The bus came to a halt on the gravel and there was a collective sigh from the passengers. It was known to them that the outside temperature wasn’t any cooler than it had been on the inside, but at least outside there was a chance of some wind cooling and refreshing them, whereas on inside the bus there was nothing but the stifling heat and the smell of sweat. The bus driver had made no apologies for the broken AC, nor had he allowed any windows other than the one next to himself be opened. What an asshole, Rico thought to himself as he dragged his feet in the slowly moving file of people heading to the cars only exit. As soon as he was outside he swung his bag and coat over one shoulder and used his free hand to fish out a cigarette and light it. Where to now? Most people were headed downhill to the town proper, and from this hill you could hear the roar of the sea already. The surf wasn’t what he was here for though, so he turned to look uphill instead. Across an eroded mountain range was the easiest, most accessible path into a very special place. That meant climbing. Rico looked around and saw a gas station. He popped in to buy as much mineral water and snack bars as he felt he could carry. And some salted peanuts; you needed salt in these kinds of conditions, right? Visiting the restroom he also took time to scrawl “Kilroy was here”, just so he could spend a little bit of extra time in the cool environment. He wished he hadn’t packed so much stuff, but he knew he’d need it later on. Finding no other reason to procrastinate any further he took a deep breath and began walking uphill along a small dirt path.
The initial ascent wasn’t too bad. There was an obvious incline and there wasn’t much shade, but he saw he was headed for a tree line and that would make things better. Hopefully. The “eroded mountains” that were used to access the valley still rose to 1.7km above sea level at their highest point and the hike was a good 30km long from here to his ultimate destination. He was of course dressed for it and had been sitting on his ass for four hours so he should enjoy the challenge but… it was uncomfortably hot.
Rico tried to focus on the sounds he was hearing. His steps on the dirt were one noise; the waves crashing against the rocks down below were another. The beach was hidden around the cape so he couldn’t see it from here. He could hear some cars in the town below. There were bird calls, sea gulls coming from the seaside and things he couldn’t recognize in the woods. That’s about it.
He reached the tree line and the shade gave him immediate relief from the burning sensation caused by the incessant blaze of the Sun. Everything smelled different, if only slightly. The dirt around the road was slightly moist, despite the weather. Was there some underground source of humidity to keep things lively? There might’ve been. Heat and humidity were usually a very stifling combination, and as the road snaked its way through the woods and ever upwards Rico began to find the trek uncomfortable. That did not bode well, considering the kind of distance he would need to cover. But he had time, didn’t he? If night came he’d just roll out a sleeping bag and wait it out, nights were warm enough in these parts. The destination would be worth the effort. He was certain of it.
 
It had been discovered during the days of the conquistadors, or rather rediscovered. Before that the Mayans and the Incas had known of it, but they’d never seen fit to make use of it. It is said the when he first laid eyes upon that vale that captain Marcel Tigra had been cured of his physical ailments and the melancholy that they had caused, and ever since then he had sworn to protect that wonderful place from any and all who would spoil it. For centuries the ill of body and unsound of mind had travelled there to seek to cure themselves, couples had gone there to be married and gurus had instructed their students to meditate there. The current wardens were rather lax compared to the Spanish knights who had once guarded the way but Rico had been forced to go through quite the little paper war to obtain the visa to enter. The gatekeepers would be waiting in a little hut at the top of the mountain pass, checking the papers of any who had the willpower to actually get up there. It seemed a mean-spirited thing to do, making the only way into a place of supposed healing so difficult to reach. How could the truly sick ever get up there? Rico shook his head and halved the size of his steps. Climbing up mountains was something you did slowly and carefully, not in a rush. At 1700 meters he wouldn’t be getting sick from the altitude or anything, but still it wouldn’t be an easy trip to make, not when the road was so steep. Already he could look up and see the forest rising up like a wall before him, the road winding up in a zig-zag pattern. The walk along it would be twice as long as just heading up straight, but eventually the rocks would turn so vertical it wouldn’t be possible to walk anywhere but along the road. There must’ve been some wardens out there keeping watch for mountain climbers who tried to sneak in without the proper documentation, as well.
 
Rico emerged from the forest and came to a place where the mountain proper began. The sheer vertical cliff arose before him and the road skirted by the side of it, eventually coming to a wooden platform and a long, steep staircase. Leaning against the railing there Rico paused to catch his breath and enjoy the view. From this high up he could actually see the sea, he could see the town below him, the cars and people busying about like ants, and he saw the forest he’d spent such a long time climbing through. It was much smaller than he’d felt while actually concealed within it. The trees looked rather shabby from up here, and the last ones were so close by he could climb on the railing and jump into one of the trees if he wanted to. Rico turned around to look up and felt a faint sense of vertigo, as if he was going to fall over from craning his neck up. The mountain wasn’t THAT high, but from this perspective it was quite intimidating. He sighed and began to climb the stairs. They creaked unsettlingly but seemed sturdy enough. They were so wide that if people coming from up above and down below happened to meet they could safely pass one another. Rico did not meet anyone here though. He reached the top of the staircase and found a sign saying that passing further than here was dangerous and the person passing would be solely responsible for what became of them. This was made clear in a number of languages. Rico shrugged. Who would come up all the way here and then not keep going? The answer to that question became clear when he turned a corner and saw that the gravel road continued along the edge of a sheer drop with no safety railing. It was still plenty wide enough, but it looked dangerous, way too dangerous. Rico could also see the road winding slowly upwards, snaking about and more staircases were to be seen, going higher and higher. There was no doubt that many people would be intimidated by such a sight, and Rico was no exception to this. He had no intention of backing down though, he had to get to his destination, so up he headed.
 
            ***
 
Night had already fallen and waxing half-moon had risen to join the stars. Rico was wearing a flashlight on his forehead as he walked. He knew he was quite near the top now, and with the darkness around him he had less of a chance of seeing down below and feeling faint at the drop that would await him if he fell. The 1700m rise must’ve required five or six times as much travel along horizontal lines, but he would be done soon, he’d have to be. There was no way he’d spend the night next to a sheer drop like that! Why was it that the staircases had been built with railings but the road didn’t have any?
Another staircase. But this one looked to be the last one. He couldn’t see any peaks up higher. Rico wiped the sweat off his brow for the umpteenth time and prepared to begin the last leg of his ascent, but then he heard someone talking.
“I don’t think it’s anything worth worrying about” the voice said, and another voice replied “But if we don’t do something, people could get…”
“They’ve never been known to prey on humans, you know that”
“Not for food, no, but don’t you think that…”
“Enough! What are the chances of anyone even running into one in a place that big? It’ll be fine! We’ll let the biologists ‘discover’ the ‘new species’ and that’ll be the end of it”
“If you say so”
“I don’t say so. We never had this conversation. We don’t know shit, got that?”
“Yeah”
“That’s right”
Then there was rustling as the people who had been talking walked away. Now what had all that been about? The people who talked had been up on a cliff that wasn’t visible from down where Rico was, and of course Rico’s light wasn’t visible to them either. They had no clue he’d heard them or that he was even down here. That was just as well, the two had obviously been hiding something. A new species? Some kind of predator? Fascinating stuff, truly. That sounded rather dangerous. He was too tired to deal with that kind of bullshit. As long as the guys up there didn’t know he’d overheard them it wouldn’t matter if he showed up and got some shut-eye indoors, right? Right.
 
Rico knocked on the door of the hut but entered without waiting for an answer. There weren’t too many rooms in it, just one closure for a toilet, one that was probably connected to the weather monitoring station outside and the generation that powered the computers, but other than that there was just one big – not all that big actually – room, with cots being occupied by sleeping park rangers. There were three seated at a table, an oil lamp lighting their game of cards. Rico headed over.
“I’m here to enter the valley” he muttered. His voice was a hoarse croak after the day’s trials.
“You came up in the dark?” one of the rangers asked, aghast.
“It wasn’t dark when I started” Rico waves his hand and dug around his bag for his paperwork.
“That’s got to be the dumbest thing…”
Rico dropped his papers on the table.
“You figure it out, I’m just going to…” he said, waving his arm again and walking over to near a wall. There were no empty cots so he just rolled his sleeping bag on the floor, put his bag under his head for a pillow and without bothering to undress or get in the bag he fell to sleep.
 
            ***
 
“Okay, rise and shine Mr. Blue” a voice said and cold water trickled on Rico’s face. He started awake and found that he felt terrible. Sleeping in dirty clothes without even taking his shoes off felt rather dumb now.
“Blue?” he asked when what had been said registered.
“You know, your condition…”
“Bah” Rico dismissed the joke and got up. The man who had woken him up had a pitcher of water in one hand and some papers in the other. The ranger noticed his eyes and handed over the papers, a red booklet at the top. It contained Rico’s picture (he had provided this during the initial process) and lots of stamps and details about his blood type, what vaccinations he had that were in effect and other things he didn’t want to think about in regards to his body. The red booklet was his passport into the valley.
“So everything, uhh, is fine?” he asked, yawning.
“Paperwork’s fine, we still need to check your bag. No cameras or toxins or seeds or eggs of foreign, invasive species, you know”
Rico remembered the conversation he’d overheard last night. This ranger’s voice was different from the two he’d heard, so there’d be no harm in prodding a little.
“You got a lot of trouble with that? Invasive species I mean”
The ranger was going through his underwear and socks expressionlessly. “Some” he said offhandedly. He confirmed it but didn’t want to confirm it, huh.
“Nothing dangerous I hope? I mean, to me, I mean…” Rico smoothly pried deeper into the matter with tact and subtlety.
“Nothing like that. Plenty of trouble to be had on that front as is”
“Yeah?”
“In all honesty things would probably go smoother this time of year if we had just women visiting” the ranger explainer, packing what he’d taken back into the bag.
“Everything checks out, you go on out whenever you feel ready”
“What’s that mean, this time of year? Women? What?”
“Hmm, well it’s springtime, everything is getting a little… frisky”
Rico couldn’t help but laugh at the idea of frisky bugs and plants, but the ranger’s face was completely serious.
“That, uhh, that going to be a problem?” Rico asked.
“It doesn’t have to be. Could be the cure to your, uhh…” the ranger’s eyes darted downwards and then back again and Rico picked up his bag, deciding he’d heard all he was going to hear.
“Thanking you kindly” he said and stepped out the hut at the opposite end than he’d entered. The light of the early morning showed him the peaks of mountains both distant and close-by, but more than that, he saw endless greenery. There were a few lakes and rivers that were blue but beyond that everything that the valley contained seemed to be various hues and shades of green, deep and dark and earthy being the most common trend. Down there he knew could also be found fields of flowers in every colour of the rainbow, but he couldn’t see those from up high. There it was now, the place where God had allowed His angels to descend upon the lowest forms of creation, into the plants that sprout from the Earth and into the bugs that creep and crawl upon it, and given them power to heal the aches of a man’s heart, to make merry among wonders unheard of anywhere else. It was unfortunate that the valley had been given a name so mundane when compared to the miracles worked therein.
“Bug Bowl here I come” Rico whispered as he began his descent along a path similar to the one he had used to climb up.
 
It took considerably less time to reach the tree line this time around, despite his aching legs. The walls of greenery closed in around him almost immediately, leaving sunlight to trickle down from among leaves. Undergrowth everywhere except on the path was thick to the point of seeming impenetrable, but Rico had no need to wander off the beaten path anyway. The road would take him to one of the lakes, and there would be a lodge for visitors to stay in with multiple branching paths heading deeper into different parts of The Bowl. His goal for today was to head to the lodge, take a dip in the lake to get rid of all sweat and dirt he’d accumulated on the way and then just take it easy for the time being. His eventual goal was some 17km away from the lodge and in circumstances like these it might take him up to 5 hours to make a trek like that. Rico munched on a muesli bar and felt a certain tranquillity set into him already. A place touched by God, guarded by angels. Sure it needed men to keep it protected from things like the invasive species he’d overheard the two rangers talk about last night, but that was just the duty Man had been given along with dominion over the Earth. All was as it should be, except the thing Rico had come here to fix, but that could wait until tomorrow. For now it was the wonders of creation all around him that took his attention, the vines and ferns and mushrooms and mosses growing on every surface and the crunching sound coming from… huh?
“Huh?” Rico stopped to listen. Someone was crunching; they were obviously eating something very loudly and sloppily. But where was that someone? He couldn’t see anyone on the road or to his sides…
“Hey, you got any chocolate on you?” a voice asked him.
“I’m sorry?”
“Chocolate man, chocolate! You got any?”
Rico, going on auto-pilot, found that he did in fact have a two-piece bar in his pocket.
“You could have half of this…” he muttered.
“Nice! Gimme!”
“But where…”
“Up here!”
Rico looked up and saw that there was a caterpillar the size of a five-year old perched on a thick branch. A caterpillar with the face of a young girl. She was holding a piece of some kind of fruit between her front legs and had fruit-juice all over her cheeks. She used antennae to slip her hair behind her ears and dropped her upper body down from the branch, hanging upside down. Rico handed the piece of candy to her in a stupor. He’d known there would be things like this here, but there were no photographs, only illustrations from the pre-industrial era. They had not prepared him.
“Thanking you kindly!” the caterpillar said pulled herself back up on the branch with limberness one did not expect from a creature that obviously spent most of its time eating.
Rico ended up staring at the bug-girl while it munched up his chocolate. He didn’t realize he’d handed all of it over to her until she finished eating it and threw the balled-up wrapper back at him.
“You clean that up. You can’t litter here you know, it’s a fragile ecosystem!” she said, puffing her chest proudly.
“Alright” Rico said, picking the wrapper up and stuffing it in his pocket.
“You got any more of that?” she asked him.
“Chocolate? No, just muesli. I kind of prefer that to be honest”
“Whatever it is, I’ll take it! I need to eat lots so I can grow up quick”
Rico wondered at how big a caterpillar like this could grow. So he asked.
“How big will you grow?”
The antennae twitched as she tried to tally it up in her head. She then stretched herself out thin to about five thirds of her normal length.
“Like this, I guess?”
That was rather big for a caterpillar. Though so was the sigh before him now.
“Of course once I’m a butterfly I’ll grow way bigger over time. This whole metamorphosis cycle seems like a waste of time to me. I’m ready to fly and mate now!”
Rico remembered the warning about friskiness.
“Can you mate though? Aren’t caterpillars immature?”
“I’m very well developed for my age” she replied, winking at him. There was something adorably charming in it, though it didn’t exactly set his loins aflame.
“Well good luck with that” Rico said and turned to leave.
“Hey hold up, gimme a ride!”
Before he could say anything she’d jumped off her branch and was perched on his back. She didn’t weigh much but felt very, very warm.
“I really don’t know if I should carry someone around in this heat” Rico protested, thanking God for not making him one of those people who were afraid of bugs.
“Oh come on, be chivalrous! A lady is asking you for a favour here!”
“I think a lady should go back to eating her fruits and vegetables” Rico argued.
“Please? I’ll pay with my body!”
“No thank you”
“Hey, don’t underestimate me! I’ve been practicing with bananas and I can give pretty good head, I think…”
“Well WE are not going to be finding out” Rico said, picking her up from under her armpits and lifting her off.
“Oh yes we are!”
And then Rico was reminded of the strength of caterpillars. Creatures that may appear to be blubbery and fat are in fact packed with muscle, and now he found that once she wrapped herself around his midriff he couldn’t remove her. Pushing into her body was met not with doughy softness but with soft steel, unyielding muscles.
“Mmhmm, I’m a real Amazon” she said, twiddling with his pants.
“You can’t be serious about this” Rico whined.
“Dead serious! Now you be quiet or I’ll call my friends over too!”
Rico considered this.
“Other caterpillars?”
“Them too”
That was telling. How many bugs were there in a forest, any patch of forest? Many. There wasn’t all that much reason to fight back anyway, wasn’t this kind of what he’d come here for? Because he couldn’t…
“These zippers are just plain inconvenient!” the bug complained.
“Let me…” Rico offered and unzipped his pants. “There’s a hole in my boxers that you can…”
“Yeah, I see it…”
 
While the two were getting it on right on the road, someone stalked up to the branch the caterpillar had been on and snatched the half-eaten fruit. That someone remained there, watching the performance while eating without a sound.