Chapter 3: Worm's Head
The third chapter in the "Before The Rift" lore preluding the events before Tales from The Dancing Moon.
James, Roz, Andrew and Desmond were woken suddenly by a banging noise, followed by Alexis’ cheery voice coming from the rear of the van.
“Wakey wakey sleepy heads! Rise and shine!” she called out, banging her fists a few more times on the rear doors.
They all stirred and mumbled as they woke. James opened his eyes slowly into a squint as the morning light poured in through the windows. He held his hands up to shield face as he sat up to face the day. He noticed the weather wasn’t as good as it was the day before. The blinding light he experienced came from a large sheet of white clouds. He could hear whistles as gusts of wind gathered themselves up against the van. He glanced over to the van’s radio clock which read an eight-forty-five.
Roz and Andrew were the first to properly wake as they didn’t spend most of the day surfing the day before. After getting dressed inside her sleeping bag, Roz clambered over Desmond to get to the food supply box for some breakfast. When she got what she wanted - her, Andrew and Alexis were now sitting cross legged in the back munching on cereal with milk.
James and Desmond began to get dressed whilst the others sat and chatted.
“SooOOoo…” said Roz. “Where have you been all night?” she started making a rude gesture with her hands.
Alexis knew this was coming but turned a shade of pink regardless.
“That’s none of your business!” She bashfully looked at James, Andrew and Desmond then said in a lowered voice - “I’ll tell you the details later.”
She then filled them in on the more appropriate parts of her evening, like spending the moments after sunset with Brad by the camp fire, taking another walk along the beach in the moonlight and then finally heading back up to spend more time talking in his van, sharing with each other the story of their lives.
James and Desmond had now joined them and were all sitting in a tight circle in the rear of the van. Alexis, Roz, and Andrew had moved onto eating bananas whilst James and Desmond began on their cereal.
Once the chit-chat had dwindled and the breakfast was consumed. They headed to the public showers on the other side of the car park to get clean for the day. Alexis took the opportunity to tell Roz more privately about the night before.
After their showers they went back to the van to prepare for the hike over to Worms Head. Desmond had already set a plan and itinerary for them which involved a list of camping gear, food, and equipment.
He stood in front of the group with a stance of authority as he dragged up his large hiking bag to the side of him. His tone was more serious than usual.
“Right guys… today is the big day. As you know, we’re going to hike all the way over to Worms Head”. He gestured with his arm towards the island.
“It will take roughly two to three hours to get there, and we’re bringing tents to stay overnight, so we won’t have the warm and comfy van this time.”
Alexis and Roz looked at each other and frowned whilst James and Andrew’s face twitched with a hint of anxiety. James gathered himself as he was determined to pursue the adventure.
“Make sure you have everything!” Desmond continued as he started filling his bag up with supplies. “Once we’re leaving, we’re not turning back.”
James began with his food. He had researched before the trip as to what would go well on a hike and decided on bringing packs of energy bars and packets of nuts to snack on whilst they walked. He had also made various sandwiches for the times they would stop to rest. Above his food he then laid an extra set of clothes in case his current set got damaged or too wet. He had also packed a raincoat and some waterproof trousers.
Andrew followed a similar mind set and had packed similar items, however - along with the energy and nut bars, he had also a small stash of sweets and chocolate bars to give him the short bursts of energy throughout the hike.
Alexis and Roz agreed before the trip that they would split their supplies between them, so Alexis filled her bag with clothes as well as equipment such as a high-powered torch, a compass, rope and a first aid kit. Whilst Roz packed her bag with all the food, however they had also brought various foods to be heated too like cans of beans and sausages, she then fastened a small frying pan and a gas kit to the side of her bag, and to make it water proof - wrapped a carrier bag around it.
Desmond was carrying two compact tents which were packed up into small packages with shoulder straps attached to them. He swung one around himself and passed the other to James, who did the same.
“These are our tents” he informed them. “I’ve got a two-man tent which is for Alexis and Roz, that’s the one I’ve given James. And for us three I had to borrow this from my dad which holds three people… unless you want to get cosy and all five of us can try to fit in it” - he added with a grin.
The first thing they checked before setting off on their hike was the tide times. Based on Brad’s suggestion, they were to find a shelter near the edge of the cliff just before the path descended towards the water.
They each swung their bags onto their backs and hoisted the straps over their shoulders. It made James chuckle seeing how big Roz’s bag looked compared to her size - as she swung the bag round the momentum nearly swept her off her feet.
They walked past the Worms Head Inn, and encountered a souvenir shop with a sign that said - ‘Ice Cream Inside!’
Desmond gestured towards it and said. “Hey, let’s get a quick bite before we properly set off, I hear its home-made!”
They waddled into the shop which turned out to be a lot more troublesome than anticipated. The entrance contained a small passage area before expanding into the rest of the shop. The mistake they made was all of them trying to get in at the same time, as very quickly Desmond found himself squashed, face to face with James and Alexis in the cramped space.
When they squeezed through it was still a bit awkward, as the bags they were carrying made each of them twice as big, causing greater risk to knock over the home crafted souvenirs. Eventually they managed to find the ice cream freezer which read ‘Joes Ice Cream!’
There was a huge list of flavours to choose from, each of which were in the form of a small tub with a jolly middle-aged man smiling on the front, assumedly the self-branded “Joe”. James decided to go with peanut butter. Desmond went with Rum and Raisin, Roz and Andrew both went with chocolate whilst Alexis went with strawberry.
They each waddled out of the shop clutching their ice cream. As their hands started to shiver James questioned why they had decided to get ice cream in the first place when the weather wasn’t too great for it. Regardless, the ice cream was very tasty and unlike any other brand he had tried before.
They strolled and ate at the same time as they continued on. It seemed the ice cream shop was the last building in the village before it got to the coast. James lifted his head up to observe his surroundings as he savoured the taste of the cool peanut butter in his mouth.
They were following the path that James had noticed the day before when he was admiring the view. It was a wide path that was formed by tiny white pebbles which crunched under their feet. The water was on their right, with only a section of grass between them and the cliff. He noticed various holes leading into the earth and a few rabbits bouncing around and disappearing into them. Straight ahead - he could see a tiny wooded shelter which he figured was the one Brad had referred to and started trail towards Worms Head.
As they stepped along, they stopped every moment or so as the girls got distracted by a wandering sheep or horse, aww-ing and taking pictures of themselves petting them. The boys would play games on how close they would get to the cliff edge without chickening out. Andrew was able to take some scenic photos looking over the beach as there were some vantage points up on the grassy slopes.
It didn’t take too long for them to reach the shelter at the end of the cliff. A volunteer was inside, perched on a stool, slowly rocking back and forth as he stared out of the window to the sea and the island - barely taking notice of the group as they approached.
They gave the man a little wave and then looked closer. Desmond found the notice board which held the tide timetable. It was fastened on one of the walls outside.
“Between two and seven today.” Desmond said, he held up his watch to check the current time, it was now reading half-past-twelve.
“That gives us about an hour and a half to relax or make final preparations”
He then pointed to some nearby picnic tables just before the trail leading down. They all stepped towards it and swung their bags off onto the table, relieving the weight from their backs.
James stretched and found himself a spot on the floor by the edge of the cliff. He sat down and laid his legs across the grass, then planted his hands behind him to lean back. The others came over and joined him, each of them now looking out to the sea and pondering about their destination.
The sea was calm with no waves to be seen, aside from the occasional crash of water that rushed along the side of Worm’s Head Island.
Over the next hour the group talked and joked, and James made a mental note that this was the first occasion of their holiday that felt most like what it was like many years ago at school. Just the group of them, hanging out at one of their houses or in the park, doing nothing in particular but shooting the breeze.
It was an interesting sight over the next hour as they noticed the water slowly descending. At first, revealing a few large boulders dispersed randomly between the mainland and Worms Head. After that, they could then see more rocks appearing, forming a kind of knobbly snake like path between the boulders. Finally, as the water had reaching its lowest point, they could see the entire piece of land joining the mainland and Worm’s Head, forming the path in which they would be taking.
James’ first impression was that it wasn’t exactly the safest path to be taking. As the path itself isn’t accessible for most of the day he supposed it must have been difficult to maintain it and enforce some permanent safety measures. Based on Andrews face he could tell he was thinking the same. Andrew then gathered himself as he brought his camera up to his eye again and began clicking away.
Desmond came back over to the picnic table and swung his bag back on to his back. He was the first to begin descending down the path. It was a few moments before two o’clock, but he seemed to think the water was low enough for them to start making their way. The rest of them followed.
James found the way down easy to manage as it was still connected to the grassy slope, but as soon as they reached the point where the water would have been, things became tricky. The terrain became wet and rough. Each step resulted in his foot slipping as if each rock was covered with a slimy membrane.
The boys lead the way as the girls followed closely behind, they assisted each other as they crossed large gaps between the rocks.
“Eww what is that?!” yelled Roz at one point, pointing her finger to the ground near her feet.
Small, circular, flesh coloured pads could be seen laying on the rocks and wedged in between the cracks in the ground.
“Have you not seen a jelly fish before?” asked Desmond, laughing and raising his eyebrow.
“Only when they’re swimming around! This is disgusting!” She slowed her pace and tip toed around the one she spotted, but soon realised there were hundreds of them on the rocks ahead. She squirmed as if any one of them would suddenly fling itself into the air and land on her head.
“I think they’re kinda cool actually!” said Alexis, with a sense of wonder. She knelt down close to one that had a particularly blue hue and started prodding it with a nearby stick. It pulsed slightly on each impact.
All of them started to tease Roz by nudging her towards the jelly fish. James at one point managed to pick one up that was lying on a loose piece of rock and started shoving it in her face, the group laughing loudly as he did. Roz ran ahead of them, laughing and screaming.
They carried on, making good progress as the tide was now completely out of the way, giving them dry access to the rest of the hike to the island.
They were about two thirds of the way when the terrain was becoming easier to handle, the ground started to slope upwards towards the island and there was a more visible path laying out ahead for them. They paused and grinned at each other as they heard the distinct lack of rushing cars, but instead the sounds of birds tweeting in the air, the waves crashing against the rocks and some sea-lions arf-ing at each other from the other side of the island.
As they stood in silence listening to the sounds of nature, James began to feel a sensation below his feet. He looked down and it took a moment for him to register what was happening. A trickle of water had reached one side of his foot.
“Uh, guys? There’s not supposed to be water now is there?” asked James suddenly, pointing towards his feet. The rest of them swung their heads around in unison to face him.
What James saw started off as a trickle of water but was growing larger and larger at an alarming rate.
They all started to look worried.
“It definitely said two to seven, it must have, we saw the water go out just an hour ago!” Desmond said.
But the group didn’t have time to contemplate, they suddenly heard a huge crash from the direction of the main land and could hear the sudden rush of water. They all looked over towards the noise and could see that a huge wave of water was fast approaching, crashing up against the rocks as it marched towards them.
“FUCK! RUN! NOW!” shouted Desmond and started to jump from rock to rock towards Worms Head.
The rest followed as quickly as they could. James heard the screams of Alexis and Roz over the top of the roar of rushing waves approaching them. He didn’t want to look as he ran forwards, but the sheer noise of the water kept him knowing that they were in severe trouble.
They could see the path ahead of them leading up onto Worms Head. It sat above a small cliff face. It didn’t seem too far away now that they were running at top speed. They were getting closer and closer until they were thirty meters away... twenty meters... ten meters...
Apart from the fact that impending doom was rushing in at them from behind, it was still extremely dangerous to be running at top speed over jagged rocks leading up to the path, and sure enough, about ten meters away from the safety of Worm’s Head. Alexis had caught her foot on a rock jutting out from below and fell over forwards, hitting her head hard on the floor, blood had projected from her mouth as she spat on the floor, tears pouring from her eyes.
“No!” James shouted as Roz screamed, both of them scrambling towards Alexis to help her up. Andrew and Desmond were oblivious to her fall and had now reached the safety of the path, clambering up the cliff to safety. They turned around to see James and Roz hoisting Alexis up with her arms that were wrapped around each of their shoulders, water had now crept up to their ankles.
They limped forwards as Andrew and Desmond yelled at them with encouragement, holding out their hands for them to grab onto. The water was gaining height at a tremendous speed. And by the time James, Roz and Alexis got to the small cliff, the water was up to their waists.
Andrew and Desmond held onto Alexis and lifted her up out of the water, she fell over again out of pure exhaustion and laid motionless on the floor.
Roz was the next to get to safety as Desmond and Andrew lifted her up, she wasn’t hurt so managed to step up and get a secure footing. Once she was up, she turned around to help them get James to safety too.
The water was now so high that James was now having to tread water, his tip toes only just touching the ground beneath him, but every time he tried to stand his feet would bash against a jagged piece of rock. Roz, Andrew and Desmond each knelt down as far as they could and scooped their arms below James’, then pulled up as hard as they could.
With one final and collective motion, he managed to get his feet onto the side of the cliff and push, feeling himself being lifted out of the water as the three pairs of arms tugged as much as they could.
James collapsed in a heap in between them, he could sense Alexis on the floor too as the others huddled around her.
They rolled her over and could tell she was in a complete state of shock. Her face was pale, her mouth was gaped open and her eyes were orb like, gazing up into the sky past their concerned faces. Roz shook her which made her blink and a toothy, bloody smile spanned across her face. She began to laugh, louder and louder... until she was wailing like a maniac.
It was contagious, James looked over puzzled, but after seeing the relief on Alexis he couldn’t help but laugh too. Soon the whole group were rolling on their backs, laughing like crazy.
The laughter slowly faded, and the group were left lying on the ground side by side, they gazed up at the sky and let out some heavy breaths. There was a moment of silence, but it was Desmond who finally broke it.
“Holy fuck...” he said.
“...ditto” said James, not entirely sure how to react. The others gave a small laugh.
They stood up and looked across the water and back towards the mainland. Squinting, they could just about see the outline of the volunteer and some other men in the shelter, moving animatedly in a panic. After some time, the volunteer had left the shelter with a megaphone, and spoke across to them.
“We are so sorry! A cliff had collapsed on this side! We have no idea what caused it... but it caused a reaction to the water levels!”
He paused, then finally said.
“It might take a while to get you back here, do you have camping gear!?”.
Desmond tried his best to frantically gesture that they had the gear.
“Good! You might just need it! Resources are limited over here, but we will keep you updated as soon as possible!” said the volunteer - he could then be seen rushing back inside the shelter and making some phone calls.
“Well that’s bloody useful then!” said Desmond sarcastically. “We only just nearly gone and died for god’s sake!”
The others were silent, unsure how to react.
They all stood up and started following the pathway up the slope of Worm’s Head. Roz, Andrew and Desmond lead the way as James and Alexis followed, shivering along the way. They had taken blankets from Roz’s bag and wrapped themselves inside them.
When they reached the peak of the hill, they surveyed their surroundings.
“We should think about finding a place to set up camp” said Desmond, as he pointed to a nearby area of flat grassland near the highest point of the island.
As they approached the area, they could see another circular stone fire pit like the one they used on the beach.
“Perfect” said James as he chattered his teeth, his eyes widened at the site of the fire pit.
Not wasting any time, they set up some makeshift cloth hangers using some sticks and rocks. They changed out of their wet clothes and hung them up to dry.
The shock of the chaos during their journey was slowly fading, and the group decided to make the most out of a dire situation. Alexis and Desmond were laying back on the grass by the stone circle. Looking up at the afternoon sun, letting its rays hit the water that was still on their skin. Alexis’ freckles glistened with a mixture of water and sweat. James was sat upright near a fire he started in the pit, absorbing the heat into his face. Roz and Andrew were standing on the edge of the grassy area, where the land began to slope downwards, they were throwing rocks to see if they could hit the water down below.
“I won’t forget this” said James suddenly, he had a solemn look on his face.
“What do you mean?” asked Desmond.
“You saved my life, back there... I’m just saying...”
“Don’t even think about it!” said Desmond. “I did only what any of us would have done. It’s over now and we’re alive! Let’s not think about it.”
James smirked and shrugged, he started to feel like he had been over thinking a lot of things recently, but still - he wanted to let them know his gratitude. Alexis smiled at them both but didn’t say anything, her gratitude was felt in the silence.
The afternoon slipped slowly by, and as the day gradually got cooler, the group situated themselves around the stone pit, each wrapped in a blanket, provoking the fire they started with some turpentine whilst marvelling at the wildlife around them. The sun was now hanging low in the sky causing the familiar pinkish haze across the horizon. They looked out across Rhossili beach and could see a smattering of surfers making use of the drastic change of the tide, bobbing up and down as the waves curled in. They could just about see the blonde curly hair of Brad as he stood on his board riding the white froth into the beach. After each ride he stepped off his board and looked up and down the beach, Alexis turned a shade of pink as she noticed his disappointment.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be back there soon, you can get a chance to see him again” said Roz, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She smiled and then pulled her blanket tighter around her. They continued to stare into the fire as it danced against the navy-blue sky. As the flames dwindled and the cool air crept up on them, Desmond announced it was time to set up the tents.
He took his tent and held it up close to his eyes as if analysing it. Even in its compact form, James thought it was surprisingly small for a three-person tent.
Suddenly, Desmond pulled away a strap on one side of the tent and threw the whole thing into the air. He aimed for a flat piece of grass and as it flung over towards it, it made a loud pop as it exploded and unfolded itself into a perfectly shaped three-person tent. As it landed it could be heard inflating into position with a long wheeze.
James got excited and ran over to the other tent to do the same. He unfastened some straps binding it together and gave it a hurl next to the three-person tent. His face fell as it gave a loud thump on the ground, not giving any signs of anything magnificent about to happen.
“Unfortunately, we’re gonna have to set that one up manually.” said Desmond, as the rest of the group laughed hysterically at his attempt.
Desmond led the group with setting up the tent, which took up the next hour of their time. The sun had already set by the time they finished, and the fire was on its last embers. It was decided amongst them that it was best to settle in and get some sleep.
James took his pyjamas and sleeping bag, unzipped the front of the three-person tent and crawled in. He set himself up on one side of the tent whilst Desmond set himself up on the other side, leaving Andrew to be wedged in the middle. James changed into his pyjamas inside his sleeping bag and tucked his clothes at the foot of the tent by the entrance flap.
The three of them laid back and allowed themselves to sink into rest. As he closed his eyes James heard the rhythmic crashing of the waves from the edge of the island. His muscles were now only just appreciating the rest he was now embracing.
He fell asleep quickly.
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Before the Rift is a prequel set of lore to the game Tales from The Dancing Moon.
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