Prelude to the Journal
As an anthropologist (well, still a student, I must admit) specializing in lost cultures, I was assigned to study the small tribe of people living in an isolated valley in southern Scandinavia. The valley itself was quite low in elevation, surrounded by mountains on all sides, like a gigantic crater. The tribe of people has been cut off, forgotten from modern society, until recently when the more sophisticated satellite imagery revealed rudimentary huts deep in the center of the valley.
My advisor told me of the assignment just the weekend before the start of my journal. I was already on my way there when I started writing, being guided by some half-dozen locals through the mountains that surround the valley. The reason for the short notice and quick departure: it was early October; when winter hits, the journey over the mountains would be too dangerous. It's not suited for vehicles (no roads have been constructed), so we had to travel on horseback, with a couple of mules carrying supplies. Already it had been three days since I'd seen anything resembling civilization.
My name is Jack. This is my journal of my, um, 'scientific adventure'.
————————
October 24th
The air is starting to get warmer, and not as thin. I'm glad we're over the highest point of this blasted mountain range. It's been rough. Those mountains seemed to go up and up forever. I'm glad we're finally starting to go downhill. Still snow on the ground where we're at, but not as much.
The local guides have been making inquiries. They want to know why a Ph.D student is being sent to an isolated valley. There's not much I can tell them, other than we think there might be an indigenous tribe of sorts there. They seem wary of my intentions, despite my assurances that this is a mission of peace. One of them was reminded of a rumor that some people living in a valley aren't....like us. Not sure if it was this valley he was referring to. Even on this side of the world, urban legends are abound, I thought.
October 25th
In the morning, we descended through a cloud layer, and the valley floor came into view below. They guides left me to the rest of the journey. I'm to meet them back at this spot (marked by a red flag on a metal steak in the ground) the first day of Spring. I led my mule downhill on foot.
October 26th
I didn't expect it to take a whole day to get to the valley floor from the red flag. It looked like only a couple hour hike, but the distance seemed to stretch the closer I got. The valley also seemed to open up and expand, imperceptibly slowly, as I descended. I made camp last night when it got dark. The morning light showed I was just at the bottom of the foothill. Finally, the valley floor!
After an hour or so I spotted a trail, carving its way through the green grasses. The valley floor had lazy rolling hills, divided by small streams of cool, refreshing water, spotted here and there with groves of trees. One of the species of trees looks completely foreign to me, although I'm no biologist, so I didn't think much of it. It had a strange fruit: think of a cucumber, but with a deep purple hue.
I was walking down one of the grass-covered hills when I spotted it in the late-afternoon light: a village! There were about twenty, umm, I'll call them huts, but they were fairly sophisticated-looking. Some, near the stream that split the village in two, even seemed to be two stories tall. They were made of wood, mud, and large leaves, but not like a third-world country hut you'd see in Afghanistan. They were more akin to the too-perfect huts on Gilligan's Island.
As I got closer, I saw some people walking around. They all have fair skin and either blond or brown hair or somewhere in between. They wear clothes that look to be made from sheep wool, hand woven and stitched. When I was about 100 yards out from the nearest hut, some began to spot me and my mule. As I got closer, the commotion in the village built, and everyone — about 30 people in all — came out to see me. I was very nervous, until I saw that most seemed to be smiling. I put up my left hand in a gesture of greeting, hoping it wasn't their form of a middle finger. They waved back (phew!), and just as I put my hand down a small child came running out from the crowd, her mother chasing after her to catch her. The child ran up to my mule, startling it so bad that it ran off with all my supplies. I started to chase after it when I heard someone say "Hey, wait!"
I was astounded. They spoke English? How could this be? I turned around and saw the child's mother walking up to me. She was breathtaking. This tribe of people evidently did not wear bras, for I could see the shape her large tits and nipples through her thin clothing. She was wearing what I could only describe as a large, baggy shirt that ended around her knees, below which were smooth legs with muscular, curvy calves.
After hanging my mouth open for what seemed like a minute, I asked "You speak English?"
"Yes, I do. Not many here do, but I've been teaching those who are willing to learn. I've been in this village for just one season but already one of the families is quite well spoken."
"Uh, wait, you mean you came from outside the valley too?"
"No, no, I go from village to village, as a teacher. There are twenty-four villages in this valley, this is just one. Where are you from?"