The Riven Expedition: Jungle Island

I stepped away from the MagLev and looked out towards the ocean. I was on a higher elevation than on the first island. About thirty feet below me, I could see the waves crashing against the rocks. I imagine that the MagLev was the only means of getting between these two islands.

Behind me the MagLev waited with its ramp open in the bay. A series of blue running lights on short poles flanked the craft for assisting the driver in locating the bay at night. There were no other signs or indicators of any kind. I wondered if anyone had monitored my arrival here.

A single path lead through the surrounding rocks directed me past the landing. At the end of the path was a cave. Directly across the cave was a small object that appeared to be wedged into the rock wall.

Upon closer inspection the object appeared to be a wooden ball with a highly detailed eyeball painted on it. When I touched the ball it moved along the metal ring that held it against the rock. I touched the top half of the eye and found that I could rotate it along its x-axis. The ball flipped over and revealed a symbol.

As I let go of the ball, it rotated back to reveal the image of the eye. The ball made a chirping noise as it rocked back and forth in the socket. I copied the symbol down in my journal.

I turned to the cave and made my way up a wide staircase. Lanters were mounted into the rock wall every few feet to help guide my path. At the far and of the cave was an exit leading to another staircase going up the side of the hill. Next to the staircase was another blue button mounted on a pedestal, similar to the one at the other Mag Lev station.

The path intersected with a staircase, going right up the side of the hill, and left down to a beach far below. I turned left, leaning against the surrounding rock to maintain my balance.

As I made my way down the stairs, I could make out a large rock about five feet off of the shore. Resting on the rock were a pair of strange creatures, basking in the bright morning sunlight. They were definately marine life judging by their smooth bodies and flipper arms. Their bodies were covered with a thick black hide, with a white stripe going down their bellies. Their mouths were long like a pelican's. The overall shape of these creatures resembled a rather large seal or walrus. If animal life on Riven was similar to animal life on Earth, then these creatures were probably mamals. I wondered if they would exhibit the similar personality traits of Earth sea life.

Suddenly, one of the creatures looked up. It turned its head to the left and the right as if alerted to a presence. I continued moving slowly, testing whether or not they detected my presence. The first one suddenly shifted its large body and wobbled off the side of the rock. Its brother, believing there was a danger present, followed suit. I could make out their shapes in the water as they swam away from the rock to the outlying ocean.

Beautiful. Simply Beautiful. None of the other Ages had ever displayed such examples of animal life. In the other ages they were either non-existant, or were driven away from the human colonies residing in the Ages. I was curious to see what other animals I would find on Riven.

I continued down the steps to a path that ran along the side of the hill. I stepped off the path down to the rock where the creatures had rested. A small lagoon surrounded the rock with an assortment of trees and plant life.

I walked along the lagoon careful not to disturb the rock itself. This could very well be the creatures' nest and I didn't want to do anything to disturb it. There may be eggs or young nearby that could be harmed by my being there.

At the far and of the lagoon I looked out towards the empty ocean. No other islands were in sight, no ships, no signs of life. From the map I drew inside my head, the other islands I saw were on the other side of this island. According to my compass, I was facing East.

I turned around back to the path when I noticed another wooden eyeball. This one was placed on a small rock on the sea creature's nest, facing out towards the lagoon. Carefully, I waded into the water, surprised by the warmth of it. The ball was identical to the one I had seen earlier. I placed my hand on the eye and pulled it downwards. The eye rotated in the socket revealing another symbol.

When I let go of the ball it righted itself back until the eye was showing, making a hollow trumpeting noise as it moved.

I walked back to the sandy beach and onto the path. I continued along the side of the hill until another cave entrance appeared. The entrance of this cave appeared to be carved out of the trunk of a large tree which had been chopped down some time ago.

The cave was lighted by fire marbles staked into the rock on thin poles. The cave steps sloped upwards, and I could make out natural light source ahead of me. I could also hear the sound of water, possibly a lake or a waterfall.

I emerged from the cave to the inside wall of a large crater. Forty feet below me the crater was filled with water, forming a deep lake. The water was so clear I could make out the rock formations along the bottom. I scanned the surface of the lake with my eyes, and that was when I noticed the village.

All around the lake were buildings and structures. At the far end of the lake sat a collection of tiny huts made of earth and clay. The huts were settled high along the crater wall on a network of supports. Walkways and ladders made out of bamboo allowed travel between the huts. Down below I could make out a boardwalk above the water where children played while the adults worked and went about their business. I had found the people of Riven.

A low whailing noise came from a tower to my right. It was an enclosed one man tower perched along the rock just above my head. Through the windows I could make out a man inside the tower feverishly cranking a large handle just above him. At the very top of the structure was a set of horns that rotated in time with the movements the guard made. The similarities of the horns on Riven and horns I heard back on Earth stuck a bell. I had just encountered the Riven Civil Defense Squad.

I immediately darted back into the cave. I ran at a careful pace down the stone steps and back outside to the beach. I continued running along the path past the large rock where the sea creatures rested. I never once looked behind me as I ran up the tall steps back to where I came from. Only I didn't go back through the cave to where the Mag Lev sat. I knew what was in that direction, a potential dead and with no place to hide.

I continued up the steps and found I had reached the top of the mountain. Tall blades of grass blew in the breeze next to a tree stump that appeared to have been cut recently. I turned back, but didn't see any guards following me. To my right I could see the ocean and another island.

Ahead of me was a rope bridge with wooden planks. Below the bridge was a dense valley of jungle foilage. I carefully walked across the bridge with both of my hands close to the rope handrails, in case the bridge was not as sturdy as it appeared.

On the other side of the bridge was a large forest that appeared to have its days numbered. Between the bridge and the forest were a scattering of tree stumps, all from trees that had to be somewhere between fifty and a hundred years old at least. One tree trunk had a gigantic axe handle stuck in the middle as if Paul Bunyon had placed it there at the end of a long workday. Hundreds of tiny black insects hovering above the tree trunks, clinging to the remains of what was probably once their homes. Winding between the stumps was a man-made path leading into the forest.

I followed one trail into the forest, where a wooden door hung between two trees to create an entrance into the forest. I pulled open the wooden door and it swung closed behind me. I peered through the slats of the door to see if my pursuers had made it across the bridge yet. Nothing. Nobody had followed me here.

Why didn't anyone follow me? After all, I apparantly alarmed these people. Maybe there was only the one guard in the area, and he was in the tower. I didn't think to look at the guard more closely to see if his uniform was with a white coat like the first guard I saw, or with a red sash like the one who had rescued me.

No. The second man I encountered wasn't a guard. His actions were more like that of a terrorist, or a revolutionary in enemy territory. The sneak attack on the first guard was not something a person of an official capacity would do.

Besides, the first person had that five pointed symbol on his cap, identical to the crest in the Hub Room. From the dominating presence of that symbol I could safely assume that this guard was with the controlling faction that ruled this Age.

If I were to expand on my deductions, I could assume that Gehn was a powerful influence in this Age, perhaps the ruling monarchy. Gehn had named Riven the Fifth Age, which could coincide with the pentagon shaped crest. It could also mean that Gehn was probably the ruling person in those stained glass images. Too bad I didn't know what Gehn looked like.

I still had no real proof of any of these theories. My reasoning was based on a collection of observations at this point, with no hard evidence saying that this man is Gehn. For all I knew Gehn could very well be dead, and those images could be twenty years out of date.

I waited by the door for another five minutes. Still no guards appeared. I turned back towards the path and walked through the thick forest. The trees surrounded the path which went into the middle of the jungle and then turned sharply towards a set of stairs running down a hill. I continued down the steps along the path, the trees becoming more imposing the further along I went.

The only light came from outside the thick forest, filtering through the trees. Through the sounds of the bugs and the crickets I could still hear the waves of the ocean breaking on the surf forty feet below.

I wondered what the forest looked like before the other trees were cut. By the size of the area covered by tree trunks, I estimated that a third of the jungle was now gone. To what degree was the Riven ecosystem affected by the cutting of trees on a tiny island in the middle of an endless ocean.

Ahead of me, the trunk of a tree was bored through to allow the path to continue in a straight line. Off to the side of the tree was a gigantic sword wedged into the ground at an angle.

This sword was shaped differently than the one by the linking trap. The circular guard around the handle was gone, and the blade was wide in the middle making a deeper gash as the sword penetrated the earth. I stepped off the raised path to more closely examine the towering symbolic weapon. As I approached the metal blade I stubbed my toe on something sharp on the ground.

I hopped back on one foot and looked down at the ground below. Next to the giant blade was a small replica of the giant sword I saw on the first island. Identical to the one the rebel used to damage the link trap. It was as if these tiny weapons were the symbol these people wanted to be known by.

The only difference between this blade and the others was that a fire marble was wedged into the handle so it could be noticed in the dark, or so perhaps people wouldn't trip over it. Next to the symbolic blade was another one of the wooden eyeballs.

As the ball rotated back it made a heavy breathing sound, almost like a low coughing. I tried rotating the ball again just to listen to the sound. It didn't sound like the second eyeball I found, and I couldn't remember what the first eyeball sounded like, but each sound was vaguely different. Maybe the differences were the surfaces that the eyeballs were mounted on.

I went back to the path which continued on through the trunk of a larger tree ahead. Mounted on top of the tree trunk was a large rotating dome, similar to the one I had seen on the other island. I walked inside the tree trunk where the path forked in two directions.

The left path lead up to a staircase to another wooden door that looked like it lead out of the jungle. I walked halfway up the steps and turned around to look at the dome.

The tree trunk was about fifteen feet high. The dome took up the entire trunk's surface along with a metal walkway that circled the dome. I could make out a string of markings on the surface of the dome, all evenly placed along the same latitude.

The walkway was suspended at the same level as the dome and went off towards the trees at the other side of the jungle. I went back underneath the tree trunk and through the other path in the fork to see if I could follow the walkway.

The path turned into another set of stairs descending below a low overhanging tree branch. The quality of the trail degraded to the point of where I was walking on dirt. There was a small dirt patch that broke a tiny pond in half as the path lead to an patch of grass.

Directly in front of me was a large red idol mounted onto the body of one of the larger trees. The idol resembed a large bull headed creature with two massive tusks sticking out from its mouth. An elephant of some sort? A massive jungle dweller?

At both of my sides were two small lamps stuck into the ground. Tiny, hidden spotlights at the far corners of the area shone directly onto the idol bathing it in a errie red light. Above the idol I could find the walkway lead directly into the body of the tree.

I went back through the jungle to where the large sword was nestled in the bushes. My feet were getting tired and I wanted to rest for a bit. I sat down on the ground next to the tiny metal arrowhead and removed my pack. I ate some of the food I had packed along as I wrote down some of my obervations in my journal. My notes were still sketchy at this point, but I reminded myself that I still had a lot of exploring to do. Sooner or later, what I had down would start to make sense.

More than anything else I wanted to explore the village, but I knew it was too risky to return, especially so soon after I was discovered. I still hadn't seen any sign of a search party. They knew immediately that I was an outsider, so why hesitate?

After I finished my lunch, I took my backpack and hid it in a nearby bush. I would make the jungle my camp for now until I found a more suitable place. I doubt that anyone else would find it in here.

I made my way back onto the path and went through the fork in the tree trunk. This time I continued on the left path to the staircase. Before me was the wooden door leading out. I waited behind the door to see if there were any signs of movement. After a minute or so, I was convinced that nobody was waiting outside for me.

I opened the door and stepped onto a wooden bridge that created a walkable path through a narrow gourge. The path lead brached off to the left and the right; the left leading back to the hillside, and the right leading down into a cave.

I almost decided to take the right path when I noticed the tower. Another watchout tower, identical to the one that spotted me earlier was here, suspended in the air by a single pole stuck deep into the rock directly below it. The very top of the tower looked just over the crevice, where the guard was currently looking. Very carefully, I backed up towards the open doorway, not once taking my eyes off of the guard. Once inside the door, I slowly closed it, trying to make as little noise as the squeaky hinges would allow.

From what I could find, these two doorways were the only way out of the jungle. This one was monitored by a guard, and the other one lead back to a path that I had already explored. Where else could I go?

I made my way through the jungle to the entrance I first came to. After peering through the door to see if any guards were in the area I opened the door and walked out onto the path. Off to my left I noticed that one of the paths went down a small slope. At the end of the path was a hole in the ground. The hole was square shaped with a concrete reinforced edge, suggesting that this was a man made tunnel.

I looked down the hole to find it was about two meters deep. At the botton of the hole was a large metal cart mounted on twin rails. The rails ran through another hole going horizontally into the ground. The cart appeared to be made for the transport of supplies or materials. The botton of the cart was covered with broken twigs and tree branches. A lever was mounted on one of the concrete walls next to the tunnel entrance.

I lowered myself into the cart to try to see where the tunnel lead. I tunnel entrance was barely large enough for the cart to pass through. Looking through the slats in the side of the cart I could see the tunnel rock for about five meters, but further beyond it was total darkness.

I imagined that the lever controlled the brakes keeping the cart in place, so pulling it would start the cart down the tunnel. But I wasn't sure if that was a good idea. The cart was not made for people, and I had no idea where the tracks lead. Atrus couldn't afford for me to take foolish risks and he if he were here, he'd advise me to find out more about the tunnel without going through it.

But Atrus isn't here. I can't continually worry about what he would think about my actions. I'm not a foolhardy type, but I've never been known for my patience either.

I pulled the lever and the cart began to move forward into the tunnel. There was a slight dip in the tracks ahead of me and I lost my balance inside the cart. The light ahead of me was fading fast, and the rock walls were quickly turning to the color of an endless night. The cool air flowed through the cart helping me get a sense of how fast I was going.

The speed of the cart increased as it went through a series of high speed turns. Suddenly, the cart ran through a bright circular ring of lights, and then another. The rings were a brilliant orange in color, and each time I passed through one, I felt a massive wave of heat hit me from all sides.

Suddenly the walls all around me changed. The dark brown walls became a bright blue. From all directions I felt an occasional spray of water hitting me. From the front, the sides, and sometimes the behind. This tunnel was underwater! I could see water surrounding the cart on all sides. The walls must have been made out of some kind of transparent material. The only other structures in the tunnel were the firey orange rings spaced out in five meter intervals.

Suddenly, the track ran upwards and I emerged out into the open air. I shielded my eyes from the bright Riven sunlight as the cart ascended higher and higher into the air. The tracks were now twenty feet or so above the water level. The track was in the middle of the ocean surrounded on all sides by the islands of Riven. I looked behind me and saw the Jungle Island and next to it the first island with the gigantic metal dome. Ahead of me was a new island, and off to my left was another island I had never seen before.

I never expected this cart to carry me this far. All my gear was back in the jungle. Would I be able to get back to it? What was waiting for me on this other island?

This island was a small, level island with very few distinguishing features. The tracks ahead of me were rapidly approaching a cave, and I could make out a small building perched on the rocks.

The entrance to the cave swallowed the small cart before I could get in any more details. The tunnels here were similar to the ones on the other island. Tight walls, sparse lighting. The air was cool and damp and I could feel the breeze now through my wet clothing.

The lights ahead became brighter and the cavern opened up more. Directly in front of me I could make out the end of the tracks with a large bumper spring to stop the cart. I braced my body on the frame of the cart as it slammed into the bumper, bringing it to a stop right next to a small platform on my right.

Suddenly, the floor of the cart fell open like a set of bomb-bay doors. My body fell through the opening and slammed onto a large curved aluminum slide. I fell feet first and crashed against a round metal door. The door lifted open from the impact and the slide continued outside.

At the end of the slide my body fell into a small hopper next to a platform. I layed down in the hopper, tired from my ordeal. My clothes were dirty and wet, my shirt ripped, and my body ached from being thrown around in the cart. I tried to recall what form of reasoning I had used that lead me to ride a mine cart clearly not meant for human use. I was glad Atrus wasn't around to remind me of the wisdom of my decisions.

Text taken from Wayback Machine's snapshot dated April 9th, 2009.

Restored and updated for modern rendering by Deka Jello. See the divergences page for known differences and alterations.