As the road narrows, the traveler will feel not only deep into the mountains, but also deep into the drought.

At the beginning of the journey, near the Tobid River basin, the only turbid Yellow River, there were still sporadic dwarf trees dotting the mountains, but they had not seen any trees taller than their heads a week before.

By the end of the journey, at least as Kraft and William thought it would be, the vegetation had slowed down to eat a rare pedestrian road that could be seen in the setting sun.

William was impatient to choose to leave early in the morning, but they were still dragged until sunset.

After the frequent rocks on the road repeatedly blocked the way, and the axle almost broke, Peter no longer dared to challenge the sharp turn of the mountain road, and every time he stopped honestly, beckoning the male passengers to work together to push the roadblock away.

It can be seen that they are not man-made obstacles, and the same stones are scattered on the slopes on both sides, and they are probably tumbling down from a height.

Kraft at first thought that the lack of soil retention of the plant roots had caused the stones to loosen, but later he noticed a discrepancy during his trip. The distribution of these rocks on the mountains is very uneven, and some sections of the road are very dense, piled up in the valley, and there are not a few pieces to be seen after a section.

I don't know if it's a coincidence, but if you look up, if you look at it from a coincidental angle, you can mostly see a circular black dark area in the shade of grass and trees on the high slope, corresponding to the messy gravel area.

This journey, which alternates between car ride and hard work, encounters difficulties that they cannot solve in the evening. Several boulders got stuck on the road, not completely blocking the road, but cutting off the possibility of horse-drawn carriages passing.

The inhabitants of the village seem to have no need for animal transportation, or no desire to communicate with the outside world, and have left them to lie on their sidelines, oblivious to the only way in and out.

Seeing that the sun had pressed against the opposite ridge, it was definitely too late to turn back, and I didn't know how far and near the road was, and I was 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 car and go around." The captain could not be an indecisive man, William was the first to jump out of the carriage with his package on his back, and decided to walk the rest of the way on foot, "Throw the car away, even if I buy it." ”

The budget was more than sufficient, and the biggest cost was actually the cost of time, which was to divert the time that should have been used to transport the goods, and the sailors had to be paid accordingly, and the broken wagon could not add a fraction.

Rather than losing some money, he didn't want to walk at night, or even spend the night in the wilderness.

"Sit tight, if you can't do it, just hold the horse's neck, and I'll lead it in front." Considering that Yvonne might not be able to keep up, she was given special privileges and was helped to her horse by Kraft, led by Koop.

The horse had behaved fairly docile all the way, but the steep slope on one side made him feel uneasy, "If you really get thrown off, just hold your head and call for help, understand?" ”

Yvonne nodded obediently.

The team passed through the gap between the boulders, their palms supporting the rock face, the grain feeling scraping the palm prints, the fracture was mostly straight, and after stroking a steep straight corner, it moved to the other side.

It seems to have been a few days since a few shrubs had been uprooted on the ground, and the water had been drained from the sun for days from the leaves to the shriveled roots with soil.

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 abandon them, "William, have you ever been in a similar situation before?" ”

"What? Certainly, if necessary, I could have thrown away most of the ship's cargo just to ensure that the storm caught up with the port. William replied as he pulled out his torch. In order to lighten the load, they brought only small torches, which were divided among each of them with one or two. If you really want to walk at night, you have to take turns using it.

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

In order for shrubs to draw water in arid climates, it is impossible for the root system to be underdeveloped, and it is impossible for humans to pull the required strength directly from the soil.

"No, right? Maybe it was brought out when the stone fell? William looked at Peter, who was dutifully leading his horse into the middle of the procession's path, and looked back.

"Do gerbils count? About the size of a fist. ”

"No way. So it's really a loose stone? When Kraft lifted the plant as a whole, he found that its root system was quite intact, and there were few broken except for the thin whiskers, as if it had been pulled out of the ground.

A sailor scooped up a root and looked at it, but saw nothing. Before you know it, the sun has sunk a lot, and people with varying degrees of night blindness are generally not easy to see clearly in the low-light environment where the night is approaching.

"Leave it alone, light our torches while there is still light, two at a time, and if we don't reach it for a while, we will have to try to find a place to spend the night."

There were only eight people in the group, one torch at the end and one torch at the end of the group, William and Peter led the way, the sailors looked after the rear of the group, and Kraft and his party were arranged in the middle, who were unfamiliar with the wild environment.

They walked for the last few minutes in the afterglow of the sun, as shadows rose from the valley floor, surged over the rocks of the canine's teeth, climbed steep slopes, flooded the pavement and submerged their heels, driving away a ray of light from the summit at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The sun sets, and the team falls into the dark night surrounded by hills.

Everyone consciously closed their mouths and concentrated on walking against the mountain, which was not far within the reach of the torches, and if they took a few steps off the road, they might roll down the steep slope of the road with one foot in the air.

The edges and corners of those stones had been seen in the daytime, and they were the sharp teeth of the valley, which could easily cut through the stumbling one, and make him pay forever for his negligence.

William's eyesight was no better, and when he took the second torch from the crew, Kraft could see beads of sweat on his forehead as he stood in the middle of the line, and he insisted on walking slowly with the thought of not wanting to spend the night in the wilderness.

The slight rhythmic footsteps became the theme of the environment, and even the horses caught up with William's steps, and the occasional tripped over the gravel would briefly disrupt the rhythm.

I'm sorry to say, the otherworldly soul is quite sensitive to footsteps, and has enough experience to distinguish in order to make some small movements in the bed at night.

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

But his skills didn't regress with his arrival, but improved because he changed to a more sensitive sense of hearing.

In the orderly pace, Coop, who was leading the horse, noticed that Kraft in front of him suddenly broke out of agreement, shortened the stride and increased the frequency, deliberately breaking the rhythm.

The sudden change in cadence made him lose his rhythm and almost stumble on his feet.

"What's wrong?"

"Quiet." Craft, who substituted a brief command for an explanation, glanced at the path behind the line beyond the aperture of the torches, and changed his steps a second time stiffly.

(End of chapter)