In the distance I heard the chirping of birds. Gradually I felt more and more awake and clearheaded, unusually so, like after a good night’s sleep. I got up and stretched a bit. The sun had moved quite some distance in the sky, so it was perhaps about time to start on my way home. I cast one last glance at the plain far below me, and just as I was about to turn around and walk away, I noticed some buildings or tents in the far distance that I could not remember having seen before. They seemed to be mainly round. There were some people there as well. This was strange, very strange. Somehow I did not feel able to simply walk away, I wanted to find out what this could be. After all, I had been here many times before, even though it was a while since the last time. Never before had I seen these buildings. I decided to investigate.
It was too steep to walk straight down, and considerably further to go back the way I had come, so I chose another and apparently quicker path. This meant I had to walk through the forest in places where I had never been before. Hm... something is rather peculiar here, I thought, something is different. For one thing, it felt so peaceful there that I myself was in a more relaxed frame of mind than I could recall having been for a long time. But this was not all, something else was singularly different, something I could not quite define... I was probably too engrossed in thinking about the mysterious buildings I had seen, to register the changes that had occurred in the vegetation.
When I got down from the mountain and walked along a path where I had been a few times before, I passed a small area that I had always viewed with distaste. Somebody had simply dumped a load of rubbish down a slope. I could not understand why anyone would do a thing like that, but now I was very pleased to see that it had fortunately all been cleared away. How great that someone had literally grabbed hold of the problem and removed it!
As I walked along, a person came towards me. He smiled and greeted me as we passed each other. I only just managed to do the same before he was gone, because he made me somewhat confused and distracted. Not because he greeted me, as this is quite usual when one meets someone while walking in nature, but it was his entire appearance. The heartfelt smile he gave me, and not least the clothes he wore. They were certainly rather incongruous. If you have seen the apparel people wear in science fiction movies you will understand what I mean. I had to chuckle a bit and now had yet another thing to wonder about.
It soon appeared that there were many other things to ponder. I saw a dear fairly close by, and the wonderful thing was that it did not get frightened as I approached. It took a few steps away from me, but it did not run off. Well, I thought, what a pleasant experience it was to get so close to one of the wild animals of the forest! Maybe it had got used to being around people? We were of course in the country, but there was a house here and there.
But suddenly I was really stunned: I had by then emerged from the forest and stood there completely mesmerized, scarcely believing my eyes. In front of me were many of these small round houses I had seen from the mountain, and they were solid houses, not tents. A narrow river flowed through the area towards a small lake, just as I had seen it from up above. Several adults and children were in the area, and a particularly peaceful and loving atmosphere could be felt. How should I best describe what I saw? Perhaps if you visualize an Indian village of older times, such as can be seen in books and movies, you might get an impression of what this looked like. Only this was - how should I put it - of a far more modern type, sort of an Indian Village Version II. Had I happened upon a filming? Now I understood why the man I had met in the forest had worn such peculiar clothes. He had obviously come from this place, and they must be filming a scene for a science fiction movie!