Moving slowly through the underbrush I trudge up the steep incline towards my goal. Rocks and soil beneath my boots shift and move with each step, my gloved hands reaching out to branches and tree trunks as I pull myself up towards the crest of the hill in the distance.
Sweat runs down my face, the heavy pack in my back and the hours and hours wandering the wilderness having left me exhausted and drained beyond belief. Still it would all be worth it if I could just find my target, the whole reason I had been traveling so far from my tiny apartment.
Wiping at my eyes with my arms as I reach the top I lean up against one of the old trees that had once blocked my line of sight up and over the steep hill. I had intended to climb up here to get a better view of my surroundings, to better see over the hills and trees in search of my prize or at least some nearby roads or paths to point me in the right direction or help get me back to my hotel.
To my right I spy a set of wander lines, trodden paths cutting through the grass and underbrush leaving a simple hewn winding dirt trail up to the hilltop. Rocks sit to the other side of the hill, stacking up at various levels as a lizard rests atop one basking in the late afternoon sun. Water trickles down from the top, bubbling up from some unseen wellspring, running over all the stones in sequence before ending in a crystal clear pool at the base.
It was too perfect, the scene to well set. I begin to grin widely, smiling ear to ear as I stumble closer towards the delightful lake. In a swift motion I dunk my head beneath the glass-like surface, the perfectly cool liquid immediately melting my exertion away. As I whip my head back up, startling the lizard atop the rocks, I feel the water prickle at my skin as though it was subtly acidic.
The lizard atop the rocks, scrambling after being startled, tumbles into the water below. For a moment I worry about the tiny brown reptile, breathing a sigh of relief as I watch it surface.
In the corner of my vision I watch as a larger and older-looking lizard slowly approaches the pool, its movements almost glacial as it fights on in the last days of its life. As it leans in to drink from the pool the water begins to ripple, tiny bubbles foaming up to the surface as the tiny lizard swimming along begins to struggle to stay afloat.
With the sudden foaming if the water the older lizard loses its footing, revealing a long scar along its back before falling into the natural pool which had suddenly turned into a spa. My eyes go wide as I spy the tiny lizard in the center of the water, the wriggling little thing seeming to melt as the water around it turns a light brown. The larger lizard struggles to pull itself from the pool, the water seeming to have little effect on it alone besides the bubbles making any movement in it difficult.
Before long the tiny lizard is reduced to nothing more than a puddle of light brown sludge, the once clear water becoming stained as it intermingles with the remains of the lizard. Suddenly, the brown ooze races across the surface of the water towards the older lizard as it scrambles onto the nearby bank. As the sludge reaches the bank it seems to grab hold of the lizard's tail, dragging the elderly reptile back into the water and beneath the bubbles entirely.
I watch for a moment as the bubbles obscure the surface and what is happening beneath. After a minute or so the foaming bubbles begin to dissipate, a sudden flash of light brown movement erupting from the water and scampering away into the nearby bush. The water quickly returns to its glass-like state, perfectly clear and without blemish despite the horrific scene that had just unfolded.
Creeping cautiously over towards the bush I had seen the blur run to I slowly part the foliage. My jaw drops as I look inside, my gaze locking to the small and youthful little brown lizard sitting within the bush in a state of panic. It looks just as little and just as young as the tiny lizard that I had spooked from its sunbathing. The pattern is different from both of the lizards I had seen, however, the long albeit smaller scar long its back leaving me with no doubt as to what I was looking at.
As I look back at the pool the lizard takes its chance to scamper further away, racing off into the woods before vanishing entirely from sight. Standing back up I drop my backpack by the bush, fishing around for my notebook eagerly as I grab out the small leather journal titled:
Fountain of Youth - Research
I had been researching this thing for months at this point.
Starting around when I had been let go from my position as a lecturer at my college. Before the downsizing initiatives, I had spent weeks and months down in the basement archives assisting with a reorganization and then eventually taking over the project by myself. All manner of old books and random items were stored in various boxes and tubs that littered the multiple levels of our institution's labyrinthine basement.
While looking through the various aging books and tomes, sorting them to the best of my ability without the benefit of the specific expertise to understand the subject matter or time period of each, I started to notice similarities. As I browsed I found some scant recurring images and references, waters of rejuvenation and pools that granted new life. It varied from source to source though the throughline was more than plain, each one described some sort of fountain of youth in their own particular way.
As the days turned to weeks alone in my apartment the thoughts of those books churned in my mind, the rough art of fountains and different bodies of water restoring the vitality of those who swam or drank from them turning into an intrusive thought.
Rather than looking for new work I simply lived off my severance, delving deeper and deeper into research as I tried to find this mythical location.
It had become obvious early on that there wasn't simply one fountain, with too many various stories and local legends to leave it solely in one location. As this idea formed the notebook was born, a compilation of all my claims and ideas relating to the search.
Perhaps it moved, perhaps it was a living thing, or perhaps the source sprouted forth in various locations around the world to create these 'fountains' elsewhere.
I had been trapped to online-only research, not wanting to burn my savings to travel, until I had received my inheritance from a deceased relative. Suddenly, the doors opened to more remote and regional locales, legends and myths not recorded on random blogs and Wikipedia became available to me.
As I backpacked around the world, learning more and more about local myths about how one might gain eternal life, I slowly built more ideas that had until this morning remained simple fantasy. How could something like this remain secret? How would people not notice someone resetting their age every half decade? The ideas bounced around between the fountain somehow altering the perception of others, or maybe altering the appearance of the user.
But then why did people not notice this entirely new person coming into existence? Especially in the modern world with our lives entirely living online. "Maybe no one has used one for the past century?" I had mused on a flight to France, crossing out dozens of lines in my notebook.
As I traveled, hearing more and more stories of some sort of life-giving waters, the thought of the fountains simply becoming lost seemed crazier and crazier. "It's impossible" I had thought to myself while backpacking through Thailand, "Someone would have still stumbled into one by accident if they're so common as I..."
"Fusion" I mutter under my breath, dropping to the ground beside my bag as I fish out my canteen from the towering backpack. As I sip from the canteen I look around for the lizard, regretting not trying to grab it for study earlier. My mind races with the possibilities, my free hand flipping through the pages of my journal as I strike out the many many now disproven theories.
"Nothing to do with Telomeres. Doubt it's time travel. Multiverse theory seems like a dumb explanation now..." I muse inside my head, gleefully crossing out each and every one. "Maybe reality changes though, I mean, except for those observing the..." I continue, trying to explain the lack of records of these fused individuals while reconciling it with the fact I remember what I saw and the legends including first-hand accounts of people using the fountains.
I flop back into the grass beneath me, staring up at the sky through the canopy above me as I breathe a long and pleased sigh.
"I can't believe I finally found it" I chuckle, opening up my journal to the last page and the glued-in picture of the globe. Taking my pencil I hastily make a tiny cross over the fountain of youth on the map, leaving an 'X' to mark the spot like the treasure it truly was.
"To think, all this time it's been hiding in...
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