-Tranquil-
(continued)
Jaiden had never heard of any rivers in Ollen. It was far too hot most of the time for one to stay throughout the whole year.
“Hey, what are we gonna tell Mom when we’re there?” Marsh, asked, interrupting his brother’s thoughts.
“We? You are staying here. We’ve been over this.”
“Ah come on! I was just thinking about it and… you know, Mom’s not gonna be able to take me to school and I’m not waking up at three in the morning so she can go to work on time,” Marsh sauntered beside him, arms crossed.
“Yeah, but-”
“I mean, you’re the one that makes me food, you drive me places, you help me with my homework, and you take me on your secret adventure for your boyfriend!”
“Rune’s not my boyfrien-”
“Sorry, date-mate.”
“No, we are not dating-”
“But you liiike them-”
Jaiden ruffled Marsh’s hair and shoved his head down. They were getting off track but Marsh was right; their mom wouldn't get a break until she had covered everyone else's jobs. The company she worked for laid off a lot of good employees, only leaving their mother and a handful of others that actually knew what they were doing. At least she got a promotion, but that meant Marsh would have to go along with Jaiden.
Jaiden fixed his hat, looked at the sign and sighed.
“Alright, marsh. You’re coming with me. I’ll text mom and tell her we are taking a trip to… what's the place we went camping a few years ago?”
“It was next to the California wolf center.”
“Right, I’ll tell her we’re taking a… mental health break to go camping-”
“And for brotherly bonding!”
“Uh, sure. ‘Brotherly bonding,’” Jaiden took out his phone and sent the message. “Crap, we have to drive all the way back to the house so you can pack stuff!”
Marsh nodded a ‘no’ and opened the back door of the car. He pulled out his school backpack and closed the door once again. “I already packed everything I need,” he said making his way back to the front of the sign. Jaiden stood, mouth agape at his brother's preparations.
“What? Marsh, when did you pack that?”
“When do you think? I got all my stuff while you were getting yours. I knew I’d get my way,” he said, sitting on the boulder. Jaiden wanted to be mad but he mustered out a laugh, grabbed his own pack, and closed the trunk.
“Also, you might wanna figure out where that river is ‘cause the sun is starting to set,” Marsh pointed off to the sun which was beginning to fade away.
“Woah, Already?” Jaiden began to sweat. “Where could it be?” He began to pace about with a hand on his forehead in order to cage his thoughts.
“The sign should correlate to the direction of the river. Some way… I think,” Jaiden began, pulling out a thin notebook. He opened to a random page and scribbled a crude drawing of a map.
“So we’re here… and behind us is the town… to the right is the gas station and a dead-end at the mountains and…” he stopped to look around again but as he turned back to the notes something flashed in his face. He stumbled back a step.
“You good?” Marsh asked. Jaiden rubbed the sudden light from his eyes and groaned. He fixed his hat so it shaded his face and looked back up to Marsh but the light had somehow creped under his hat and glared at him again.
“Yeah, something is just shining in my… face,” Jaiden shielded his eyes with his hand, catching the light in his palm. He trailed off so suddenly that he forgot what he was doing. He moved to the side so his hand was the only thing that was being shined on and he examined it from an angle. Marsh watched his brother become enamored.
The light bent around his skin, becoming a perfect glowing circle. Jaiden realized that the light itself was coming from the sign. He saw that there was what looked to be a small hole at the top of the wood.
He slowly dropped his hand and watched as the light beamed across the road, passed the gas station and into the forest. His eyes widened.
“That’s it,” He thought. Jaiden very suddenly shoved his notebook into his backpack and looked to his brother.
“That's it!” He gasped aloud. It seemed that everything was finally connecting in his head.
“What’s it?” Marsh slipped off the boulder.
“The path! ‘Off the way of a warmly colored welcome, a path to this place lays. So close to the closest river, can be found by the end of day!’ It can only be found during the sunset! The Welcome to Ollen sign is showing us the way to the river! Marsh, we did it! let's go, come one!” Jaiden grabbed ahold of his backpack straps and dashed in the direction that the light was pointing.
“Woah wait up!” Marsh tripped after him as they crossed the idle road into the rim of the forest, barely leading into the start of a journey ahead.
◈◈◈
The trees loomed over them, growing denser as they went deeper into the forest. The ground below was padded with moss from all angles and wild grass. A new light peeked out from little pebbles as they hiked. Marsh noted the glowing rocks and began to accept the feeling of awe. They shined all on their own, glittering in a single direction. It could go unnoticed by anyone who wasn’t looking, but now it had travelers to show the way.
They continued on, Jaiden following the beam of light at a steady speed while Marsh stumbled behind.
“Jaid! Hold on… a second!” Marsh began to slow down and catch his breath, he couldn’t keep up with the adrenaline that overtook Jaiden. Then, he didn’t have to. Jaiden abruptly stopped in his tracks and stared at something in the dry forest. Marsh, gasping for breath, finally stood beside his brother who was looking upright at something.
“Why did… why’d you stop? I mean, thanks but-” Marsh said through sluggish breaths.
“Look over there,” He pointed straight on to a faded burgundy sign. The letters, in a curious font, read ‘Sader River.” Marsh squinted to read the sign and promptly looked around for the alleged stream.
“Where’s the river?” Marsh asked. Jaiden pointed down and shuffled his shoes in the pebbled path they were standing on. They had gone in a rhythmic dip in the ground around them and were standing in what was left of Sader River.
“There used to be a river here,” Jaiden proclaimed. Marsh looked around, disappointed at the sight of the dried-up riverbed. They watched the pebbles that revealed the path, fade away.
Jaiden started to what would have been upstream and Marsh followed groggily behind. The rest of the sun disappeared just as they came over a hill where they could just barely see the tranquil scene of a waterfall.
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