Search the Forgotten - Chapter Ten      Our journey was going smoothly and we reached the foot of the Ylan Mountain Range about four days later.  It was about a week after we'd left Arthester's cottage.  To our left, a mountain jutted out of the ground like some ancient beast's tooth.  A good deal of the mountains in this range were steep and jagged like this one.  To our right lay a rolling plain with trees and various wild shrubbery growing among the grasses and wild flowers.  The grass normally almost a foot tall for the most part in this area, became stunted the closer it got to the mountains.      We rode on and I couldn't help but look up at the mountain side.  It looked climbable, but not by horse.  Not here anyway.  The grass, though stunted, grew up the mountain side for a distance and even some trees found places for their roots.  This mountain, immense as it was, seemed to have a presence almost.  It was here for ages and would be for ages more.      I saw an eagle launch itself from a tree growing some way up.  It just leaped out and with spread wings, soared free.  It circled once, then glided out of sight.      Beautiful.      For three more days, we traveled at the foot of these mountains.  Not so close where we saw rocks and boulders that had evidently tumbled down, but a short way out of their reach.  Skylar did catch a few more rabbits during the past few days, so we had small stews and roasted rabbit besides our packed foods.      It was late afternoon when we came to a gap between where one mountain actually seemed to stop with a slope down to the ground, and a little ways away, another mountain pushed it's way out of the ground.  There was a tree here, near the mountain we'd been following.  An apple tree.      "We go in here," Jae said, pointing to the pass between the mountains.  It went back for some distance, but wasn't more than thirty feet wide here.  It looked like it might narrow up ahead.  "There are curves and twists in there.  We just have to follow along until we reach a glade.  There are trees there and plants that grow no where else."      Skylar brushed a lock of hair out of his eyes and pulled an apple off the tree.  "Let's go then," he said and rode on.      I pulled a few apples off the tree myself.  I tossed one to Jae and one to Orin.  "How far in there do we have to go?" I asked.      "It'll be a day or two," Jae replied.  "About."  He took a bite of apple and followed Skylar.      "Let's get on with it," Orin said.  He polished his apple on his sleeve.      I gazed up at the mountains on either side and had an odd feeling.  "Yeah," I muttered.  I followed my companions into the gully.      After I finished my apple, I tossed the core off to the left.  The grass thinned out even more in the gully and it became mostly dry dirt, rocks of varying size and some straggly weeds.  We moved cautiously in here.  By nightfall, we'd gone around a couple of bends in the gully.  The gully path widened and narrowed all along the way.  The mountains on either side of us grew steep and nearly shear by the time it got so dark that Skylar called a halt to our traveling for the day.      We ate light meals and retired for the evening.  We continued to take turns on watch during the night.  Orin had first watch this time.  But it seemed like I hardly got to sleep before he was waking me up for my turn.      We'd found enough wood for a small fire.  But the fire provided more light than heat.  I kept my blanket wrapped around me as it was chilly tonight.  I broke a stick into three pieces and placed them on the fire.  I glanced up and saw that some clouds were drifting by overhead, blotting out and revealing the stars.  I heard a rustling sound to my right.  I listened to it and decided it was just some pebbles and dust rolling down the mountain.  I didn't want to think about what made them roll, but kept my ears and eyes open.  My sword was near at hand.  If I needed it. - = - = -      The next day we rose rather early.  Maybe we were all feeling boxed in with the mountains all around us.  We held off a little on heading out until we had more light.  We didn't want a horse going lame because of something that could have been avoided.  Very little direct sun reached us during the day.  We rode at a walk, sometimes dismounting and leading our horses through the narrowest of the passes.      Nothing much grew in here.  There was some greenery peeking over the cliff edges high up the rocky walls of the gorge, but nothing down here where we were.  We had dust and rock. Hours and miles of dust and rock.      We followed yet another twist and switchback curve through the gorge.  The walls that were on each side of us, seemed to grow together up ahead.  The walls touched at the top.  They made a cavelike passage and the opening was a long, irregular and narrow triangle, just seven or eight feet across at the bottom.  We dismounted and took a look at the passage.      "Is that where you and Arthester went?" I asked Jae.      "Yes," he replied. "This passage goes on for a long distance."  He gave each of us what I could only describe as a knowing look.  "We should camp here.  Go through in the morning.  It's dark enough in there during the day to make it very dangerous.  At night, it's doubly so."      "Good idea," Skylar said.      We made camp.  I don't know about the others, but I got very little sleep.  And when I did sleep, I dreamt of mountains with mouths ready to swallow me and running to something that I never seemed able to reach. - = - = -      I was relieved when I heard the others getting up and moving around.  I sighed and shrugged out of my blanket.  The air in the gorge was very cool and the light was still dim.  We ate our breakfast almost as fast as it took Skylar to make it.  We packed up our things and when we were ready, we re-examined the narrow pass.  I had a feeling of foreboding as I looked into its depths.      "Are you sure we can bring the horses?" Skylar asked.      "Yes, I'm sure," Jae said.  "We'll need them on the other side.  The place where the egootsirt plants grow is a few hours passed the opening at the other end.  We'll need to ride if we're going to get the plants and get back here before nightfall."      One by one, leading our horses, we entered the rocky passage.  A breeze blew through here and it was cool, almost chilling.  I didn't tell the others, but I had a shiver run up and down my spine.  Red snorted, sniffed and sneezed, as if he smelled something he didn't like and wanted it out of his nose.      "Easy, Red," I whispered.      We walked for what seemed like an hour.  The passage had curving turns and for a while I couldn't even tell which direction we were going.  As soon as I wondered about it though, I felt that urge to go east and then I knew where east was.  Knowing east, I knew north.  And I realized we were now going northwest.  Then the passage curved north again.      The breeze changed.  It became warmer and that surprised me.  The air smelled of old leaves and loam and that was more of a surprise.  Though I suppose it shouldn't have been.  We were, after all, heading toward growing things.      A while later there was light up ahead.  Green and lovely to look upon after all this darkness and brown and grey rock.  We could eventually make out trees and grass as we drew closer to the opening at the end of the passage.  The light grew brighter, the breeze was warmer and we stepped from the rocky cleft and into a wide enclosed valley of trees, shrubs, grass and flowers.  There were all sorts of plants here and many of them were unfamiliar to me.  There were rocks and boulders from the mountains scattered about and mosses grew on them, making some of them green and some of them near yellow.      We mounted our horses and Jae led the way in.  The mountains formed ridges all around the valley.  He guided us around the western side of it.  We came upon a rock that Jae examined after dismounting Oba.      He straightened up, apparently satisfied with what he'd found.  "We leave the horses here," he said.      After we dismounted, and made sure the horses were secured, Jae grabbed his gloves and a sack and led us north.      "When we get there," Jae said softly, "let me dig out the egootsirt plants.  They can be dangerous if removed from the ground incorrectly.  These gloves will keep the plant's excretions from getting absorbed by my skin."      "Fine, you get the plants," Skylar said.  He brushed a lock of hair off his face.  "How many do we need, anyway?"      "Master Jalivay wants four or five plants if we can manage it," Jae said, still talking softly.      "Why couldn't we manage it?" Orin asked just as we entered a glade.      The glade was surrounded by trees and shrubs and there were flowers and various plants scattered around.  The mountainous walls, ridges and cliffs that surrounded the entire valley we're still visible here to the west.  We were closer to the western side after all.      "Ah!  Here we are!" Jae exclaimed in a hissed whisper.       He moved quickly to an area that had many of the same kind of plant growing in it.  It seemed odd for some reason.  Each plant had a stalk that split into three and each stalk had a large, elongated, heart shaped leaf.  And then it struck me.  They were all growing in crude rows. These plants were being cultivated!      Jae dropped his sack and put on his leather gloves.  Then he crouched down and dug around the plant and when most of the dirt had been removed from around the main bulblike root, he pulled the egootsirt plant from the ground, the thick root dusty from the soil.  That's one.  He stuffed it into his sack and moved to another plant a yard away and started on that one.      "You passed by five or six plants," Orin pointed out.  "Why didn't you pull up some of those?"      I wondered that myself.      "I don't want to leave a big gap between the plants," Jae said quietly as he moved dirt away from the plant's roots with his glove protected hands.  "If I do, it'll look too much like someone's been here.  And we don't want it to look too much like someone's been here.  Would someone mind filling in that hole where the plant was while I work on this one?  Try to make it look undisturbed."      Skylar went over to the hole and filled it in.  Then he got some leaves and detritus from under a nearby tree and covered the dirt.      "Now, why is it we're taking these precautions?" Orin asked.  "And you didn't answer my other question!"      That was something else I wondered.  I glanced back to where we'd left the horses.  They where slightly hidden from this area.  We were apparently alone.      "Because of the giants of course," Jae whispered matter-of-factly.  "And that answers both questions."      "Giants!" Orin, Skylar and I exclaimed all at once.  Skylar had jumped to his feet and was looking around.  I thought I'd better keep a better watch myself.  The ridge above us seemed clear.  The birds had been singing until we yelled.      "You didn't say anything about giants being anywhere near here!" Orin cried out.  "You didn't say we'd run into any giants!"      "Didn't I?" Jae said absently.  He pulled up another plant and moved some distance over for another one as he placed the plant into his sack.  "I could swear I did."      "You didn't!" Orin said.  He ran over and quickly started covering up the hole.      "Maybe Master Jalivay mentioned it," Jae muttered.      Skylar spun around and then moved closer to Jae.  "Nobody mentioned anything about giants," he whispered.      I glanced toward the mountain walls to the northwest.  "Just how big are these giants?" I asked quietly.  I didn't see anything move.  There wasn't even much of a breeze to stir the tree branches.      Jae sighed and looked up at me.  "Oh, maybe about, three or four times as big as you." Then he went back to his work.      "You're kidding!" Orin shouted.      "Shhh!" Skylar shushed.  He looked around nervously.  I wasn't too thrilled myself.      Jae had the third plant up and bagged.  As he selected another, Orin rushed over to fill in the hole that was just vacated.      "I could have stayed back at the cottage," I whispered.      "I should have stayed back at the cottage," Orin complained softly.  He stood up and stared at Jae.  "How could you forget giants!"      I shushed him.  His voice was getting loud again.      "What's that?" Skylar whispered.      "What's what?" Orin whispered back.      I looked around and didn't see anything that wasn't there before.      "I thought I heard a thump," Skylar said.      "That was my heart," Orin hissed.  "I'm having a heart attack!"      I heard tree rustling sounds off to the northeast.  I turned just in time to watch them stop shaking.  "Uhm, Jae?  Do you have enough egootsirt yet?"      "I need one more," he said quietly as he bent to his task.      I spun around to face the direction where I heard a sound.  Like a large weight coming down on the ground.  The sound came again but from another direction.      "Hurry up," Orin said.  He already had leaves and twigs in his hands with which to fill the next hole.      "Hah!" a deep booming voice exclaimed.      Orin jumped and tossed the leaves and twigs he was holding up in the air.  He drew his blade and I drew mine.  We all turned and faced in the direction of the voice and saw a huge man, dressed in rude hide clothing, holding apart two trees like I might window curtains.  He was darkly tanned, his straight, black hair unkempt.  He stepped from between the trees and let them go and they swung back and forth a moment, dropping leaves.  He had a tree sized club in one hand.      "You want to eat the dream roots?" Another deep booming voice said from behind us.  I turned partway around and saw another giant, much like the first, but with dirty, curly black hair and holding the largest bow you ever saw standing not fifteen feet from where Skylar was standing.  Skylar had an arrow nocked and was aiming it at the giant.  Skylar's bow now looked so puny and the arrow more like a small pin.  How ineffective it seemed.      There was a thumping and I turned and saw that the first giant had stepped forward.  I glanced at my sword and then looked at the giant.  I wondered at my sanity.  "We just want a few of these roots and then we'll leave.  Peacefully," I said.      "You want to eat the roots?" the giant that was facing me asked.      "Uh, well," I brilliantly started to comment.      The giant took a step forward and bent down.  He grasped one of the plants by it's stalk and pulled it out of the ground and a high pitched shriek pieced the air for a moment.      "No!" Jae yelled.  "That's not how you pick it!"      "Here!" the giant said.  He held the plant out toward me, it's bulbous root almost glistening with some moist substance.  "Eat the root!"      I shook my head.  "I'm not really all that hungry," I said.  I backed up a step and the giant closed the gap between us with a step of his own.  I looked up at his towering form.      "We like roots too," bellowed the second giant.      "Here," insisted the first giant as he shoved the egootsirt plant at me, root first.      I dodged backward and brought my sword up.      "You wanna play first!" the giant said, grinning a fearsome smile.  "Good!"  He swung his club at me and I ducked.  The breeze from the tree-sized club almost knocked me backward.      I scooted to my right and spun to face the giant.  He swung his club and I dodged left.      "Puny poking thing," I heard the second giant say.  "I could shoot mine at you and make a big hole in you."      I figured Skylar must have shot at the other giant and his arrow wasn't effective.  The giant before me turned and faced me.  He was smiling like he was enjoying this.  He probably was.  He stepped forward and I thrust out with my sword to jab him.  He chuckled.       "Uh oh," I muttered.  The giant swung his club and I ducked under the arc.  I ran behind the giant and I saw across the egootsirt field that Skylar and Orin were trying to keep the other giant busy.  Jae was on the ground and I couldn't tell if he was injured or not.      The giant turned and since it was closer to me, he swung his fist that held the egootsirt plant in it.  I dodged right and tried to slash at his leg.  I thought the sword had sliced true, but it could have been a paper cut for all the good it did.  The giant swung his club again and I had to dive to the ground to avoid getting my head smashed.  I started to get up and was shoved down by a very large hand on my back.      "I have my human," the giant said.  I tried to get up but he had me pinned down.  "Stay still, human."      "Mine play rough," the second giant said.      I did manage to turn my head.  I saw that Skylar had his sword in hand and he and Orin were dancing around the second giant.  I could see that Jae was getting to his feet.      "Here!" the giant holding me down said.  "You want to eat the root.  Here, eat it."  He shoved the root toward my mouth.      "No!" Jae shouted.  "That's too dangerous!  It wasn't picked right!"      I turned my head the other way and the giant leaned over me.  Again he shoved the root at my face.  "Eat the dream root!" he said.      "No," I gasped and turned my head again.  I then let out a yell as the giant grasped my hair and pulled my head up.  He forced my mouth open all too easily and shoved the egootsirt plant's root full into my mouth.  It felt slimy.  He forced my mouth to close on it and the acrid juices in the root filled my mouth.  My eyes were open and I saw Jae raise his hands just as a spasm in my throat made me swallow.  The giant tried working my jaw to make me chew and I tried to fight it.  But my strength was no match for his.  I even tried not to swallow, but more of the bitter juice burned it's way down my throat.  My head was buzzing.  The daylight seemed to flash and change colors for a moment.  At least, I think it was a moment.      A curious thing happened.  I saw Jae surrounded by a nimbus of lightening.  There was a bright flash of light, a loud booming sound and then darkness.  - = - = - Return to top of page. Chapter Eleven     I...uhm...don't think I'm ready for email yet.    ;-) But that doesn't mean you can't try and send me a note! Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004 B. J. Miller Jr. All Rights Reserved