Chapter 159: Returning to School
In the afternoon, Everly sat at her desk, quietly writing down the information she had gathered that morning from memory.
After returning from the reservation, she hadn’t slept well for two days in a row. On top of that, she had used the power of the sea the night before to put out a fire, leaving her mentally exhausted. After eating something simple, she collapsed into bed and fell into a deep sleep.
Unexpectedly, she slept all the way until the afternoon.
When she woke up, worried that she might forget what she had heard that morning, Everly immediately sat down at her desk to record everything.
It had to be said—this trip to the Winton tribe had been extremely worthwhile.
The story about the heavenly stairway and the two springs had given her a rough idea of the location of the Fountain of Youth, as well as the different functions of the two springs. As for the later tale of the warrior Gesar, it contained an astonishing amount of information.
There was no doubt that Gesar’s story was partly fictional.
For example, the two periods of “forty-nine days and nights” during his search for the fountain were clearly exaggerated. Traveling on land for that long was still understandable, but drifting in the sea for forty-nine days was entirely unrealistic. Even with a ship, given the maritime technology of that era, it would have been nearly impossible—and deadly—for a native to survive drifting at sea for that long.
However, aside from these necessary artistic embellishments, many details in the story corresponded closely with the poem.