62 The Evergreen Fores

Aiden clenched his teeth and closed his eyes tightly as he pressed his foot which had a sprained ankle to stand firmly on the ground with both feet.

When his injured foot touched the ground, it did not hurt at all. Aiden sighed in relief. "Does it hurt?" Emily asked. "Nope! I think it's fine now." Aiden replied with a smile on his face. "Let's continue exploring!" He said with determination.

Cyril stood up from his place and stretched as he instructed Aiden, "And please, do NOT run like that again! Don't even think about running." Aiden smirked as he replied, "Why are you so concerned about me?"

Cyril stopped stretching his arms and legs, he turned around and faced Aiden, with a serious expression, he said, "Because... I can not give you fix your ankles and give massages all the time!" Aiden huffed as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked away, cracking a smile. Emily and Cyril were laughing their heads off.

"Alright whatever! Let's keep moving." Aiden said while wearing his backpack and setting off on the rocky trail. When Emily and Cyril were done laughing they caught upto Aiden and started walking alongside him.

"So, where are we going now, Cyril?" Emily asked him. "Me? You're asking me?" Cyril asked with a bewildered expression. "Well, technically, you were the one who had his nose glued to the map for the past hour!" Aiden chimed in.

"Hey! I was just looking at all the possible routes around this place. Didn't we say we're going to see the waterfall?" Cyril asked raising an eyebrow. "Ohh! I totally forgot about that! How far is it now?" Emily asked. Cyril thought for a while before speaking, "If my calculations are correct then we should reach there in almost an hour." Cyril said coolly.

"An hour?!" Emily squeaked. "Ah... That's too much..."

"I'm pretty sure it'll be worth it!" Aiden said, trying to cheer her up. Emily nodded enthusiastically.

The trio walked for about half an hour before they decided to take a rest and have a snack, then continue their journey once they are refreshed. It was half past twelve and the sun was blazing on top of them. Even though they were in the middle of the autumn season, you could not deny the fact that the heat from the sun in the afternoon would be as strong as if it was the middle of the summer.

Most of the leaves had fallen down and a few dried up leaves remained, which were yet to fall. The rays of sunshine were directly shining on them and they felt really hot, and when they started to sweat, the decided to take a break and rest. Finding an evergreen tree among the naked trees, they settled down and gulped down the water they had brought with them.

"Looks like we have to wait until the sun goes down a bit so we can continue trekking." Aiden said and Cyril nodded his head as he replied, "No doubt about that. According to the map there are a few areas of everygreen trees around the waterfall. So that should be a great shelter for us as long as the sun is still shining."

Emily took out the map from her bag and studied it. Behind the water fall, no, not behind, way behind, far away, from the waterfall, there started the boundary of an evergreen bushy forest that continued until the end of the map, probably expanding even further than they could imagine.

"Wow... There is even a green forest here?!" Emily exclaimed as she looked at the map with interest and wide open eyes. Cyril walked over to her and sat beside her. He pointed to a scale in the bottom left corner of the map, saying, "This is the scale of the map. According to it, 1 cm is approximately 1 km. And the forest over here, which you're talking about, is approximately 5 cm away from the waterfall. That means..." Cyril explained while pointing on different locations on the map.

"That means, it's about 5 km away from the waterfall?!" Emily gasped as she completed Cyril's sentence. "Woah... It really is far away." She said. Cyril nodded, "Mhm. Exactly. Moreover, since it's isolated from human reach, who knows what type of dangerous beasts and wild animals live there!"

"Ohhh..." Emily nodded.

Aiden who was sitting in front of them, said with a solemn expression, "That's why it's best to just explore the waterfall and go back to the campsite." "Why? Are you afraid?" Cyril sniggered. Aiden furrowed his eyebrows as he replied, "Of course not. It's best to be safe than sorry." Cyril chuckled, "Okay, okay, no need to be angry!"

"Speaking of campsite..." Cyril continued. "I'm getting hungry, we've only chugged water since we started trekking. Do we have anything to eat?"

"I have some stuff we can eat with me in my bag. Hopefully that should be enough for the three of us." Emily said while she rummaged around her backpack, taking out a few small boxes with food in them. "I also brought some as well, but it won't be enough. We'll eat that later then." Aiden said, zipping his bag back.

They then ate the food Emily had with her. It didn't satisfy their hunger but at least they weren't hungry anymore.

"Hurry up, guys. We still have half an hour of walking left." Emily said, putting the empty boxes back inside her backpack. "You're right, we don't have much time. I can see a rainfall coming." Aiden said while looking up into the sky.

Lumps of black clouds, far away from their location, were steadily moving towards them with the light wind that was blowing.

They quickened up their pace and left in the direction of the waterfall.