Please be sure you have read the beginning of the story first. You can find it here.
The man walking up the stairs surprised me so much it felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. It was that feeling of being caught someplace your not supposed to be. But as I struggled to regain my composure as well as conjure up the excuses I had for being were I was, I realized the human coming toward me was not of this time.
I can not tell you exactly how I knew this even before he spoke. I’ve always been able to read people in way I can’t explain. It is like everyone emanates subtle radio waves that I can pick up. They telegraph faint information about them, like if they are lonely, or happy, or lying, things like that. This fellow was broadcasting on a frequency that I have never felt before or since.
I backed up a few steps through the doorway into the room I had fallen into. The man followed me into the room, carrying a small torch and dressed in a simple white robe with blue accents. He was slightly shorter than me and looked a lot like the Mayan men I had seen in the area around the ruins of Coba. I was still so caught off guard and so scared that I was not sure what to say and was also hesitant to speak because I doubted he would understand me anyway.
He touched his torch to two small stone bowls that were in the corner of the room close to the doorway. Slowly fire took over the pile of sticks and oil in each bowl. The growing flames of the bowls bathed the room in a warm orange glow. As they did the stranger smiled and gestured for me to sit down. Still not finding words I simple sat, legs crossed on the stone floor.
He set down his torch in the doorway and sat down a few feet in front of me. Leaning to his left he sprinkled something from a small leather pouch he had around his neck into the flames of stone bowl. Dark fine smoke began to stream from the pot. It was the most pleasant odor to have ever graced my olfactory system.
“You could see it could you not?” Were the first word out of the strangers mouth. The words hit my brain like a knife right in the temple. I winced at the pain.
“That will pass, your mind is adjusting to my words.” Again the knife stabbed at my head when he spoke.
“Adjusting to your words?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied, “I speak an ancient language that you could not understand without the help of this.” His hand motioned to the smoking flame pot. (I also imagine there was something in the air that was helping me accept the reality of what I was experiencing.)
“You could see the city below couldn’t you?” This time the pain was there but not as focused.
“Yes, I could.” I replied.
“Did you see the people of the city?” He asked. (Even less pain in my head.)
“No, I saw no one in they city.”
My answer caused his eyes to grow big in disbelief and if I am not mistaken a tinge of fear. But after the palaver we proceeded to have it was me who became filled with disbelief and fear.
To be continued…