A Place Where Time Stands Still

The dusty dry stretch of savannah seemed nearly endless across the horizon. The pair had departed from Lykolt city with supplies in tow to see Hour Lake. It is said the lake is frozen in time, and there was a local legend that if you ventured in the center of the lake, you would become lost to the flow of time.

Margaret wanted to see it of course. She wanted to see everything, but it seemed she was more excited by the prospect of seeing an actual oasis in the desert more so than to confirm the veracity of the legend.

As they trekked through the Zemka wilderness hiking, it seemed others who were speckled across the savannah along with the sparse brush had other ideas.

Harper twitched his ear and cocked his head curiously squinting into the heat shimmer at the people.

"I wonder what they're doing?" Margaret said to herself.

Harper was just wondering the same thing.

She pulled out a travel booklet on Zemka, and flipped through it before arriving at a passage. "Seems they're looking for treasures and artefacts?"

"Archeology."

"Seems like it."

Harper nodded in agreement, before looking out at a group that was somewhat nearby.

"You want to go talk to them?"

He nodded again.

Their feet crunched through the sandy clay soil, alerting the other group of their approach.

"Hello," Margaret greeted, waving. "We were just curious to see if you guys found anything interesting out here."

The group looked at one another, before gesturing at the preserved bones of a creature's arm extending through the sand. "Slowly excavating this," one said matter-of-factly.

Margaret glanced at Harper who was staring at the fossil with interest. He flicked his head up and nodded at the group. "Good luck."

"Thanks?" said another person in the group awkwardly.

Harper turned to go without as much as a goodbye, leaving Margaret to give a hasty valediction to the archeological group before trotting to catch up with him.

"You know, you should say goodbye to people when you are leaving."

"Oh." Harper blinked and seemed deep in thought. "Is 'good luck' not a sufficient thing to say before leaving?"

"Well... not really, no."

"Hm."

"It's ok, just keep it in mind next time."

Her comment seemed to deter Harper from heading over to the next group of people to investigate what they were up to, as he started on a long detour to avoid them instead of his original trajectory towards them.

Margaret knew how difficult it was for Harper to talk to people. He didn't have the "common sense" when it game to interpersonal interaction, but his body language spoke far more than his words did. Sometimes he gets all wrapped up in himself and becomes hard to reason with. She can only hope when he cools off that he might open up again.

---

The cold was setting in as they began to set up their evening camp. It was always surprising how cold it would get when the sun dipped below the horizon in the desert.

The bluff was overlooking Hour Lake, which was still a sizeable distance away. It looked so small out in that distance, but according to the map it was larger than the entirety of Lykolt city. Harper stood gazing out at it for a while pensively.

"Time really does seem to be still." He gazed up at the milky stars that ran across the night sky.

It was rare for Harper to be the one to start a conversation, but Margaret was grateful he wasn't as wound up as he was earlier in the day. She got up from the tent and went over next to him "Yeah. Maybe the legend of Hour Lake is true."

A pause.

"Am I bothering you?"

"Huh?" she exclaimed, confused. "What do you mean?"

"I'm trying to be more self-aware."

"If you're talking about earlier today, I don't think you were bothering those people."

"I wasn't?"

"Yes. One of them seemed excited about being asked about their project."

"Hm."

Another pause.

"This reminds me of when we met." He gazed out at the starlit reflections in the distant lake.

"Oh yeah?"

"Time stopped for me then, too."

Margaret sputtered and looked at him, her face flushing. "You don't mean that!"

"The moment felt very long like this."

"As in, awkward?" she said, jokingly.

"A little. But also in a different way. I don't know to express it." He gazed at her earnestly. "I didn't want the moment to end."

"Well, maybe time can stay still a little bit longer."