The Undertaking

Part 4

I woke up much better, feeling full of energy for once. I looked to see if I could seeany of the insects in the light, but they had either hidden away or blended into the wood toomuch. Sighing I took a swig of water and half a roll, before climbing down and beginning mytrip again. As I cut through the roots and branches, I could see a thick red liquid pouring outof the trees, as if they were bleeding.As I looked up ahead, I saw that the path in front of me was too crowded withbranches and weeds to get through. Great, now I must move up to move forward. My handswere already sweaty and raw from all the climbing earlier. I grunted as I heaved myself andmy backpack up the branches and over the tangled mess below me. I did feel a weird senseof DeJa'Vu as I climbed. I cut through another group of branches and crawled through thehole. I heard a rustle behind me and whipped my head around. I did not know how I hadnot realized it before but as I looked behind me i could see the branches repairingthemselves."Interesting." I grabbed a branch and cut through it with my knife. Taking out theempty canteen I had in my pack, I let the branch's syrup fill up my canteen. I was not sure ifthat was how the trees were reforming, but if it was it could be very helpful for me, that is ifthe syrup would not kill me, and while I was curious to find out if it would cure my injury, Iwas not at the point to actually test it on myself while I did not need to. At least, not yet.Securing the canteen in my backpack I began moving forward. As the sun movedacross the sky, I began to feel some nerves from an imposing attack by the Red Ones. Whilethey did not attack yesterday, and it is possible that they cannot get into this part of thecanyon, I did not want to be caught off guard.I paused again as I saw some movement ahead of me. Getting into a defensiveposition, I waited for the beast to show itself. Two creatures busted through the brush and IGot a good look at my foes. They were very tiny, about the size of my hand. They had a darkgrey fur covering them with some white streaks fur throughout their coats. They also hadsome sort of scaled armor on their heads and legs, and across the spines. They had longtails that looked like rat's tails.I took a sigh of relief as I watched them scurry off behind me. Laughing to myself, Icontinued onward. As the sun reached its peak, I could begin to feel the heat, even with allthe shade over me. Continuing forward I thought I could hear a feint sound of water. Cuttingthrough the path with greater speed I was relieved to hear the source get louder. The soundsoon became deafening, as I cut through a final group of roots and thorns, I got my first lookat the source. It was a wide river at least thirty feet wide, sprayingeverywhere as it crashed into the rocks. It was also red and looked to be the same type ofliquid as in the trees. There was somewhat if a clearing by the river, but most of it was coverin giant roots and trees with trunks ten feet in diameter. Walking up to one of thegargantuan trees, I gazed up. Dang, that must almost reach the top of the cliff. Lookingaround I could see about a dozen of the giant trees on both sides of the river, with smallerones filling in most of the gap. Looking at the roots I could see most of them grew into theriver. Of course, this proves my theory of the sap healing the tree, only with enough liquid itcan make the trees grow even bigger. Taking a moment to appreciate the scenery I took adrink of water and finished the roll from that morning. Dusting off my clothes I beganclimbing the tree nearest to the river. The branches above extended enough to allow me tomove to the branches of a tree on the other side of the river. As I climbed through the tree, Icould almost feel the branches moving around, while there was some wind, I did not believethat it would be enough to move almost any of the branches I was using.As I was moved forward to grab a branch that connected to the other tree, I took astep forward and reached forward to grab it only for it to move back as if afraid of my touch.Suddenly I felt the branch under me jerk to the side. With my weight so far forward, I lostmy footing and began to fall towards the rapids under me. As I was falling, I reached out to abranch and caught onto it. I held myself there for at least thirty seconds, as I heard thewater below me, before pulling myself up. I did not know what had happened, but I did notwant to stick around and find out.I made my way quickly over and down the other tree. Sighing as my feet touched theground, I looked up to see the sky had become a bright shade of orange and red signifyingthe suns beginning descent. Knowing I had only two hours of light at best I hurriedly beganto cut through the brush and into the jungle again.By the time darkness Had fallen I could not hear the river anymore. Finding a nice bunch ofroots off to the left side I began to set my bag up in a comfortable position. I noted that theinsects had come out again and seemed to be minding their own business, so I left them toit. Lying back against my pack I closed my eyes and let sleep overtake me.Waking up I could tell it was still quite dark outside. Looking around to see what had wokenme up I realized I could hear the stream. Looking behind me, I could see an opening to thesame clearing, I could feel myself being jostle around and that was when I had therealization. Crap! The trees are alive.