Old Man's Tales

We walk up to the Tribe Elder. He has a look of fear on his face. He is holding out his hands in front of him like he is trying to stop us from going up the mountain any further. The Tribe Elder is concerned about us going up to the mountain to dig for fossils. He pleadingly tells me;

"Do not trespass on this land any further. This land has a buried evil that you do not know exists. This evil has been hidden in the earth so that people like you would not be able to awaken it."

Dismissingly I tell him;

"You speak English well, so let me tell you this. I am going to explain to you what is going to happen here today. I have not taken a plane and flown for nine hours straight, got in a boat for another three hours rowing up a river, and hiked for two days through a jungle to get here and listen to you telling me to go back.

I have personally invested millions of dollars. To get the machines up in these mountains, eight months of arrangements, and hiring professional people to work on this site. We have all the paperwork from the local government, giving us explicit authorization to be here, now get out of my way. I have a mountain to climb."

The Tribe Elder's warrior walks up to me with anger on his face. It looks like he is going to take my head off with his machete. The Tribe Elder stops him and tells him something in his native language, and the warrior backs off from me. The Tribe Elder tells me;

"I understand that you have the westerner ways that tell you that you can be here. I am telling you that your world is not ready to deal with the evil that will awake up here. So, this is a warning to you. Do not continue this attempt to dig up this evil. Because when this evil awakens, you can not put it back to sleep."

All I hear this Tribe Elder tells me is bla bla bla bla. With a feeling of disgust coming out from my being, I tell the Tribe Elder;

"Look, I have asked you to step aside. Are you going to step aside? Or must we force you to step aside?"

My security takes out his gun and holds it by his side. The Tribe Elder looks at the security's gun in his hand, then looks to me and says;

"Typical westerner thinking, trying to solve all problems by using force."

The Tribe Elder moves out of the path and says;

"Here you go. But just one more question, have you asked yourself, why did the locals not come with you?"

"Yes, I did. It's because people believe in old man's tales."

"No. It's because the locals know the truth of the evil that is on this mountain and that it has been hidden here for hundreds of years from foreigners' eyes."

We start to walk past him and up the path that leads to the top of the mountain. The Tribe Elder says;

"You have been warned. The world that you are living in is not ready for this evil to come alive again."

I quickly turn to look at him. I will take his warning and shove it so far up his ass that he will have to dig it up himself. I am going to tell this Tribe Elder what I think of his forewarning. As I turn, these feelings of disgust and anger quickly change to utter confusion. I look around to tell him;

"If you say that one more-"

I get confused while searching for him and ask;

"Hey, where did the Tribe Elder go?"

Everyone looks around them, searching for the two. Someone in the group at the back says;

"That can not be. Where is the Tribe Elder? He has disappeared into thin air."

The security guard walks up to me and says;

"Sir, we have to keep on moving. We need to get to the site before nightfall. We do not want to be out in the wilderness when night arrives."

"Okay, you are right. Let's keep on moving, everyone."

I stand for a few more seconds, looking around to see if I can find the Tribe Elder, but he vanished. I get back unto the path walking up the mountain. After a few hours have passed. The security guard says;

"Let us take a quick ten-minute break, everyone. Get something to eat and drink, but we need to continue moving forward."

Some people in the group start talking to one another. They say;

"Ten minutes, what should we do with ten minutes of rest?"

The security guard overhears what they are saying and gets angry at all the murmuring, and tells them;

"Those that want to choose to take a longer break than ten minutes, they take the risk of being eaten by mountain lions, bears, or even tigers...please feel free to take an extra few minutes to rest. Those that want to listen and live, in eight minutes we need to keep on moving as quickly as we can, it is getting late, and we still need to travel a large distance."

I find a log to sit on to take a rest. I take a sip of water overlooking the jungle canopy with a river running through it and the start of sunset over the hills. Doctor Smith walks towards me. I see she is coming this way and move to make some space for her to sit next to me. She sits down and says;

"Just how beautiful is this, Dr. Andrews?"

"I totally agree with you, Dr. Smith."

"Aren't you excited about the new dig site Dr. Andrews?"

"Well, we have not made any discoveries yet. But I am happy to get the opportunity to search for new fossils on this mountain. And, if I wasn't excited, Dr. Smith, I would not have spent all this money to come here to dig."

"How did you find this mountain, Dr. Andrews."

"Well, we have tried for years to gain access to this mountain to look for fossils. But the locals have blocked us from coming here. I personally think that with the new government that got voted in, they don't care as much as the old one did. They only care how green your money is and how many you can stack on top of each other."

The security guard stands up and says;

"Okay. Everyone, start to pack up your stuff. We will be leaving in two minutes."

I put back my canteen into my backpack. I look at Dr. Smith, I see on her leg, is one of the most sizable spiders in the area. I tell her softly;

"Look at me in my eyes, and please do not move."

I extend my arm and touch her leg with my hand. The spider walks onto my hand. Once the spider is on my hand, I slowly start to take my hand off her leg and put my hand on the ground until the spider walks off slowly by itself. Dr. Smith looks surprised at me and says;

"Ew, that was disgusting."

I smile at Dr. Smith and say;

"You are lucky. That was a small one. The spiders get even bigger the higher you go on the mountain. Luckily they are not poisonous, but if they bite you, you will feel the pain for a few days."

The security guard says;

"Now that we have had a lesson for today. Let's keep on moving, everyone. We have about an hour left of hiking till we arrive at the site."

Everyone moans that we still have a long way to walk until we get there. I decided to try and build the morale of the group as we are walking;

"Do not be like that everyone, we might still have one hour left to hike. Remember why you decided to come here."

As we get to the peak of the summit, the security stands still and takes out his binoculars. He starts looking around. I walk up to him and ask;

"How far are we from the site, or are we lost?"

He points to the other mountain in the distance and says;

"We have to go down the side of this mountain that we are on now. Now, do you see the mountain on the other side?"

"Yes."

"If we get there, then ask me again how far are we from the dig site."

"What? We will never cover that distance before nightfall."

"I know, we wasted a lot of time. But the most troubling thing is the weather. It is starting to build into a bigger storm. See those clouds that are coming in. You can feel that the wind has shifted from eastern to a north-west."

"Okay, what does that mean?"

"The local government warned us about the weather patterns in this region. It can go from sunny with a light breeze in the air. To all hell opening up in just a few minutes."

He takes out the map and says;

"Now, we are about here...and need to get to here. So, we have two routes before us. The first one is this one. It is the fastest path between the two. It will get us to our destination quicker, but it is the riskier path.

If the weather starts coming in like it is looking like it will. It will make it almost impossible for us to get to the dig site safely. If we take the other path, we will be walking the longer route, but we will all get there safely, but we will run the risk of being eaten by the wildlife."

I look at him concerned and ask;

"And how much longer will the second path be?"

"About three hours, sir. Five if the weather comes into play."