One of the first things the travellers had learned as they’d set out across the island on foot was that every zone they entered represented another obstacle for them to overcome, another challenge for them to meet, another set of problems for them to solve. Some were easier to deal with than others, there were even times they were met with kindness, support, and help, but those occasions were few and far between.

More often than not, they found themselves in the middle of someone else’s crisis, caught up in wars, rebellions, natural disasters, sometimes forced to choose a side just in order to survive. It was difficult, tiring, stressful, and yet all they could do, once they extracted themselves from the latest situation they’d unwittingly blundered into, was press onwards in the vain hope that the next zone might be more civilised, welcoming, or at least less dangerous.

Now here they were, approaching what might, possibly, be the center of the island, and every other obstacle they’d battled their way past now faded into insignificance in the face of what lay ahead.

“Wow,” Scott breathed, awed and more than a little overwhelmed. “When we were first shipwrecked, and me and my dad climbed a cliff and looked out across the island, we could see a mountain, but…” He shook his head. “I didn’t think it would be THAT big.”

“Might not even be the same mountain, Scotty,” Fred reminded him. “Landscape changes from one zone to the next, we never really know what we’re gonna get.”

“Whether it is the same mountain or not is irrelevant,” Willaway said, looking up at it towering above them, still several miles distant. “It’s there, right in our path, and I can tell you right now, I am NOT climbing it. I’m no mountaineer, I don’t like heights, and anyway, we don’t have any of the gear we’d need to even make an attempt!”

“None of us are mountaineers, Jonathan.” Varian rested his hand on the smaller man’s shoulder. “I’m no more eager to try scaling that than you are, but perhaps it won’t come to that. The gateway into the next zone might be somewhere between here and the mountain.”

“When are we ever THAT lucky, Varian? No, I suspect that monstrosity is right in our path, another test to see what we’ll do. This entire island is like the mazes biologists build to test the intelligence and ingenuity of rodents. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s someone watching us right now, waiting to see if we’re smart enough to figure out the latest problem they’ve set for us.”

Varian chuckled. “You’re such a pessimist, Jonathan.”

“And you are an incorrigible optimist. We’ll see who’s right on this occasion.” Willaway gripped the straps of his backpack, where they rested over his shoulders. “Whoever created this island is probably making bets with their friends. We’re nothing but playing pieces on a gigantic gameboard, being moved from place to place at someone else’s whim.”

“I’ve considered that possibility myself,” Varian agreed.

“You have?” Willaway shot the tall man a surprised look.

“Yes, and you could be right, but what difference does it make? We’re here, travelling eastwards to hopefully find our way back to our own times. What’s behind all of this hardly matters; it doesn’t change the fact that we have to keep going, dealing with whatever happens to be in our path.”

“Yes, I suppose that’s true.” Willaway sighed heavily. “But doesn’t it annoy you that we might be living pawns in someone else’s game? We don’t even have a choice in the matter!”

“But we do, to an extent,” Varian insisted. “It’s our choice whether to continue or not.”

“Yeah,” said Fred. “We could do what a lot of other people have done, just pick a zone and settle down, spend the rest of our lives among the locals.”

“But we want to get home,” Scott said. “So this is sort of the choice we’ve all made.”

“Mm. You have a point.”

“Standing here talking about it isn’t going to get us anywhere though.” Liana looked at her friends. “Shouldn’t we get moving? We can decide what to do about the mountain once we’re closer.”

Fred picked up his big holdall. “Liana’s right, standin’ here lookin’ at the mountain isn’t gonna make it magically disappear.”

“More’s the pity,” Willaway said. “I’d be perfectly happy if it did just decide to vanish like a mirage.”

“When are you ever perfectly happy about anything? Far as I can tell, you’re never happy unless you’ve got somethin’ to complain about.” The grin on his face showed that Fred was only teasing.

“Oh, that is just not true, and you know it!”

The friendly bickering continued as the travellers set out towards the mountain, keeping to an eastward course, the miles passing slowly as they approached the foothills surrounding its base.

By midafternoon, they were climbing steadily, but there was still no sign of a gateway into another zone. Even Varian who, thanks to his unique mental abilities, could sense them from a greater distance than anyone else, wasn’t detecting anything.

Willaway stopped, tipping his head right back, peering upwards. This close to the mountain, they could no longer see the peak; it was wreathed in mist and clouds. “Well, it looks like I win this time. No gateway, so now what are we going to do?”

Varian gave a wry smile. “We don’t have much in the way of choices. We can’t go over it, for obvious reasons, and I very much doubt we’d find a convenient tunnel that would take us under it, so I think we’ll just have to go around it.”

“But that’s gonna add WEEKS,” Scott said.

“No other option though, Scotty.” Fred laid a comforting arm around the boy’s shoulders.

“I know, it’s just… when we started out, I thought I’d be home with mom and dad in a few weeks, but it’s already been months! This island just goes on and on!”

“I know, Scott, and I’m sorry.” Varian sighed. “I never imagined the island could be as big as it is.”

Scott shrugged. “It’s not your fault, Varian. It’s not anyone’s, it’s just… It doesn’t seem fair.”

“What is fair around here?” Willaway smiled faintly. “But still we go on. Right?”

“Yeah, I guess so. Which way though?” Scott looked left, then right, then upwards again at the intimidating bulk of the mountain looking above them.

“From a distance, it looked like the easiest path would be to the south. The mountain itself extends further to the north, leading into a steep ridge, but to the south it looked to be mostly low hills, which shouldn’t prove too difficult.”

Everyone turned to look at Varian, and Willaway raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been plotting our best route since we arrived in this zone, haven’t you?”

“In case it was needed, yes, of course. I thought it best to be prepared. Finding the gateway into the next zone was never guaranteed.”

“Of course.” Willaway shook his head. “You probably do that every time we enter a new zone, which is a good reminder that we’d most likely have gone hopelessly astray by now if we didn’t have you taking care of the practicalities for us. I’m beginning to think the rest of us aren’t paying enough attention.”

Varian just laughed. “I wouldn’t be much of a guide if I didn’t. I learned a lot about navigation from the Arawaks; such lessons have proven more useful than I would have expected.”

“Which makes us lucky to have you,” Liana said. “I think Willaway’s right, we’ve been taking you too much for granted.”

“We’ve only made it this far because we all work together,” Varian stated firmly. “We each have our strengths, and we all contribute. This is a joint effort.”

“Well, if Varian says we go south, we go south.” Fred hitched his heavy bag further up his shoulder. “Might not take so long to get around the mountain anyway, not if we can cross into another zone and turn east again.”

“Fred makes a good point. The mountain exists in this zone, but that doesn’t mean it will still be there in the next zone we enter. If we’re lucky, we might not have to go very far out of our way.”

“Unless the people in charge of this island decide to make things difficult for us,” Willaway said darkly.

“Pessimist,” Fred accused.

“I prefer the term ‘realist’,” Willaway said in a superior tone, before breaking into a wide grin and a loud laugh.

“Whatever.” Reaching out, Fred messed up the scientist’s neatly combed hair, drawing a yelp of protest from the smaller man.

“Barbarian!”

“Enough horseplay!” Liana was smiling at her friends’ antics; sometimes they acted as though they weren’t much older than Scott. “Shouldn’t we be looking for a good place to make camp for the night? It’ll be getting dark in a couple of hours.”

“Liana’s right,” Varian agreed. “Whether we cross into another zone or not, we can’t get all the way around the mountain tonight, but we’ll make what progress we can until we find somewhere suitable to spend the night.”

Picking up their bags, the five travellers set off again, this time heading southeast, hoping to either locate a gateway into another zone, or work their way around the obstacle in their path. Whatever they encountered, they would deal with it, just as they always did, and keep going until they finally reached their goal: the eastern shore, Evoland, and the portal that would take them home.


The End