Samuel - and his adventures
Samuel
Who was he?
Once, many years ago, there was a young man known as Samuel. He is still very well known today and taught about in school as the first explorer of the Floaty Islands. Not only that, but he was the first (and for the longest time the only) one to discover and describe the strange land of Burb-Gol.
Pre-Exploring days
Samuel was born and raised somewhere in north Ä+*4~. He lived in one of the coastal towns, in a family that owned boats that would transport people between the different coastal settlements. He as well was raised to work in the family business, and taught how to operate a boat. Growing up and as a young adult he worked in the family business, helping on the boats, and later driving a boat of his own between several nearby settlements.
The work was pretty good, he got to meet a lot of new people, and spend much of his town out on the sea. He had a few friends help him run the boat and take care of the passengers. All of the routes were well established, well known to Samuel and pretty short, so the job was more or less just a fun time with his friends, hanging out at the boat.
With the job not being extremely demanding, Samuel and his friends had a lot of time to chat about their daily lives, hobbie and interests. And spending so much time at the sea, it was hard to not get interested in what could be out there in the Ocean.
A lot of people liked to fantasize and speculate, not a lot were brave enough to sail out into the unknown, and the ones that did only came back with the stories of monsters like Creepy Hands lurking out there. There didn’t seem to be anything worth raising the encounter with creepy hands out there. But still...
Distant islands
Same as everyone else living in these parts, Samuel couldn’t deny noticing occasional spots on the horizon floating by. But when he, or his friend, tried to bring this up to other, older people living in their town, they were quickly shot down. Obviously, these were just a mirage, an overactive imagination of young people like Samuel who were wishing too much for something more exciting and new to be out there. At best, these were just distant shadows of creepy hands, lurking and waiting for young foolish people just like Samuel to sail out into their territory just to be attacked and possibly killed. These distant spots only came and went, and never stayed where they were, so they possibly couldn’t be anything real or an actual landmass.
But these explanations weren’t enough for Samuel. He knew what he saw with his own eyes, and he definitely saw islands floating out there in the Ocean. He watched them, thought about them and soon became almost obsessed with them. His life was pretty easy, traveling between the same familiar towns that he was way too used to by now, and he was dying to discover something new; something no one before him has ever seen!
The way to floaty islands
Despite all of his friends, family and anyone who tried to sail out to the Ocean before pleading with him, Samuel has made a decision: He will find these floaty islands - whatever they are - and no one can stop him! He gathered a few like minded friends who wouldn’t let themselves be held back by fear, and soon they sailed out into the unknown.
1st trip
The journey to floaty islands turned out to be a bit harder than Samuel or his friends anticipated. They were sailing around the sea not getting closer to any floaty islands for about two weeks when they started to notice their supplies were running out. There were no ports or settlement out here to restock, so they had no choice but to turn back, which took them an additional week.
People back in their town were almost happy to tell them this was exactly what they thought would happen. They thought that this misadventure would surely turn them away from exploring further, but this was not the case at all. It was just the opposite - Samuel never felt so alive as he did when he was sailing out with his friends into the unknown. The freedom, the sense of adventure, the excitement about what they might find were the best feeling Samuel has ever felt. He, as well as his friends, were determined to try again.
2nd - 6th trip
Seemingly, the Floaty Islands decided they don’t ever want to be found. Though each of the following trips was a bit longer, and Amuel and his friends got a bit farther, they didn’t seem to get any closer to any of the islands. Each time they thought they saw a floaty island and headed in its direction, it seemed to have just floated away into another direction and disappeared, leaving Samuel and his ship behind.
People back home were getting more and more smug with their “I told you so” lectures, which only made Samuel and his friends more determined to try again. There definitely were islands floating out there, and they were determined to find them and see just what exactly goes on there.
7th trip
Honestly, some members of Samuel’s crew were starting to get a little bit discouraged by now, but 7th trip was where it all changed. While floating around like this, maybe for a few days or a month, who was keeping track at this point anyway, an island appeared in fron for them, closer than any island before. There was no denying it now - this was definitely an island overgrown with a lush forest. They headed straight towards it, and it seemed even the island was floating more and more in their direction. Now, it was only a few hours before they reached the island.
Overjoyed, they ran out on the dry land, not believing what they were seeing. This was in fact an island no one has ever seen or been to before. It didn’t look like anything special, but under closer examination they noticed that the trees, plants, fruits and critters running around among the trees were, while familiar looking, not quite like anything they’ve seen before at home.
They took photos, notes and samples of anything they could find here to take back home with them, to show to all of those people who were trying so far to turn them away from exploring.
But as they did that, one of Samuels friends noticed yet another island floating in the distance. This was proof that there were in fact more than one of these islands, and Samulen and his crew were determined to find those too.
The only problem was, as these islands are just floating around, not being fixed to one point, it was impossible to mark it on the map and easily find it again. But no matter, they have gathered enough proof to show people back home that these islands are in fact real.
Upon coming back and showing off his discoveries, Samuel soon became one of the most important explorers of our time. Everyone wanted to see what Samuel had brought home, and biologists in particular were impressed by the strange new plants Samuel and his crew brought home. For weeks to come, Samuel was busy with interviews and consultations with all sorts of journalists, biologists, other explorers and scientists, and he became quite a well known name among the explorers and adventurers.
Following trips
Now, with a discovery as important as this, Samuel and his crew became even more motivated to continue their travels. Excited about what more was out there to discover, they soon returned to the Ocean. Their next travels went pretty much as well as they did until now. Many times they returned empty handed, a few more times they came across that same first island they discovered, but each time at a different spot, but on other occasions they came across a completely new floaty island. Each time they tried to gather and document as many of their observations as they could, to help people back home get a better idea about these islands. With more discoveries, more explorers got interested in sailing out and trying to find these islands themselves, and everyone wanted to come back with more and better evidence.
Maybe it was because of this that the stories of the explorers became much more elaborate and embellished, full of creatures no one could prove that the actually saw, including but mot limited to mermaids.
However, one of these stories reported by Samuel as his own crew baffled everyone more than any other story. This was the story about an island that Samuel claimed was named Burb-Gol. The island from these tales seemed too fantastical to be real, but also too fantastical for someone to make it up, and then try to pass it off as a real story. Alas, as with many other islands, Burb-Gol was seen only a handful of times with no concrete evidence brought back, but more on this is another article.
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