To Chapter #1: http://stage.co.il/Stories/404904

8: In the Hills

We continued walking at a rather quick pace until we rounded
a few cliffs and were far and out of sight and hearing from
the village. Then we collapsed near a small shrub.

"So, where exactly are you from?" Daria suddenly asked.
"Well..." I started. "How shall I put it... I'm a
Time-traveller."
"A what?"
"I'm not from this time. I came back from the future. I was
on a mission."

Her silence and the expression on her face showed me clearly
what she was thinking.
"No, I'm not insane or anything. Look at this, for
instance." I showed her the flashlight.
She looked at it as if seeing such a thing for the first
time.
I turned the light on at the ground next to us.
"What.... How do you do it?" She gasped.
"This is a special tool that was given to me by those who
sent me," I answered. "It has special powers at certain
points in the space-time continuum."
"In the what?"
"Well... It's just that when I turn it on at something, the
rays of light emanating from it resound with the natural
bends in the space-time flow and..."
"Ok, ok. You speak a lot of words I do not understand. Let's
leave it at that. Where do you want to go from here?"
"I don't really know... I guess we'll just circle these
hills, searching for openings, caves, tunnels, gates,
anything on which to use this flashlight and pass back to my
own time."
"You said you were on a mission. Is it completed?"
"Well, no. Something went wrong."
"What was it that you had to do?"
"Find a key," I sighed.
She took out something from a fold in her dress. "Like
this?"
"Well, yes. Only, instead of unlocking just a spatial lock,
it needs to open a temporal one as well."
She sighed. I said: "It's time to pray mincha, the afternoon
prayer." I started reciting the prayers by heart.

Later after we resumed our quest, we encountered a tiny
spring flowing out of the hillside. We washed our faces and
drank.

"I'm hungry," Daria said.
I picked off a few berries from a nearby shrub. "Do you have
any idea if these are edible?"
She said she thought they were. We had a modest supper off
them. Then we lay down on the turf by the shrub. The sun
soon set and we fell fast asleep, cuddling against each
other for heat.

The next day we continued searching for a pass, to no avail.
We also found no food or water. I had filled my pockets with
berries after breakfast, and those served us for lunch.

Suddenly the hills gave way to a steep sandy slope
downwards. Above, on the other side, rose impassable cliffs.
Below I could hear and see the waves of the Mediterranean.

The climb down was rough, and I and Daria got a bit
scratched in the descent.
"What is this?" She wondered. "It's the sea," I explained.
"It's full of water but they aren't good for drinking. They
are salty." She stood gazing for a long moment.

Then she said: "Let's go there and wash ourselves."
I said: "Take off your clothes first, so you'll have what to
wear afterwards. Place a stone on top so the wind doesn't
blow them away."
She said: "Ok. Don't look." I turned away, did as I told her
and went into the water.

After a little swimming around the bay I found a cave. I
swam back. "Come, I found a cave," I said to Daria. "Get
dressed and follow the water-line to the left."
"Wait a bit," she said. "I washed my clothes and put them to
dry."
I sighed. "I'm hungry, and I can see nothing edible here.
Let them dry on you."
She sighed in agreement. I got dressed, took out my
flashlight and went into the cave.
I shone my flashlight at the cave's wall. It rolled aside
and revealed a narrow tunnel.
"Daria," I called, "are you coming?" She entered the cave.
"Follow me closely," I said.
I entered, the girl following close. The tunnel shut close
after her.

Next 2 chapters: http://stage.co.il/Stories/537342688