The crew were already up, gathering their belongings and preparing to set out for the day’s journey downstream.
A shadow passed overhead, momentarily blocking out the light from the rising sun, and they had a quick glimpse of something very large on leathery wings and equipped with a wicked set of taloned feet, glide down the rift between the cliffs and out of sight around the next bend. Seconds later, there was an agonizing scream which turned their blood to ice water. Something had been caught for breakfast, and was complaining bitterly about it.
They looked at each other in dismay.
‘So far we haven’t seen anything like that, and I hoped we wouldn’t. We’ve only seen them in the forest back home, and that wasn’t very often, so we’ll have to be on the lookout for the Leather Wings, although there isn’t much we can do about it when we do see them, except hide.’ Moss anxiously looked up, but the sky was clear except for the rising sun.
The raft was pushed out into deeper water, and Kel took a running jump to get on board as it left the sandy beach behind. They poled it out some way, but not into the middle of the river as they had done the day before in case they had to make a dash for the shore, not that there was much shore ahead, just sheer rocks, but it felt better that way.
By using a pole as a depth gauge, they were able to keep in relatively shallow waters, hoping that the giant Water Snapper would be unable to follow them, but it was only a hope, not knowing how far inshore the creature could go.
They passed through another very narrow section of the gorge, the water flow speeded up considerably, and nearly wrecked the raft on a rocky projection which they hadn’t seen until too late.
It ripped out two of the logs on one end, and Jay lay full length holding on to the loosened logs until they reached calmer waters and were able to retie them into place with some spare vines they had thoughtful enough to bring.
The water flow was now almost non-existent, so wide was the river at this point, and they had to use the poles to get any noticeable movement at all, and that meant keeping as near inshore as possible.
It was during this muscle aching exercise, poling the raft along, that they noticed high up on the cliff, small figures running about on some ledges. The occasional dark hole indicated that a cave of some sort was present in the cliff face, and was probably the home of the cliff runners.
All was well until a small shower of stones fell around them, and realizing the height from which they had come, and the force with which they would strike, Moss immediately gave orders to pole out a little further, so getting out of range of the stone throwers.
This wasn’t as easily done as said, because the river was quite deep a short way out, and the poles failed to reach the bottom.
Kel cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted up to the cliff runners, asking them to stop, but they didn’t, replying in strange words which none of them understood.
‘Nothing for it, just try to dodge them when you see them coming.’ was all Moss could offer as a defence against the onslaught.
They were lucky, and no one was hit by the stones, although several landed harmlessly on the actual raft.
Soon they were past the point where the ledges ran, and the throwers couldn’t go any further. The trio on the raft jumped up and down, making faces at the cliff runners and laughing as loudly as possible.
‘Hope we don’t have to pass this way again, or if we do, they have a very short memory.’ Kel said, a touch of joviality in his voice for the first time since they had left the sandy beach. ‘I wonder why they were so aggressive?’
‘Looking back at the cliff, I would think that they are trapped there, as I can’t see any way up to the top or down to the water. Food and water must be a bit of a problem for them, and I don’t suppose they are very happy about that.’ Moss offered as an explanation.
The midday meal was taken as they poled their way along, and by mid afternoon it was evident that the river was going to narrow down again. The current became turbulent, and the rocky cliffs closed in like two giant shields to shut off some of the light from the Greater Sun, making it a gloomy part of the journey.
Moss was looking for a safe place to stop for a break in their journey when they rounded a bend and were confronted by a sheer rock wall.
The river seemed to enter a large opening in the rock face, and before they could do anything about it, the raft picked up speed and was on its way towards the hole.
‘Get down flat and hold onto anything you can.’ yelled Kel, throwing himself down. ‘There’s nothing we can do about it, just hold onto the bindings and hope the river goes straight through whatever this place is.’
The raft was fairly racing along now, luckily in the middle of the river, and as they entered the vast hole in the cliff the light suddenly went, and they were alone in the darkness with only the sound of the water rushing along beneath.
Several times the raft hit the side of the tunnel as it careered along, nearly spilling its human cargo overboard, but they managed to hang onto the binding vines as the craft twisted and turned in the turbulence.
As the noise of the rushing water subsided a little, and the raft ceased to bob about quite so much, Kel shouted out,
‘Are you two still there?’
‘Only just.’ the deeper voice of Moss replied.
‘Me here too.’
