Week 11 Day 3: The discovery (part 2 of 2)

This chapter was too long for just one go, so here is the last part. Locals decided to send Dorothy R. Yea-Low and Albert Blumington up on Maccaroni Mountain to look for any damage caused by the little earthquake. A group of mostly teenagers not informed of Dorothy and Albert already being on their way up there, will finally walk up to the mountain tonight after dark, in order to look for whatever made the wild animals avoid the mountain recently.

But more is going on. Corinne Y. Redward had secretly invited the florist Cody G. Major to meet her behind the House of Law. Corinne got a couple lovely plants from Cody some time ago, and she had been searching a way to pay him back. She really liked the single man, although he grew up on the farm, still the affair is only in Corinne's head.

Cody did like Corinne, but honestly, maybe mostly because she represented the successful families of the island, and Cody knew the Redwards actually looked down at the Greench farmers in the past. Corinne seemed like a nice person, but she was married to Randal Redward, and Cody had no plans of becoming Randal's rival...

Corinne lead the way! She knew Randal would not work at the new Fort base tonight, he was too busy with the horses. So, she took the chance to run up to the old shed...

The shed had been vacant for a short time only, since Joe Hawk moved in with Agnes Y. Jones. This was a little off the roads and far away from most houses, hardly anyone would hear Corinne playing the guitar, giving Cody a private performance.

Cody listened. And he watched her playing. He felt something was about to change. What if Corinne liked him more than her husband? What if Corinne decided to leave her family, could Randal still punish Cody? Was there any limit to what a man like Randal Redward could do for a revenge?

Farther to the west, Randal was riding Mazita. Originally Randal tamed Pepper, then Bliss, and they had 2 foals. Mazita was one of the foals, while the other was just sold to Yoseph Hedgewall for §1500.

Bliss was too old to have more foals, and Randal had to tame another wild horse in order to breed it with Mazita. But where would wild horses hide these days? Randal had not seen them in a while.

He rode over to the winding trail that lead over the mountain. Nobody lived in this area yet, but the Redwards owned most of the western region, and Randal had made sure that his excluded brother Christopher got no land of this region when they recently had to pay him a solid value from their late parents.

Randal knew that his sister Dorothy and Albert were probably up on the mountain right now. And he was right, the two explorers had just climbed higher, and through a smoky fog they had discovered something quite horrifying...

A volcano up there? They never saw any smoke from the mountain in the past, it had to mean that it was recently activated!

They hurried back to the village. There was no reason to look further for damages, besides it was already too dark to see very far.

At the same time at 3 Greench Farm, Graica and Bertil snuck to the door. It was only 8 PM and their parents were around somewhere, probably in the garden behind the house. The kids, Godrian and Boletta were in bed.

It felt like sneaking out in the middle of the night, bu this time their parents could show up anywhere, questioning their excursion.

But Boletta had waited for this. She had decided to go with Graica and Bertil, and probably a couple more teens. She woke up her twin brother Godrian, and they snuck out, too.

They didn't really know where the group planned to go, so they had to follow Graica and Bertil quite tight.

Soon Graica and Beril met up with Rebecka Black and Rosanne Redward just behind the Warehouse.

The plan was to walk up to the mountain. There wasn't any more detailed plans, but they would think of more details as they went by. And if it got too scary, they could always run back home.

But just as they started to walk, Bertil got problems with Pepper. After a few steps, the horse stopped, tossed its head back and for, then threw Bertil off!

Pepper ran off, and he looked scared. Bertil wasn't seriously wounded, but enough to realize he could not join the others up there. He sighed, and walked off to find Pepper instead. Bertil adored horses.

The others walked over to the new Fort base, Rosanne talking about how they would do fine without Bertil. Rosanne is a brave person, she quickly took the lead when the two others started to hesitate.

A weak rumbling sound could be heard, hard to locate, but it came from the mountain, didn't it?

They had no choice but running after the brave Rosanne, up the steep hills, into a carpet of smoke.

The twins had now caught up with the group, and they waited by the foot of the mountain.

Then everything happened very quickly! Rebecka, Rosanne and Graica reached near the top of Maccaroni Mountain, when a red and warm light hit them. The ground was shaking, and this time the rumbling sounds were all stronger, as the ground never seemed to go back to rest! What might have been a few seconds felt like an hour, as the volcano greeted them!

Rosanne had read about volcanoes, but Rebecka and Graica were clueless - how was this possible?

Down at the old shed, Corinne was performing her final song...

And - was Randal facing his final ride?

The new quake was obviously a result of volcanic power. Maccaroni Island had suddenly been turned into a prison.

To be continued in a handful days :-)

Week 11 Day 3: The discovery (part 1 of 2)

Last night's event had naturally disturbed everyone on the island. Most residents were pretty sure it was an earthquake, only a few thought it could need some further debate. Today's chapter will of course cover several discussions, actually - the chapter would contain so much that it had to be split in two parts. Part 2 will follow in 3 days.

At the Redward Ranch at 6 Redward Heights the family of 5 was about to get ready for breakfast. They were all asleep when the ground shivered last night. They had got up, walked outside, tried to calm the 2 horses, been waiting up for a couple hours, but eventually gone back to sleep.

This morning the subject was continued. Corinne Y. Redward was pretty upset. She had tried her best to look for positive details in her everyday, lately she had taken up guitar playing again, and she wanted to aim for a concert in the village. But now, it felt sort of wasted to plan anything personal.

This is little Yvilla, their youngest daughter who just left her crib. Her traits are Insane, Virtuoso and Neurotic. She seems like a caring person, though.

Rosanne preparing the breakfast? She is a tough person, but maybe she needed to do something to distract earthquake thoughts? Now, where was Yamir?

Yvilla hated to see her mom, Corinne, scared like that. Corinne was a little surprised to see her youngest daughter behave like that. Of course Yvilla had no idea what was going on, but she obviously tried to help. The Redwards were not very caring, at least not to others than themselves, but suddenly Corinne gained hope. She had seen her marriage to Randal Redward as nothing but a prison, and both Yasmir and Rosanne were typical Redwards - was Yvilla the rescue?

A little later many of the locals were gathered at the Bakery.

This place had already become a rather popular spot. Carie G. Peel sold bread and sometimes a cake, and a few tabled invited locals to sit down for a quick coffee and a chat. While Greta's Bistro served better meals, Carie's Bakery offered better gossips and socializing.

Randal Redward, bossy like always and a member of the Village Council, had stopped by.

Albert Blumington (Carie's partner), Yespar Yea-Low and Dorothy R. Yea-Low were already present.

In fact, Yespar Yea-Low didn't want them to find the sunlight reflector that he and his two grandsons had built in the mountain. The idea was to send a pillar of light up into the sky, hopefully to be noticed by a ship somewhere out there. So, he suggested them to access the mountain from the opposite side.

In walked Constance R. Hamming and LaShawn Greench.

Animals can sense smaller vibrations from the ground than a person can. They will also hear other frequencies of sounds.

Not far from the bakery, at the Town Square where the original Consignment store still is, now used for a hay storage, some teens had gathered. Well, Graica Greench was actually a young adult now. Her brother Bertil and her cousin Rebecka Black. And on the bench Rosanne Redward was seated.

Graica, Rebecka and Bertil had planned to walk up to the mountain tonight.

So far Rosanne was not involved with the plan. Generally the kids from the Greench Farm and the kids from the northern region had little to do with the Redwards.

So, she forced herself into the plan, didn't she...?

Graica and Bertil had 2 uncles that both resides in the farm area and both had this kind of dogs, originally descents of a tamed wild dog named Cairo.

A little later Dorothy R. Yea-Low and Albert Blumington were walking the road that goes along the mountain, just north of the Warehouse and the unsuccessful Fish Park. They noticed the tall scaffold near the Warehouse was still intact, so the quake couldn't possibly have made much damage, or could it?

The area wasn't very busy, because there were no roads. It's where old Joe Hawk built his hut long ago. Recently a new community build was erected, namely the fort central that Randal had suggested. It was meant as a safety service for the community, a storage of useful facilities including a few weapons. Randal's point was that they had to prepare such a base beforehand, and it would be too late when they really needed it.

This trail is pretty long. It leads from the Fort base all the way over to Maccaroni Mine, over the north-west  side of the island, where there are no roads and therefor hardly any activity at all.

Well, I'm sorry to end the first part of the chapter just before the discovery is made. The good thing is that you will only need to wait 3 days to find out what will change the community of Maccaroni Island forever!