‘I think we’re almost out of the hole, I can see some light ahead.’ called Kel, but he was mistaken.
The light was coming from something growing on the walls of the huge tunnel, and hanging down from the roof and walls were a countless number of thread like tendrils, some reaching the level of the water.
‘Oh no,’ exclaimed Moss, who had risen to his knees, ‘over the side and hang on, they look like Whip Vines’.
All three slipped over the edge of the now slowly moving raft just in time, as the first of the vines brushed across the logs. There were several jerks as the vines having contacted something, and not knowing any better, tried to grab the raft as a possible source of food.
A sudden scream from Moss indicated that something had touched him.
‘Are you all right Moss?’ Kel managed to gargle, spitting out a mouthful of water at the same time.
‘Yes, I think so. A vine just touched my head, grabbed some hair and pulled it out by the roots, it hurts, but not too much damage so far. Keep as low in the water as possible.’
The raft drifted on, and the unhappy and very frightened three clung on tightly to the binding vines around its side, keeping themselves as low in the water as possible, yet in fear of being attacked by whatever might be swimming around beneath them.
The light in the tunnel slowly dimmed as the strange growth on its walls diminished, leaving the trio in total darkness again.
‘I’ve managed to get a stave free,’ called Kel, ‘and if I hold it up and nothing grabs it, I think it should be safe to climb onto the raft again, as we are at great risk of being attacked by whatever might be in the water.’
Kel held the stave up as high as he could, but nothing tried to take it away from him, the only sound now being the quiet swish of the water under the raft, and then a scraping noise as the stave touched a lower section of the tunnel roof as the raft drifted on.
‘Get back onto the logs, I think we are getting too close to the tunnel wall, and we could get scraped off.’ Kel was already halfway back onboard.
They huddled together in the middle of the floating collection of logs, holding on to the binding vines in case anything tried to snatch them off in the darkness, and not knowing where they were going.
A faint glimmer of light up ahead gave them a little hope as the craft gathered speed in a narrow section of the dark tunnel, and suddenly they were out in the sunlight, covering their eyes against the brilliant glare.
Three simultaneous sighs of relief sounded out as they realized they had survived the dangers and traumas of the tunnel, and apart from being very wet, were all in one piece, except for Moss, who had a small section of his head hair missing.
The river had slowed down a little and thankfully widened out again, the cliffs had receded back from the banks leaving an apparently normal river bank covered in short foliage interspersed with the occasional clump of rocks.
‘We must dry everything out while we have the chance.’ said Moss, who had already divested himself of his carry belt and its hanging equipment.
The first thing Kel checked was their store of dried berries.
‘It’s a good thing the draw string on the bag of dried black berries Mec gave us held the water out, or it could have expanded to enormous proportions by now, and we would have lost our emergency food supplies.’ Kel was inspecting all the little bags containing their survival equipment, and making sure the contents were dry.
The further the raft drifted down stream, the wider the river became and the more they had to use the poles to make any headway. The cliffs were now receding to become a low ridge, a long way back from the river bank.
A few trees, interspersed with bushes, began to appear as the raft slowly glided on, but nothing like those they were used to in the main forest.
While Jay kept the raft on course with her pole, Moss and Kel readjusted the vine bindings, replacing some which had been damaged when the raft rubbed against the cliff and the tunnel walls.
They decided to pull into the shore, take a rest, and see what the land was like. Their food stocks were going down steadily and needed to be replaced in case there wasn’t the chance to do so later.
As the raft drew nearer to the bank, Jay, who was kneeling on the edge of the logs, called the others over,
‘Look at this.’ she said, pointing to a mass of white waving strands in the water below.
‘Is it a kind of grass?’ she asked.
Moss lowered his pole to try and entwine a few of the waving strands, but they immediately retracted back into the soft mud, and out of sight.
‘It’s a life form of some sort, but I’ve never seen anything quite like it before. Mec said we would find all sorts of strange things on our journey, and it seems he was right, as always.’
‘They look harmless enough.’ Kel said as he made the raft fast to a convenient bush with the mooring vine.
The white tendrils retreated into the mud to avoid Kel’s feet as he stepped ashore.
For a long time they talked over the high points of their adventure on the raft, while sitting on the river bank, and then just looked at the view of the river as it spilled out onto the broad flood plain.
Their reverie was disturbed by a grunting noise, and they sprang to their feet, Moss with his bladed stave at the ready.
Peering out from the bushes was a large fat creature on four legs with a long snout waving about in the air as if it was sniffing out some delicious smell. It didn’t
