Neil

I’m not too proud to admit that I panicked immediately after seeing the box appear in front of me. If it weren’t for the fact that I had spent the last 6 hours hiking on a rough trail and then seeing a dinosaur flying in front of me I probably would have jumped six feet in the air screaming.

As the situation stood, I just fell back landing hard on my ass staring in open mouthed astonishment at the words and box that hung in the air in front of me, not even really reading them, just staring. After several minutes of looking at it I reached out tentatively with my right hand and tried to touch the box but my fingers passed through it as if it wasn’t there. Pulling my hand back I held it to my chest with my left hand as if it had just been burned I started reading the text.

Air Jack

A flying lizard native to the Alatross Islands. By using air magic and their large wingspan they are able to fly great distances and carry heavy burdens.

Looking at the shrinking form of the Air Jack I began to take a closer look at everything around me.

The trees weren’t pine, spruce or fir, in fact I couldn’t see a single evergreen tree anywhere around me or in the valley. Everything looked leafier or like a palm tree than the usual evergreen trees I was used to seeing. The weather was uncomfortably hot and humid, not so strange this time of year especially the humidity but it was far hotter than it had been for the last few weeks and the weather hadn’t been calling for anything this warm for the next few weeks. The sun was even far lower in the horizon than it should be, it looked like sundown was in a few hours rather than just being 1 in the afternoon.

If the box was right then I was somewhere called the Alatross Islands, and while he had no idea where that was it was likely that rescue helicopters wouldn’t either. When I got to the part of the description that mentioned air magic I stopped reading again.

This was all too much for me, swiping at the window again trying to get it to go away this time I managed it and the damn thing disappeared. I noted in the back of my mind that intent seemed to matter at least a little, touching it did nothing it was only when I thought of what I wanted to happen that something did happen.

Looking at the sun slowly sinking towards the horizon I walked back to my pack, opened it and started to take things out. The sun was low enough that I didn’t think I would be able to make it to a better spot to spend the night before it was completely dark so I might as well try to set up as much of a camp as I could now while there was still sunlight.

Setting up my two-man tent only took me a few minutes and getting my sleeping bag set up was just a matter of taking it out of the garbage bag I stored it in and laying it out in my tent. It at least seemed to be dry, not that I would even need the thing in this heat, it felt almost tropical. Quickly looking through most of my clothes it seemed like most of them were dry thanks to the garbage bags I kept them in. The few things that were wet including the clothes I was wearing should be fine and my pack itself which was soaked I hung up outside my tent to get the last of the daylight, I would move it inside my tent before going to sleep tonight.

Looking at the horizon I guessed about 20 minutes left of useful daylight, the sun sinking slowly towards the mountain range that dominated the view in front of me. Wanting to save my batteries for as long as I could I decided I wouldn’t use my flashlight tonight. My camp was just about set up I just had to decide what to do about my food. Normally I would never leave food in my tent with me, too much risk of animals coming to take a look. But I also didn’t want to leave my only food out on a cliff overnight, what if something came for it? or the wind knocked it over the edge? This was the only food I had and I had no idea where I might be able to find more.

Cursing softly to myself I would just have to chance it, hopefully there wouldn’t be any animals nearby, and if one did investigate, I could just throw my food at it and hope for the best.

With the last slivers of sunlight disappearing I didn’t want to try and cook anything, not that I had too much of an appetite anyways. So, trail mix, some jerky and water was my dinner. Not much of a meal but it would do for one night. Sitting outside my tent I was pleasantly surprised that there didn’t seem to be any insects that were interested in me, but the best part of the night was coming up.

With the sundown I could see the stars come out, at first just a few and then before I knew it the entire sky was lit up with countless lights and even dark purple and blue swirls of what I thought must be nebula in the night sky. As I stared at the stars I saw the moon rise into the sky, it was a deep blue colour that took my breath away and before I knew it a second moon was following it this one a blood red color. If I had needed any more proof I wasn’t on earth anymore this was it. As I sat and stared at the night sky the mountain around me and the forest below me slowly came alive with the sounds of nature. Creatures asleep until now were calling out for mates or looking for food. It was an incredible experience that I wouldn’t have traded for anything.

This was why I went camping, I couldn’t stand larger cities, and while I loved modern conveniences, I really didn’t mind foregoing them to walk through nature and just see the few parts of the world that civilization hadn’t yet touched. Unfortunately, even in the deepest parts of the Rockies there was still signs of people, bits of garbage that had been left behind, or broken equipment people didn’t want to carry off the trail.

It always been a dream of mine to chart a course through unknown lands, see something no one had ever seen before. It was the early explorers of the world I was jealous of, Magellen, Marco Polo and now this was my chance.

Despite the panic I had been feeling in the back of my mind since pushing through those trees into the sunlight all I could feel now was wonder, awe and excitement. Until I was struck by an errant thought, had I just gotten so lost I wound up on a different planet? Laughing at the thought I couldn’t help but smile, before my thoughts turned more sober.

Could I ever get home?

Did I even want to go home?

As much as I always told myself I was in the Rocky Mountains because I loved the outdoors and camping the cold truth was that I had nowhere else to go. My parents had kicked me out of the house the minute I turned 18. With nothing to my name but a few hundred dollars, a high school education, and a bag with all of my worldly possessions in it I hadn’t had a lot of options. I had however read on a message board about how easy it was to get a job in Banff in the summer, how most companies supplied you with staff accommodation that was cheap and the pay was at least livable if not great. With no other options I got on a bus and 3 days later walked into a hotel that gave me a job and a place to live.

Unfortunately, that job was cleaning toilets, and that place to live was a shared room with a guy named Grant. My job sucked, my roommate was a disgusting slob and my coworkers usually just drank away all of their money. Since I didn’t drink, I didn’t get to know them too well, not that it mattered. Once summer was over most of them left to go to school or back home, so any friendships I made usually only lasted 4 or 5 months before I found myself alone again.

That sense of exploration I got from camping and hiking was one of the few true feelings of joy I really got to experience.

As I looked up at the sky I made a decision, even if I was offered a way back I wouldn’t take it. Hopefully people back in Banff wouldn’t panic or mourn too much when I never came back. My picture would be in the paper for a few weeks, and search parties would be sent out, a grim reminder of the dangers of the back country, but in a few weeks the world would move on and forget about me.

I didn’t think I had stayed like that for too long but before I knew it the sun was rising and I hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep let alone even bothering to get into my tent.

Well, if I wasn’t on Earth then waiting here for a rescue was no longer an option, fortunately I had spent the night thinking of a new plan.

Step one find a source of water.

Step two find a source of food.

Step three explore this area, try to find signs of civilization or people.

That was it. That was what I had spent the entire night deciding. Not exactly a detailed plan I know but I really had no idea what was on this world. Were there people? Cities? If there were people were, they human?

For all I knew I was a half day walk from civilization, or I was on a far-flung corner of this world thousands of miles from anyone else. So for now just survive and see who or what I could find.

Picking up my canteen I finished all of the water in it before putting it down. With the heat I was drinking a lot more water than I thought I would and I only had one other canteen before I ran out.

Looking down the mountain there was a river there but with no way to make it down the mountain I would have to try my luck on the trail I found myself on. With practiced ease I cleaned up my camp, packed everything away and before long I was double checking that I hadn’t forgotten anything before picking a direction and walking.

With the open air on my right and the mountain on my left I started my adventure.

I had been walking for about an hour making good time in going around the mountain when I saw the first signs of civilization, or what at least had been a civilization. I had long ago thought that I was walking along a manmade path. It was too level and too wide to be natural so when on my left the sheer cliff stopped and was instead replaced by a much less vertical slope I took note. When I saw what unmistakably long abandoned and cracked stairs leading straight up the mountain towards the peek I thought about if I wanted to follow them or not.

As water was on my mind, I thought about turning around and heading the other direction which hopefully led down the mountain when I heard it, the sound of running water. Standing a little too close to the edge for comfort I saw it, the spray of a waterfall going down the mountain. That question answered I started up the stairs.

The stairs were not as easy walking as I would have liked. They were shallower than I was used to and each step was a different size than the one before it, not a huge difference but enough that I caught my foot a few times and fell on my face more than once. Still, I was used to hiking up mountain trails so a poorly made staircase didn’t slow me down too much. When I was halfway up the steps and the sun was high in the sky and my shirt drenched from sweat, I stopped to have a drink from my second water bottle. I looked over to the waterfall, something about it was bothering me but I couldn’t figure out what.

Turning to my right I looked at the range behind me and their snow-covered tops. Then looking around the mountain beside me at the scraggly clumps of moss, grass and occasional gnarled tree holding tight to the mountain side. Those mountains had runoff from the snow feeding the waterfall, but this mountain was half the size and had no snow. So where was the water from the waterfall coming from?

If I hadn’t been so tired and thirsty I probably would have questioned it more, but I hadn’t factored in the heat when I thought about my supplies this morning and I was almost out of water. It didn’t really matter where it was coming from, all that mattered was that it was water.

Starting my trek again I walked for another half an hour until I was finally cresting the top of the stairs. By the condition of the stairs I thought that wherever I was going would be long abandoned and I was right.

I was standing on a terraced plateau that reminded me of pictures of Machu Picchu that I had seen. I was in the middle with the terraces going down the mountain on my left, a large flat surface in front of me and terraces going up the mountain on my right.

On my left I saw a surprisingly intact stone wall that made up several small building, and rooms. Everything lacked rooves so from my vantage point I could see in those little square rooms at least. In front of me was a large flat area that may have at one point been a garden or perhaps a square, but time had turned it into a small overgrown forest. Looking at it I could see small fruit trees, bushes and a mire of trees. God I hoped the jungle in the valley wasn’t like that, past the small jungle in front of me were several free standing buildings. Two of them were two stories tall and the final one in the middle was three stories tall. On my right were stairs leading up towards the sound of running water, but with the terraces going up I couldn’t see past the walls.

My thirst overwhelming my desire to explore I started up the stairs, at the first landing I saw a small corridor lined by two walls with small doorways in them, but as the sound of water wasn’t coming from that direction I ignored them. Continuing up the stairs the sound of rushing water became louder and louder. Finally cresting the stairs I saw it.

Water was erupting out of a hole in the air and landing in a small ceremonial stone pool where some of it stayed but most of it simply ran out the far end and over the mountain.