The oblivious path

"what's that?" they both asked as they got behind him and looked into the paper.

"there is a transparent line that went under the giraffe that stopped in between the antelope and the Lion." Liam tells them his finding.

"yes…I can see that." Sandra exclaimed wearing a perplex look.

"we will have to crawl under the giraffe" Liam suggested as he moved his gaze from the piece of paper to the ground floor of the giraffe. "hmm, but behind the giraffe there is no lion or antelope…" he wondered because he had looked behind each topiaries enclosing them in search of the next two topiaries they should walk through. He looked at James who has been far too quiet and found his eyes intensely fixed on his hand, Liam's hand.

"where did you get that paper from?" he asked with a neutral expression. "don't tell me you tore it out from the document." He added. His father will punish him if he finds out he went through his things and Liam was leaving out evidence for him.

"I will glue it back perfectly. It will look perfectly old as it was earlier." Liam said confidently.

he gently placed the map back into the document and walked to the topiary of giraffe and bent. "it's covered with elephant glass…Dra, hand me your ruler." He requested. He needed to cut it down before it cuts them, especially his sister who was wearing a skirt. While waiting for her to bring the ruler. He carefully tried to pull one of the leafs but it was stronger than the ones he had seen so far.

He released the plant and turned to Sandra "can't you find it?" he asked her as she aggressively search for it in her bag.

"found it!" she exclaimed. Liam immediately extended his hands out to her to collect it, with his total attention fixed on the grass. He leaned forward to scrutinize how he should go about cutting it. After some seconds, an unbearable pain travelled from his hand extending to his heart. "ahh!" he screamed jotting up.

His screamed called James attention who has been grimacing over a torn document. He quickly rushed to Liam immediately he saw blood gushing out of his palm. "were you using your bear hands to pull those plants?" he asked worriedly. "even though your hand is not meant to bleed much."

Sandra brought her water bottle and handed it to James. James gently began washing off the blood. There were several cuts in his palm and each cut was deep like it was done with sharp knife. "Liam you are the dumbest here. This plant was cutting you and you kept pulling. "Shift aside" he walked pass him and squatted before the plant.

"I didn't feel it, besides I was extra careful. Since when did elephant grass became this sharp?" he asked and looked at his hand. He had use this hand to play with elephant grass multiple times and they have never cut him this deep.

"you are the king of injuries?" James rebuked as he struggled to cut the elephant grass with the rule, gently holding the tip of the grass.

As James was still struggling to cut the plant he asked "I have been meaning to ask you. where did you get this bruises from? Did you go on an adventure in a forest? You look hilarious.". He noticed it when Liam walked into his house and wanted to ask but he was more preoccupied with getting Sandra to help him and escaping from the security men.

"what bruises?" Liam asked tending to his palm. The pain he felt earlier had gone apart from the ones he felt when something comes in contact with the injuries.

"you can see them?" Sandra asked with widened eyes. "the injuries on his head and arm…"

"clearly. Did he fight a tiger like the jungle boy?" he mocked and laughed, still struggling with the plant that refuses to cut no matter what he did.

"mom couldn't see it." Sandra said lowly and wondered why James could.

"tell your mother to get glasses. Hey, jungle boy what happened to you?" he frustratingly stated hitting the grass with the ruler. Since when did elephant glass become this strong. Suddenly, he felt a sting on his palm. He angrily dropped the ruler.

Few seconds later his hands became in the same state as Liam earlier. Blood was gushing out from his palm with pain travelling from his palm to his heart. After what happened to Liam, he was extra careful with the way he held the plant. The only time he was aggressive was when he was hitting it with the plastic ruler.

"what kind of elephant grass is this?" he asked with a scowled expression. He was in so much pain but tried to suppress it. "water please".

"prince of injuries" Liam mocked him "now you feel what I felt…you can stand before me" he laughed.

"get your hand." Sandra washed off the blood "yours is worst prince of injuries." She said firmly. She gave her handkerchief to Liam "cover it before it gets infected."

"what about me?" James asked.

"should I give you my shirt?"

"sure, am okay with that if you don't mind" James grinned with delight, giving her an odd expression to get started with removing the cloth.

She hissed and walked pass him. she bent and gently touched the grass.

"what are you doing? Get out of there" Liam quickly commanded. He didn't want his sister to experience what he went through. The pain was really unbearable. She might die.

"she wants to be my princess." James sarcastically said and winked at her.

"shhh…" she eyed him and moved her attention back to the plant.

Liam quickly dragged her away from it, in the process the leaf she was holding snapped. Liam collected it and instantly dropped it which left another cut on his palm. He started checking her hands in fear she might have hurt herself. "Liam, stop. Am not a child. Am okay"

He didn't heed to her words and continued checking. At the end he found nothing. "why didn't it cut you?"

"I guess you guys weren't holding it properly…and even if you didn't hold it properly, it's not meant to cut that deep." She said as she thought that the plant was weird. She immediately started checking her neck for her pendent.

"you gave it to Miss Wevon." Liam stated.

"this particular leaf isn't sharp. You are lucky you didn't touch the sharp one or your name would have been sorry" James said as he had carefully checked the leaf. It didn't cut him.

"I did touch all of them…" Sandra stated. "and none of them were sharp."

"you are not serious? Come touch it in front of me." James dragged her to the elephant grass.

"stop that…" Liam rebuked but was cut off by James.

"shiii… let's try or the race is for nothing. Go on Sandra." James pulled her to go ahead. She gently touched the grass and gradually rubbed her hand on it with force. She checked her hand and there was no cut.

James took her hands and checked properly, there was still no cut. Liam was speechless. "these grass is definitely sharp. Why is it different when it comes to you?" James asked. "…wait, I need to touch them" he said as he began touching them "…after you touched the other leaf it didn't cut me again."

At first he gently touched it. later on, he aggressively roughed his hand around it but didn't get a single cut. He continued staring at it in confusion "crazy, they feel like feathers. wow…Sandra how did you do it" he stood up and looked at Sandra like she was a goddess. "what did you do?"

Liam went forward. He used his other hand and gently touched the edge of one of the plant. He raised his hand to look at it closely. Then he began to bleed again. He experienced the same pain again.

"Wow...just wow. There is a mysterious plant in my compound. I could make fortunes from this. I just need to understand one thing. Why did it suddenly become blunt after Sandra had touched it...no, why didn't it cut Sandra and also didn't cut me after Sandra touched it?" He asked still squatting as he rub the plant like he was touching a pet dog. "Guy it's getting late. We need to get the item. There is no other way. What are we going to do about you?"

"We are turning back. We can't proceed." Liam stated solidly.

"Why?"

"Why?"

Both James and Sandra asked.

"Why? Since this plant is so abnormal don't you think what lies beyond this Animal topiary might be worse. The map had a secret line that went through this animal...and unlike the other paths we had followed so far, we didn't have to crawl under anything. What this means is that the journey starts here and there are dangerous stuffs ahead. We are going back." Liam explained to them. He went forward and held Sandra's hand to follow him.