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"Okay, I’ll bite – what do you think they are?"

"There are four pillars of two-foot- long cylinders made of glass and crystal; each one is situated opposite from each other to form a near perfect square. As many have noticed; when the sun is at a certain height, these glass cylinders produce colorful lasers - weak beams of light, compared to our lasers, yet, nevertheless – they are lasers."

"…And what if the old Mayans were able make primitive lasers? It doesn’t explain that huge unrecognizable fish that ate my pooch!"

"Well, in a way it does. You see; those lasers are usually weak, but at a certain time of year, every seventy-seven years, the sun is in the exact position to dish out the maximum power. When this happens, those lasers become extremely powerful; so much so, the light emitted from them create a warp in physics – a warp in time!"

"That’s a whole lot of crap, lady. There’s no way that even we can create a time machine, let alone a bunch of primitives!"

About to recheck their position, Aaron was distracted by one of the four fishing lines he had lodged in place along the boat’s rim. One of his lines had a bite. His angler’s instinct kicked into play and Aaron began to reel the fish in, but he was surprised when the small animal was finally tugged into the boat. At about a foot long, it was a hellishly weird creature, not a fish at all, but some kind of yellow and black mollusk. It was eel-like and had a maddening wide gape, which it was thrashing around, hoping to bite whatever brought it out of the murky water.

"What the hell? I never saw anything like this before. I’ve been fishing these waters for years; I should be able to recognize this thing." Aaron replied puzzled as he scratched the short blonde hair on his head, cautiously throwing the crazy-looking slug out of his fancy boat.

"Yes, you should – and could. That’s why I brought you here, to categorize the bio-fauna. You’re an excellent guide and a world renowned angler; but more so, you, too, were once an accomplished naturalist. You see; our pairing up in this place is only fitting – you could catch and categorize these creatures, while I confirm and check their genetic lineages."

Aaron narrowed his brow in caution. He did notice that Celina had brought in more equipment than he expected, he also noticed how reluctant she was about navigating certain fishing grounds. More alarming, was that he felt she was right about them not being at the tributaries. By now, they should be at a place where salt and fresh water mixed. This interchanging source of sea and river would be easily recognizable, but instead, they were entering an ever darker set of waterways, which were becoming narrower by the minute.

"Alright, Celina; what’s all this about? Where are we?"

"It’s not where we are, but ‘when’ we are?"

"Will you please stop with the riddles, woman? Give it to me straight."

Celina perked her bosom and straightened her glasses, focusing on Aaron as she was about to explain their odd venture into the Amazon.

"I have been studying the folklore of the Hotabi natives here for six years. I often came to the Hotabi to get artifacts from a civilization that once lived here millennia ago – a very advanced one at that. But as I collected samples from the tribes, I kept getting the corpses of very odd animals; animals that have never been classified by science mind you. For months, I was puzzled over how they came upon these creatures. At first, I thought they were some kind of mutants, but when I heard of one the tribe’s most infamous fables, I finally understood. …They were from the far future - we are in the future, not just the future, but millions of years ahead of our natural time!"

"That’s a load of crap! I thought you were supposed to be smart, Celina."

"I’m not going to try to convince you, Aaron; you’ll see soon enough, just look around you, we’re still going through the ‘agotumbo’ that means Green Curtain in the Hotabi tongue. You see; the Hotabi knew that once, every seventy-seven years, this river way leads straight through a dimensional porthole, a rip in physics where time and matter mix. This is why we have been seeing stranger creatures; we’re slowly drifting from our natural timeline and into the time of the Ultra-fauna. Now, if you would be so kind; please put on the suit I brought on board and help me set up the buzzers."

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