A Lost World

We were on the north side of the sea again, but not on the same beach as before. For this reason, we began to look around to see what we could find. The professor didn’t want us to stay there for long. He wanted to sail on the sea again.

«Professor, it’s too dangerous! You saw what happened.»

«I don’t care, Axel. I did not come all this way to turn back now. We’ve got to see what’s on the other side of that sea.»

This beach was longer than the other one. Its rocks had more holes in them, and I thought this was because of earthquakes. There were many more bones and old shells on this beach.

«Look at all of this, Axel! We can read the whole history of the world from these bones.»

There were skeletons of animals that are not living today. It was very exciting to see them out in the open and not in a museum.

«Axel, look! A human head!»

There, with all the other bones, was the head of a man. How did it get here? Did it fall down one of those holes like we did? Was that going to happen to us? The professor was excited.

«If other scientists could see me now! This could be the oldest skeleton ever found!»

We walked further down and the beach changed. Now, there were large trees and small plants around us. The further we went, the more life we found. Suddenly, I saw something move behind the trees. My uncle and I hid. It was a family of mammoths from thousands of years ago.

«Axel, can you believe it? There is another world under our earth!»

«But are there also people here?»

«Yes, look!»

I couldn’t believe it. Walking behind the mammoths was a giant man. He was over twelve feet tall with long hair and a beard. He had a piece of animal skin around his waist.

«Should we try to talk to him?»

«No, he looks dangerous. Hans is not with us, and we don’t have our guns. Let’s go back to the boat.»

We ran away quietly, so the prehistoric man did not see us. When we stopped running, we were back at the beach. I saw an old knife on a rock.

«Let’s clean this and keep it. It could be useful.»

«Axel, don’t you understand what this is?»

«Yes, it’s a knife.»

«But it’s made of metal. It is only two or three hundred years old.»

«Do you mean…»

«Yes, Arne Saknussemm!» The professor saw a cave nearby. He ran to it.

«Axel, it’s him!»

On the rock, next to the entrance of this cave, there were two letters in old Icelandic: A.S.

The professor looked very excited.

«This must be the entrance we are looking for.»