Valcore - The Ancient's Rise

"I'm the lake at night, and your the moon. The waters reflected I with you my hearts infected. Whispering in my ear I love you, us entwined an eternal cocoon. Without you for a second is a second too long. A lagoon of doubt I'm drowning, please stay strong." - Jeremiah Mcgrady

It's early evening and were hiking deeper into the enchanted forest, 'this is beautiful' I thought as I looked around at everything. There are gigantic trees everywhere, towering high into the air, creating a canopy of green leaves eighty feet above our heads. The forest floor was mostly bare under our shoes, it was soft, with patches of ferns and massive rocks protruding from the earth in certain places. The rays from the sun have broken through the tops of the trees and were shining down all around us in beams of light - dust motes floating in the air - that warmed our faces as we walked through them. There was a feeling of a breeze moving through the woods like mother nature herself was dancing about the atmosphere ever so gracefully. It was magical. The muffled silence of the world outside enhances everything that's happening inside the forest.

Sophia asked me for a drink, so we stopped and I asked if anyone else wanted one as well, they did, it's been like an hour since we started so I broke out the granola bars and fruit snacks, and we took a break in a nearby clearing.

"This place is unbelievable," said Kristy, if malibu barbie was a stoner, she'd be Kristy. Blake was explaining a map but managed to agree, "Yeah, it is." He folded the map up, "the waterfall..." he held the end of the last word until he was turned around and facing the right way, "is, that way" he pointed.

"Were about two miles away."

"Oh my god that's like fifteen hours," said Kristy.

"Nah, thirty minutes tops, we should have plenty of time to arrive and set up camp." Blake announced, "and get some dinner cooking." he added as he put his water bottle back in his backpack.

"And go swimming," said Sophie enthusiastically, but everyone already left, they weren't paying attention. I turned and kissed her on the cheek, "I'll go with you."

We were walking up this incline of dense trees when I got this really bad feeling out of nowhere, something was horribly wrong, or about to be horribly wrong. I stopped and at the same time, I saw a flashback. I was back at the car again and I was walking up the trail from two hours ago, but no one was in front of me this time. I saw it as if time just rewinded, what the hell was that?

Everyone else had continued walking and was slightly ahead of me, I hadn't moved, "shit" I said out loud. They all turned around, "nothing, I thought I forgot something." I said as I straightened my face up and kept moving, I was probably just dehydrated, nothing was going to happen.

We kept hiking another forty-five minutes through the enormous wilderness and ended up coming out of the woods to a riverbank, we turned north and headed upstream.

"Were almost there," said Blake. My anticipation grew.

The first spot we were headed to had a thirty-five-foot waterfall next to it, as wide as the giant pool of crystal clear water it flowed into, and if I researched correctly the water at night glows from the micro-organisms in it.

As we headed up the left side of the riverbank we spotted a few elk on the other side of the narrow river. The water flowed past us and down the mountain. The sun was starting to set and all the crickets and cicadas came out. We reached the clearing where we'd set up camp for the night, possibly the weekend, it was a cool place.

One by one, we started grabbing sticks and firewood and began setting up the tents. While I was starting the firepit, Sophie and Kristy were talking gossip and giggling while they unpacked dinner. Blake and I sparked up a conversation about the wrongful traditions of our parents' generation and if we had children how we would try to raise them.