The Pathless on Paths---------Chapter VII part 2(20)

However, just as they thought they were near the top, it all came to an end. Everything. The entire hill and all the land in the east-west direction, was cut short. Perhaps “cut apart” would be a more suitable phrase, for as they risked some strong light, their flashlights landed upon a vertical precipice: the land was cut open, like a cake, and pulled apart. Some few hundred meters farther, Karrson could see the shape of other half of the hill, out lined by the lowing plants, and akin to the half that they were standing upon, in started in a vertical cliff. It was much too dark, or Karrson was sure he could see the layered rock and soil of the entrails of the hill. Within the gap of the two halves of the hill that rose out from the earth like the enclosing hands of a praying man was a river: wide and swift, its surface turbulent and dark, simply there, as of by some magic the hill was cut apart and it placed in between. The river even came with its own narrow beach, though some of it was pilled with large boulders. Karrson stepped to the edge, and looked down the sudden drop. He was a little afraid of heights since an accident in his childhood, but luckily the darkness veiled most of this vertical vale, and he could not see the bottom. He shone his light along the sheer surface, and found that in some places it was not so sheer as he had expected. In some places the land collapsed, and a slope of earth and rock was made, extending down to the waters edge.