by Don P. Bick
Chapter 32
"There doesn't seem to be any way to open it," exclaimed Camran, as he pushed and pulled on the giant stone slab. They had all taken turns trying to open the stone slab that resembled a door. All, that is, except Druc.
Druc stood back and watched as first one then another tried to open the door. The door, as they had begun to call it, consisted of a large stone slab, with the outline of a door precisely cut into the rock. It definitely was no ordinary door. It was approximately ten feet high by five feet wide, ornately decorated. Along with the outline of a door there were carved designs cut deep into the stone.
They all knew the Oracle hints that the door is illusion; still they tried everything they could think of to gain entry through the doorway. Druc could see what the others could not, regarding the stone slab. That was all it was, just a stone slab. It was ornately carved to be sure, but still just a stone slab. His trained eyes saw the cuts into the rock were superficial and not cut completely through. In order to create a door the cuts had to go all the way through. He sat there and watched the others while he tried to solve the riddle of the stone door with his mind.
One by one they gradually gave up trying to open the door and began looking around for other alternatives. There wasn't much else to consider. They had spent over two hours trying to open the door and had gotten nowhere. There were other large chunks of rock in the immediate area, but beneath the eagle's talon there was nothing that appeared to be a better choice for a doorway than the one outlined in the rock. They each took turns studying the carvings on the stone, trying to decipher some meaning from them. Nothing came to anyone's mind.
"How about some fishing?" Bran asked Druc, when they couldn't think of anything else to try.
"Sure," answered Druc, as he got up and began to head back to the cave with the others.
Bran and Druc got their fishing gear and walked down to the stream near the strand of trees, just south of the cave. As they threw in their lines neither of them said a word. Both were preoccupied with thoughts of how to get through the door. Fishing was a good way to think. It was relaxing to them both.
Besides exercising their brains, they each caught a fish before an hour had gone by. "That's too bad," commented Bran.
"What's too bad?" asked Druc, expecting Bran to say something about the door.
"It's too bad we already caught a couple of fish. One more and we have to quit and go eat them," replied Bran distractedly.
"Maybe we should have left the bait off this time," said Druc, just as disinterested in catching anymore fish right away. They were using brightly colored pieces of cloth for bait. That seemed to work as well as anything else they had tried on this side of the mountains. It was less messy as well.
Immediately Bran had another fish on his line. "Maybe I should have listened to you and left the bait off," Bran stated, as he brought the fish onto the bank. "Gena will be glad to have them early, anyway."
The two cleaned the three fish, packed up their gear, and walked back to the cave where they encountered a discussion underway regarding the door.
"Have you guys been talking about the door ever since we left?" Bran asked.
"Yes," answered Gena. "A lot of good it has done us, though."
"We didn't have much luck either," commented Druc, laying the cleaned fish near the fire.
"It looks like you've done pretty well," Uri said, eyeing the fish. They had all grown to like the various fish dishes for dinner, especially since they began catching the smaller ones from the rivers and streams in the valley. But they hadn't eaten any during the last couple of days due to the birds and Gena's mishap.
"That isn't what he meant," spoke up Bran on Druc's behalf. Guess we have all been preoccupied with the door. "By the way, where is Camran?"
"Guess?" asked Ve-Nah. "He went back to the door just a few minutes after he came back to the camp, saying something about checking out an idea." She looked concerned about him being off by himself.
Twil was on watch but offered to go and check on Camran if someone would take over for him. Uri volunteered, while Bran and Gena began to fix dinner. Ve-Nah was working on Gena's pack. It had suffered a torn strap when the bird had grabbed her. She was trying to mend it with some heavy twine and a large wooden needle.
Camran meant Twil about halfway between the door and camp.
"Anything wrong?" asked Camran.
"No. Any luck?" Twil asked.
"Nothing," Camran stated flatly.
Back at camp Camran shrugged his shoulders at the looks of inquiry from the others, indicating he didn't learn anything new.
Again, Bran and Gena outdid themselves with dinner. The fish was delicious, covered in a creamy sauce and carrying a hint of berry.
After dinner it was unusually quiet, all of them were working with their own thoughts regarding the door. Seven brains were better than one; however, it didn't look like anyone was having any luck with the puzzle. Before it was completely dark, one by one, they drifted off to bed.
Druc found himself sitting alone at the fire. He could see Twil out on watch through the cave entrance. He wasn't tired so he just continued to sit there and think.
After a while he got tired of just sitting. He needed to stretch his legs. He still wasn't sleepy so he gathered a few torches together and walked out of the cave. Twil asked if he was okay. He said he wasn't tired and was going to go over to the door and have a look. Twil said he would be able to see the torch and to holler if he needed help for any reason. The door wasn't that far away. Still it probably wasn't smart for him to go out there alone at night. But the chances of something being around were pretty small considering this was where the birds had lived for a long time. They had died so recently there hadn't been time for any animals to move back into the area.
Twil watched Druc walk over to the stone slab, his torch lighting the way before him.
Druc arrived at the door and stuck the torch in the ground nearby. The other torches were sticking out of the small knapsack he had shouldered for convenience. The torch put out enough light to see the carvings in the door, as well as the groves outlining the door itself.
Druc recognized the door was an illusion. No door existed in the stone slab. At least not a door outlined by the groves cut into the rock. He had gone over this a hundred times in his head that afternoon and evening. There had to be a different answer somewhere. He walked forward to try pushing at different points on the slab, even though he watched the others spend a couple of hours doing the very same thing that afternoon. He stepped forward to place his hand on the middle left hand side of the slab, and went right through the open doorway.