As we had gathered all our things and started to head back to their home, Meen said: “Your mission now is to travel to meet the highly evolved being. It’ll take at least three days to travel there on foot from here. In fact, I thought I’d need a few more days to explain everything about this place to make you understand it. But, surprisingly, you could understand your lesson in only one day. So, you are ready, and you should be able to travel today.”

“Where shall I go? In which direction? And with whom?” I asked.

“You will go alone, heading north. Don’t be afraid, the route is very clear. I can guarantee that you won’t get lost,” Meen encouraged me.

“Well … the idea of walking alone through the forest for three days does scare me. Even if you are so sure that I won’t get lost, I am still quite scared,” I admitted.

“You don’t have to worry about anything,” he replied. “Your being here is not a coincidence. Everything has been prepared for you by those who have brought you here.”

Even as Meen reassured me that everything would be fine, I still didn’t feel any better. I didn’t feel confident to survive in a forest all by myself, with only a water bottle and a backpack. What about wild animals like tigers, leopards, snakes, poisonous insects and other dangerous threats?

“Do you have any kind of vehicle for traveling I could use?” I tried exploring other options.

“In our world, there’s only one type of vehicle used for transportation, and that’s what you would call a ‘flying saucer’. But we only use it for long-distance travelling. We also have other types of vehicles as well, like horse or ox-drawn carts, which are used only to move things, not to transport people,” Meen answered.

“Flying saucers? You have flying saucers?” I asked, perplexed.

“Yes, of course,” he replied.

“Why don’t you use them on a daily basis, so that you don’t get tired?” I asked.

“Firstly, the flying saucers are reserved only for important missions that require long-distance traveling, like between planets. Secondly, none of us really need to travel far anywhere. If need be, we don’t have to hurry. Each one of us has his or her duties within our area of responsibility.”

“You have such advanced technologies that allow you to travel between planets?” I was amazed.

“If we compare our planet’s technology with yours, then yes, I think we are much more advanced. We’re able to travel anywhere at the maximum speed, the fastest speed a physical body can move at. These advancements are incomparable to those of your world,” Meen explained.

“I still don’t understand why you don’t use this fast way of travelling in your daily life,” I replied.

“There’s a big difference in the way people think between our world and yours. Your innovations mostly do not consider the impact and the consequences that result from your technologies. You only want your innovations to fulfill your needs. The way we think in our world is absolutely different. When we create something, we have to think carefully about the impact that it can have in many different aspects. Well, you’ll understand what it’s all about in due time,” Meen replied.

Walking and talking along the way, we reached their home quite quickly. Napa went into the house, wrapped a few things in a piece of cloth and handed it to me.

“Here’s your lunch, Tim. Actually, you won’t need this lunch since you can eat all the fruits that are grown along the way in the forest,” she said.

“I have a backpack and a bottle of water, too,” I added, remembering my backpack.

“You don’t need to take too many things. You can drink from every stream along the way, it’s very clean.”

“Now it’s time for us to say goodbye. I’m so glad I’ve met you,” Meen said, taking my hands.

“So am I. Please wish me luck, somehow, I feel so apprehensive,” I said.

“I can’t do that because wishing someone luck is only relevant when we are not sure if anything negative lies ahead of you. I’m so sure that nothing bad will happen to you. Therefore, I don’t feel there is a need to wish you luck,” Meen said.

I bid Meen and Napa farewell and started heading north as they had advised. It was my first journey since I had been transported to this parallel world. When I turned around and looked back, I saw both of them still waving to me, even though I had already walked quite a good distance away.

My journey began with many anxieties. But the spectacular scenery around me temporarily calmed my fears. The beauty of the landscape made me feel as if I was traveling through a world of fairy tales or through a Hollywood sci-fi movie. Everything I saw was so enchanting, the forest and the grassland, the streams and the rocks, the flowers and plants, the sky and the clouds, and especially the diversity of the wildlife.

There were countless wild animals in these woods. Some of them looked like mythical creatures described in Earth’s ancient literature. For instance, a unicorn had appeared, which really took me by surprise. I couldn’t believe that they really existed as I had always thought unicorns were only creations of the artists’ imagination. In fact, now that I had seen one in real life, I noticed that they were quite different to how they were described. The most prominent feature that identified it was the sharp horn on its forehead.

First of all, it was huge. If that unicorn stood next to the biggest and strongest racehorse in our world, the horse would look like a miniature. I estimated the unicorn to be at least twice the size of an average horse. In spite of its size, the unicorn’s movements were very agile. A long mane covered its elegant neck and horned forehead and when it trotted, the long hair that covered its hooves flowed gracefully.

I continued walking, passing hill after hill. As Meen had mentioned, none of the terrain in this world had cracks nor fractures nor showed any sign of fissure. Even in this more rough, hilly terrain, I saw a sequence of soft rolling hills, which made traveling on foot quite effortless. If I had to describe this landscape, I would call it a ‘garden’. To me, a forest by definition was a more dense and overgrown space. But this forest looked well-tended. In fact, it more looked like it had been carefully laid out and purposefully designed in the first place. The landscape reminded me of the mythological forests that resembled more or less the flowing gardens as described in ancient manuscripts. People from ancient times must have seen this before.

Eventually my belly started to rumble, which was not surprising after half a day of walking. I estimated the time to be around one in the afternoon. I first considered eating the food in the lunch box that Napa had prepared for me but then decided to try the wild fruits that I had passed several times throughout my journey instead. Some of them were familiar to me, others I had never seen before but all of them looked very delicious and tempting. I decided to try the fruit that seemed the safest: apples. Right in front of me was a green tree bearing lots of red fruits, and I reached out to pluck one. It looked like an apple but of much larger size. I had to confess that this was the first time I saw an apple tree. When I took my first bite, I noticed the difference right away. This apple was distinctively sweet, fragrant and crunchy. Next to the apple tree was a tall bush bearing egg-sized oval shaped fruits in green, pink and light purple. Their smooth skin reminded me of grapes, only this kind grew as a larger single fruit instead of a bunch. It felt safe to try them, and from the taste of it, I guessed it had to be related to the family of grapes in my world. I tried several other fruits until I was full.

My journey was without any specific direction. I didn’t know my destination nor how much progress I could make today, or even where I would spend the night and my anxieties returned to taunt me. I walked on until the sun started to set which prompted me to seek shelter for the night. But my feet continued to take me forward as I hoped and somehow felt there might be a better resting place ahead.

So, I continued to walk.