Chapter 3

They were now walking in a region covered with many rocks and just a few small trees. An hour after they had broken their camp of the previous night, they stood at the very edge of a dark forest made up of extremely high trees. Vincent couldn't identify any of them. They had enormous trunks covered with thick and scaly dark brown bark, while the deep green leaves growing on the high branches were the size of a large pizza.

The look of the place didn't reassure him at all. He told himself that he was going to penetrate only a few miles inside this sinister forest. Then it was his intention to turn back, with or without Nika.

Their progress was difficult once they entered the gloomy forest. They had to walk around the big trees or climb over the mounds of soil that the thick roots had created. For those reasons it was impossible to walk in a straight line for any length of time. To make matters worse, the ground was littered with dead branches and sometimes a giant, fallen tree would block their path completely.

After about an hour of difficult progress within the forest they suddenly heard the sound made by the breaking of small branches far ahead of them. It was a repetitive sound. Vincent knew that many feet, breaking twigs or dead branches that littered the floor of the forest were producing these noises. It was very similar to the sound that he had heard when he first encountered the Arons the previous day and now both he and Nika heard it at the same time.

They immediately took cover in the low foliage next to one of the enormous trees and remained motionless for a while. Soon, not more than fifty feet from where they were hidden, a group of twenty to twenty five of the ugly creatures that Nika had called Arons, appeared as they walked in a single file.

They were walking in a north-westerly direction, almost in the exact direction from which Vincent and Nika had come from. The group was entirely made of adult males and aside from the noises they made while walking, none of them was talking, grunting or whatever. Soon the smell of the creatures reached the hiding duo and it reminded Vincent of the smell of rotten meat.

The creatures disappeared into the dense growth of the forest as quickly as they had appeared. But before Vincent or Nika had a chance to get out of their hiding place, a second group of Arons appeared. This time it consisted of females and young ones. Except for the noise made as their great weight broke the dead branches on the ground as they walked, Vincent was surprised to see how quiet they were. As with the previous group, there was no talking whatsoever and no laughing of course. Even the children remained in a single file keeping pace with the rest of the group.

It occurred to Vincent that if they were on the move all the time as it seemed to be, their survival did depend on strict discipline and of course in paying a lot of attention to their surrounding when they moved from place to place. The fact that they were so careful did tend to prove that they certainly had enemies. Had it not been because of the unavoidable noises made by their feet as they walked, Vincent and Nika certainly wouldn't have heard them until too late.

They both remained carefully hidden for another ten minutes to make sure that there were no more of them coming their way. Finally, when they went to the spot where they had last seen the Arons, they discovered a well-used path in the forest. It went between the trees turning here and there, and by its appearance it had been in used for a great many years judging by the depth of the eroded ground of the trail in some places.

That did it for Vincent. There was no way that he was going to go further without being better prepared and more knowledgeable about the dangers to be expected in this place. For one thing he wanted to ask Nika questions about the topography of the terrain ahead of them, but he didn't understand her language at all. Then he had no idea as to where she was trying to take him. This plus the fact that he only had three dozen bullets left for his rifle, did scared him some. As for the food, it was almost all gone now except for half a bag of biscuits and two remaining cans of meatballs.

He took her hand and he pulled her gently toward the general direction of the north where he could still barely see - whenever there was a clearing in the foliage - the tip of the mountain that marked the entrance into his world. It was his intention to make her understand that this was where he wanted to go. She resisted him and he could see fright written all over her face.

She then began to talk very fast in her language. Of course, there was no way for him to understand what she was trying to tell him but it was quite evident that she wanted him to follow her in their original direction.

When he realised that there was no use in insisting, he released her hand and began to walk toward the north on a path parallel to the direction they had watched the Arons come. Even though he could hear her shouting at him and probably pleading with him, he didn't bothered to turn or look back. He just kept on walking ahead. After a couple of minutes, he did glance back to see where she had gone, but she was walking behind him. She no longer protested and she just quietly followed him.

They proceeded toward the high mountain by a different path, one that was well off the trail of the Arons. That night they both slept in the sleeping bag in a spot that was well hidden near a large rock. While they were in the sleeping bag together Vincent had the impression that Nika was doing all in her power to arouse him sexually, but he was much too tired to pay much attention to her advances.

When he woke up the next morning, he had one of his arms around her while at the same time his other hand was pressing her left breast. He had placed his hand over her bare breast while sleeping and he couldn't recall when he had done so. Now, fully awake, he became extremely aroused as she still slept in his arms. He had never married - being too busy trying to make money - and even though he had taken a few women to bed with him, he had little experience with the opposite sex.

At that very moment, while he could feel the warmth and softness of her breast as she slept half on top of him, he was tempted to take one of her brown nipples in his mouth and make love to her. After all, she had given him many signs that she was willing to let him have his way with her but he couldn't get over the fact that she was barely twenty while he was forty-four. Why would she want to make love to him?

They ate the last of the biscuits - Nika was crazy about them - and they drank water from the bottle he had filled from a small stream that they had crossed the previous day. They were just about ready to leave when Vincent noticed many small fragments of stones sparkling on the ground. Had he been on his world he would simply have dismissed them since he would have concluded that they were broken glass. But there was no glass here. At least he had not seen any yet.

Bending down, he picked up a few of the shining stones. Much to his surprise, he realised that they were unpolished diamonds. Some were as big as peas. There must have been thousands of them lying there on the ground just a few feet in front of the big rock where they had chosen to stretch their sleeping bag. Before leaving he did gather a few dozen of them and shoved them into his pockets.