Boy and the Begining

August 31, Harry aged 12, Papua New Guinea…

Harry exhaustedly dragged himself out of the waters on the shores of the newest country he was to visit.

The bubbling had been a bit of a longer trip then he had anticipated, and a sudden storm and treacherous waters above his head had discouraged his attempts to surface and take a break, instead preferring to stay under, in the calmer environment under all that.

As a result, he'd spent an entire day traveling the colourful reefs, exotic fish, and shared a rather unnerving staring contest with a group of great white sharks that had been attracted to his bubble for some reason, rubbing their large slate grey and white bodies along the surface for a solid 2 hours before eventually moving on.

Harry took a moment to simply enjoy the sandy surface under his sweaty back, a surface that didn't require concentration to maintain its existence before he got up and set about finding a place to settle.

When he was done securing his bird house, still leery of more storms in the possible near future, between a group of large stones under some trees, he peeled off his cloths and washed up in a nearby river, then later building a fire where a plump fish was roasting on a stick as he lay back, enjoying the crackle of flames.

As he lounged, he pulled out his latest guide on his newest location.

According to the book, Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world; outstripping his previous stop with its 848 languages, of which 12 have no known living speakers.

With the population living in customary communities, most of it rural, this was good for Harry, more land to hide him, and definitely more areas to choose from to plant his peach trees, which he was sure would enjoy the rich soil of the farmlands.

Best of all, it was the country that was least explored, meaning that Harry could find himself a large piece of land to practice his magic if he so wished.

Excellent!

Ooo ooo ooo

September 4, Somewhere deep in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea…

Harry had met his second encounter with sentient birds while traveling through the dense humid underbrush of a rainforest canopy, trailing a group of local monkeys out of curiosity.

He stumbled upon a flock of beautiful colourful birds with red and burgundy wings and back, a yellow patch on the shoulders, a pale turquoise head, dark emerald green underbellies and an odd tail plumage that looked like the curled mustache of an old silent era movie villain.

Harry would later learn that these were known as the Birds of Paradise, a grouchy species that did not like flying boys stumbling into their nesting territories.

Like the bird he had meant in Korea, this group seemed to associate him as some sort of unusual featherless bird that had the ill luck of looking like a human.

They made no qualms about insulting him as they drove him from their territory, with Harry apologizing all the way, and lots of "baldy egg breaker" thrown his way.

Eventually when the birds had gone, satisfied that he wasn't threatening their nests, Harry made sure to keep a wary eye out for the colourful cantankerous birds, taking a circular route and managed to further avoid them.

The encounter had actually been advantageous in a way as well for both parties as the species had not been listed by Ferdis and Harry had considered eating one before they began insulting him. It looks like he would have something to relate to the parrot should he see him again.

Ooo ooo ooo

September 6, Unnamed town, Bougainville Island…

Harry was passing through a small town in Bougainville Island, buying a new sickle knife when he was suddenly dragged into an alley between two buildings by a group of men.

Their intentions where clear in their lascivious grins and gazes, and something that Harry had experienced before of course, and of course like others, these men would soon discover that "no" means no.

A few minutes later a small group of penguins waddled frantically out of the alley, Harry continuing on with his journey.

Locals noticed the unusual sight of penguins during Harry's time on the island, an odd occurrence happening at the same time that a marked rise in the disappearance of men and some women all over the island at the same time, which would forever go unexplained, but provide the small island with a fresh new Penguin exhibit that brought in some much needed tourist capital.

Ooo ooo ooo

September 10, Goroka, Eastern Highlands…

Day 1-2…

Goroka was a small town of 19000 people and the capital of the Eastern Highland province of the country.

Harry enjoyed this area of the country from the peaks of Mount Kiss that overlooked the small populous.

The weather surprisingly temperate, the vegetation relatively lush, and earning its handle as a place of perpetual spring.

Coffee was a common cash crop in the area; and Harry had to say that the coffee was especially good from the area, and his coffee cakes had never been so flavorful since he had helped himself discreetly to a jar or two from the crops.

Smaller industries include trout farmswhere harry observed the process with curiousity, but decided that he preferred the fight from a free range fish; Pig farming which elicited a lot of honey suckle fire roast pork for Harry over an open spit, helped along by the delicious local honey from the bee keeping in the area.

Gardens burst forth with their bounty of broccoli, kau kau, carrots, ginger and peanuts, with nearby Bena Bena known for its pineapples. Harry's stores had never been so full, and he would have likely gained a few more stones then was healthy if it wasn't for the fact that he was constantly burning calories waundering through the mountains and running around with the other children in the fields.

Harry often joined in on games such as "Tin" which consisted of two teams of five using a bunch of empty fish and meat tins (cans) collected from the rubbish heaps of village house, enough to make a stack five rows high with rows of five, four, three, two, one cans and a ball. There was loads of noise, running around, maniacal activity, and loud disputation about the actual rules and their application ().

Harry wasn't too sure about the actual rules or how to play exactly, but it was loads of fun anyway.

Day 3…

During his stay, he also became aware of a tribe called the Asaro Mudmen that lived outside of the capital; a passage in his book on the country had a passage on the group:

"… Legend has it that they were defeated by an enemy tribe and forced to flee into the Asaro River . They waited until dusk before attempting to escape. The enemy saw them rise from the muddy banks covered in mud and thought they were spirits. Most tribes in Papua New Guinea are very afraid of spirits, so the enemy fled in fear, and the Asaro escaped.

They then went into the village to see what had happened, not knowing the enemy tribesmen were still there. The enemy were so terrified they ran back to their village and held a special ceremony to ward off the spirits.

The mudmen could not cover their faces because legends say that the people of Papua New Guinea thought that the mud from the Asaro river was poisonous. So instead of covering their faces with this alleged poison, they made masks from pebbles that they heated and water from the waterfall.

The masks have unusual designs, such as long or very short ears either going down to the chin or sticking up at the top, long joined eyebrows attached to the top of the ears, horns and sideways mouths…" (1).

Harry spent time following the tribe from time to time out of sight, and eventually worked up the nerve to approach the group, and trade fish and other game, and spent a rather interesting evening listening to their local legends and stories, writing what he heard in his notebooks. Sketching a few of the warriors and even acquiring himself one of their masks.

The Next Few Weeks…

Harry spent his time on the other side of Mount Kiss in a small valley devoid of humans.

Here he practiced his magic.

Harry's experience with the pond creature in Indonesia and his inability to burn it had made him wonder if perhaps he could do the opposite of Flamming, and instead cause things to freeze.

Much to his surprise, unlike with his struggles with some of his other abilities, Freezing came much more quickly.

A little to quickly actually, and therein lay his problem.

He had started off trying to freeze a small cup of water, only having to take to the air fast when a 50 foot radius of ice took the once lush green patch of grassland.

He had landed, poking a cautious foot at the ice beforehand, finding that everything was slick sharp jagged ice, which gleamed harshly in the sun.

"Well," Harry had muttered to himself, "ok then."

For weeks he had tried to shorten the range of the Freezing, but no matter what, it always took out large portions of his surroundings.

Animals eventually cleared out from the area of the small valley where he practiced, and the plant life was not doing much better, not built for sudden Icey climates.

Harry eventually figured out the key to the power was by channeling it through a part of his body. If he used the tip of a finger to touch a bottle of water he held in his other hand, he would freeze the bottle only. If he did the same while the bottle was sitting on a rock, he froze the bottle, the rock it was sitting on and the ground in a 5 foot radius.

He had eventually determined that Freezing would only work if the object he wanted to freeze was not touching anything else and was applied by using the tip of a body part (finger, toe, tongue, nose, etc.).

After 2 weeks of this, he felt that he had done enough and had moved on, though before he did he made sure to leave an entire grove of peach trees to hopefully make up for the damage.

Ooo ooo ooo

September 30, Madang Province…

While in capital of Madang, a town of the same name Harry got to observe high peaks where he spent time practicing his aerial maneuvers, visited active volcanoes where he amused himself by seeing how far he could Lift a bag of popcorn down towards the mouth of them before it popped, and of course indulged in some chit chat on his favorite subject as well as trading in a spot that held one of the country's biggest mix of languages.

From an extremely tall and lithe coastal member of Karkar island (an oval-shaped volcanic island located in the Bismarck Sea, about 30 kilometers off the north coast of mainland Papua New Guinea in Madang Province) he learned the art of making the best mustard seed curried fish he had ever tasted.

From a short nuggety highlands women from Simbai he learned the art of Mumu, an earth oven, wherein the food is placed underground with hot rocks to cook. Harry had never tasted such good roasted sweet potato before.

Harry was also introduced to the many various salad recipes, as the country was rather heavily based on fruits, vegetables, rice and legumes because of its climate and rich soil.

Harry also learned from the people that dwell along the rivers how to prepare roasted barramundi Cod wrapped in banana leaves, which became a new favorite of Harry's for the area.

Paupan cuisine often needs an assortment of diverse cooking tools, and Harry was able to expand his own cooking implements as well while in the area before eventually moving on.

Ooo ooo ooo

October 3, Miline Bay…

Harry spent the rest of his time in Miline Bay, hopping through a few of the 600 or so islands in the province, mostly fishing or practicing his magic.

Economically the province is dependent upon tourism, among the other industries of oil palm, and gold mining on Misima Island; in addition to these larger industries there are many small-scale village projects in cocoa and copra cultivation, so Harry had plenty to do and see in this area.

From Island group to Island group and even between close lying islands, the local culture changed remarkably a lot. What may be socially acceptable on one island may not be on another, so Harry was careful to try not to offend someone, or if he did, escape quickly.

The coral reefs in the area are some of the most bio-diverse in the world and Harry took advantage of this information to spend a lot of time Bubbling under the water, fascinated by all the color, life, and movement, sketching and painting beautiful pictures of marine life, many of which he sold or traded with a tidy profit to show, though he had to move on from this quicker than he had wanted to due to a minor hiccup when he scared some poor German marine Biologist in a small submarine.

Said biologist would later regale his fellows and locals at alike with his tales of the boy in the bubble under the waves, the stories getting more ridiculous and elaborate as he went on, until the unusual tale would become an urban legend of some popularity, especially among the children in the years to come.

On Harry's final days on the island, he observed a waga, a type of old paddle boat that was preserved in a small local school in a village on one of the islands, and for a lark, built his own crude waga by using a tree he toppled with his magic, shrinking it, carving it into a roughly similar shape, enlarging it, and using a set of oars he had made in a similar fashion. He used his lifting ability to move his work into the water and after settling in, used his magic on the oars and rowed out into the Pacific Ocean and on his way to his next destination.