Once the sun did come up, the surrounding area of hilltop began to change rapidly, seeming to come alive, and bursting with life and colour. Plants rapidly grew and absorbed water for later consumption, flowers bloomed in a matter of minutes, and the standing pools of water all but disappeared, except down in the river bottom, where it was simply too saturated and most of the plant life was destroyed by the raging waters.
But even there, the change was noticeable, as the ground was mostly visible now, exposing rubble and debris that had been carried downstream last night.
It was a mess down there, and the layer of silt that had built up turned large portions of the area to slowly drying mud plains, from which scattered plant life was struggling to break free.
Despite the ferocity of the storm, what hadn’t been destroyed was thriving, taking advantage of the situation to get ahead of the competing species.
The same was true for the wildlife. Karl could see in the distance that there were numerous small scavengers and rodents out searching for their prize. Many burrows would have flooded or collapsed, and this was a prime opportunity for them to eat something that they couldn’t normally hunt.
Hawk was thinking the same thing, but he was still a bit sleepy, and the animals would be active all day long. He had time to go hunt when he wanted to.
“How long do you think that it will take before it’s safe to start moving about and preparing to get back in motion?” One of the warriors asked the bus driver, who was scanning the horizon with binoculars.
“Later this afternoon. The ground where we need to go is still saturated, so you won’t be able to dig that ramp at all yet. I know you young folk are all energetic to keep moving, but sometimes you just have to sit and wait.”
He had a point, but while Karl did have to just sit here for a while, he didn’t have to idle around and just wait.
[Hawk, do you want to go scout the area? If you can find us a nice dry route, even if it is a bit further around, that would save time. Also, check for monsters who have moved along our intended path and any new obstacles we might encounter.] Karl suggested.
[That is fine. I could use some time to stretch my wings and just fly.] The Hawk agreed.
It wasn’t a sentiment that the other two beasts shared. Rae liked her web, and Thor preferred to be where everyone else was. The concept of just flying around by himself all day seemed very lonely to the Lightning Cerro.
Rae thought that he was a bit of an idiot, constantly wanting to be around others when he could be peacefully alone, but with his energy level, he needed people to play with.
Karl looked around at the bored students sitting on the bus.
“Why don’t we send someone out to see how the ground is? I think that everyone could use a little stretch, and the thick grass should have kept the ground stable.” Karl suggested
The driver nodded as the students began to get to their feet, taking Karl as the voice of authority here, as long as Sister Betty didn’t object.
The look that the nun was giving him said that she would like to see Thor again, so as the students went out, Karl sent Thor out to meet them.
The ground was a bit springy under his heavy footsteps, but it wasn’t muddy, just uncompacted and thickly layered with roots. Last night it had been worse, and there was water squishing up as he walked, so this was an improvement.
He was the heaviest of them, and though he was far from comparable to the bus, Thor’s rapid growth had brought him to nearly two hundred kilos of solid chested Cerro. If they were back in the pack, he would be treated as one of the most promising youngsters with his healthy build and high energy levels.
The group of students spread out around the bus, cutting away the remains of the web that Rae had created last night, and enjoying the way that the morning sun began to heat everything.
You could feel the moisture in the air as the sun evaporated it, and watch as the last of the floodwaters receded, leaving new wetlands among the mud plains that were beginning to dry out and crack at the top as their moisture was siphoned away.
“This side of the hill looks pretty good. The waters washed away the dirt, and it’s all shale stone. If that stone layer continues, then we might be able to make a durable road, but it’s going to take a lot of work.” One of the students announced as he examined the hill down toward the blockage Karl cleared last night.
“Would you like to examine it more closely? I can toss the chain down the hill to help you get back up, in case it’s slippery or soft.” Karl offered.
“Sure, I can see that you saved plenty of logs to make a bridge, so we should at least check the condition of the hillside.” The boy agreed.
Karl thought about it for a moment, and out of everyone here, he was the one who likely knew the most about rocks. Especially the shale stones that were common in the higher levels of the mine. Further down, the mines had been comprised of thick lithium clay and coal veins between granite layers, but the upper levels had a lot of oily shale that had been left as intact as possible because it made the roof unstable if you dug underneath it.
Unlike that stuff, this didn’t have that thick crude oil smell, but the grey stone was similar both in texture and composition.
“I will go with you. There’s plenty of shale in the mines, and I know far too much about stones.” Karl explained with a laugh as he went to recover the hook from where he had left it by the bus last night.
Sister Betty opened up the belly box of the bus and pulled out a pickaxe and a shovel.
“They’re part of the recovery tools, so that’s what we will have to work with to form the road if you need to.” She informed them as Karl and the other student caught the tools with comfortable familiarity.
“And go easy on them. They’re just wood.” The driver shouted from inside the bus.
“No problem. We will be gentle.” The warrior laughed as he shouldered the shovel, but the driver was right. They were both incredibly strong, and Karl’s strength would shatter a pickaxe handle on the first strike, as well as burying the head so far in the ground as to make it a pain to get back out.
The hill was a gentle slope for the first few metres, then a steep descent down the stone cliff until they got to the river. They descended the chain, checking the surface as they went.
“It looks like it’s all soft stone, all the way down. That is going to make an excellent road base.” Karl noted.
“Yeah, we can cut it away and pile it here at the bottom to make a smooth ramp to the river. If we put the log bridge five or ten metres above the water level, it should last a little while before it is washed away again. That sort of rain happens every few years, but not often enough that our improvements won’t last the summer.” The boy agreed.
“You’re from the area?” Karl asked.
“Yeah, about fifty kilometres that way.” He replied, pointing across the river.
As Karl remembered the map, there was no road from here to there, and it was in the wrong direction to get to the Academy, but the weather would be similar enough that he wouldn’t be wrong about the frequency of such storms. In fact, it had likely gotten hit by this very storm late last night.
They walked the few metres across the logs to the river crossing, as the other boy needed to be closer to see that the far bank was made of the same shale as this one. It was also a more shallow angle, as there hadn’t been much dirt for the water to wash away.
Karl examined the situation with satisfaction.
“Alright, if we cut away this side, and clear that side, we only have a short dig to get to solid stone. Then we will break the stone here, to make a better ramp angle, and run it out as far as we need to make the logs reach.” Karl informed his teammate, who smiled back and nodded.
“Then, let’s get started. Has Hawk verified that this is a good route to get back to the Academy? The route mentioned last night sounded decent.” The warrior asked.
Karl nodded. “Yeah, this is the route. He will check the next bridge, but it looked good last night, and it’s all high ground until our route comes back and meets up with the existing road. We will be making a big loop, where the road was nearly straight before, but it should all be drivable, even if I need to hook Thor to the recovery points on the bus and have him help pull.”
The Lightning Cerro thought that was an incredible idea. The wide bus wheels didn’t seem as reliable as his own feet, but between them, they should be able to pull the load of students across the grass. In a way, he was exactly right. The extra pulling force would help keep the wheels from spinning in low traction areas, and make it much easier to get where they were going.
