Message-ID: <34629asstr$1010661004@assm.asstr-mirror.org> Return-Path: X-Original-Path: not-for-mail From: mandil_k@hotmail.com (mandil) X-Original-Message-ID: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit NNTP-Posting-Date: 10 Jan 2002 03:59:39 GMT X-ASSTR-Arrival-Date: 9 Jan 2002 19:59:39 -0800 Subject: {ASSM} Masters of the Arches chapter 6 Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 06:10:04 -0500 Path: assm.asstr-mirror.org!not-for-mail Approved: Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d X-Archived-At: X-Moderator-Contact: ASSTR ASSM moderation X-Story-Submission: X-Moderator-ID: gill-bates, dennyw Masters of the Arches by Mandil Chapter 6 On both sides of the river, the landscape was now gradually changing. Boulders with grass in between them now replaced much of the trees. The bank on each side was also beginning to slope higher and steeper. In some places it rose as much as five feet. It seemed that the river had eaten the rock over the ages and had carved its way through the bedrock. Still there was a lot of animal life to be seen everywhere. After many hours they came to a place where there were no trees at all on either side of the river. They both agreed to stop as soon as they could find a place to anchor the raft around a rock near the shore. The sun was now below the horizon and it was time they stopped for the night. As soon as they found the right spot to anchor the raft, Vincent got a fire going before it was too dark. The bright flame in the darkness could be a beacon for anyone spying on them. But on the other hand, since there were no trees around and the grass was relatively short, anyone approaching could be detected relatively easily also. The instand that the meat was cocked and the coffee was hot, they put out the fire and ate in the darkness. That night they slept close to one another in their sleeping bags, -they each had their own sleeping bag now - but before falling asleep, Vincent did make love to Nika with a passion he never imagined he still had. The following morning, Vincent felt extremely healty and he was glad to be alive. As a matter of fact, he hadn’t felt like this since he had been in his twenties. His back was no longer hurting - not a day had gone by in the last few years without his experiencing some kind of back pain - and even his stomach ulcers were long forgotten. He began to suspect that something was happening to him. Then when he looked at his reflection in the calm water of the river, he noticed that new hairs were growing well in front of his receding hairline.He was definitely looking younger also. After washing themselves in the river they ate breakfast then they got back onto the raft and they let the river carry them downstream once again. The river continued in a general southwest direction and the further they went the greater were the changes in landscape. Very far in the distance, to their right, they could now see a low range of mountains. It could have been part of the same range that contain the tall peak where the cave containing the arch was, but he had no way to be sure of that. The banks on both sides were still much higher than the sand bank of the river itself, they could see grass covered plains in the distance where stags with towering racks of antlers were grazing. In other places, there were hundreds of deer with their skittering fawns on long thin legs, and all were eating peacefully. On another part of the plains there were groups of antelope-like animals along with woolly looking bison-like creatures, each group being very near one another. But from their position they also saw packs of dire wolfs and other predators that he could not identify. All were roaming on the edge of the herds while trying to hide in the taller grass. But what struck Vincent the most was the tall mammoths. They were of all ages and sizes; some were not more than a few weeks old. Some had reddish brown thick woolly fur while others tended toward the yellow or gold. There was no mistake about their being mammoths, their thick trunk and long circular tusks were proof enough of that. Numerous birds were following them and some could be seen actually resting on their backs. A few of the great woolly beasts could be seen in the river ahead and as they went by, barely a few hundred feet from the closest of the noble animals, their presence didn’t warrant more than a glance from one or two to the great beasts. It then occurred to Vincent that if there were mammoths in this place there was no reason that there shouldn’t be saber-tooth tigers also. It was probably a saber-tooth tiger that Nika had seen roaming near the field when she had been held prisoner. Over their heads could be seen circling, hawks eagles, and great condors. All of them much larger than he could have imagined. It occurred to Vincent that hunters from Earth and also biological experts would give plenty to be allowed into this place to hunt or to study the wild life. But there were many dangers here also he realised as he watched a couple of wolves bring down an antelope that had been caught grazing a little farther than the rest. To cross this plain on foot would be a very foolish thing to do he told himself. There was no place to hide here except in the grass, and even in there, it was certain that snakes and other predators were waiting. Everywhere he looked the land was flat, except for the mountain far away on his right. They were able to see for miles in every direction since there was no pollution or smog to hinder the view. By late afternoon, they stopped on the left bank of the river at a point where it made a sharp turn. At that particular spot, the bank being barely four feet high, was not as steep as it was everywhere else. More important still, there was a large rock half in the water and half on the bank and they used it to anchor the raft. Because of the many predators they had seen that day, Vincent decided that it would be much safer for them to sleep on the raft that night. Since it was almost completely surrounded by water, it would give them an extra edge against the numerous hunters of the night. Beside if they had to leave in a hurry, it would be much quicker that way since all they had to do was to untie the raft and let the current take hold of it. It did prove to be a very wise choice. In the middle of the night they were awakened by the sounds of growling and of splattering water. When Vincent looked carefully, he was able to see in the dim starlight, the outline of five or six of the tall wolves that he had previously seen that day. Two of them had even managed to climb on the rock anchoring the raft and they were preparing themselves to climb aboard when he saw them. The only thing that seemed to stop them was the four or five feet distance from the raft to the rock. Either they were afraid of the water or they couldn’t swim. In all evidence they were presently trying to make up their mind to jump on board or not. But then he noticed something that chilled his bones; he realised that they were much more intelligent than their counterparts on Earth. One of the two that were on the rock began to chew on the rope as if it understood that once the raft was set free without guidance, the current would push it against the bank where the others were waiting. It took the fiery-eyed creature less than a minute to go through the nylon rope and before Victor had time to reach for his rifle, he felt the raft moving in the darkness. Putting his rifle away, he reached for one of the long poles and he told Nika to help him to push the raft away from shore. For the next few minutes, the raft came as close as ten feet from the shore where the other members of the pack were waiting. It took all of their strength to keep the raft away, and as soon as they stopped pushing with the poles it would come near the shore again where the wolfes were following them along the bank. But once they were past the sharp turn of the river, it did remained well away from shore without the need of any steering or pushing. During the remainder of the night, he or Nika stayed awake in case the current of the river would move them near the bank again. When the first light of dawn came they were able to see six of the beasts with their pointed ears and glittering teeth, following them on the now much higher bank of the river. He almost made up his mind to shoot a couple of them so as to scare the rest away, but he then decided against this. If they were as intelligent as he had first judged them to be, he figured that it would be wiser not to reveal the deadly accuracy of his riffle. He was certain that at this range he could probably kill one or two of them but the remainder would simply move further away and continue to follow them while remaining out of range of his bullets. Beside there was also the chance that the noise of his shooting would attract more of them. By noon, the current of the river was much faster and the wolves were now in a half run trying to keep up with them. Nika seemed to know a lot about the wolves and she explained to Vincent that they would not simply give up their pursuits but would stay with them as long as they could. In the middle of the afternoon, the embankment on both sides of the river was now over ten and twelve feet high and it was solid rock. In all evidence the flow of the water had dug away through the solid rock throughout the ages and had made a channel for itself by eating the rock out. They had seen no traces of the wolves for the last hour, but at the same time it was also impossible to stop the raft since the current was much too fast and they were moving between two solid walls of rock. That night they remained floating on the river while the fast current was carrying them almost in a straight southerly direction. They took turns staying awake and watching but Vincent knew that there was nothing they could do to stop the raft or even guide it now. Then before noon of the next day, he heard the noise of rapids ahead of them. Before they had time to react they found themselves in extremely fast water and a few minutes later, they were at the head of a very high waterfall. The raft was being sucked toward it and there was nothing they could do about it. Barely a hundred yards before the water fell over the edge of the fall, the river separated in three different directions with the main part of the river going over the fall. The volume of water going over the edge was tremendous and even in their situation of eminent disaster, Vincent found himself thinking about the number of kilowatts such a fall could generate with this combination of height and volume. Then the raft struck a rock that was splitting the water between the central and right channel. It stopped there and remained in equilibrium as if it had a mind of its own. It did reminded him of someone he used to know, someone who found it impossible to make a choice whenever the time came to do so. Vincent used that pause to tighten their supplies more securely to the raft, he then tied a length of rope around his waist, and he tied the other end around Nika’s waist. Only then did he take time to examine the right channel. The amount of water going through that smaller channel was only a fraction of that going over the fall and instead of falling straight down as it did in the main branch, it cascaded down into a series of rapids. He knew that even if they were to guide the raft so that it would follow that direction, the chances of making it alive through those rapids would be small since he could see rocks everywhere sticking out of the stream. If the raft was to hit any of them, they were certain to be crushed to death. But they had no choice now, over the fall it was certain death for them while through the smaller channel their chances were just a little better. He took a pole and he signalled to Nika to take the other one. They pushed against the rock so as to change the static equilibrium of the raft. But the swift current was pressing them against the rock and the force they were exerting was not great enough to unbalance the raft. By mean of signs with his hand - since there was no way that he could be heard above the maelstrom of noises that the falls were emitting - he was able to make Nika understand to drop her pole and to help him push on the one he had. With the two poles pushing at the same time, they had two points of contact with the rock and much of the shove that one pole was exerting was cancelled by the other one. She did as he asked her and after a few seconds, the raft slowly began to move in the direction of the right channel. Then as soon as the current took hold of them they began to move faster on the turbulent waters of the smaller river. At the first rapid that they encountered, the raft almost overturned and had their supplies not been well secured with ropes, they would have been thrown overboard. Vincent estimated that their speed was well over thirty miles per hour and this was putting too much strain on the ropes holding the logs together. They were lucky and they didn’t hit any of the many rocks that stood here and there in the middle of the rapids. Then they were in a region of much calmer water. But there were no places to stop since the shorelines were well above their heads and beside they were still moving very fast. A couple of minutes later they were in the next series of rapids. These were not as bad as the previous rapids but it went on for a long stretch of time and on many occasions the raft did hit rocks and a section of rope holding the raft together did break under the strain. But the remaining two ropes did their job of holding the raft together. After what appeared to him to be an eternity they were again floating on calm waters. But it was only a reprieve for what was lying ahead of them. The noises coming from ahead of them was far worse than anything they had heard so far and Vincent could see an immense rainbow in the sky just over the river ahead. He then knew that there was a fall ahead and there was no way for them to avoid it. He placed his arms around Nika’s shoulders and he looked at her in the eyes. She knew that it was his way to say farewell and she gave him a weak smile in return. All of a sudden, the raft was pulled out from under their feet and they were in free fall. Everything then went black for Vincent. ( end of chapter 6 ) -- Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated. +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | alt.sex.stories.moderated ----- send stories to: | | FAQ: Moderator: | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Archive: Hosted by Alt.Sex.Stories Text Repository | |, an entity supported entirely by donations. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+