Krafft's Anomaly Notes

Chapter 100
As the road narrows, the traveler will not only feel that he is going deep into the mountains, but also into the drought.

At the beginning of the journey, near the Toby River Valley, that is, the only muddy yellow river, scattered dwarf trees can still be seen dotting the mountains, but they have not seen any trees higher than their heads before a week ago. trees.

By the end of the journey, or at least what Kraft and William thought it was the end, the vegetation had grown too slow to eat a road that was rarely traveled, and the road was legible in the last rays of the setting sun.

William eagerly chose to start early in the morning, but they were still dragged until sunset.

The frequent rocks on the road repeatedly blocked the way, and after the axle almost broke, Peter never dared to challenge the sharp turn of the mountain road. He stopped honestly every time and called on the male passengers to work together to push the roadblock away.

It can be seen that they are not human-made obstacles. The same stones are scattered on both sides of the hillside, probably rolled down from a high place.

At first, Kraft thought it was the lack of the soil-fixing function of the plant roots, which caused the rocks to loosen, but later found something different during the journey.The distribution of these stones on the mountain is very uneven. Some sections of the road are very dense, piled up in piles in the valley, and after walking for a while, there are not a few of them.

I don't know if it's a coincidence, but if you look up, if the angle is right, you can usually find a round black dark area hidden by vegetation on the high slope, corresponding to the messy gravel area.

This journey, which alternated between driving and hard work, encountered difficulties they could not solve in the evening.A few boulders were stuck on the road, which did not completely block the road, but cut off the possibility of the carriage passing through.

The residents of the village seem to have no need for animal power transportation, or have no thought of contacting the outside world, so they let them lie on the ground, ignoring the only way in and out.

Seeing that the sun has already pressed down on the opposite ridge, it must be too late to turn back. I don't know the distance ahead, and I get stuck on the narrow road in the middle of the mountain.

"We can't go on like this, Peter, untie the horse, get out of the carriage and walk around." The captain can't be an indecisive person, William took the lead in picking up the package and jumped out of the carriage, deciding to walk the rest of the distance, "Leave the carriage here , even if I bought it."

The budget is more than sufficient, and the biggest cost is actually the cost of time. The time that should have been used to transport the goods is diverted to other uses, and the sailors' remuneration must be paid as usual. This broken carriage can't add a fraction.

Compared to losing some money, he didn't want to walk at night, or even spend the night in the wild.

"Sit still. If you can't, hold the horse's neck, and I will lead it in front." Considering that Yvonne may not be able to keep up, she received special treatment, and was helped by Kraft to the horse and led by Kupp.

The horse has been very docile all the way, but the steep slope on one side made him feel uneasy, "If you are really thrown off, you should hug your head and call for help, understand?"

Yvonne nodded obediently.

The team passed through the gap between the boulders, with their palms supporting the rock face, the grainy feel scraped the palm lines, most of the fractures were straight, and they walked over a steep corner to the other side.

A few shrubs that were pulled up by their roots fell on the ground, and they seemed to have been uprooted for some time. From the leaves to the shriveled roots with soil, they were all drained of water by the sun.

Kraft looked around, but couldn't find where they came from, and couldn't think of any reason for people or animals to pull out the bushes and discard them here. "William, have you ever encountered a similar situation before?"

"What? That's for sure. If necessary, I can dump most of the cargo on board, just to ensure that the storm catches up with the port of entry." William replied while pulling out a torch.In order to lighten the load, they only brought small torches, and only one or two were distributed to each person.If you really want to walk at night, you have to take turns to use it.

"No, I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about this kind of terrain, holes, falling rocks, etc." Kraft twisted the dusty blade in his hand, which still retained a little toughness, and was rubbed into crumbs not so smoothly, "And these plants, are there any animals that like to pull up plants?"

In order for shrubs to absorb water in arid climates, it is impossible for shrubs to have undeveloped root systems. The force required to directly pull them out of the soil is generally beyond the reach of humans.

"No? Maybe it was brought out when the stone fell?" William looked at Peter. The guide was dutifully leading the horse to the middle of the mountain road, and looked back after hearing this.

"A gerbil? About the size of a fist."

"Impossible. So it was really brought down by the loose stone?" Kraft lifted the whole plant and found that its root system was still intact, except for the thin whiskers, there were not a few broken ones, it didn't look like it was pulled out of the soil by force.

A sailor picked up the roots and examined them, but saw nothing clearly.Unknowingly, the sun has sunk a lot, and people with different degrees of night blindness are generally not easy to see without torches in the low-light environment where night is approaching.

"Don't worry about it, light our torches while there's still light, two at a time, and we can only try to find a place to spend the night if we don't get there after a while."

There were no more than eight people in the team, and a torch at the head and tail was enough to meet the lighting needs. William and Peter led the way, the sailors looked after the tail, and Kraft and his party who were not familiar with the wild environment were arranged in the middle.

They walked for the last few minutes in the afterglow of the sun. The shadow rose from the bottom of the valley, rushed over the jagged rocks, climbed on the steep slope, flooded the road and drowned the heels, driving away a ray of light on the top of the mountain at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The sun went down, and the team fell into the dark night surrounded by hills.

Everyone consciously shut their mouths and concentrated on walking along the mountain. The range of the torch is not far away. If you stray a few steps while chatting, you may lose your foot and roll down the steep slope on the outside of the road.

The edges and corners of those stones have been seen by day, and they are the sharp teeth of the valley, which can easily cut through the stumbler and make him pay forever for a momentary neglect.

William's eyesight wasn't much better either. When Kraft took over the second torch from the crew, he could see beads of sweat dripping from his forehead as he stood in the middle of the line. , slow down and move forward.

The slightly rhythmic sound of footsteps became the theme of the environment, and even the horses caught up with William's steps. Occasionally, someone stumbled on the gravel, and the sense of rhythm was briefly disrupted.

It's embarrassing to say, but the alien soul is quite sensitive to the sound of footsteps, and has enough experience to distinguish it, so that it can perform some small movements under the covers at night.

With a supernormal memory, it is even easier to remember the footsteps of the entire team. Unfortunately, no one is chasing him every day now, and what he stays up late to read has become a tome and teaching notes.

But his skills did not regress when he came here, but improved because of his more sensitive hearing.

In an orderly pace, Kupp, who was leading the horse, noticed that Kraft in front of him suddenly got out of line, shortened the pace and accelerated the frequency, deliberately breaking the rhythm.

The sudden change in pace made him lose his rhythm, and he almost tripped over his feet.

"what happened?"

"Quiet." Kraft replaced the explanation with a brief command, glanced at the way beyond the torch light circle behind the team, and changed his footsteps abruptly for the second time.

(End of this chapter)