WALKÜREN - THE THREE MARIES Chapter Thirty-Eight

 WALKÜREN - THE THREE MARIES

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Cecília walked slowly, carefully. One step at a time, being careful not to make any noise. For the beast was near. You could feel her presence. What was she doing there? She had no idea. She knew she should move forward... to the place where the cave was hidden by the foliage... funny! Everyone was looking for that place... but few knew its location...

Finally she arrived at her destination. The access was well hidden, behind the waterfall. It took the girl some time to find him. And when she finally managed to access the path, becoming invisible to anyone passing by, she saw the... monster... approaching. How did they refer to him, again? Ah, yes... "The Jurupari"... really, it was something she had never seen before. It was an animal, without a doubt. It looked like a giant lizard... it must have been six feet tall... and it walked upright, like a man. Long tail, short arms... but the claws... my God, the claws...

After a few seconds of paralysis, Cecília tried to shake off her fear and moved forward, cutting through the darkness with quick, firm steps. It didn't take long and she spotted her partners....

- Izabel, finally...

- Graça was already saying that you had lost your way...

Cecilia was surprised... why were those two calling her Izabel? And who were they? But, despite the strangeness, she continued in his direction. She didn't understand why, but she knew that she should accompany them...

- Rosa, our friend is very quiet, don't you think?

- Maybe she crossed Jurupari's path....

Rosa turned her gaze, a questioning look to Cecília. This one immediately responded....

- Yes, he chased me... he almost didn't catch me...

- Did you see you entering the cave?

- No... it took about two minutes between my escape to the hiding place and the appearance of the monster...

- Good thing... did you know that, if it weren't for the water, we wouldn't be able to escape it?

- No I did not know. Why?

- And who will know? What I know is that the beast does not cross running water....

- Strange, don't you think?

- Strange, of course, it is... but why did you ask us to meet here, Bel?...

- Firstly, because... you know I really don't know?

- Like this...?

- She's playing with us, Graça...

- Bel always liked to play... but...

- Guys, why do you insist on calling me "Bel", "Izabel"...? I'm not who you think, and my name isn't "Izabel" either...

  The two girls burst into laughter... even in the critical situation they were in, did their partner still have the strength to play? Good sign....

- Bel, stop acting out, girl... we'll call you whatever you want, okay? But now we need to know why we are here...

Cecilia still didn't understand anything. Firstly because she looked like she was in a bang bang movie set. The two girls he met looked like those gunslingers from the movie from the afternoon session... jeans, cotton blouse, a scarf around their neck, hat... a belt full of ammunition and each carrying two revolvers, well low, in the style of professional shooters...

There was a water hole where they were and Cecília decided to wash her face to remove the sweat. When she looked at her face in the water mirror, she couldn't believe what she saw... it wasn't her face, that's for sure. What was happening? The scare was so great that the girl felt faint...

- And now... what time does this girl decide to sleep...

- Grace, leave it alone... didn't you see that Bel fainted?

- And isn't that what I'm talking about? With so many better moments for this, she decides to faint right now....

- Let's try to wake her up...

And the two began to pass their wet handkerchiefs over the girl's face and wrists, trying to make her regain her senses. Finally she started to recover...

- Where... where are we?

- Bel, not again!

- You know where we are... hiding in a cave, running away from a monster...

- And all because you decided that we had to come here...

- Do what, I don't know...

- Girls, seriously... I have no idea where we are...

- Where did you want to meet us?

- In the mermaid's corner... I was very clear about that...

- That's where we are... and we were almost caught by a monster... a giant lizard...

- Jurupari... the creature is as fast as lightning...

- If he's so fast, how did we escape?

- Good question...

- That we don't know how to answer. In any case, we can't get out of here...

Izabel (yes, now it was Izabel who was present) remained thoughtful for a few moments. For some time she remained disconnected from everything that was happening around her, and she didn't know why this happened. Now she was back, with all her mental faculties in order... well, if they were in the mermaid's cave, there was only one way to go. Straight ahead, towards the center... or what seemed like the center... of that place. At least that was the instruction he had received in the note he had found in the package his father gave him the day he left.

After taking a breath (she was tired from running away from the monster, although she didn't remember running away from it) she called her partners and they started walking towards the unknown. She didn't quite understand what she was doing, but she knew she had to follow. And so it was, guiding her companions through the maze that opened in front of her.

They walked for a good couple of hours, sometimes in total darkness, sometimes in such light that it seemed like they were walking across the prairie on a summer day. Then they arrived at a place that seemed to be the end of the line for them... a swamp, inhabited by ferocious alligators... they had to cross it to reach their destination... but they had no idea how to do it. it...

- Girls, I'm already tired of these overgrown geckos...

- I'll say it...

- Come here... do we really have to cross this?

- I don't know if you noticed... but we can't go back the way we came... so, yes... we have to go to the other side...

- Yes, but... I don't want to become alligator food...

- Me neither... but there must be a way to get through this...

Yes, even if they wanted to return to the starting point, that wouldn't be possible... dozens of passages were behind them and they had no idea what the correct route would be... funny... to get there, It seemed like someone was guiding them by the hand. Now, however...