Chapter 6 - The Giant Rock

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” 

Jane suddenly heard a screech. It was Rachel. Remembering the nightmare, she looked up. There was a rock. The rock was ten feet in front of the carriage. It was just like the one in Jane’s nightmare. It was huge and dusty. It was bouncing towards the carriage! Although it was far away from the carriage, it seemed to be about to crash into the carriage. 

“Turn left! Turn left! Turn left to duck that rock! Or… we will be smashed into pieces!” yelled one of the driver boys. 

“No! The path is too small for the carriage to turn!” yelled another one. 

“Then what to do? Go backward!” yelled the first one. 

“Be calm! Let’s make the horses turn!” yelled Derek. 

But the horses were too frightened that they couldn’t listen to the boys at all. They raised their front hooves. 

The rock was bouncing nearer and nearer. Jane’s heart was pounding quickly. She looked at the horses. One of them was struggling, one was neighing, one was running forward and jumping, and the last one was trying to turn left. Jane saw the distance between the carriage and the rock was only about 7 feet. The rock rolled around and around in the air when it bounced up above the steep path.

What will happen? What will Mom say if I got knocked into pieces? Will she be angry? What will happen if she didn’t see I’m at home? Oh, home. I missed my room, thought Jane, oh, Mom, my room, my alarm clock, my pictures of reindeers and mushrooms, my mirror, and my teddy bear! Jane was very nervous. She looked at Leo, who remained emotionless but had a little look of horror in his dark blue eyes. Jane looked at the giant rock. It was about 3 feet in front of them. The horses neighed loudly and raised their front hooves again.

Oh, no, thought Jane. The distance between the carriage and the rock was only 2 feet. Rachel and the other bottle carriers screamed and yelled. “NO!” cried Mr. Summer. “It… it is… get down… let—let’s—let us get down…” muttered August,  trying to climb in a box. 

Jane didn’t want to see what horrible things would happen next moment, so she shut her eyes. “LOOK!” shouted Leo at Jane. Jane opened one of her eyes. She saw an incredible thing!

She opened both of her eyes and couldn’t believe them. The rock was bouncing over the carriage! It didn’t crash at the carriage at all. It bounced up, landed just in front of the carriage, bounced up again, flew over the carriage and landed just behind it. Dust came billowing towards them. Jane rubbed her eyes and looked around.

Mr. Summer was lying on the floor of the carriage quietly. August kept quiet for a moment and climbed out. Jane saw an expression on Leo’s face for the second time. He was smiling. He scratched his cheek and breathed out a sigh of relief. Rachel sat on a seat as still as a statue. Her bottle broke and water spilled all over the carriage floor. The other bottle carriers were standing and looking at each other. Two of the driver boys were pulling the reins. Derek looked around and scratched his chin.

“Phew, that was close,” said Rachel, finally finding her voice.

“Ah—” moaned Mr. Summer, trying to stand up, but he slipped and fell on the summer spring and crashed into a pile of tin cans and glass bottles at the back of the carriage. 

“Oh, everybody,” said August loudly, “there is nothing need to be afraid of now. Get up, and let us go!”

The carriage moved again. And the horses went very fast. A kind of happy vide covered everyone while Jane talked about comic books with Rachel, and Leo talked about all kinds of plants he had read in the books. They reached the gap between the mountains at about half past twelve and ate lunch there.

“What’s for lunch?” asked Jane.

“Peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Don’t let breadcrumbs fall all over the floor,” said August, smiling. “The time on this mountain is magical. One day here is equivalent to a normal month,” he added.

After lunch, Jane saw the piece of paper about the tasks on her seat. She suddenly saw a word on it: SEPTEMBER.

“What’s September like?” asked Jane curiously. “Is September a woman or a man?” she added.

“A woman,” answered August, “You’ll find out at the Fall Corner of the City of the Seasons.”

The carriage began to move after Derek pulled the reins. Jane looked out through the side windows. She saw a deep green expanse—a forest! Within the deep green, there was a patch of light green—a meadow! In the meadow, there was a sky blue lake, and in the lake, there was something beige. What could that be? An island? Jane thought it might be important to their journey. She felt a bit tired. She shut her eyes and fell asleep.

After she woke, they had already arrived the forest under the mountains. Jane looked at her watch. Twelve past three. Leo was rubbing his eyes. Rachel was looking out of the windows. Jane followed suit. She saw the meadow, the lake, and the island on the carriage’s left. And on the island, there was a huge castle.

The castle looked a bit like a light brown one that Jane had once seen in a picture book. It was rectangular. It had four towers at its corners. On each tower, there was a flag standing on the colorful roof. The first flag was light blue with emerald green grass pattern. The second one was grass green with a turquoise tree pattern. The third one was golden with a red pattern that looked like a maple leaf. The last one was silver with a dark green pine tree pattern. Above the gates, there were a few words saying: 

City of the Seasons

The carriage came to a halt beside the lake. “We’re here,” said a bottle carrier. She grabbed her bottle. The driver boys jumped off the carriage immediately. They removed the harnesses from the horses and pulled the horses into a horse shed near the lake. Derek carried a lot of hay and some immortal branches to the horse shed. Another driver boy fed the immortal branches to the horses. Meanwhile, Derek was carrying a silver bucket of water to the shed.

“Ah,” murmured Mr. Summer quietly. He pushed open the left door of the carriage.

“Now,” said August loudly,“yeah, we are here. Girls, don’t break your glass bottles like Rachel. Leo, Jane, you two, get out of the carriage with us please.”

Jane and Leo climbed out of the carriage and stepped forward. Jane sprinted towards the lake.

“Wow,” gasped Leo. His mouth was half open. However, his squinted eyes remained emotionless.

Rachel looked straight at Leo with a contemptuous gaze. “Have you ever been anywhere? So clueless!” she whispered coolly.