Arc sat at the edge of the river, enjoying the shade of one of the few leafy green trees in the area. It was a rare treat to see such a thing and he had never been fortunate enough to come across this particular spot so it was a sight most welcome when he, Jack and Julie rounded the jagged point of the cliff face and happened upon it.

  “Can we get moving?” asked Jack, looking around. “It doesn’t feel safe here.”

  “Don’t be so paranoid,” said Arc, waving his hand dismissively. “Sometimes you have to enjoy a quiet moment when you find it rather than worrying about what could go wrong. Not every single corner of the world is waiting to kill you, Jack.”

  “I didn’t say they all were, but I’m sure at least half of them are.”

  “Relax, my young friend. Bask in the glorious shade we’ve been blessed with. Listen to the soothing tones of the babbling river we’re so lucky to find. It’ll do you the world of good”

  Julie was half-asleep in the shade with her bare feet dangling in the river. It helped ease the aches and blisters she had got from so much walking over the past few days.

  Jack had warned her not to put her feet in the water in case a sahaugin took a bite out of them, but she took no notice of his worried ramblings. Her brother repeatedly scolded her for being reckless but Arc cut him off, assuring him that there were no sahaugins in the area. The spellslinger didn’t know that for sure, of course, but he said it convincingly enough that the young man took his word for it.

  “So, are we just going to stay here all day?” asked Jack after refilling his canteen in the river.

  “It’s been fifteen minutes, boy. Can you not calm yourself for just a moment.”

  “No. All sorts of things could go wrong out here. What if—"

  “Shut it,” said Arc, closing his eyes.

  “You’re going to take a nap?” asked an incredulous Jack.

  “You’re on watch, aren’t you? Seeing as you’re intent on not resting.”

  “You’re the only one of us with a weapon worth a damn!”

  “Look, it’s fine if you’re not going to rest, but I sure as hell am. I need my beauty sleep to get rid of this ugly swollen eye and restore my natural radiant complexion. It’s been blemished by all those cuts and bruises, you know. Some of which I got from trying to keep your backside safe from goblins.”

  Rather than argue, Jack stayed quiet. Seconds later, Arc began snoring. The young man found it incredible that every time Arc wanted to sleep, he could do so on command. It was a talent that Jack was envious of as he often stayed awake worrying about things. Some of his countless worries were valid, but there were many that came from his ever-increasing paranoia about the world after a series of unfortunate events that seemed to be continuing endlessly.

  Deciding that he would do something productive, he walked over to the cliff and scanned it up and down. There was an outcropping about twenty feet up that would have given him a better view of what lay past the river than sitting by the river would. And from that height, he could still watch over the two snoozers and call to them should a werewolf try and take a bite out of them.

  Jack grabbed the most prominent rocks he could find and then placed his feet into small notches. He took a deep breath and then hoisted himself up. He put up his left arm, dug his fingers into a thin ledge and brought his right arm up to grip it too. He continued climbing, both in large bounds and small shimmies until he reached the outcropping.

  He threw himself onto the lied back, giving himself a moment to rest his tired muscles. He let out a victorious laugh, glad that this was one challenge he could conquer without unexpected consequences. As small as the young man was, he was strong, but being on the road and having only meagre rations to eat, he felt weaker than he knew himself to be.

  Arc had been kind enough to share some of his food with the twins and Jack was grateful for that, especially as Julie always insisted on letting him have more food no matter how much he would protest. Without their parents, they would always try to parent each other rather than let each other simply be brother and sister.

  Jack sat up and slid to the edge of the small cliff and let his legs fall down. A rare smile crept across his face as the breeze gently brushed his hair across his forehead. Down below, he could see Arc and Julie enjoying their slumber in the shade. He couldn’t help but feel jealous that Julie had someone else to look up to that wasn’t him, yet as much as he would audibly doubt Arc, he was glad that the bounty hunter was with them too. It was nice to have someone around that gave a damn, even if he would only give a damn as far as Pembroke.

  He did not think Arc a bad man by any stretch, however, the spellslinger clearly had a penchant for danger. He supposed that was the nature of bounty hunting; seeking out danger and putting a stop to it. He believed Arc when he said he only sought out evildoers.

  The young man looked across the dry land before him and let the calm fall upon him. There hadn’t been any trouble since the ghosts of Purdue the previous evening and the peace was most welcome, even if he knew it wouldn’t last much longer. He laughed to himself, realising that he was appreciative for a mere sixteen hours of peace. How pathetic.

  He continued to look over the land and his gaze fixed upon an oddly shaped rock to the west that was half buried in sand. Every time he tried to look away, he was drawn back to it. There was something about it that wasn’t quite right but he tried to stamp down that curiosity in case he broke that short trouble-free streak he was so glad of.

  After a while, his willpower broke and his curiosity won the day. He carefully climbed back down and headed for the two sleepers. Rather than pester Arc, who needed the rest more than Julie did, he headed over to his sister and gave her a nudge.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  “Hey, Jule,” he said, but she didn’t stir. He bent down and started lightly slapping her cheeks until her face scrunched up.

  “Knock it off,” she moaned, splashing water about as she kicked her feet in frustration. “I’m trying to sleep!”

  “I’m going to go check on something for a couple of minutes,” said Jack, putting his fingers on her eyelids and prying them open. “Don’t go back to sleep until I’m back, alright?”

  “Fine,” said Julie, swatting him away. “Be quick about it, whatever it is.”

  Before she had come around enough to even think of asking where he was going, Jack had wandered off across the dry soil and onto the small patch of land where the sand picked up. He could see the top of the strange rock growing closer and continued straight for it while constantly looking around, fearing that some unscrupulous creature was hunting him.

  As he closed in on his unmoving target, he realised he had been mistaken. Although it had no shortage of sand and stone around its base, the object was made of metal. What was most curious about it was that it was painted the colour of the stone as though to camouflage it in its environment.

  “A vehicle?” muttered Jack, noticing the six large wheels wrapped up in a wide segmented chain of metal that was fixed with many rubber pads, most of which were worn and torn.

  The base of the machine was rectangular with broken lights on the front, or at least Jack presumed it to be the front, for the top section looked as though it could turn. Emerging from the rounded top was a large metal pipe that reminded Jack of a gun, but he had never seen a gun as large as this before.

  “What in the world?” he asked aloud with a raised eyebrow.

  Jack climbed onto the base of the vehicle and leaned onto the top section. There was a rounded hole within it just large enough for someone to fit inside. Dare he? No, it would be stupid to climb inside an unidentified vehicle. At the same time, what harm would it do? It didn’t look like it had moved in years.

  He glanced over to the tree in the distance and saw no commotion. Assured that Arc and Julie were fine, he climbed on top of the machine and slid into the hole, only to find himself sitting on a small pile of sand that had blown its way inside.

  Looking around, he was astounded by the complexity of the controls. There were switches, levers and dials everywhere. He’d seen the inside of cars before and they were astounding enough. How could anyone drive this crazy contraption? Although, considering how thick its armour plating was, not a soul would dare take you on in this metal behemoth. He could ride across the badlands, crushing goblins underneath the treads and the screeching menaces couldn’t do a damn thing to stop him. He would laugh wildly as their skulls popped under the immense weight of his rolling steed.

  “I bet that is a gun,” whispered Jack, looking out the tiny window and seeing the large pipe outside. It was pointed towards the far cliff.

  Jack pressed a few buttons and laughed as he imagined blowing goblins to smithereens. As he continued to press the buttons, the machine suddenly jolted awake and started rumbling. Jack whacked his head on the ceiling and he looked back and forth to all of the buttons in a panic, wondering how he had stirred the beast.

  “How can you still be working?” asked Jack, desperately trying to find the button he had pressed. “Where are you? Where are you?”

  Deciding that a large red button was the one, he slammed his fist on it and immediately knew he had made a huge mistake. A huge bullet erupted from the tank, forcefully jolting it to its core, and stormed at lightning speed towards the cliff, striking it and unleashing a thundering explosion that smashed the cliff face to pieces.

  “Oh no,” said Jack, his eyes stretched wide and his heart beating rapidly. “Oh no, oh no, oh no. What should I do? Give me a sign.”

  He scurried out of the machine and threw himself to the ground, falling flat on his face. He scrambled to his feet and sprinted towards the tree by the river, only to find Arc and Julie already running towards him with terrified looks on their faces.

  “What did you do?” roared Arc as he made a beeline for Jack.

  “I don’t know!” cried Jack, feeling incredibly stupid. “I’m sorry!”

  “You could have gotten yourself hurt, you imbecile!” barked Arc, checking to make sure Jack hadn’t injured himself.

  Jack erratically pointed behind him. “Big machine,” he said, not knowing how else to describe the vehicle he had found. “Big gun.”

  He couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. He sounded like a toddler, but fully formed sentences just weren’t coming out. Never had he felt so incompetent and useless as he did in that moment. What if something had heard him? The shame was almost too much to bear.

  Arc ran over to where he was pointing with the twins following him. Julie shot her brother a look of daggers when they arrived at what Jack had once thought to be an unusual rock. She had no idea what the machine was either, but she would have had the sense not to touch it.

  “A tank?” asked Arc, putting his hand on the rumbling machine. His expression was a mixture of confoundment and intrigue. “Who in the entirety of Maestria would leave a tank behind? And a working one at that.”

  “I didn’t know it was a tank,” insisted Jack. “I don’t even know what a tank is!”

  “Well, you do now,” said Arc, still furious as he turned to the petrified Jack. “What if its gun had been pointed at me or your sister?”

  “You’re not going to believe me, but I turned it on by accident and was trying to turn it off,” said Jack quietly, looking down at his shaking hands.

  “And did you accidentally climb into it?” asked Arc. “You could have come to me and asked me what it was rather than sneaking off like that.”

  “I didn’t sneak off, I told—”

  “Not to derail this much-deserved telling off, but look at that,” interjected Julie, pointing to where the shell had struck the cliff.

  “Look at wha…” Arc trailed off as he followed Julie’s finger to the stone.

  “Should we run before the sound attracts all manner of beasts?” asked Jack, not daring to look at what had left Arc lost for words. It had to be something terrible.

  “No,” said the spellslinger, taking out his revolver. “I want to see where this leads.”

  Trying to stifle his guilt at the trouble he had caused, Jack exhaled a deeply held breath and turned to look at the cliff he had destroyed. His jaw hit the floor once again.

  “I don’t believe it…” he muttered as Arc and Julie began walking towards the glowing green tunnel that Jack had accidentally unveiled.

  As the trio drew closer to its mouth, the glowing did not subside. Arc half-wondered if it was a trick of the light at first, but it became clearer the further he walked that the glow was no mirage. There were emeralds embedded in the cave Jack had opened up; hundreds of them. Some emeralds were the size of a rounded silver coin in Arc’s wallet and some were as large as his head.

  The three hopped onto a rock in the centre of the river and then threw themselves onto the bank at the far side to reach the cave entrance.

  “We should turn back, shouldn’t we?” asked Julie.

  “Yes, we should,” said Arc, staring into the cave.

  “But we’re not going to, are we?”

  “You two can go and wait by the tree. I’ll take a look around.”

  Jack shook his head profusely. “I’m not waiting for goblins, orcs, demons, or any other ugly creature to show up. You know how loud that explosion was. Dangerous as this might be, we’re sticking with you. It couldn’t be much worse than the ghosts from yesterday.”

  “Agreed,” said Julie, captivated by the beautiful gemstone-encrusted walls.

  “Alright,” said Arc, stepping up and onto the small ledge and heading into the cave as the twins followed closely behind him.

  The tank being perfectly aligned with the cliff was no accident, he was sure of it. There was something more to this place than emeralds, grand as they were, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.