Guyana

Guyana

By: Jacob Fairbairn

Chapter 1 El Dorado In 1595, a man named Sir Walter Raleigh was sent on an expedition by the English queen, Queen Elizabeth I. Raleigh’s mission was to search for a city named El Dorado. This city was the legendary city of gold. Raleigh searched for many years in a South American country called Guyana. After these many years, he returned home in England… with no gold. Disappointment struck the man as he had failed his important mission. Mitchell Bome looked up after reading a short summarization of a man named Sir Walter Raleigh. Mitchell had been looking forward to this day for many years. Today, February 26, 2013, was the day he was going to journey across the Atlantic Ocean from his home in Detroit, Michigan to Guyana. There he would soon search for El Dorado, the legendary city of gold, in hopes of proving everyone wrong who laughed at Raleigh for his “pointless journey.” Mitchell stood tall as he looked out to the ocean from his boat, putting the book back into his jacket. He pulled out some hybrid-binoculars that use satellite readings to show geographical features like mountain, river, and city names. The ocean came up as “Atlantic” (as it obviously had for hours) and he was just in range of South America that he could now see the words “South America” and just below it, “Guyana Shield.” The Guyana Shield, Mitchell knew, was basically the land making up northern Brazil, Suriname, the French Guiana, and of course: Guyana. Guyana, Mitchell thought, is a country where people today speak English. There are about 720,000 people who live there.

Over a thousand year ago, people today known as Amerindians (or American Indians) roamed this country. The word “Guyana,” means “Land of Waters,” in the Amerindian language. “There it is!” Mitchell was cut off from his thoughts as Zach Fore, one of his teams’ members, came out to where Mitchell was. He was pointing at a port in South America. He quickly grabbed the hybrid-binoculars and looked in to see the words “Guyana” and (in smaller print) “Georgetown,” the capital of Guyana. Gary Jawnsin, Mitchell’s boss, sent Mitchell on this mission along with his team to search for what was dropped after Sir Walter Raleigh failed. Maybe, Mitchell thought again, we can find this city of gold and make a mark in history that will impact the whole world! After about half an hour of clearing the boat for dock, the team got out, and began there search. Gary had only sent three people on this journey. Mitchell was wondering why he had only sent Stewart Tarhp, Zach, and himself. Having almost no heading, the team set out on their journey… of course, after eating lunch (since it was so late). The team explored Georgetown before they began their mission. It was a large community without much technology, because it was so poor, but still had civilized people who spoke English. “Okay, you remember what to do?” Mitchell asked his team taking pride in his awesome leadership. “We are to search the capital for any information on El Dorado including rumors, myths, or legends,” Zach and Stewart said together at once. “Good, you two travel down that road,” Mitchell commanded pointing westward, “and I’ll travel down this one. Meet me back here at the port in one hour with whatever you’ve found…. Oh, and Stewart,” he added. “Yes,” Stewart replied. “Buy something nice for yourself,” Mitchell said as he threw a coin to him. Zach and Stewart ran off, leaving Mitchell alone at the port ready to go and find what he could.

He turned from where they left and looked at the direction he was to go. It was a large town with quite a lot of people trading at outdoor markets, playing around on the streets, and some carrying food to their homes (which were barely more than huts). He set off to one of the outdoor markets thinking that if there were legends of any kind, store owners might know a lot. Mitchell looked at the stores and decided to go to one selling beads and necklaces supposedly from the 19th century. Mitchell walked up to the owner and said, “Would you happen to know anything about El Dor-” “SSHHHHhhh!” The owner instantly interrupted. “Ya wanna set up a mob in this here town? We don’t speak of that here… alien.” “Is there any way you could tell me about it, though? Please, sir, I need any information you have.” Mitchell said at the angry man. “Well… I guess if ya paid abou-” Not caring how much money the man was about to ask for, Mitchell set down a small bag full of coins. They clashed together and the man looked down and said, “Come here.” Mitchell followed him around the corner after he pocketed the money, obviously not caring that he left his shop. He quickly glanced around to make sure no one was there and then looked at Mitchell. He spoke in a low voice, saying this as if he had said it 26,000 times before, “I’ve heard a legend’r two about this place. We here call it…” the man bent in closer and whispered, “Panzperniam.” “Panzper-?” “SSSHHHHHhhhh! Hold yer tongue, boy! Anyways, yes. It’s an Amerindian word meaning ‘it comes from above.’ The Amerindians praised… it… as a god. Supposedly, it was one of purity, life, love, and happiness. It was the god of water. It watched over the ancient villages of Guyana and kept peace in the land. “Death came to the Amerindians as, according to legend, the god of night, wind, suffering, and death came upon them. It was

the god of fire. The god’s name was,” he leaned closer and whispered again, “Desmodontidae.” Mitchell was about to repeat the word again, but stopped himself and slowly closed his mouth. “Desmodontidae and Panzperniam fought an epic battle. Villages were drowned under water, forests were consumed in fire. Thousands of people died: men, wives, and even their young ones… all dead. “But in the end, again according to legend, Panzperniam won and sent Desmodontidae to the underworld, never again to bring death to the world. Panzperniam then left and hid entering in a dormant stage apparently surrounded by a figure resembling an ‘8,’ yet again, according to legend…. But I don’t believe in none of them stories. Thanks for the money,” he finished off with, but Mitchell had already run back to the port, noticing the time. He got there and saw Zach and Stewart sitting on the edge of the boat. They jumped off onto the deck and walked onto land. “We got nothin’ good,” Zach said, “but Stewart bought a Guyana Vault!” Mitchell face became disfigured. “A wha-… never mind… I managed to get a lot of information on El Dorado,” Mitchell said, refiguring his face. “Took some money, but I got what I needed.” Stewart brought out a map and handed it to Zach . Zach said, “We did… overhear something, though. Apparently, El Dorado is believed to be just south of Georgetown in a forest region.” “Great, should we start today?” Stewart instantly replied, “How ‘bout after dinner and a nice sleep in the boat, eh?”

Chapter 2 El Dorado

Mitchell woke up after the night’s sleep in the boat. He knew that today he could start his search for El Dorado… with a heading. The previous night he had studied the map very carefully and knew exactly what routes to take. He looked over at Zach and Stewart who were still sleeping in their bunks on the other side of the long boat. Stewart had his hand hanging over his top bunk when Mitchell came over to wake him. Obviously, as Mitchell could see, he was more tired than usual. There was only one thing that could wake him up at this point. “Stewart,” Mitchell quickly shouted by his bed, “…26 variational chicken dinosaurs!” Stewart’s head shot up and nearly hit the ceiling while Zach was on the bottom bunk yawning. They slowly and steadily got up as they began their usual morning routine of eating cookie crisp cereal and drinking chocolate milk (which they had brought along from Detroit). As they were eating, Mitchell showed them the best route to take. He marked it all on the map as they put there bowls away and started to wake up. They got changed and got their packs ready. Soon they were headed off to find El Dorado. “Ok, let’s start off by taking this Southwest road until we hit the Demerara River. After that we can head through the eastern forest to the Amerindian site where you guys said that El Dorado is supposedly at.” Zach and Stewart nodded and then they headed off. They walked about 2 miles and reached the river after about half an hour. Here, Stewart and Zach took a 15 minute break. After that, they were off again. They went west for about another 45 minutes

and were just north of the site. The forest became denser as they went along. “We are almost there!” Zach said holding the map. As Zach said this, Mitchell kept on thinking about the legend the shop owner told him. He was thinking about how El Dorado (a.k.a. Panzperniam) fought Desmodontidae. If, even in legend, El Dorado had supposedly fought a battle, then how could it be a city of gold? Maybe El Dorado is a pure gold idol made for worship by the Amerindians… or maybe that idol is El Dorado. Either way, he would find out when he searched for it and hopefully found it. The trio trudged through dense forests only hearing the sounds of nature and of their foot steps in the dirt. After a minute or two, they started following a dirt trail they found. It was just over a meter wide and was clear of trees. It was obviously used by locals a lot. They followed it for a while until the trees slowly became scarcer and the trail faded. Here, they saw a small wall of large green plants rising from the ground. They slowly stepped over them as Stewart fell flat on his stomach. He got up and nearly fell again when he saw what was ahead of them. They had completely left the forest and entered a gigantic plain. It was a beautiful sight! There was a meadow that stretched for miles with the greenest grass you’ve ever seen. A small brook flowed through the center, passing eyesight on the horizon. It was all completely surrounded by the dark green forest making an “8” figure. Mitchell remembered how the shop owner said that El Dorado was believed to be in an area with the resemblance of an “8.” “I think this is it, guys!” Mitchell exclaimed as he gazed at the beautiful “meadowbrook” (as he liked to call it). “Great!” Stewart replied. “…But… I ‘on’t see any gold….” Mitchell caught his focus. He wondered if what Zach and Stewart had found out was right. It certainly looked like an Amerindian site, but there was nothing in the area having to do anything with gold.

Despite the current loss of no gold, Mitchell slowly walked into the meadowbrook and studied everything he could. He looked at every detail. One of the details was that the grass and dirt by the water was completely smooth. It looked like it hadn’t been touched for years. That meant that there weren’t any animals (or people, for that matter) wandering around the area. He looked down and followed the brook very silently. Stewart and Zach looked at each other, shrugged, and ran towards him. They made sure to cautiously stay behind him for the moment as he was observing the meadowbrook. Mitchell continued walking, following the brook. He looked into the water and found no fish. But there were rocks that were almost perfectly aligned in some unknown pattern in the water. They were smoother than any rocks he had ever seen, probably because they had been eroded for so many years and were otherwise untouched. Zach saw this and reached his hand into the warm water. He picked up one of the rocks and gave a strait toss out toward the water. It skipped a few feet and then sank. The team kept walking looking for anything out of the ordinary or even oddly out of place. Mitchell especially watched the rocks hoping to find some break in the pattern or any signs Amerindians might have given indicating that this was the location of El Dorado. Still bored, Zach picked up another rock and chucked it out into the water without looking at it. It bounced over the water fewer times and landed just past Mitchell. Mitchell looked through the shallow water as the ripples faded. He reached his hand into the water and picked the rock up. He studied it and noticed that it was oddly rigid, unlike the other smoother rocks. How, Mitchell thought while mumbling, could this rock be rigid and all the others smooth? Why hasn’t the erosion affected it? “Zach!” he yelled as Zach was picking up another rock, “Where’d you get the rock you last threw?”

Zach walked back a few steps and looked into the water. “There, between those other two stones.” Mitchell instantly ran over. He looked down and sure enough there was a small faded hole in the place where the rock had been. Mitchell set the rock down and used two fingers to wipe through the mud where the rock had been… until he hit another rock. He tried pulling it out, but couldn’t find the edge. He took the surrounding stones away and dug a few inches. Finally, he took out the rock. He picked up both rocks and compared them. They looked exactly alike. Neither of them were smooth as all the other rocks, but rigid and pointed in the same locations. The only difference was that the second rock was larger and heavier. Mitchell gave the rocks to Stewart and said, “Keep those safe. I think they have some significance.” Stewart reached for the rocks and put them both in a bag he had been carrying. This bag, however, he hadn’t used yet except for storing today’s lunch. Just the thought of this made him hungry. Mitchell kept walking, studying the rocks more than before. He kept on looking for any rock that looked similar to the ones he had just found. Despite his strong visual efforts, he could only find more of the smooth rocks in the pattern… “THE PATTERN!” Mitchell shouted out loud. He ran back to where he had seen the first rocks. He started there and walked forwards again remembering the pattern. It was a basic pattern including the rocks waving up and down and going in strait lines. “Easy enough to remember,” he mumbled. Mitchell studied them and saw the pattern restart again. He traced the exact point where the rigid rocks were back in the first set of the pattern. He reached his hand into the water, picked the rock up, and looked at it. It was about the size of the first one… but it wasn’t at all rigid. It was as smooth as any other rock in the brook. Zach looked up at Mitchell. With the rock his hands Mitchell said, “Knock yourself out.” Zach took the rock and tossed it across the brook and it sank. Mitchell looked down at where the rock was

and found a small part of another rock sticking out of the mud right where the old one was. He took it out to see what kind of rock it was. It was another rigid rock! “Stewart! Give me the other two rocks in the bag,” Mitchell shouted. Stewart instantly opened the bag and gave the rocks to Mitchell, noting that his lunch was still in the bag waiting to be eaten. He compared all three of the rocks with each other. He saw that the third was exactly the same as the others in shape. It was also almost perfectly in between in size and weight. Mitchell looked at the smallest rock and said, “Why weren’t these rocks affected by erosion at all, especially this one because it wasn’t in the mud? They feel just like any other rocks, but… maybe… maybe these rocks do have some significance with the Amerindians. Maybe…” He picked up one of the rocks that were smooth, but about the same size as the rigid one. The rigid ones were obviously heavier and had a different feel to them. “Hey guys! I think I found something!” He said as they came running over to him dropping the rocks they were skipping. “These aren’t the same kind of rocks as the other ones in the pattern. They are made of… uh… I dunno… something else. They were obviously placed here in a perfect pattern and with the substance they are made of for some reason. A possibility was probably that they were meant to last. Maybe…,” Mitchell kept going on, “maybe they go to something. Maybe they are made of this substance to make their shape and size last to fit in somewhere perfectly. Whoever placed them here (my guess being the Amerindians) obviously wanted them to be preserved through out the years.” Zach and Stewart smiled. “Great job on this… uh… discovery, Mitchell,” Stewart said as he again put the trio of rocks into his bag. “Thanks,” Mitchell replied. “So now that we’re that much closer to finding El Dorado,” Stewart said, “can we… er… have lunch now?”

Chapter 3 El Dorado

Mitchell got up after Stewart had finished his third sandwich (which was actually when Mitchell had just finished his first). He was now more determined to search for whatever the rocks had to do with El Dorado. Maybe they worked as a key or as some kind of weight system… or maybe they even have some inscription on (or even in) them. Because, Mitchell thought to himself, what are the odds of those stones being in the pattern so perfectly, being able to withstand hundreds of years of erosion, and looking exactly alike? The team got up and started to travel to the other side of the meadowbrook. They agreed that this was the way to go because if the rocks had anything to do with anything at all, that anything would probably still be here at the Amerindian site. Their mission seemed simple enough, but there was only one problem: they had no idea what to look for next. They started off by following the brook. They didn't think that whatever the rocks would have to be placed in or used for would be in the water again, so they paid closer attention to other things. They checked every rock on the ground, every hole in the sand, even some bark that may have fallen off a nearby tree. Along the trip, Zach began to grow tired. He pulled out the map to see how much farther into the meadowbrook they would have to go. Apparently, they had already traveled a few miles and had less than one mile left to go. He showed the map to Mitchell and said, “How much longer do you think we have to search in this place? I mean, 'cause… it may not even be here.” “I'm sure it’s around here somewhere...” Mitchell replied, “but we can head back to the boat once we reach the end if we

don’t find anything. That should be in about... 26 minutes or so at this pace.” Zach nodded and they continued on. They couldn't find anything. Not even another rigid rock. Before they got to the end of the forest, Stewart spotted large rocks on the rounded outside of the ”8” figured forest. They were shaped similar to the ones in Stonehenge, but they were slightly more rounded. They were also smaller and a little wider. It was like a shape in between a sphere and a cube. “What are those rocks for?” Zach asked. Mitchell only shook his head. Mitchell studied their shape, size, and positions. Just like the rocks in the brook he previously encountered, they were aligned perfectly. He walked forward a bit and noticed that they made a large semi-circled shape in their position in the top of the “8” figure. “I am pretty sure,” Mitchell said, “that these rocks were put here for the same reason the rigid rocks were. Hopefully, they have some kind of connection. Let's see, there are exactly... 23 rocks on the outside, with an extra 3 in the middle of the structure making 26 rocks in all. Maybe if I find the rock in the very middle, we can get somewhere.” After a few minutes, they made it to the 3 central rocks. They then continued on toward the middle rock, which was the 12th rock from either side of the semi-circle. They reached it and glanced for a moment when Stewart cut everyone's thoughts off. “Soooooo... what's it do?” “I'm not sure.” Mitchell said. “Maybe this isn't the right rock… if these rocks really do have to do with anything. It was only a guess. Let's see if we can find anything on those 3 rocks in the center.” So the team backtracked toward the 3 central rocks. When they got there, Mitchell carefully studied each one. He walked around the rocks and suddenly stopped. “Guys, come here!” he commanded. The team came over and looked at the back side of the large rock. “Look right here, in the middle of the center

rock. There is a hole in it. What do you think it....” Snap! “I got it! Stewart, hand me the rigid rocks.” “Ok,” Stewart replied handing over the three rocks. “It looks like... oohhhh. I see where you're getting.” “What? What? What?!?” Zach kept on asking the two. Mitchell just studied the rigid rocks and picked out the mediumsized one with his right hand. He moved his arm toward the large rock and placed the rigid one into the small hole. Mitchell felt a small click and let go. The rock instantly fell out. He tried again, but with the same results. One more time he tried, but this time he tried to spin the rock. He tried spinning it clockwise, and to his surprise the area of the larger rock somehow spun with it. He spun it 180 degrees and heard another click. A small, thin, and jagged stick shot out of the larger rock just above the rigid rock. It instantly clamped down on the rigid rock to keep it in place. As Mitchell removed his hand, the stick unclamped the rigid rock which caused the rock to fall onto the ground. The stick shot back into the larger rock which then spun back into place. “Whoa...” was all that Zach could even mumble. They were all amazed at what had just happened in only a split-second. “But what,” Zach asked, “just happened and why did it all just... reset itself when you let go?” “I... dunno....” they both replied. Mitchell continued walking around the rocks. He looked at the edge of the large rock on the side. “Come look at this, guys. It’s another hole. This time, it’s a smaller one. I am going to try this one with the smaller rigid rock.” As Mitchell did this, the process from before repeated. He placed the rock into the hole, spun clockwise, let the stick shoot out (which was actually now to the lower right of the rigid rock instead of above), and let the stick clamp on. He let go... and everything happened as it did before in the process of resetting itself. They all stared and thought. What could this mean and what kind of puzzle were they trying to figure out? “I have an idea!” Mitchell exclaimed. “Stewart! Go check at about this same spot on

the third rock... the one on the other side. Is there another hole, one about the size of the larger rigid rock? Stewart gladly ran over and shouted back, “Yeah! Ya want me to put it in?” “No,” Mitchell shouted back. “Take the rock and get ready to put it in. And Zach, you do the same here with the smaller rock as I go into the middle.” Everyone did as Mitchell commanded and were ready. “Ok,” Mitchell said, “let's try them all one after another.” Everyone went through the whole process again starting with Zach and going to Stewart on the other side. As the sticks shot out to clamp down, there were an extra two. Instead of only one shooting out, there were three. They would shoot out exactly when the other person spun the rock making three over all clamp down on each rock to keep them all in place. They let go, and all the sticks shot back in giving the exact same results. “What happened?” Stewart asked while shaking up and down uncontrollably. “I really dunno.” Mitchell replied. “Let's try it again, but this time lets synchronize our moves.” This time everyone got ready at the same time. Mitchell led both of them through the process again. “Ok, now push the rock in... spiiiin... clamp... and let go!” Everyone stared as the rocks actually stayed in. Nothing happened and before Stewart could ask “what happened?” again, the whole meadowbrook shook. First it was calm, but then it became violent. “We made an... EARTHQUAKE!!!” Zach and Stewart screamed together. They all looked around and then started to run away from the large rocks. After a few feet, they lost their balance and eventually found themselves on the ground. They all looked at each other and then at the large rocks. Suddenly, the rock in the middle of the semi-circle cracked down the middle. They heard one half fall on the back side of it, and then saw the front side fall. They heard a huge “ker-THLUMP” and the earthquake immediately stopped.

“Look!” Mitchell commanded. “The rock that split in half actually only split its outside covering. The rock was hollow and had another rock on the inside. Let's go check it out!” They all quickly, but cautiously, ran over to the newly shaped large rock. As they approached it, they noticed odd shapes and symbols sticking out of the rocks. It looked just as if hieroglyphics were coming out of the rock. “What do you think it means?” Zach asked while everyone was staring. “I dunno,” Mitchell replied yet again. “I am not exactly the world's best ancient language translator... but it looks like it is giving some directions on what to do next. I am going to text our boss (obviously being Gary) with my cell and send him a picture of this. Considering his job, he should probably reply within a few minutes. I'm sure he knows some translating site on the internet.” Mitchell texted Gary and sent him the picture he’d taken. After a few minutes, Gary texted back to Mitchell. Mitchell read the message aloud: “I couldn't read or translate this, so I called somebody in. Jacob Frawbran, my nerdy pal here, read the pictures as if they were words from a picture book in preschool. This is what he said: 'All lives affect other lives creating something anew....' He told me that he couldn't translate the last picture, so you’re on your own there. cyl!” Mitchell closed his cell phone and put it back in his pocket. He searched for the last picture. Apparently, it was an eight. “Hey guys,” he said. “Gary said that he just couldn't translate the last picture. It looks like an eight, just as the shop owner said El Dorado had significance with… somehow. Were the Amerindians advanced enough hundreds of years ago to know and use numbers? If so, did they make their '8' look like ours? I don't really think so, but try and think what this might mean.” They all thought, but were completely clueless. Mitchell pulled out his cell phone and zoomed in on the picture he took. He was trying to figure out just what it could mean. Why would '8' be so significant to anything?

He looked at the picture again. “Zach, come here. Do you see anything?” Mitchell asked as he handed the cell to Zach. “I don't see any... wait... I think... yeah... I... ok, never min’. I see nothin’,” Zach quietly responded. He handed the phone back to Mitchell. As he did so, Mitchells eyes popped open. “Take it,” Zach said. “Wait a sec,” Mitchell commanded. “Hold the phone as you did before!” Zach did so curiously. “I got it!” Mitchell shouted at Zach. “The symbol isn't an eight!” He then took the phone and rotated it to its side. “What do you see now?” Stewart came over and said, “An '8' on its side!” “No,” Mitchell said back with a mix of frustration, ecstasy, and anxiety. “It is the same shape as this meadowbrook and what this ‘8’ symbol should be. It’s an 'infinite' symbol! So now, what we've got to do is somehow change this to an 'infinite' symbol. Doesn't it make sense? 'All lives affect other lives creating something anew... to last forever!' It makes sense now!” Mitchell then reached toward the now '8' figure and spun it as he did to the larger rocks earlier. It was now an '∞' symbol. Mitchell backed up and noticed the large rock start to violently shake. The hieroglyphics started to slowly slither into the rock until they faded away. After that, the rock sank into the ground until there was a hole in the ground. When everything stopped shaking, the three came over and looked down where the rock sank. There was a large tunnel leading strait down into the earth. Mitchell saw it and said, “It’s really dark down there. It looks like it might be at least 50 feet down.... who's going first?” Zach and Stewart backed away. Finally, Mitchell said, “Fine, I'll go first. You guys owe me!” Mitchell looked down again. He bent his legs, pinched his nose, closed his eyes... and jumped into the darkness not knowing just what was awaiting him down below. Stewart and Zach came over to watch and Stewart said, “Whoa... I'll go next... but I hope that there is something down there to eat, 'cause I'm starving!”

Chapter 4 El Dorado

Mitchell found himself rolling violently down the long dirt tunnel screaming loudly. At one point, he screamed and nearly fainted from losing air. As he gasped for breath to recover and scream again, he noticed the distant echo of Stewart and Zach’s high pitched screams. Obviously, this meant they were right behind him. He kept on tumbling through many vertical curves and swerves. After having been falling for what felt like an hour, Mitchell felt himself tumbling slower than before. The tunnel was now turning to a horizontal angle. The tunnel was finally ending. Right as Mitchell noticed this, he found himself roll slowly and then stop with his back on the ground and his feet in mid-air. When he finished tumbling over, he got up, brushed off dirt hither and thither, shook his head trying to ignore the pain from the various bruises he had received, and waited for the other two. After a few seconds, the high pitched screaming grew louder and Stewart and Zach came wildly flying down the long tunnel ending with a painful landing on the ground where Mitchell was. When the screaming stopped and the echoes faded, there was a long silence eventually broken by Stewart. “Excruciating,” he said. “Let’s… do that… ag-” “NEVER AGAIN,” Zach screamed so loudly at Stewart that Mitchell could hear the echo about five or six times. Zach and Stewart got up and brushed off a lot of dirt as the newer echoes faded. They all turned from the direction they tumbled down and toward their next destination. All that any of them could see was pitch black darkness. At least when falling down the tunnel, they had a somewhat dim light from behind them.

Now, they were to go into a place where they couldn’t see anything at all. Obviously, there was no turning back. There was no way they could get back up the tunnel because, Mitchell thought, the surface must be at least 200 feet up. “Before entering the path,” Mitchell began, “we’re going to need some light. I-” “No duh, Mitchell,” Mitchell heard Stewart say with a lot of sarcasm. Ignoring the comment, Mitchell continued on. “I think I have something that may work for some light, let me see….” As he said this, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small lighter and his cell phone. Stewart came over and reached for the lighter, but Mitchell instantly tossed it to Zach away from Stewart’s grasp. “What’s the cell for, Mitch?” Stewart asked while still mad for not being chosen to use the lighter for light. “Light, of course,” Mitchell replied. He then opened his cell phone and a dim bluish shine came out to lighten their way. Not even thinking about asking if he could use the cell phone for light, Stewart walked into the darkness. Zach and Mitchell then ran ahead of him, signaling that they should go first since they had the lights. The two led the way as they lifted their lights to guide their way into the tunnel of darkness. At first the tunnel was pretty straight and easy to walk through, but eventually it started to slope downward. Here began another one of the team’s descents. As they were walking down what felt like a very steep hill, Stewart decided to run ahead of the rest of the team despite the fact that he had no light. He ran down the hill so fast, that Mitchell and Zach didn’t have time to warn him that he should probably stop. As he ran faster and faster down the hill, he felt the slope stop and before he could stop himself he felt a sudden jerk where he stopped in his place. He first stood motionless, still not knowing

what just happened. As pain surged through his body, he couldn’t help but yell out, “YOWCH!” As he fell on his back, Mitchell ran up to him with his brightened, bluish-shining cell phone to see what the loud echoes were for. He looked down to see Stewart in pain and his hands over his face. Mitchell looked up again and all he saw was a wall. Apparently, Stewart had just rammed face-first into a large wall. Stewart got up and said, “I don’t… think… I… uhh… I CAN’T FEEL MY FACE! AHHG!” As yet more echoes faded, the three looked up at the wall Stewart had just so mindlessly ran into. Apparently, that wall had created the end of the line. “What now?” Mitchell heard Zach say. “There must be something we can do since we can’t turn back,” Mitchell replied. “We can’t be trapped down here…. Wait a minute…. LOOK! There’re more symbols just like before. This time let’s send it straight to Jacob.” Mitchell then flipped his cell phone so that the screen was facing in. He went to “MENU,” then to “CAMERA.” Before he took the picture, he thought logic and pressed “OPTIONS” on his phone, scrolled down on the menu and clicked on “NIGHT MODE.” He then took the picture and sent it to Jacob (which he was surprised at being able to do, because his phone had such a small signal). After less than a minute, Mitchell felt his phone vibrate and ding 3 times. He opened the message from Jacob and read aloud: “This time, I’ve got the whole message down: ‘Through vigilance and strength, we create peace.’ Good luck with your mission.” As Mitchell read the message aloud, the walls opened up as if Mitchell’s voice activated something. The walls shook making the whole tunnel shake with it. As dirt began fallin out of place on the moving wall, it separated creating a slim pathway in the middle. Already being used to odd things like this happening on their voyage, they almost instantly started through the pathway. The

pathway was very short and led to a large (and still very dark) room. They slowly walked through the room. It was so big, that they couldn’t find any of the walls with their dim lights (except the one they came from, of course). They all looked around the room. Mitchell was with his cell phone, Zach with Mitchell’s lighter, and Stewart with Zach as his guidance. They searched for anything they could find, even the next room if that was what was where they were to go. As Zach began to go farther from Mitchell; Stewart, who was still following Zach, said, “Look! Over there! I see a light… right over there! I even see something that it might be shining on. Come on,” he finished while trying to walk toward it and pull Zach at the same time. They both slowly walked toward it waving their hands in the darkness, making sure that they weren’t about to run into something. As they got closer to the distant light, it got bigger and bigger, little bits at a time. When they finally approached it, Zach looked close with his eyes squinting. He gasped and backed away nearly falling when he noticed that some other person had nearly just banged his head into his face. It obviously wasn’t Stewart and Mitchell was still far away in some other part of the room. Stewart helped him up with a slight chuckle saying, “Yer so… brainless! Do you realize what you just saw?” Zach got closer again and noticed that there was not another person… or even another light in the room. It was all a reflection. It was as if there was some kind of big mirror just sitting in the middle of this room that was 200 feet below ground. Zach looked around the mirror and noticed that it was on a large cube-shaped mound of dirt that stood at the height of around Stewart’s stomach, and around Zach’s chest. He looked right in front of the mirror to find that there was a small crevasse in the mound of dirt. Zach put the lighter up closer to it to brighten the darker area. FWLWOOSH!

In an instant (but what felt like 3 hours), everybody found themselves on the floor in a brightened room. They were all nearly blinded as if they walked from a darkened room with dilated eyes into the outside world of a bright sunny day. It was major pain in their eyes. As they slowly got use to the light, they looked to see what exactly had just happened. Mitchell ran over to where Zach and Stewart were looking at the mirror. Apparently, Zach had just lit a torch (which Mitchell found out had oil on it) with Mitchell’s lighter. It was fixed in the right position to shine directly onto the mirror. The light then reflected onto another mirror on another mound of dirt, and then to another, and another, and another, another, another, another, ‘nother, ‘nother, ‘nother, ‘nother! The light that was reflecting so many times managed to light up the whole room with a very bright light. Still getting use to the bright light, they studied the contents of the room which were now completely visible. Before they began to search, Mitchell said to Zach, “Give me the lighter back, now that you’ve lit the whole room!” Zach tossed the lighter to him and he put the lighter and his cell phone back into his back pocket. The team then began their search around the room again. This time, however, they decided to stay together. Besides the six bagillion mirrors (as Stewart called it), the room seemed pretty empty. There wasn’t too much to actually look at. As they walked through the vast room, they did, however, notice a large mound of dirt about five times as big as the others. On the top were four mirrors instead of only one mirror as the other mounds had. They seemed to be a little larger, probably to redirect the light with more power and a brighter light to other mirrors. They walked around this large mound and stopped as they reached the back. Stewart grunted as he saw yet more symbols for decoding. But this time, there wasn’t just one sentence… there were 9. They were each in their own square, arranged in a 3 by 3 pattern. Apparently, one of them was missing a square.

Mitchell reached out to see if a square could be taken out as one may have been where the empty space was. He firmly grasped the square dirt plate with symbols on it. It was the one just right of the empty space. It could not be taken out. As Mitchell tried harder, he noticed something weird happening to the square. It slowly moved over toward the empty space. Mitchell curiously looked at the plates and thought. “Maybe,” he said, “these rocks are supposed to be rearranged to the right order. Maybe it is a group of sentences that need to be put into the correct positions to make sense. Doesn’t that make sense?” Zach and Stewart uneasily nodded. Mitchell continued on, “First of all, I need to know just what each of these mean.” Mitchell then took his cell phone out of his back pocket. He took a picture of each plate, labeled each picture with numbers (18), and sent them to Jacob. As it was sending, however, they heard Mitchell’s phone make a loud buzzing noise. Mitchell looked at his phone and said, “I don’t have any signal down here. You guys stay here. I am going to run back a ways, send this to Jacob, get his response, and come back.” Mitchell ran back to where the wall had opened earlier. The light had shined through from the large room almost all the way to where they fell through the first tunnel. He sent the message and soon he got a response from Jacob yet again. Mitchell ran back to where Zach and Stewart were to read the message. He said: “You’re killin’ me, man! But here are the EIGHT,” with major emphasis on the “eight,” “translations…. 1. ‘In this cave, it has lived.’ 2. ‘But we sealed the creature away.’ 3. ‘Those with courage, those with hope may find it again.’ 4. ‘We owe all to this creature, this god of life.’ 5. ‘War struck the land as a savior came to protect us and raise us up to glory.’ 6. ‘Open the door. An eternal being awaits.’ 7. ‘As our savior became the victor, our times of darkness faded.’

‘Death came to many as the one called Desmodontidae obliterated everything.’” Mitchell looked at the eight phrases, and said, “So now all we need is an order. Let’s try as many as we can. Any beginning suggestions?” he asked. Zach and Stewart, though, were clueless at what was just said. “I guess I will take a whack at it then. Let’s try this…” He took a few minutes, but moved all the plates various times. When he was finally done, he stepped back. Nothing happened. He then tried another pattern, and another, and another, another, another, another, ‘nother, ‘nother, ‘nother, ‘nother! Finally, on the 26th try and probably about an hour and a half later, the plates that were previously moveable sank into the mound just enough to prevent any mobility. Mitchell could no longer move them. “Finally! I think I figured it out!” Mitchell said. Waking up from a “little nap” because Mitchell was taking his time, Stewart asked, “What does it say this time?” Mitchell looked at it and, having memorized what each plate meant, said, “The order was 8, 5, 7, 4, 2, 1, 3, 6. It says ‘Death came to many as the one called Desmodontidae obliterated everything. War struck the land as a savior came to protect us and raise us up to glory. As our savior became the victor, our times of darkness faded. We owe all to this creature, this god of life. But we sealed the creature away. In this cave, it has lived. Those with courage, those with hope may find it again. Open the door. An eternal being awaits.’” The mound started to shake right when Mitchell said this. Obviously, he had placed the plates in the right positions. The dirt crumbled and fell, surrounding a large rock that was under the dirt looking just like the large rocks from before, but much larger. Mitchell walked to the other side of the large rock and looked around the corner. He stared inside a large hole showing the hollow inside of the rock. All he could say was, “We’ve found it. We’ve found El Dorado!” 8.

Stewart cut off the moment with, “And I’ve found another sandwich in the bag!”

Chapter 5 El Dorado

Mitchell continued looking at what he thought was El Dorado. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen!” “You’re sure it’s El Dorado?” Zach asked staring as much as Mitchell. “Yeah!” Stewart said while munching on the sandwich he’d found. “I thought it would be a lot shinier!” “It… kinda fits the description I got from the store owner.” Mitchell said. “Was the legend true?” Zach didn’t respond immediately, but eventually said, “I don’t believe in legend, of course. But why does it fit so perfectly?” “Maybe,” Mitchell said in the trance of half-thinking and halftalking-to-Zach, “the legend is true…. but only parts of it. Maybe, everything is true except for the parts about Panzperniam and Desmodontidae fighting like gods. But the Amerindians just believed that the two were gods and so they treated them and worshipped them (or at least Panzperniam) as such.” “I guess that makes sense,” Zach said while watching Stewart shove the sandwich down his throat. The team then looked at El Dorado and studied it carefully. They were so surprised to find out that it was actually… a creature! No gold! It was actually a creature that was sleeping inside the cave as if in some kind of dormant mode. The creature was small, probably about 3 feet if standing on 2 of its four small legs. It had a similar shape to a ferret or a weasel, but was larger and details were much different. The odd creature had two identical tails and two softly-shaped dorsal fins overlaying on its head. There were also two short, blue fins; one on each arm

between the elbow and the wrist area. It also had a rounded, puffy, bright yellow scarf-like substance around the back of its neck falling to the front of its belly. It had fur allover its body, most likely making it a mammal (despite the fact that it had two dorsal fins and two more fins on its arms). The fur was a dark orange in most areas; like the back, the legs, a small area where there apparently was no belly button, and the upper area of its arms to its dorsal fins. There was also a grayish-beige color in areas like the belly to the mouth, the tip of the tails, the forehead, and the lower parts of the arms. It had a black nose and two black marks on each cheek by the mouth. “I guess we should take it to Lab Aether back in Detroit, eh?” Mitchell asked after studying the animal. “The only question, however, is…, how? How do we get back up that tunnel?” “Let’s go back to the tunnel and find out if we can climb or something,” Stewart said. “I’ve got an idea,” Mitchell said while thinking. “What is this wonderful idea of yours?” Stewart asked him semi-curiously. “Ever wonder why this room is so big?” Mitchell began his answer. “I don’t think it was just for the mirrors or space for the creature to walk around. Maybe there is something at the other end that leads out… maybe to Georgetown or even to the port. Should we try that?” “Ok,” Zach replied still wondering if that was smart. “But what do we do with El Dorado? I don’t think we should just carry it back to the boat.” “Darn it,” Mitchell said. “Probably should have brought some sort of small stasis tank. I have one in the boat. How’s ‘bout this: you two stay here, I go back to the boat, get the tank, run back, and we contain El Dorado and go home?” Stewart yawned and grabbed Mitchell’s arm. He slightly twisted it so he could see the watch to know what time it was. “Only 9:30 p.m.? I’m sooooo tired!”

“Actually,” Mitchell said, “I switched the time on the watch to Guyana’s time zone. You’re use to the Detroit time zone, so for us it feels like… 12:30. You’re about 3 hours off.” “Well, that explains me being tired… a little bit more,” Stewart said after yawning again. “I’m going to rest while you go get the satsis-” “Stasis!” Mitchell corrected. “Stasis!” Stewart continued on. “Stasis tank…. I’ll sleep better than El Dorado here has for the last thousand years. Is Zach staying or going?” Zach said, “I’m going to-” “Stay here with Stewart!” Mitchell said while interrupting yet again. “I’ll be right back… if there really is a way out. See ya!” He then ran off to the other side of the room. It actually took him a few minutes, but he finally reached the end and noticed how the wall was opened just like the other side of the room. I guess, he thought, it opened along with the wall on the other side… like it was made as some kind of symmetrical system. I’m just glad that there’s no translating to do again. He ran through the pathway that followed which looked exactly like the other, but inversed. Eventually, he made it to the room where the tunnel he fell from was in the other room. Instead this time, there was no tunnel. This time, in the exact location as the tunnel was at, there was a staircase. This was not a staircase, however, that you’d find in a hotel or in the Statue of Liberty with concrete or carpeted stairs circling up to the top. This was completely uneven and packed down with just dirt. Mitchell realized that this must be the only way out, so he shot up. It took him several minutes, but eventually he got tired. He took a break and got out his cell phone again because of the light fading from the large room. He then got up again and continued toward the top. After a lot of running and jumping, Mitchell finally found the end. But it didn’t lead straight out.

Mitchell looked up as the staircase ended and saw the end of the line. Something was blocking the way to what he knew was what he hadn’t seen in hours and was right above him: the outside. He banged his hand against it, just to see if it would move for his efforts. As dirt fell onto his face, he realized that it was a large rock. There were yet more symbols to be decoded on it as he cleared the dirt. Mitchell looked at his phone and saw that he had a pretty good signal. He was about to take another picture and send it to Jacob, but stopped when he looked at the picture and realized just what it meant. “It’s the same thing as before in the meadowbrook!” he said aloud. He then looked for the end of the sentence and sure enough there was an eight figure waiting to be turned. He put his hand onto it and spun. This time, it took more force for him to spin it for some reason. When he finally finished spinning it, the large rock above him started to shake. Mitchell covered his face as more dirt came falling toward him in the cramped space. The rock was apparently moving to open the hole as if it were on some kind of track system. It then stopped. Mitchell peaked up above the hole and looked out. He took a deep breath of fresh air and exhaled very slowly. He quickly climbed up out of the hole and looked around. He had no idea just where he was. “I should be still in Guyana… I mean…. I didn’t travel that far off, now, did I?” He then walked on top of a small hill that was just above the trees of the forest he was in. He took the hybrid-binoculars out of his jacket and looked out. He saw on the binoculars the word “Georgetown.” He turned around on the hill and there was the port where his boat was off in the darkness of night. He ran down the hill and out of the forest. He followed the trail back to the dock. He found his boat and ran in. Mitchell searched around the boat constantly saying, “Where did I put the stasis tank?” while breathing hard from running so

fast. He searched around the storage area, and then by the beds. There was a small cupboard right by his bed. He opened it and reached in. He pulled out the tank and shouted, “YES!” He then grabbed a bag to put the tank in, put the large bag over his shoulder, and carried it all the way back through the forest and back to the large rock. He quickly ran down all the stairs as the bright light came back to him. He then ran through the pathway and through the place where the walls had separated to the vast room. Still gasping for breath, he ran to center of the room where El Dorado was. He found Zach and Stewart sleeping against the rock the creature was in. “WAKE UP!” Mitchell yelled with a very loud echo. Zach shot up, but Stewart didn’t even flinch. Rubbing his eyes and yawning, Zach said, “I got this one.” He then moved over toward Stewart and simply said, “26 variational chicken dinosaurs.” Stewart’s head shot up just as it had before. “I’m gonna contain the creature now while Stewart’s still waking up,” Mitchell said. He looked into the rock and found the creature exactly as it was before. As he got closer, he realized that (as many other animals in hibernation) it breathed at a very slow rate. After putting on some long gloves, he slowly picked the creature up and felt how soft its fur was. He then felt its heart beat. The heart beat was very low. It was probably about, as he guesstimated, 30 b.p.m.. Obviously, it was very low. He then lifted the lid off the stasis tank and slowly set the creature inside. He put the lid back on and locked it tight. “Let’s get back now,” Mitchell said. “There is a staircase over there where I came from. We can go that way again.” As they started to get ready to leave, Mitchell noticed the creature wake up. At first, it would just move its head and look at each of the team members. Later, as they started walking toward the stairs, Mitchell noticed it walking around. It looked like it crawled on all fours very easily, but probably could (if it had more room) stand and walk a bit on two feet.

Still very tired, they all slowly trudged on toward the stairs. They then went up the stairs, to the forest, out of the forest, to Georgetown, and finally to the boat. When they finally got back inside the boat, Mitchell said, “I’m going to set the boat to auto-navigation. We should be home at Lab Aether by time we wake up. I’m going to leave El Dorado by me. Until we get back, I’m really tired.” Yawn! “See you guys in the morning.” “But can we,” Stewart asked, “get a snack before we go to sleep?”

Chapter 6 El Dorado

Mitchell woke up still very tired. He looked over the side of the bed he was in to make sure El Dorado was still in the stasis tank. He (is El Dorado a he?, Mitchell thought), was sleeping in the tank very peacefully as if he was very use to the uncomfortable small space. Mitchell finally got up and walked around a little bit in the boat. He then decided to go see the engaged auto-pilot. He looked to see where he was already, wondering if he was almost to the lab yet. He looked really surprised with the results. “How long did I sleep in?” he said out loud. He looked at his watch and set it to Detroit’s time. “Whoa,” he said. “It’s already 12:30! I’ve never slept in that long!” He looked back at the map and then went outside to take a look. Sure enough, he was in Detroit right now, right by the lab. It was actually snowing a bit outside, being the end of February. It was obviously summer in the southern hemisphere of the world. It took time, even for a Michigander, to get use to that kind of change. He walked back in the boat and actually found Stewart and Zach up again eating breakfast. He joined along with them and hungrily ate since it was already past lunchtime and they hadn’t even had a true breakfast yet. When they all finished, Mitchell said, “Obviously, we’re back in Detroit now and lab Aether is right there. Jacob and Gary are probably inside waiting for us and what we found. I haven’t told them yet, so I bet they’re anxious. Let’s hurry up!” After Mitchell grabbed the stasis tank that El Dorado was in, they all ran inside the large building ahead of them. They went through some revolving doors and headed for the elevator. “Which button?” Stewart asked.

“L26,” Mitchell replied. The elevator then shot up and they heard the classic “ding!” indicating that they had arrived. The doors opened and they walked into the lab. There weren’t many people there that day working as they always had either on a computer or testing subjects given to them. But as usual, they saw Jacob and Gary near the back corner of the room. Jacob saw Mitchell coming and walked up to him, patted him on the back and said, “Hey, buddy! Long time no text, eh?” “Lol,” Mitchell couldn’t help but replying with. Jacob then came up to Stewart and hugged him saying, “I missed ya, cuz.” Stewart did hug back, but he only replied with, “Yeah…” “So what,” Gary asked, “did you guys manage to find after all the translations I hear Jacob had to give to you?” “Yeah,” Jacob said. “I don’t see my fair share of gold… ah, I’m just kiddin’…. But seriously now, where’s the gold?” “No gold,” Mitchell said. “We found El Dorado, but no gold.” “Then what is El Dorado?” Gary asked. “Check out this cool thing we found,” Zach said. “We think that it might be El Dorado!” Mitchell then took out the stasis chamber from the bag it was in and showed it to Gary and Jacob. “Freaky,” Jacob said. “That’s seriously all you found?” Gary asked. Mitchell then told the two of their long adventure. He told them of how they explored Georgetown, heard the legend from the shop owner, heard a rumor of where El Dorado might be, found the rigid rocks in the meadowbrook, used the rocks (and Jacob’s translations) to make a tunnel, they jumped down the tunnel, used Mitchell’s cell phone for light, got Jacob’s translations again, lit up the vast room with the mirrors, solved the puzzle (yet again with Jacob’s translations), found El Dorado, got the tank, and finally headed home. “Some story,” Gary said. “So now can we test the creature?” “I guess,” Mitchell said. “But be careful. I don’t know how delicate it is. It might actually be quite old.”

After that, Jacob grabbed the tank and head to the room where subjects were tested. Mitchell, Zach, Stewart, and Gary all waited for Jacob. After a few moments, Jacob came out of the room with a clipboard which obviously had the creatures information on it. “I found some very interesting facts,” Jacob said. “Give us a pretty general idea,” Mitchell said. “Ok. Here is one of the biggest things I found. As easily predicted, this creature is a new specimen. It has never before been tested or, as I believe, even been seen. Obviously, that means that we did not have anything in the archives about it. The interesting part is this. The animal actually has genes from all known living animals on earth and some unknown to us. Look at this.” Mitchell came over to look at the clipboard. There was a category called “Possible Relatives” which Jacob pointed to. He skimmed through the section and saw the most peculiar listing of animals. Some of the one’s that he saw were the giraffe, the elephant, centipede, bass fish, blue jay, frog, boa, chicken, cow, kangaroo, lobster, dog, hamster, and even an amoeba. There were also some that were listed as “unknown species.” The page was so long that it actually had to be ripped off at one point. Everything was there except for humans. “That’s really weird,” Mitchell said. “Despite that being a good general idea, what else do you have for us?” “There are a few more good things I’ve found,” Jacob said. “What is probably the next biggest thing is this. The animal has a virus. This virus has been found before, but was considered hazardous and dispatched immediately. It was not, however, found on earth. We found this virus in an atmospheric test of a planet outside our solar system. It apparently has a xenovirus. This virus is not at all very contagious, but is very deadly to humans. When found in space, it was sampled on humans to see what the effects would be. After a sudden large increase in stress in the man we tested the xenovirus on, his heart stopped and we were unable to save him.”

“When did this happen?” Zach asked. “Actually,” Gary started to answer for Jacob, “it happened exactly 5 years ago on February 29 which, if it were a leap year, would be tomorrow.” “So what, Mitchell asked yet another question, “are the effects on the creature?” “Almost the exact opposite of what has happened to humans in previous years,” Jacob said. “This animal has somehow counteracted the effect on its body. Instead of it causing some kind of brain, heart, and many other kinds of degeneration, it causes regeneration of the body. I mean this literally. You can cut off one of its fins and its cells are mutated at a dangerous level for humans, but somehow safe for the animal that it creates new cells in place of the old now dead or missing cells within minutes. “This limited, but spontaneous regeneration is used through not only reproduction of cells, but it actually absorbs the contents of water and uses that for the body part it is building. If it breaks a bone, it can be healed within minutes if it is swimming in the ocean. Even without water, it regenerates at a very rapid rate. The neatest thing is that the new area of its body actually has an equal DNA signature as it did before. Truly amazing.” “So,” Mitchell asked still wondering if this was all true, “since this virus it has is from space, is this creature from space too? When I was talking to the shop owner, it said the name the Amerindians gave to El Dorado was ‘Panzperniam’ which in their language meant ‘it comes from above.’ Is that possible?” “I don’t know yet,” Jacob said. “Tests are still being run, so it could be possible… and it actually makes sense.” “What else ya got?” Stewart asked not really understanding half of what was going on, but still trying to engage in the conversation. “Well,” Jacob continued on even more, “since this animal has this ability of regeneration, it has apparently been alive for atleast around 1000 years. Areas on its body have been well preserved and look like they may have been from around 1000 A.D. or so, obviously before civilized people reached the Americas.”

“And before we go on to the next subject,” Stewart said beginning his sarcastic sentence, “do we happen to have any more information on this xenonvirus or whatever?” “Actually,” Jacob gladly responded, “there is one more basic thing I wanted to say.” “So much for general,” Stewart murmured. “This xenovirus,” Jacob continued on ignoring Stewart, “has been taken from the animal and tested, though not thoroughly yet. What we have found is a large reaction to water. This virus has the ability to separate water from all its contents which it is not chemically bonded to (including the virus eventually). An example would simply be mud or even liquid poisons like acid. The weirdest thing of all is that the creature actually seems to be able to control this. It works almost like a nucleic acid in the way that it can control cellular function and heredity. It can choose if it wants to purify water or not to. This virus could be a lot more useful than we thought.” “Anything else?” Mitchell said actually excited at all the information he was finding out about the animal. “This animal,” Jacob said, “has 26 chromosomes. We are still undergoing studies on these 26 chromosomes, but we have discovered two things so far about these chromosomes. First, it has no sex chromosomes. This creature cannot reproduce any of its kind again; it can only reproduce cells in its own body. Therefore, it obviously has no gender. This is even weirder than the animals that can change their gender. The other thing is that it is, as it looks like, a mammal which is herbivorous.” “Is that it?” Zach asked. “Do ya think you can give us a slight morphology of the mammal?” Mitchell asked watching Stewart and Zach groan. “Ok,” Jacob said. “Ummm… here it is…. Ok, so the animal is actually somewhat aquatic. This was pretty much given away with the xenovirus’s ability to purify water. Many bodily traits it has are used for water. For example, it actually has two tails for a reason. It uses them to swim, mainly, and to grasp onto objects it can’t hold

with its hands. They are very soft and perform a waving motion for excellent speed in water. It also uses its dorsal fin for resistance and the fins on its arms for more power. “The yellow substance around its neck that circles around its back and drooping down to its belly is actually a floatation device. When deep in the water, the creature can fill it with air to decrease its bodily density. It can then float and sink in water at will until it finally has to go up for more air (which we found can be days). This sac like substance is so strong that it can fit an above-average sized human and barely render the animals speed in water. These abilities of speed it has make it very evasive in water when facing predators or other threats.” “So other than that,” Gary asked trying to absorb all this, “you are still testing the new species?” “Yeah,” Jacob replied. “We’ve got some of our best scientists working on it. Besides myself and soon Gary, we have people like Ellen Doorfur, Jenna Ebruhem, Marisa Hawn, and Micaela Uneven. Would you like to join our team too, Mitchell?” “I would,” Mitchell replied, “but there was actually something else I was going to look for. Hopefully it won’t be as hard or as complicated as El Dorado was to find.” “Ok,” Jacob said. “I understand. But just remember to let the new president sign some papers before you go approving what you’re doing. I managed to get the last ones approved by Hilary Clinton before she left the office last year. I don’t know how much President John Kerry will be in your favor of this.” “I’m sure,” Mitchell said, “that I can get him to renew these papers.” “But what was missing, however,” Jacob said, “was one thing…. What exactly is it that you were going to go and search for this time?” “You remember,” Mitchell began, “the story I told you about Panzperniam and Desmodontidae? Do you also remember the text you gave me with the 8 translations and how the very last one

talked about the two fighting? Well if sure enough, Panzperniam was real… then why not Desmodontidae?” “So…” Jacob started, “you’re going to search for Desmodontidae which might be something like Panzperniam? Just remember that it might be dead as the legend states, but obviously not sent to the Underworld. You might only be able to find its remains.” “Yeah, I know,” he firmly stated. “But I think we might be able to find something, eh Zach and Stewart?” They both looked at him, first with raised eyebrows, but soon with an I-guess-I’ll-come-with-you-Mitchell expression. “But let’s make sure,” Stewart said, “that this time we actually bring enough food for our trip to last!”