On both sides of the river, the landscape was now gradually changing again. Boulders with plenty of grass in between them were replacing most of the trees. The bank on each side was also beginning to slope higher and steeper. In some places it rose as much as five feet. It seemed that the river had eaten the rock over the ages and had carved its way through the bedrock.
Still the abundance of animal life was surprising. Many groups - and so many different kinds - of grass eaters could be seen that after a while, Vincent finally gave up in his attempt to try to identify some of them. A couple of hours later they were slowly moving through a region where there were no trees at all on both side of the river. Only boulders and short grass was covering the land now.
They agreed to stop as soon as they could find a place to anchor the raft around a rock near the shore. There was no way that they could pull the raft partly up the bank since it now consisted of rocks that stood a couple of feet above the level of the water of the river
Soon the sun was below the horizon and it became urgent that they stopped for the night. As soon as they found the right place to anchor the raft, Vincent tied it to a rock then he got a fire going before it became too dark. Of course he knew that the bright flame from his fire in the darkness of the night could be a beacon for the predators. But on the other hand, the fact that there were no trees anywhere around them and that the grass was relatively short, met that anything getting too close to their camp fire could be detected relatively easily also.
The instant that the meat was cocked and the coffee was hot, they put out the fire and ate in the darkness. That night they slept on the raft since it was safer. They placed their sleeping bags close to one another - they each had their own sleeping bag now - but before falling asleep, Vincent did make love to Nika. He did it with much eagerness and with a passion that he never though he still had.
While making love to her that night, he was extremely shocked to discover her complete lack of inhibition while taking her pleasure from his cock. He had had sex with at least a dozen different women up to now, but Nika was in a category of her own. Nothing was out of bound to her and she was willing to do anything he would propose to her. The fact that he was able to continuously have sex with her for well over an hour did surprised him since his body was showing a level of virility the he never thought possible.
This was the first clue that he detected which pointed to the fact that Nika's world was having an effect on his body.
The following morning, he felt extremely good and he was glad to be alive, he had this "joie de vivre" that he hadn't experience in years. As a matter of fact, he hadn't felt like this since he had been in his twenties. His back was no longer hurting - not a day had gone by in the last few years without his experiencing some kind of back pain - and even his stomach ulcer was no longer bothering him.
He began to suspect that something was happening to him. Later that morning, as he was checking the raft so as to see if the logs were still secured together, he saw his reflection in the calm water. He was shocked to see that new hairs were growing well in front of his receding hairline. Even the scar that he had on the bridge of his nose, a scar that he had lived with since he was a teen, was almost gone and he definitely looked younger.
After washing themselves in the river they ate breakfast then they got all their things onto the raft and they let the river carry them downstream once again. The river continued in a general southwest direction and the further they went, the greater were the changes in the landscape. Very far in the distance, to their right, they could now see a low range of mountains. It could have been a part of the same range of mountain of which the tall peak where the cave containing the arch was, but he had no way to be sure of that.
Both banks were still much higher than the level of the river and everywhere they looked they saw grass covered plains where stags with towering racks of antlers were grazing. In other places, there were hundreds of deer or deer- related animals with their skittering fawns on long thin legs, and all were eating peacefully. On another part of the plains, on the left bank, he noticed a group of antelope-like grass eaters along with woolly looking bison-like creatures, each group being very near one another. But from their position on the river, they also saw a pack of dire wolf and other predators that he couldn't identify. All were roaming on the edge of the herds while trying to hide in the taller grass.
But what actually struck Vincent most of all was the tall mammoths. They were of all ages and sizes; some were no more than a few weeks old. The older ones had reddish brown thick woolly fur while the very young tended toward the yellow or gold. There could be no mistake about their being mammoths, their thick trunk and long circular tusks were proof enough of that. Numerous birds were following them and some could be seen actually resting on their backs. A few of the great woolly beasts could be seen in the river ahead and as they went by, barely a few hundred feet from the closest of the noble animals. The passage of the raft near them didn't warrant more than a glance from one or two to the great beasts.
A thought then occurred to Vincent, it there were mammoths in this world, then there was no reason that there shouldn't be saber-tooth tigers also since on Earth they were living in the same era. It was probably a saber-tooth tiger that Nika had seen roaming near the field when she had been held prisoner.
Over their heads could be seen circling, hawks, eagles, and great condors. All of them much larger than he could have imagined. He knew that hunters and also biological experts from Earth would give plenty to be allowed into this place to hunt or to study the wild life.
