Games of the Powerful
Page 56
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The climb to the top of Mt. Roraima had been as arduous task for all of them. Before this, each felt they were in top shape and could handle almost anything until they tried to climb the mountain. Sitting exhausted at the top of Mt. Roraima’s black plateau they listened to the guide in his broken English explain to them they had reached El Portal nearly four-thousand feet up or twenty-seven hundred meters above the jungle floor. Taking a much-needed rest, they gazed out at the landscape around them and were astonished at what they could see from this vantage. The landscape before them is mostly made of fissured and oddly eroded shaped rocks with black algae growing on top of them. The quartzite forming the plateau is normally a light soft pink color but the algae growing on the rock gave it a dark black look.
“Amazing, certainly not what I expected,” Allen commented to his brother George who shook his head in agreement.
“I think we can all agree that this was a lot harder than we first thought, but it is worth it to say we climbed Mt. Roraima,” Tony chimed in after taking a drink of water from his canteen.
“Look at that pool over there and the plants growing around it,” Maiko said pointing. They turned and looked where she was pointing admiring the exotic vegetation growing around the glistening pool of water. "Why don't we get our lazy butts up and take a closer look?"
Walking along they could see stunted trees in the distance growing sparsely, haphazardly dotting the plateau. Growing near and in the small pools of clean clear water are plants with bunched up knife shaped green leaves pointing up, carnivorous plants like the red pitcher plant in full flower hanging vine like near the edge catching the careless insect that falls for their seductive trap. These carnivorous plants have a trapping mechanism with a deep cavity filled with a liquid inside that traps flies and other crawling insects. The vegetation grows in groups bursting from the rocks in an explosion of colors, sundews in red with their narrow leaves along with white and orange flowers grouped in bunches like table top settings in a fine restaurant. Huge dragonflies flitted among the plants and rocks seeming to dive-bomb them all the while sidestepping the tiny yellow-bellied black frogs everywhere along the trail making them look before placing their feet carefully on the ground. The rock formations awed them such as the flying turtle, shaped like its namesake appearing to fly over a mass of boulders underneath.
Fifteen minutes from El Portal is an area the guide calls Los Hoteles making up and area of small caves mainly hollows and overhangs in the rocks but they do afford a degree of shelter from the sun and inclement weather. Taking the lead the guide headed in the direction of Los Hoteles as the weather decided to torment them with another deluge thoroughly soaking them. Arriving at their destination soaking wet and more than a little irritable, Maiko found a secluded cave a little away from the men and stripped off her soaking wet cloths. A sudden cool breeze blew gently into the cave giving her goose bumps over her entire body. Hurriedly opening her waterproof pack for a dry towel, she dried her cold wet body quickly changing into dry clothes as fast as she could put them on. Changing from jungle print to tight fitting solid black pants and black high neck pullover shirt proclaimed her dark mood. While carefully laying out her wet clothes on the rocks to dry, she wondered whether doing so was a waste of time given this wet climate. Taking a drink from her canteen, she sat on one of the crystal seats the cave offered and watched it rain.
What are we doing here? I have never in my life been rained on, bit by bugs, fallen to the ground scraping my knees like I have these last few days she grumbled aloud. Where are we supposed to go now that we are here? Are those cursed artifacts going to simply pop-up and say here we are come gets us? I seriously doubt that, her thoughts getting darker by the moment. Hreidmar had better know what to do when we find those cursed artifacts or I am going to kick his butt across this damn mountain. Where is he anyway? He is over there in a cave with a bunch of men instead of over here with me. What is wrong with him she fumed to herself? Do I have to tell him everything? Angrily staring at the ground, the more she thought about it the more sullen she became. Listening to the rain patter on the rocks, she looked up and there he is standing in the rain staring at her.
“What are you doing standing in the rain?”
“Washing my clothes waiting for you to invite me in,” he laughed.
“How much longer before they are done,” she giggled her black mood fleeing the instant she saw him.
“Well with the lack of soap to clean them they will probably never get totally clean but I would say they are done enough for now,” he speculated.
“Get in here so we can dry you off you big oaf!”
With a grateful expression on his face, he came in out of the rain. Helping him remove his wet boots and clothes, she reached in his pack for a dry towel quickly drying him and in the process sending a wave of feelings racing through her she quickly squashed. This was not the time or place to act on her wild desires and she could tell he is struggling with the same emotions. Reaching up she pulled his head down and kissed him expelling all her pent-up emotions in one kiss. Reluctantly separating, he quickly got dressed into blue jeans, a button down the middle blue shirt and dry boots from his pack.
“Hreidmar what are we doing? I mean I know why we are here and as fantastic as it is I know we need to do this but what is it we are actually doing? I have a million questions buzzing around inside my head that I can’t seem to get answers for.”
“For the sake of not sounding condescending I have to admit I have not the foggiest idea what we are to do. We know we have to find these artifacts and claim them for ours and once we do someone of something will tell us what to do next so we have to go with the flow for now. Although for me I like a little more control over things, I find this a little nerve-racking.”
“I can agree with you there,” she laughed thinking about a few minutes ago and what it took her to control emotions.
With a knowing grin on his face he continued,” ok, here is what we have. We have ghosts sitting over there that say that they have been compromised,” pointing his thumb over his shoulder. “They don’t know how high this goes but could be all the way to the president and if it is our president then what about Russia or China’s leaders are they too compromised? Who is in charge of the nuclear weapons if they have gotten that high in the various governments? What about the colonies has the enemy infiltrated there too or are they limited to what they can do? Then to top all of that off we have an entire fleet, you saw the news, destroyed by some aliens!” Maiko looked at him in amazement for a moment before speaking.
“Well, at least I know you and I are thinking the same, but it does not help us much because neither of us has any answers.” They sat quietly for a time watching the rain come down filling small valleys and gullies with water eventually flowing into the shallow pools dotting the landscape.