A couple of nights ago I got a message from an old friend saying she had a book I should read. She was wondering how to get it to me. I was in one of those moods so I replied, “Leave it behind the third girder from the left under Booth Canal Bridge. I'll pick it up when the moon is full.” From there our conversation in message format went like this:
“Seriously????????”
“Probably. Why not? It's worth a try.”
“Alright then, when the owl hoots at dusk, the day of the full moon, you'll know it's there.”
I promptly forgot about it, because honestly, I forget about things a lot, but then last night as I was wasting time on the computer, rebelling against going to bed at a decent hour for work, I received this message:
“Did you get it?”
“Get what?” I thought. Then it dawned on me, “Is it a full moon?”
I ran outside, and there it was, a gigantic orb of white light. Excitement surged through me like an adrenaline rush. The game was afoot. At this point a lot of people would have dashed off without a thought, in whatever they happened to be wearing at the time, to find their prize under the bridge. Many have perished on spontaneous, ill-prepared adventures, but not I. I have read The Hobbit. Three times. I once had to hole up unexpectedly over night in the bushes outside a bank, and were it not for the juice boxes and granola bars I had stowed in my pockets before leaving for that particular adventure, I could still be there, pushing up daisies. I know how to go on an adventure.
I calmly went back into the house to prepare. Supplies are important on any adventure. You never know what you might face, so you have to prepare for any eventuality. Common sense dictates that you can rule out certain possibilities depending on your particular adventure. For instance, if you are going to be venturing under a bridge at night you need not worry about giant eagles. But be careful not to under-prepare! A few extra supplies, just in case, can be the difference between telling the story, and having the story told about you. Heading under said bridge without any kind of troll kit would be foolhardy, though truth be told in this case I was quite foolhardy, as I seem to have misplaced my troll kit. I only risked it because I could not bear the thought of a troll’s vile fingers all over my book. Trolls cannot read a word, but they like to pretend they can, even if nobody is watching. I was very careful in my approach, just in case something foul lurked in the darkness.
Back to my preparations; I found my old adventure satchel and filled it with the usual necessities. The following is a list of what I brought last night. It is a very bare minimum, but I needed to travel light:
- A notebook and pen. Notebooks are handy for many reasons. In this case I left a thank
you note along with a bag of gold candies, but they can also come in handy in situations
of imminent death, if you’d like to say goodbye to anybody. Just remember not to leave
the note in your pocket if you are to be swallowed by a ravenous beast.
- A backup pen.
- A torch, in this case a wind-up flashlight
- A multi-tool
- A medium length to long knife, folding or otherwise. It is always wise to carry a weapon that is
easy to use, like a short sword, and readily accessible.
- Duct tape. You never know.
- Matches, and if available, tinder. (no tinder last night)
- Granola bars (my favorite), but any healthy snack will do. Noisy packaging could cause problems when trying to avoid detection. I often repack my granola bars in quieter plastic bags.
- Juice boxes.
- A bandana or two. I always use one to hold my hair back, it is very difficult to fight
effectively with one’s hair in the way. A backup is always a good idea for binding
wounds.
- A bag of candy. Can be used to lure out forest sprites. When captured, forest sprites can
often be persuaded to grant a favour.
- Dark clothing for slinking around at night, clothing to suit the terrain by daylight.
- Last night I also brought a handful of coloured stones. It was on a whim, and they did not
come in handy, but were light enough and small enough that I would bring them again.
Anything that can be traded is a good idea, sisters excluded.
I think that sums up my supplies from last night, and anything I may have forgotten was inconsequential.
Back to the story; I donned my nightwear, packed my bag, and cautiously headed out into the night. It was quiet, the only sounds were the gentle rustlings of leaves in the wind. I set a fast pace because I was very familiar with the territory. It is after all my old haunting grounds. I knew by the position of the moon that the tide would be in, but if sea water was my only hindrance this would be a good night. After carefully appraising the situation and deciding that there were in fact no trolls, I was able to swing myself down from an outrigger and onto a tiny patch of mud under the bridge. I wound up the torch and searched between every girder. No book. I checked twice to be sure and decided it must be on the other side. I also decided it was a good idea to climb back out and walk across the bridge to search the opposite side. Swimming in darkened waters is never a good idea, but especially on this type of an adventure. The foul things seem to have a natural attraction to adventure, and always pop up at the worst times. I clawed my way back up, crossed the bridge, and climbed down the bank on the other side. There was no dry land on this side. By torchlight (note, wind-up flashlights are handy in that they will never fully die, but they are noisy while being wound, and I felt very exposed standing at the water’s edge cranking this noisy little bugger) I found that the water was only knee deep for a couple of feet, too shallow for anything extremely dangerous to sneak up, barring tentacles, so I waded in. It turned out the only creatures to worry about down there were crabs the size of football helmets, but they were quite harmless, and my only worry was crushing one as I walked. Again I searched between every girder and found nothing. I was getting quite perturbed. “Is it a trap?” I thought. I never verified the source of the messages. I just assumed the person was who she said she was. “I’d better get out of here” I thought, so quietly, very quietly, I snuck back out from under the bridge and climbed the bank. Before leaving the brush I let my eyes adjust to the moonlight and looked around. I couldn’t see movement in any direction. “If this isn’t a trap, what the hell is it?” I took another look at the bridge. A row of girders ran in each direction, one on top of the other, with the decking running right on top of those. But I had searched between all of the girders. There was nowhere else….unless…a closer look revealed the top row of girders ran out beyond the sides of the bridge. I went to the side, peered over, and there, on top of the third girder on the left, was my prize. I snatched it up, wrapped it in my extra bandana, and stowed it away in my satchel. I was feeling extremely exposed now that I possessed the treasure (it was also nearing midnight), so I wrote a quick thank you note, stuck it in the bag of gold candy, and taped it all to the girder. With everything back in my satchel (except the folding knife), and my hands free, I beat a hasty retreat back to my house to have a hot drink and cool down…and wash my feet.
There is always a feeling of euphoria after successfully completing an adventure. I couldn’t wait to see what I had, but I kept my excitement and curiosity in check long enough to put away my adventure kit and make a mug of hot chocolate. I then sat down to investigate what I had wrapped up in my satchel. It was a paperback book entitled Under The Skin, and there was a note in it that read, “Maybe this will help you dream." I knew right away this was a good prize, well worth wading in a canal, under a bridge, under a full moon. But then again, adventures always are.
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