurried along the now thinning branch, eager to see what other changes there were to be found which Mec had not told them about, or even knew of himself. They were not disappointed. Suddenly, the Greater Sun burst forth upon them, causing them to shield their eyes against the glare, and stop in their tracks.
As their eyes got used to the increased light level, they could see that the forest was thinning out to a few wispy trees which were nothing like the ones they had been travelling through, and in the distance they could see a great area of yellow sand.
‘That must be the Death Sands Mec told us about. He said we mustn’t go any nearer than we are now, this is where the trees change to those ugly looking stumpy ones, and they lead right down to the Sands themselves.’ Kel wasn’t one for taking chances.
‘We’ll have to go around them then, that’s if we want to carry on in that direction.’ Moss said, a little disappointed that they would have to go some distance before they would again be heading in the correct direction according to Mec’s instructions.
They turned and back tracked some way until the trees looked a little more familiar, and then reset the Direction Pointer to take them east of the Death Sands, and hopefully past them.
Speeding on, now that they were on wider branches, the pair had covered a considerable distance when they stopped for the midday meal, and it was as they did so that the next surprise in store for them became evident.
In a clearing just ahead, a giant block-like stone reared up into the sky, tree branches growing into and through the holes which were dotted about its surface.
‘Do we eat, or go and have a look?’ asked Moss, with a slight hesitation in his voice.
‘Eat first, in case we have to run for it and feel faint from lack of food.’ Kel replied, sensibly.
They ate, but not with the enthusiasm that usually accompanied the meal time, the strange block ahead had taken their interest above all else.
‘All right, let’s go carefully, there may be something unpleasant in there, and it may not have eaten as we have.’
As they approached the great stone monolith, a silence descended upon the area. There were none of the usual sounds of the forest, the little rustles and squeaks, the odd scream as something larger ate something smaller and then belched.
‘If we go along that branch, we will be able to go into the same hole the branch goes into, and if we don’t like what we see, it will be easy to get out again quickly.’ Moss took the lead, and they cautiously entered the block.
‘It’s like a kind of tree cave, only very much bigger.’ Moss called out, his voice strangely echoing around the huge space, causing the hair on his back to stand up.
‘I can climb down this side branch and reach the flat level below. If I’m careful.’ he added as an afterthought.
Some moments later they were both on the flat surface of a giant room, with square walls on every side and a big opening in two of them. Going over to one of the holes in the wall, they were surprised to find another huge room, and what looked like even more rooms leading off that one.
‘It looks as if it’s made of stone, but I’ve never seen stone of this size before, and so flat. Stones are usually rough or knobbly or even round, or at least, the ones I’ve seen brought up from the forest floor were.’ said Moss, running his hand over the nearly smooth surface.
‘I wonder if this is a leftover from the time of the giants which Mec was telling us about, ’cos it looks as if it has been made rather than brought about by nature.’
‘This place doesn’t feel right.’ a nervous Kel commented as they walked from room to room, ‘I don’t think we should be here, there’s something about it which makes me feel very uneasy.’
‘Why are there so few leaves on the surface we are walking on, where have they gone? It should be knee deep in droppings from the trees I would have thought.’
As Moss didn’t have answer for that, he remained silent. They finally lost their collective nerve when they came to a huge dark hole which went down to what they assumed would be the forest floor. A cold dank smell wafted up every now and again, and the inky blackness below them seemed to have a strange beckoning effect, as if something wanted them to jump down the shaft.
‘Come on,’ said Moss, ‘we should be all right as long as we keep our wits about us, let’s go as far as we can to see what’s at the end of this place. As long as we have a branch to climb out on, we should be safe enough.’
They walked on from to room to room until an opening far larger than the square ones in the walls came into view.
‘This looks like the end of it.’ said Moss, fearlessly going up to the huge gap in
