Chelonisia

"INTRUDER!!! INTRUDER!!!!! ATTACK!!!!

"Why? What? Why do these things always happen to me? I come in peace, can't you see I have a child with me."

The mysterious people stop and the one who seemed to be commanding them looked closely at Delilah; all of them gather in a large crowd and start murmuring. They led out a huge gasp and the commander barges towards me while screaming,

"MUSUME!!!!!!"

"Hey! At least don't touch the child let's talk, we can compromise!"

I run as fast as my legs could handle, but still, the tribesman's athleticism overwhelmed myself from which he was able to snatch Delilah right out of my back; this ruckus caused her to rise and shine with a view I didn't want her to see.....

"HOLD HIM TIGHT!"

There I was, strapped all over with tough nylon rope, which was drenched in flammable liquids, ready to become victimised by 'cannibalism' as they joyously place me above a bonfire, stuck to a stick, in short, 'they were roasting me'.

"Hey! Stop, ugh, let go of me you stink, he's a friend, a companion....what was the word....A JOGIME, YES! He's a jogime."

The tribesmen spoke their own language and seemed like Delilah knew some words that were enough to free me, and an awkward situation arose....

"Tea! would you like some tea? It is all organic as we grow our own tea plants and we freshly process it all for the tourists pleasure, we first remove the moisture from the freshly grown tea leaves to wither them, this is done by laying them out on troughs that are above the mesh made from the steel, then when it is done we take the bendy leaves and roll them by the hand, this makes them very thin and ready for the next step, now those tea leaves are left again on big troughs, what will happen is that the tea leaves will be changing their color; if you wanting a tea which is lighter in taste, you will wait for the color to only turn lightish brown, but if you wanting a tea that is richer in taste, you will wait for it to being very darkish brown in color. Today we will serve you the dark tea, rich in flavor eh!? After it is colored it is left to dry, then we crush it in the mortar with the pestle, and then we mix it with hot water, and it is read to serve. What do you say?"

"Yes...I.....will have that...please...."

What other choice did I have? The poeple who were trying to eat me 5 minutes ago were now giving me hospitality. "Hmph! I bet you're confused young one..."

Oh, here we go again, "What do you want Delilah?"

"It is again 'I' who has saved you, you owe one twice now. You must be saying: 'THEY WERE TRYING TO EAT ME, WHAT IS THIS'"

"How did yo-"

"You are misunderstood, you were defintiely going to be served on a plate, but not for the tribesmen, for something far majestic, something imposing and statuesque, THE GREAT DEITY OF CHELONISIA. It's what this whole city, it's people, it's wonders stand upon, a giant turtle, don't call it that though or they will actually eat you, just refer to it as the great lord. The creature is a mass of radiation, hence it's abnormal size, it grants blessings, that's how the tribesemen have survived to this day."

Humans weren't the only thing radiation could effect, I don't know why I didn't take that to account, this only diversifies the research I have to do and steps I have to take for the cure. After some wait, my tea arrived, Delilah and I sat down to have a talk, 'Where to next?' was our biggest concern. It was a hurry, Delilah was away from home and she had not informed any of her parents, she even lied her way into convincing Jay the pilot to use the flying machine, we can't stay here any longer as her family and Jay would grow sceptical, we probably can't use the flying machine as Jay won't fall to our lies no more, and Delilah doesn't wants go home, no matter what I say, it was quite a dilemma.....

"Hey! Have you forgotten what we came here for, quit sipping tea and come on, quick!"

Delilah snatched my cup from me then flung me up and took me with her, we climed hills, saw the entire tea field, exchanged eye contact with Jay, and we still kept going.

"Hey! Where are you taking me, and what do you mean 'I have forgotten the purpose', of course I remember, we're here for a map..."

And that was exactly where she took me, from the outside it looked like a barren, abandonded, isolated temple inundated with moss, but in the inside, there it was, a megalithic map, with an inordinate size, carved onto stone, under it were various stone tablets with text I couldn't understand on it. The inside of the temple was luminously lit with candles that had a soothing pungent aroma, there was also something unnerving about it, the fact that I was hearing tremors around the place, I couldn't discern why that was so, howbeit at the time the focus was the map and the map only, that thing's height surpassed that of the monuments that talk to the clouds which I met in See Green City; observing through it, the current state of the world was clearly evident, it wasn't the same as I had left it, the Earth's lithosphere had encountered some changes, a theory around my time proposed of how centuries ago in the Permian period, which was the last period of the Paleozoic era, all the continents of the Earth were set in one place as one single piece of mass called Pangea, followed by the Triassic period where it divided to Laurasia and Gondwana, later in the Jurrasic periods and the Cretaceous periods, the land further divided, this division was explained by the shifting of the tectonic plates under the Earth's crust, due to the convection current of hot magma rising up from the mantle and then colling to go down again, it causes the plates in the mid-ocean ridges to push down on eachother, the older and more dense rock slides down under the less dense rock and following this, at subduction zones the more dense tectonic plate sink and subduct under the less dense tectonic plates, thus creating the separation. From what could be observed from this stone carved map, the 7 continents that I was so familiar with had now disposed into 9, specifically, the continent before known as Asia had bifurcated and both of its new regions had a new name which I requested Delilah to dictate to me to which her response was, "Hm, why do you want me to do that, can't you just read?"

"I.....Actually.....the thing is....recently, it's difficult to put to words but somehow, because of something that occured, I now have no reclamation of my past before a month or so......."

My stuttered response certainly bewildered the young girl but she still obliged to help and began her description, "The region that we are standing on at the moment is called Salvasia, the one neighboring it is known as Hermesia. On the South East side, that island is known as Oceanica, West of Oceanica covering the South side of the world is Atlantica. On the left of Salvasia is Europea, beneath both of them and above Atlantica stands Africa. On the complete West side of the map are two economic and political behemoths, North America and South America, I expect you to know which one's North and which ones South.......right.......Anyways, that's that, hope this world tour can grow fruitful results."

No....there was one last problem, the final nail in the coffin.

"Delilah?"

"Yes, Robby?"

"Did you forget, that the map, needed to be portable....."

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