Ad by Web ShieldXXAd by Web ShieldXXNathaniel & Jake
Location Unknown
Jake was the first to awaken, his vision blurry and his head feeling groggy, his body felt stiff and sore like he had been stuffed into a very small box in a less-than-comfortable position. Slowly and groggily he removed the pack on his back and stretched feeling relief as the stiff muscles loosened up and his bones popped into place. Last night was without a doubt the roughest night he had ever experienced in his life. He looked over to his best friend and former master who was still asleep at the roots of the oak tree. The night before had been an especially harrowing experience for him. Jake considered waking him up, but decided against it feeling his friend could use the rest after all he had been through last night.
He looked through what little supplies they had left. Despite losing most of their supplies in the storm he and Nathaniel had managed to keep some of their personal effects like some spare clothes, a medical kit, some food, the map to the safehouse, Nathaniels Bible and other books and their weapons in the sacks they wore on their backs. He and Nathaniel still had their rifles slung across their backs and pistols in their packs and some powder and lead shot, but they were likely useless at the moment due to the powder getting wet. They both still had their hunting knives and Nathaniel had even managed to keep his granddads old hangar and Jake a small hatchet. The crossbows however were lost along with the bolts for them.
He inspected the guns to see if the powder was wet, and it was. Their spare powder was wet too. Plus some water had gotten into the barrels of the rifles so they were totally useless for the time being. He cursed mentally as he turned his attention to the food. The dried meat the Brookes gave them might still be good, the bread was soaked and falling apart. The remaining potatoes might also still be good, as were the apples and pears though they were bruised. The canned goods they had would definitely still be good. He might still have to forage, hunt or steal some fresher food though in case the food especially the meat and bread started to spoil due to being wet for who knows how long. Nathaniel had taught him how to hunt and forage and use a gun. He had even gone on hunting and fishing trips with him and Mr. Haggart, though his job was dressing the game. Lastly he checked the clothes, they were wet but still in good order. He laid them out to dry along the river bank placing rocks on them to keep them from blowing away.
Once he was satisfied that everything was in order Jake decide to look around. He looked at the river and noticed it didn't seem nearly as wide as before. The Mississippi River was a mile wide or more at some places but the river before him appeared to be no more than 50 yards wide at the most. So they may've floated into a separate river or stream. But that idea was thrown out when he got a better look at his surroundings. The trees were sparse in contrast to the familiar dense forests and woodlands of Arkansas. And there were also mountains including one right behind their camp. And to his knowledge there were no mountains along the Mississippi.
'That storm must've blown us really far off course.' he thought to himself.
As he sat down next to his friend his mind began to drift towards his other friends and fellow runaway slaves; Saul and his family, the twins, the cousins, Gordon, Broomhilda, Joshua and his brother and sister and Gertrude. He wondered where they were now and if they too were still alive like him and Nathaniel. He also wondered about where they may be doing right now if they were still alive, if they were running around in the wild somewhere, found someone who would be willing to give them shelter or if they had been captured. He didn't like to dwell on that possibility but he couldn't help it. That possibility was real for him and Nathaniel as well. This thought made him look around for anyone who might be watching. It was at that time he heard Nathaniel stirring from his sleep.
"Hey Nate, how ya feelin' man?" he asked.
"Feel like crap." Nathaniel answered groggily as he stretched his stiff muscles.
"Yeah, it was a purdy rough night, huh?"
"No kiddin'." Nathaniel looked over at the clothes laided out on the bank. "I take it all our stuff got wet?"
"Yep, includin' our gunpowder, our food an' your books. The rest of our stuff's gone, includin' that crossbow of yours."
"Fan-damn-tastic," he cursed rubbing his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Ya seen or heard any of the others?"
" 'Fraid not. I don't even know where we at. Jus' look at the mountains 'round us."
"Mountains?" Nathaniel asked with a perplexed look on his face. For the first time since he woke up he got a good look at his surrounding and indeed he saw the mountains. He couldn't help but look at the scenery in disbelief. "No way." he said. "This ain't right. There shouldn't be any mountains along the Mississippi."
"I don't think we on the Mississippi no more, Nate." Jake added.
"Lemme see the maps, Jake." Nathaniel said as Jake handed him the still damp maps. After a few minutes reviewing the maps he couldn't find anything on them that matched their location. At this point he realized they were seriously lost.
"Jake, I think we're lost. There ain't nothin' on any of these here maps that matches our location." He and Jake said down beneath the oak tree attempting to ponder their next move. After what seemed like several minutes Jake finally broke the silence.
"So...What we gonna do, Nate? We gonna try an' look fer the others?"
"Yeah." Nathaniel answered. "I don't leave 'em out here. But if we can't find 'em we'll jus' hafta go on without 'em."
He took no joy in saying that. He wanted everyone to go up north together, but it didn't look like that was going to happen if they couldn't be found. Jake and the others were like family to him despite their differences in skin color and social status. In fact they were more of a family to him than his biological family. His mother died when he was still a toddler, so he had almost no memory of her, and his father was an abusive drunkard and fiend who treated him almost as badly as he did his slaves. The only other relative he had was his uncle Bartholomew, whom was William Haggarts' oldest brother. But he hadn't seen or heard from him in years due to the fact he and William didn't get along too well due to Bartholomew being an abolitionist. So he was all but kicked out of his life by his father. The only real family he had left were the slaves. Leaving them behind would like him abandoning one of his own family to die.
After the boys got a quick breakfast consisting of the dried meat and potatoes they decided to explore around for a bit to see if they could find any of the others and maybe find some more food and most importantly find out where they were. They started their search by following the river which seemed to go near some tall flat-topped mountain with a waterfall on the side. So far they found none of their companions, however they did have some success scrounging up fresh food. There were some blackberry and raspberry bushes and mulberry trees along the river. They gathered some more cattails in marshy parts of the river and even managed to catch a few bullfrogs, a turtle, some crawdads and even a good sized catfish that was stranded in a sinkhole. As they got closer to the mountain they noticed what looked like a road going up the side of it. There were odd ring-shaped clouds near the top and what appeared to be large birds flying through them, but they were flying way too fast to be any ordinary birds; and both of them swore they saw some of the "birds" leave behind multicolored streaks behind them as they flew.
Daylight was beginning to wane and the sun was setting by the time Nathaniel and Jake reached the foot of the mountain and found that it really did have a road going up along the side of it. So they reasoned that their might be a town or at the least a building of some sort on top. Otherwise no one would bother putting a road up there.
"Well, whaddaya say, Jake? We go up that there road an' see what's up there?"
Jake merely shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sure. Don't see why not? Might git us a good look at the land 'round here from up there. An' we may find us a place to stay fer the night."
Receiving his answered Nathaniel and Jake made their way up the mountain. By the time they were a quarter of the way up the mountain it was dark and the moon was out. Down below they could see the lights of a town that looked to be no more than a few miles away. It was too far away for them to reach tonight so they just kept going up the mountain road. After what seemed like more than an hour of walking they were near the top and they caught a glimpse of the one of the strange ring clouds they had seen earlier as it shown a silverish blue color in the moonlight. They both kept wondering how it was keeping its shape and how come it hadn't blown away in some breeze and what purpose it could possibly serve as this cloud seemed ...artificial to them. It just wasn't natural. Eventually they just forgot about the strange cloud and kept going up the road. Finally they reached the top and looked down over the side. They could see the lights of the town more clearly now and it looked to be a relatively small town or maybe a large village. They'd have to see tomorrow.
They turned their attention back to what could be up on top of the mountain. And they did indeed find something up there. The first thing they saw was a rainbow colored waterfall and a long rectangular black patch of earth with white streaks running down the middle of it that ran from one end of the mountaintop to the other going all the way to the edge of the cliff with a small brook going underneath it at one end. Jake took his hatchet and tapped on the black earth with the backside and found that it was bouncy, like rubber backed by something hard like stone. He then put his hand on the black rubbery substance and found it to have a very rough and hard texture to it. Nathaniel knelt down and felt the strange substance too. Neither had seen or felt anything like it before.
"Whaddaya think this could be?" Nathaniel asked Jake, whom only shook his head and said:
"Beats me. Ain't no road that's fer sure."
While they were trying to figure out the purpose of the strange black surface Nathaniel caught sight of something ever more bizarre on the other side of the mountain top. He elbowed Jake and pointed him towards what he was staring at. And both boys simply stared in amazement, shock and utter disbelief at what they say:
Buildings. A series of buildings...made out of clouds.
There was just no way it was possible; the ring clouds and strange black surface was strange enough, but this just straight up defied any logical explanation. How could such structures even be made, how would they not blow apart in the wind and who or what could even live in them? There were even lights in the windows meaning they were occupied. They decided to get a closer look at the largest cloud-building which appeared to be the main building. It was about 2 or 3 stories high with some steps going up to the main entrance with strange statues on either side. Strange as in they were made in the image of winged humanoid figures in flight with faces that possessed equine features and horse-like tails trailing behind them and both statues looked like they were made of bronze. The boys just dismissed the statues as strange artwork and began testing the cloud to see if it could hold any weight. At first they tried to touch it with their hands only to feel nothing but cool water vapour. Next they threw a rock on the cloud only for it to go straight through making a light "poof" as it fell through the vapour.
"Well, don't look like we're gonna be gittin' in there." said Nathaniel. "But seriously, what could live in a house made of cloud?"
"Angels?" answered Jake, unsure if that last statement was an actual question or a rhetorical one.
"I don't think angels live in cloud houses Jake." Nathaniel answered.
Before either one could say anything else they heard a feminine voice call out from above. They looked up and saw a figure with bright orange hair looking down at them from an open window on the second floor. She said something to them again but the boys couldn't understand what she was saying, like she was speaking in another language. And judging from her tone they could tell she wasn't very happy. Instead of trying to respond to whatever it was she said the boys just took off running while the figure shouted angrily at them. As the boys ran for the road that lead down the mountain they heard whooshing sounds somewhere above them. They looked up a saw a winged figure gliding through the air past them, turn around, stop in mid air and land on the ground in front of them. It was the same orange-haired figure as before but this time they got a better look at her now. She was wearing a red robe of some sort with flame patterns on the cuffs and hems and some slippers to match and her hair wasn't just orange but orange and yellow giving it the appearance of a flame. She also had what looked like a horse-like tail behind her of the same colors.
But what really stuck out to the boys, besides the golden bird wings and flame-colored hair and tail, was her face: it possessed the equinoid features the bronze statues with pointed ears on top of her head rather than the sides and the flame-like hair in question was really a mane. A short snout protruding from her face, more resembling that of a cat or short snouted dog than a horse and she had a pair of very large forward-facing orange eyes giving her face some semblance to that of a Humans. And she was covered in golden fur. In short she was a woman with the head of a deformed horse and bird wings. However the boys weren't as concerned about her physical appearance as they were about what she had in her hands: a double-barreled shotgun. And it was pointed right at them.
She shouted something at them that they couldn't understand, but they could guess the meaning and raised their hands over their heads.