2020-07-10

 

It was a misty morning. I decided to ditch my sleeping partner to go for a walk.

 

‘Such a waste if you come this far for SLEEP!’ I muttered.

The mountains were weaved together by the fog, and the dawn gave the fog a splash of colour. The reflection in the lake was just perfect to be the last piece of this mosaic painting. I looked upon this wonderful scene whereas wondering in a random trail. This was the last day we stay in Ming Chi. I would be bugged by my work tomorrow. After taking a few deep breathes, I decided no to think about the work thing while enjoying my last holiday in this year. I stretched my body and try to relax as much as I can.

As I was too relaxed and almost fell asleep, there was an elder man walking towards me. He dressed like a modern druid and moved rapidly around the trail; seemed he was looking for something. Curiosity can kill more than a cat. I drawn to him and wondered what he was doing.

‘Mor’ing sir, what are you looking at?’ I asked delightedly.

‘Morning, I am looking at the sporangia of Lycopodities’ He replied with a big smile. Then he passed me like a young kid concentrated on finding his toy.

‘Urr…okay…. the what’s spo...lee‘ I was spinning in my head.

‘Ah ha, spoor of ninja of Le-Go-something!’

I was glad that I learnt on my history class. I ran to the elder tried to explain that Lee Go was Korean general and Ninja was from Japan. It was impossible that Lee Go led ninja team; not even left any spoor here. And use spoor was weird too. Perhaps he was not a native speaker?

‘Excuse me sir’ I panted.

‘You cannot …ha…. find any ninja or general Lee Go history here. Here was built by Taiwan government….’

‘I. What?’ The elder surprised by my rush and sudden speech. He must very love historical thing.’

‘What are you talking about young man? Where did the ninja stuff come from?’ The elder frowned and looked at me.

‘Ur.. Aren’t you finding the Lee Go ninja’s history here? The spoor of ninja of Le Go?’ I questioned.

‘The spoor of ninja of……’ The elder suddenly laughed. He finally understood my doubt.

‘The sporangia of Lycopodities!’ He laughed out very loud and made me a little embarrassed. ‘Do not watch too many weird YouTube videos, young man. You are getting sceptical I can tell.’

I was stunned and thinking ‘Why he said that? I was….okay that’s somehow true.’

The elder kept explaining ‘I am looking the spores of a fern. Record the ecosystem diversity here. You should be here more often to cleanse you mind.’

‘And so that’s the story why I became a volunteer here’ I explained to a group of new volunteers. They all laughed out very loud almost like the elder did.