At the first ray of sun, the guide woke everyone up. Josh grumbled in protest and turned on his other side, but Nadia and Aileen were more cooperative. With Luka’s help, the women packed their tents and started preparing breakfast. In the end, they had to wait on Josh. As usual, he was slow and late with everything. This time, however, Aileen didn’t yell at him to hurry up. The exhaustion was catching up with her, too. As Josh was fumbling with his camera, she took out her maps and studied them carefully. By now, she knew them by heart.
“How much farther?”
Nadia stepped behind her and looked over her shoulder. Now, the modern map of Georgia she could read just fine. The old map of Colchis… that was a whole different thing. She could stare at it for hours and not completely comprehend where they were, or if they were going in the right direction.
“I’m not sure,” Aileen whispered. She looked around the clearing. “It must be somewhere around here.”
Josh perked up at that.
“Here?”
Aileen sighed.
“No, not here. But somewhere in this part of the forest. I can’t really tell. It’s not like this old map points exactly where the Golden Fleece was hidden. The thieves of the ancient times would have had a party if the map had been so exact.”
“Oh.”
Josh’s enthusiasm deflated. He was more than ready to hear the magic words: “we’re here”. Not today, apparently.
“We should get going,” said Luka. He was already walking out of the clearing, following a barely visible path between the tall trees. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but the road ahead is going to be particularly harsh. Just watch your step and use your hands to grab onto the rocks and bushes when you think you might lose your balance.”
“Great,” Josh mumbled under his breath. As he started walking behind them, trying to ignore the awful cramps in his calves, he pointed the camera at the group and turned it on. “We might just start filming now, before I have to bag the camera so I can crawl on all fours.”
Nadia laughed at him.
“Stop being such a baby!”
Nonetheless, she took out the microphone and ran after Aileen. Aileen turned around briefly, smiling at Nadia and the camera.
“Good morning, there! Long day ahead of us!” She waved at the camera. “We’re close now, so we better move faster.”
“How do you know we’re close?” asked Nadia.
“I studied the maps a few minutes ago, and although we can’t know for sure where the Golden Fleece is, we do know it’s somewhere around these parts. We’ll have to keep our eyes open and pay attention to every detail. Also, our guide just announced to us that the road will be very taxing today, which tells me we might be the first to climb this side of the mountain in a long while. It makes sense that the artifact we’re looking for would be hidden in a place which is not easily accessible.”
As Aileen was talking and Josh was trying to walk while holding the camera as still as possible, he thought he heard something behind him, between the trees. Instinctively, he turned around, moving the camera to inspect and film his surroundings. There was nothing there. Only trees, fallen leaves on the ground, broken twigs and hidden roots that couldn’t wait to trip him over.
“Josh, what are you doing?” Nadia asked. “We’re trying to do an interview here.”
Josh focused the camera back on Nadia and Aileen.
“Sorry. I thought I heard something.”
Aileen stopped in her tracks.
“Like what? Something like what?”
“I… I don’t know. Like someone or something was following us.”
Aileen bit her upper lip, her mind working at full speed. She studied the trees around them, but eventually shook her head.
“This can’t be the place. We’re in the middle of the forest. What we’re looking for is a grove, and maybe even the opening of a cave.”
Josh shrugged. “I don’t know. I just thought I heard something, that’s all.”
“Do you want us to go back and investigate?” Nadia asked Aileen.
Before Aileen could answer, Luka had turned back to them to see what was taking them so long.
“If you think someone is following us, boy, forget about it. I know very few people who are crazy enough to choose this route for a leisure hike.”
Josh turned the camera off and stuffed it in his backpack. He was tired of them either yelling at him to move it, or make fun of him because he was too slow or too scared. It was time to prove that he could keep up with them, and even walk faster if he so pleased.
They walked in silence for a few hours. Nadia had thought about shooting some more. The view was gorgeous, but they were all too tired to think about the documentary. When they finally walked out of the thick forest and started climbing up a steep incline, she made sure to take pictures every time she stopped to drink some water. At least, she’d have enough interesting material to post on Facebook and Instagram once she got back the signal on her phone.
They stopped for lunch, but they didn’t take more than a half-an-hour break. Aileen was feeling restless. It was as if there was something in the air which beckoned her to move forward, push herself harder. She was pretty sure she had blisters on her soles, but her determination was stronger than the pain. When everyone finished their sandwiches, she insisted they had to keep going. No, there was no time for a nap in the shade of the trees. Luka couldn’t agree more. For some reason, he was just as eager as her to reach their destination. He had been silent during the past few hours. Aileen had a vague impression that Luka wanted to see the Guardian for himself, so he could go back to his village and finally shed light on the myth they had all believed in for ages.
When the sun started setting, and Nadia and Josh told her it was time to look for a good place to stop, set camp, and have dinner, Aileen said “no”. Just a little farther. They could do it. One foot in front of the other, another hour of walking. Half an hour passed, they entered the forest once again, and when they reached a small clearing, Nadia begged her to call it a day. Aileen looked around her while drinking the last few drops of water left in her canteen.
“This is a good place, yes. Let’s try to remember it so we can come back in case we don’t find something better.”
“What?! Are you serious?” Josh moaned. “It’s already dark. I can barely see where I’m walking.”
“Maybe it’s time to change your glasses,” Nadia teased. In truth, she wasn’t happy about Aileen’s decision, either. She wasn’t even hungry anymore, she just wanted to crash.
“Come on, guys. Just another half an hour, then I’m off your backs, I promise,” Aileen encouraged them with a smile.
She could feel it in her bones: they were close. She couldn’t explain where that feeling came from, but given that she was used to the most extraordinary things happening to her, she didn’t need an explanation. She had caught herself touching the tear-shaped bottle in her hip bag every couple of minutes. It was as if the single drop of liquid inside it was acting like some sort of spiritual guide, showing her the way, begging her to keep moving, keep trying.
“Don’t give up, yet,” Aileen whispered to herself as she left the clearing behind her and disappeared between the trees. She knew the others would follow her.
Just as Josh threw a glance at his wrist watch and was gathering his courage to tell Aileen that the time she had asked for was up, they stepped into a clearing that was much bigger than the one they had found earlier. This one was surrounded by trees on all sides but one. Right across from them, the dark opening of a cave marked the mountain which rose to the night sky. The cave was half hidden behind a grove of smaller trees. In the dark, Aileen couldn’t identify the species the trees belonged to.
“This is it,” she whispered.
“We’re here,” Josh said. “Oh my God, we’re finally here.” Then, he studied their surroundings more carefully, took in the clearing, the trees, the cave, and turned to Luka. “We are here, right?”
The guide nodded. “Yes, I think so. This place looks exactly like the old texts describe it.”
Josh sighed in relief. The last thing he needed was to think this was the end of their journey, only to discover they had misinterpreted the maps and the details.
Aileen took a couple of steps forward, but Nadia grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
“Wait. It’s too dark to see anything. I don’t think it’s a good idea to explore now. Let’s wait till dawn.”
“You’re right. I’m just so excited!”
“I don’t want to camp here,” said Josh. “If there’s, indeed, a Guardian, I’d rather not meet it at night.”
“I agree,” said the guide. “We should go back to the clearing we found on our way here. There will be enough time to investigate in the morning. It’s only half an hour away.”
Aileen had to admit they were right. All she wanted was to enter the cave right then, and see for herself if this was the right place, if they had finally found the lair of the Colchian Dragon. For some reason, she was not afraid. The bottle in her hip bag, and the scroll she carried in the inside pocket, close to the bottle, protected her. She couldn’t say how or why, but she felt like the Guardian wouldn’t harm her as long as she had those two items on herself. It was crazy, though. She had to remember that the prophecy also mentioned a sacrifice. As she turned her back to the cave and followed the others through the thick forest, she thought how much she would have liked to pull that scroll out of the inside pocket, and read the prophecy to Nadia, Josh, and Luka. Three minds were better than one. Maybe they could give her some insight, or come up with an interpretation she had missed. She would have given anything to fully understand what the sacrifice mentioned at the end could entail. Alas, she couldn’t do that. This wasn’t the end of their journey, it was the beginning, and Aileen couldn’t afford to lose her team’s trust over an obscure prophecy.
Once the tents were up and they ate a quick dinner, they all crashed like never before. Even Aileen fell asleep in a matter of minutes, when it usually took her at least half an hour to abandon herself to the land of dreams. Today was perfect, though. They had found the cave, and everything had gone rather smoothly. The next day, they would have a lot of exploring to do. Just before she drifted off, she thought about letting Josh sleep for another hour in the morning. She needed him to be well rested and happy, so he could shoot some awesome frames with the clearing, the grove of strange trees, and maybe even the inside of the cave.