Uncharted

III

From the current perspective of Dan Williams

A.D. 2017
6.2 million Badland Years later
Oklahoma, U.S.A
:0(</days>):18(</hours>):21(</minutes>):

Hello. Dan here again.
Dan Williams...

You know - I'm the creepy dude who was speaking about the creepy myth with the other creepy dude in the creepy forest.
Yep? Ok.
My father explained the myth to me only six months ago, telling me how the Man left his home on a pilgrimage and how he found the Shining Forest which was the only place protected from the Badlands. He told me about how time changed there too, and how the Man fell asleep for fifty years when he first saw the forest. Fifty years.

It's all a crazy myth really, but my dad takes it so seriously. On that night, he sat me down outside the house, on the porch couch. We both looked into the distance for a few moments, and appreciated the vast area of land that had been given in sympathy of the loss my mother.
After Mom had left for Chicago permanently, a rich relative that we barely knew granted us an entire block of land next to the highway. So we moved onto the 53 acres of farm, and moved into the old pioneers cottage there, after renovating it inside out. The money for the renovation also came from the relative I didn't know.
I never asked Dad about him.

While I sat next to my father, enjoying the small moments of silence, a small white dove flew straight between the pillars of our verandah: a rare, beautiful sight. It was not normal for a white dove to fly past our house, or our states, for that matter.
But as if it were some kind of signal, Dad turned around and looked me in the eyes.
He said exactly this, "Son, can you hear me out for a second?... I have something important to tell you, and you need to remember it to the fullest extent, until it's the last thing you remember. Also: you can not tell anyone else about this. Just me and you right?"
I sat back a bit and lent away from my father's face. Covering up the classic father to son moment-of-awkwardness, I turned my head back towards the horizon, as if I was thinking about something distant. Then I said, "Sure."
I turned around. My father was still looking at me with that old-timers gaze that you couldn't have an argument with, the one that said that eye contact and good social communication was way better than sticking in headphones on a bus.
He looked at me, more intently, probably just to check that my mind wasn't wandering off into the distance, past the gnarled deciduous trees on the horizon of our paddock and traveling through the lush grass on the other side of the bridge...
He seemed to be making a big deal out of this....
This... I dunno.
But then he spoke up.
"Listen from now on!" He jolted out these four words, yet not nastily but in a gentle way, if that's possible. It got my attention. He continued.
"Now as looney and far off this may sound, you need to know that this is one hundred percent true..." He paused, and showed a look of contemplation, "and one hundred percent confidential. You hear me?!" He did his gentle-harsh voice again. It was obvious that he was trying to get a point across... Nicely, but urgently.
Hmm, when I start to think about it, I think he was trying to tell me this before a deadline. Maybe he didn't have much time to do whatever he needed to do. For me, I don't even think time matters. Time sucks.
Anyway...
Now it was his turn to gaze out to the horizon and recall the ancient myth: "Once upon a time, there was a man. The Man."

From the perspective of
Remi Vango,
on t4he same evening

Western Nepal
0:19:46

From the top of Lian Yu, I can see the entire world.
When I look into the distance, onto the horizon, I feel as if I can see the curvature shape of the Earth. Whenever I come up here to watch the sunrise, I get reminded of how small I am compared the the Earth.
I watch the sun rise as I'm perched with my back against a rock: not just a rock, but the highest rock on the mountain itself. I am 8,500 feet above my tribal community, and you can hear nothing.
My thoughts carry me away. I start to think about how small the Earth is, and how it has been conquered by humans at every far corner, and how there are still so much more places for me to explore, following in the footsteps of famous pioneers.
All earthly things can be conquered by man, including time.

Now I start to wonder if anyone else know the myth that I know so well.
Probably not. As I said, my tribe is looney.

There is nobody in the world that would give a shit about this anyway.
I descend.