The Journey To An Unknown Destination - Chapter 70

Finally, they reached near the loaction of the waterfall. “Almost there. We would spot it any second now!” Cyril excitedly stated.

They were now walking in an open area, surrounded by tall mountains. Above their peaks, vultures were soaring in the sky. In between the yellow green grass that spread across the land, colorful flowers were blooming.

Purple balloon flowers, white snakeroot, celosias of orange, yellow and red colors, michaelmas daisies in shades in purple and blue, yellow golden rod and bright pink chrysanthemums were planted everywhere their eyes would land.

The scene was like it was taken out of a fairytale.

“There!” Emily yelled in surprise as she pointed towards their right, where a majestic waterfall was pouring down in a small stream. It was not very big, just a small waterfall, with water falling from a source on the top of the mountain all the way down and into the stream. It was still further away from them, unable to contain their excitement, they rushed towards the waterfall at full speed.

Almost near the waterfall, Emily looked at Cyril, who was beside her running at full spead. She then turned towards Aiden… He wasn’t there!

Emily stopped in her tracks and looked behind her, Aiden’s small figure was calmly walking towards them. ‘Oh… I forgot… Aiden just recovered from a sprained ankle. He would’ve hurt himself if he ran with us!’ Emily thought and ran back towards Aiden.

“Ay..?! Why did you come back? I was slowly coming. Haha.” Aiden laughed at Emily who was out of breath after all that running. “Huff… I can’t leave you behind… Huff… Now can I? Huff…” Emily then stood up straight when she was done panting and smiled at him. She then started walking alongside him with a steady pace.

Cyril, however, who was still running, did not notice that Emily and Aiden were way behind. When he was a few feet away from the roaring water falling down the waterfall, he turned around and saw none of the two behind him. Except their figures as small as dots, walking towards him. Cyril smacked his forehead in the sudden realization that Aiden’s ankle was still sore from the sprain.

He chose a shady spot beside the waterfall and took a rest as he waited from them to slowly arrive. When the two reached a bit closer, their faces now visible, he saw Emily waving her hands in the air and mouthing something. He couldn’t understand what she was trying to say because of the waterfall gushing down the stream behind him.

He shouted back, “What?!” Emily was still saying something but he could not hear it. He, too, gave up to try to communicate in this noise and simply waited for them.

In almost a minute or two, they had finally reached in front of him. “Couldn’t you hear me?” Emily aksed tilting her head in confusion. “Can’t you hear the water falling behinf us?” Cyril asked back. “Oh, well, yeah… I did not think about it back then.” Emily shrugged as the she and Aiden sat in front of him, in the shade of a green, bushy tree.

“So, I was trying to tell you that if you have some food with you, you should take it out and lay it down on a picnic mat you stuffed in your bag this morning!” Emily said, taking out the remaining few boxes of food they had from her and Aiden’s bag.

“Oh..!” Cyril said while he helped her lay down the picnic mat and place the boxes of food on top of it.

“Uhm… I think we should save some of it for our journey back. We have a long way to cover and we would need some food then too.” Aiden stated as he put two big boxes of food back inside his back.

“Bro… Even this food we have, right in front of us won’e even last an hour in out stomach… How are we supposed to eat so less when we’re so hungry?” Cyril whined as he complained about the lack of food.

“We sould have packed some more, but, come one guys! We’re here for camping and ‘surviving in the wild’ as Sir Wilson and Miss Ellen told us the other day.” Emily replied in a mocking tone as the other two chortled at her making fun of the teachers’ words.

Enjoying the only mouthfuls of food they decided to eat, they closed the plastic container back into their bags. Carefully folding the picnic mat, they put their belongings beside a tree and trod towards the waterfall.

Standing right in front of the magnificent waterfall, Emily was spellbound by its beauty. The water was gushing down into the stream and forming a misty cloud above the surface of the stream. Light spray of the cold water was pouring on them by the waterfall. They could only hear the water falling, and nothing else.

The leaves that were rustling, the birds that were chirping, and the wind that was blowing, everything was inaudible, just the sound of the slpahing of water was reaching their ears. Although loud, but still like a piece of music, satisfying to the ears.

For a moment they stood still and watched the water fall and travel downwards into the stream. “Now what?” Aiden asked. “Are we supposed to swim?” He asked laughing. “Well, we can’t swim, we might catch a cold, but, at least we can do this!” Emily said as she cupped a handful of water and slpashed it on to both, Aiden and Cyril.

“Oh, ho ho… You’re so looking for trouble!” Aiden and Cyril said together and started splashing water on Emily as well.