Chapter 34A Voyage of Discovery

Seriously, it's impossible for me to even describe how shocked Professor Hardwigg was when he realized what had happened. He was a mix of total disbelief, outrage, and it honestly freaked me out a little.

I'd never seen anyone look so deflated, and then so furiously mad.

All the exhausting days at sea, all the scary stuff we’d gone through - it was all for nothing. We basically had to start over.

Instead of moving forward, like we’d hoped after all those days, we’d actually gone backward. Every hour on the raft was just wasted time!

But then, my uncle’s crazy determination kicked in and overshadowed everything.

"So," he said, teeth clenched, "fate’s messing with me, huh? The elements themselves are teaming up to embarrass me. Air, fire, and water are all working against me. They’ll see what a determined guy can do. I’m not giving up, not backing down even a little."

"We’re gonna see who wins this battle - me or nature."

Standing tall on a rock, looking super annoyed and intense, Professor Hardwigg looked like a furious superhero. I had to step in and try to cool him down a bit.

"Listen up, Uncle," I said, keeping my voice even but firm.

"There has to be a limit to how far ambition can go. It’s pointless to fight something you can’t win. Seriously, just hear me out. We're totally not ready for a sea voyage."

It’s crazy to think we can sail five hundred leagues on this junk pile, with a blanket for a sail, a tiny stick for a mast, and a storm waiting for us. We can’t even steer this thing, so we’re just gonna be at the storm's mercy.

"It's straight-up reckless to risk it again on this dangerous Central Sea."

Those were just some of the points I made - stuff that seemed pretty solid to me. I went on for about ten minutes without him cutting me off. Then I realized why. The Professor wasn't even listening, didn't hear a single word I said.

"To the raft!" he yelled, his voice raspy.

That’s what happened after I poured all that effort into resisting him. I tried again, I pleaded, I got heated. But I was up against a will stronger than mine.

I felt like the waves fighting against that huge chunk of granite down there, which had been silently laughing at their puny attempts for ages.

Hans, meanwhile, hadn't joined in our argument. He’s been fixing up the raft. You’d think he somehow knew what my uncle was planning.

He used some rope scraps to make the raft seaworthy again.

While I was talking, he’d already put up a new mast and sail, which was already flapping in the breeze.

The Professor tossed a few words to our totally unfazed guide, who immediately started loading our gear onto the boat and getting ready to go. The air was pretty clear and clean now, and a steady, calm breeze was blowing from the northeast. Looked like it would stick around for a while.

So, what was I supposed to do? Could I even try to go against the iron will of those two guys? It was just impossible, even if I had any hope of getting help from Hans. But that wasnn't happening.

It seemed like the Icelander had just given up on his own will and who he was. He was all about letting go.

I couldn’t expect anything from someone so wrapped up in and loyal to his boss. All I could do was go with the flow.

Feeling totally defeated, I was just about to hop onto the raft when my uncle put his hand on my shoulder.

"No rush, kid," he said, "we’re not leaving until tomorrow."

I looked like I was giving in to whatever fate had in store.

"Considering everything," he said, "I can’t afford to skip any precautions. Since fate has landed me on these shores, I’m not leaving until I’ve checked them out completely."

To get what he meant, you gotta know that even though we’d been pushed back to the north shore, we’d landed somewhere totally different than where we started.

Port Gretchen had to be way to the west. So, it was totally normal that we’d check out this new shore we’d unexpectedly landed on. "Let’s go exploring!" I said.

And leaving Hans to his thing, we started our trip. The walk from the beach at high tide to the foot of the rocks was pretty far. It would take about half an hour to get there.

We were walking, and our feet kept crushing shells - seriously, tons of them, every shape and size you could imagine. They used to be homes for creatures from way, way back.

I spotted some huge shells - carapaces, like, seriously massive. Fifteen feet across, no joke.

They must have belonged to those crazy Glyptodons from the Pliocene period. Modern turtles are basically tiny compared to those guys. Plus, the whole ground was covered in these stony relics, looked like flints worn smooth by the waves, all layered on top of each other.

I figured the sea used to cover the whole area. You could see the marks the waves made on the rocks, even though they've been way out of the water for ages.

Thinking about it, this might explain this incredible ocean, like, forty leagues under the earth’s surface. My new theory - maybe a little wild - was that this liquid was slowly disappearing into the earth.

I was pretty sure it was getting fed by water seeping in from the ocean above, through tiny cracks.

Still, you had to admit those cracks probably got pretty much blocked up. If not, this giant cavern - or, like, massive reservoir - would have been filled up in no time. Maybe even the water itself was partially turning into vapor, fighting against the heat from deep inside the earth.

That could explain those heavy clouds above us, and all that electricity causing those crazy storms in this deep, underground sea.

This explanation of what we’d seen seemed totally legit to me. No matter how wild nature gets, there's always a logical reason behind it, right? Everything follows some big natural rule.

It was pretty obvious now that we were walking on a kind of layered soil - like all the soil from that time, you know? It’s super common on Earth. The Professor was in his happy place, checking out every crack in the rocks. If he found an opening, he had to see how deep it was.

We followed the Central Sea's twists and turns for a mile, and then the ground totally changed. It looked like it had been thrown up, like a major shake-up from below. Lots of dips and bumps showed big shifts happened way back when.

It was a tough trek over broken granite mixed with flint, quartz, and river deposits. Then, out of nowhere, we saw it - a huge field, not just a field, but a bone field! It was like a massive graveyard, where dust from countless generations had mixed together.

Tall burial mounds of old remains popped up all over. They stretched out to the edge of the horizon and disappeared into a thick, brownish fog.

On that spot - about three square miles - was basically the whole history of animal life. Seriously, almost every animal that exists today had an ancestor right there.

We were totally drawn forward by this intense, impatient curiosity. Our feet crunched the remains of prehistoric fossils - the kind museums in big cities fight over, even for just a few weird pieces.

A thousand naturalists like Cuvier wouldn’t have been enough to put together the skeletons of the creatures in this incredible bone collection.

I was completely blown away. My uncle stood for a few minutes with his arms raised towards the thick granite ceiling that was our sky. His mouth was wide open; his eyes sparkled wildly behind his glasses (which he thankfully saved), and his head bobbed every which way.

His whole look showed he was totally astonished.

He was standing in front of this endless, amazing, and super-rich collection of ancient monsters, all piled up just for his own satisfaction.

Imagine a huge bookworm suddenly dropped into the middle of the famous library of Alexandria, the one burned by Omar, and then magically restored to its original glory! That’s kind of how Uncle Hardwigg felt.

He stood there, seriously stunned by what he’d found.

But it got even crazier when, darting around this mountain of ancient dust, he picked up a bare skull and said to me in a shaky voice:

"Harry, my boy - Harry - this is a human head!"

"A human head, Uncle?" I said, just as shocked as he was.

"Yep, nephew. Ah! Mr. Milne-Edwards - ah! Mr. De Quatrefages - why aren’t you here where I am - I, Professor Hardwigg!"