At the foot of the mountain, the terrain abruptly transitioned into a flatland, as if he had stepped from one continent into another. Choden remembered how motley the landscape had looked from the sky, as if pieces from different countries had been sewn together into a patchwork of terrains. And after having seen mountains fall from the sky from up quite close indeed, he wondered if this world were the result of some sort of maelstrom of different parts of the world.<br/>This particular area looked more like the Russian taiga than the Himalayas. But where did the taiga come from? He had never been there. He had never even seen a wood, or even a conifer, and he only knew them from others' descriptions. Choden began to think this was more than just an ordinary dream. The thought that he was dying still hadn't quite left his mind. Perhaps this was some sort of limbo in between life and death.<br/>Choden walked into the woods. At a tree he stopped to stroke its bark, and inhaled the resinous smell of evergreens. His trained buddhist senses relished in the new sensations. Why had he spent all his life at a monastery? As he paused, in the silence Choden heard the voice again, and advanced towards it. He knew they would hear him approach by the sound of twigs breaking underfoot. The voice sounded friendly, but they didn't know if he would be. For all they knew he was a brown bear. So when he came close to where the voices came from, he called out, so as not to alarm them, "Hello?"<br/>In the distance he saw a group of five people. When he came closer, he saw that they were five men and one woman. He walked rather awkwardly over the branches, and he chuckled as some caught in his robe. The others all looked like Westerners. The way they looked at him, they felt very much like real people with a will of their own, very unlike characters out of a dream. Choden felt quite out of place here, and he wasn't sure how they'd react at the sight of a monk from the middle of nowhere walk in on them.<br/>He regained his balance after stumbling over a stick. Out of habit, he folded his hands and said "Yuleh". He could see a lot of questions going through their heads, but he merely smiled at them. Having just spent months in meditation, for the moment he could hardly think if he wanted to. And part of him still felt like this was just a dream.<br/>"I fall from the sky," he said falteringly. The others exchanged looks. "On a flying mountain." Now they looked really confused. He laughed awkwardly. He wasn't sure whether or not to feel silly for talking to what would seem to be dream characters. Emboldened, he came nearer and eyed them closely.<br/>Then came the question on the tip of everyone's tongue. "Are you… real?"