Fire, Wood, Metal, Water...

Galen Blythe.

I knew him because he'd been in all the papers. How he'd managed to make his way to Madagascar undetected I will never know, I suppose DeVeaux won't either, but at that moment it was the last thing on my mind.

I sat, lost in thought behind a large wooden desk in the flickering glow of an old nautical lantern. My eyes were trained on lines running jaggedly across a large piece of paper stretched out in front of me, and I failed to notice that I had absently balled one fist and pressed it against my lips. I tend to do that when I'm concentrating on something. My other hand, to that effect, was brushing over the paper - tracing and following these lines. This certainly was an old map and how someone found it was beyond me. 16th century maybe, but despite it's age the ink was still quite visible even in the dim light.

A noise from outside suddenly caused me to snap out of my stupor, and with a glance at the clock realised I had been studying the map for over four hours. Checking my watch to confirm it, I stood and stretched, and went to get a glass of water from the kitchen - if you could call it that. The house Galen had brought me into was smaller than many garages back home. The walls were fashioned with vertical planks of wood and no drywall, and the roof was sheet-metal, the same kind of corrugated iron you'd see in some stereotypical Australian outback shack. If not for the thick square logs holding the place up it probably would have collapsed during the rain a couple of nights ago. How it had survived cyclone season I'll never know.

I returned the lantern to its peg, a nail stuck awkwardly in one of the thick logs, and headed to my makeshift bed to call it a night. Galen had slipped out the door hours ago after presenting me with the map and hadn't returned yet. I sat removing my socks and just began wondering where he had disappeared to, when with a loud creak the door swung open.

"Ah!" He said as if greeting me for the first time, and closed the door behind him, "How did you find it?"
"Fascinating," I said with a glance back to the table, "there's a whole group of small islands that aren't there anymore..."
"They are now known as the Arachas." He said with a grin and walked over to it, then removed his jacket and placed a small package on the wooden bench top. Turning to hang the jacket on the chair I'd just vacated he continued, "There was once a large chain of islands there, all of them formed from underwater volcanic activity... the difference here is the underwater currents. They are so strong that they cause the magma to form, uh 'bridges', if you will - masses under the water that grew horizontally like tree branches." He described this with his hands like he was performing charades, "Over time, these bridges broke the surface, where it they began forming into more vertical masses like traditional volcanic islands."

"I think I know where you're going with this.." I said, walking back over to the table. Galen was now staring at the small chain of islands on the map with a childlike glimmer in his eyes. He turned back to it and directed my attention to the illustration as he continued, "The islands remained there for just over a thousand years. Early in that period, people from the mainland - here, sailed there and settled creating a series of small coastal villages. It is estimated that two-hundred years later they had a capital city and culture that flourished in such profusion that they actually sealed it off from visitors simply because of the lack of need and want for outside influence."

"So, these people became recluses.." I said, fascinated by the possibilities of an isolated community flourishing out of sight. This was it, the place my father had been looking for..
"Exactly.." Galen said, looking back at me. "Ryan, what you must understand here is that these people lived alone for over six-hundred years. They had a model society that we have never and will probably never see again. In this environment, they were able to innovate and thrive, but something even more incredible is what I'm trying to search for." He said. I remained silent as he removed his glasses and took a moment.
He polished the glasses with his shirt and placed them back on his nose, "The islands, without anything underneath to support them eventually collapsed, and when that happened everything vanished - dropped to the ocean floor. But the city is still there under a couple of miles of water." And with this he paused and opened the small package he'd brought in with him, "Incredibly enough, from what I've learnt recently the structures could still be intact. But these people discovered more than just how to build a city. Their innovation stretched much further." He said, and I listened intently as the rain began softly pattering on the iron rooftop again. "They were metalsmiths, woodsmiths, stonesmiths, but more importantly" Galen placed something small and metallic on the table and went on; "Ryan, these people discovered electricity."