As Kel reached the rim of the water hole, Moss, not to be outdone, took a short run of three steps and launched himself in a flying leap towards the centre of the pool, to disappear into its depths for several seconds. Kel was a little worried as the time went by, and then Moss surfaced to leap out of the water even higher than Kel had.
When Moss finally got out of the pool, it was Jay’s turn, but she wasn’t as used to the water as the other two, although she had lived by the river.
She carefully climbed down with the aid of the vine rope, and lowered herself into the water, keeping near the edge of the rocks. It was this cautious approach to the water which largely saved her life.
Suddenly the centre of the pool erupted in a fountain of foam and a large grey-brown shape reared up to look around for the thing which had dared to disturb it.
Jay was only a short distance from the rocky edge when the monster appeared, and her arms cleaved the water in a frantic effort to reach the safety of the rim. Moss had grabbed his stave and was about to throw it when he realized it would be of little use against such a large creature, and might even make it more angry. They could only stand there and watch as Jay struggled to reach safety, the whole scene happening in apparent slow motion, and the water creature gaining every second.
As Jay reached the rim of the water hole and began to climb out, a clawed arm raked the rock beside her, leaving deep scratch marks in the hard stone.
Moss and Kel had found some loose stones, and began to rain them down onto the creature, diverting its attention for a few moments and so allowing Jay to climb out of its reach.
Panting for breath, she joined them on the top of the rock pile, well out of reach of the water monster who was churning up the water in a frenzied fit of rage as its intended meal had escaped.
‘It must live deep down in the pool, well out of our sight, waiting for something to come here for a drink, and then snap. Nasty.’ Moss pulled a face of disgust to reinforce his opinion of the creature.
‘I’m not so sure,’ said Kel, ‘we had a difficult time climbing up here, so I don’t see how any of the creatures we have seen so far could do better, or even as well.’
‘It must get its food from somewhere, and a lot of it, just look at its size.’ Moss didn’t like to make a statement, and not be able to back it up.
They climbed down the rocks to the plain below, and were soon on their way again, only to come across another group of similar rocks with a pool, and then Moss expounded on his theory.
‘I think these pools are linked together underground, and the creature can swim between them when it needs to, that’s why we could use the water for so long before it appeared, as it was probably some distance away and heard us through the water as we splashed about.’
As Kel couldn’t refute this argument, and wasn’t too keen to disprove the theory by tempting the water monster to emerge from the second pool, he just agreed with Moss and promptly changed the subject.
‘It looks as if there’s something on the horizon, a high ridge or maybe another cliff like the one we saw when we were with Jay’s people.’
There was something, but it only showed as a faint smudge, a mere difference in visual texture to that which surrounded them.
The little troop marched on, passing several other outcrops of volcanic rock, which inspired Moss to expound on his theory of the underground tunnels linking them, and the water monsters ability to travel between the outcrops.
As they travelled on, the terrain began to change again, shallow valleys nestling between slight rises in the ground produced a plentiful supply of recognizable fruits and pods, so there was little difficulty in feeding themselves.
The precious supply of dried berries which Mec had provided were still almost intact.
The further they travelled, the more pronounced the hills and valleys became, and on the sixth day since leaving the river they saw the sea for the first time in their lives.
They had camped on the top of a particularly steep hill, finding a cosy opening in a rock formation which was easily guarded, but as the light had diminished somewhat upon arriving, they hadn’t noticed the full significance of what could be seen from their high vantage point.
The next morning was a different story, the mists of the night rolled away, showing a long sloping plain leading down to a vast stretch of water, still greyish in the early morning light.
Jay was the first one to see it, as the others were still busy gathering their equipment together, ready for the next stage of their march.
‘Come and look!’ she called, ‘a great water has gone over all the land for as far as I see.’
The other two rushed up to the vantage point, and were stunned by what they saw.
‘I know the river spilled out over a great space, but that is even bigger,’ Kel said. ‘and if it’s in our way, how can we cross it? It might go on for ever and ever.’
‘One good thing about it, we shan’t go short of drinking water.’ Moss added, trying not to look as overwhelmed at the sight of it as he felt.
It took two more days to reach the sea, and that surprised them all as it didn’t look that far from the hilltop.
But they were in for another surprise on the way, as they came upon their first encounter with a relic from the time of the giants
