and in the dark i can hear your heart beat, i tried to find the sound
Entranceway application under the cut.
Application;
Name: Morgana
LJ: decaydreams
E-Mail: belovedofdeath@yahoo.com or love_likewinter@live.com.
IM: AIM -distortedfire
Character Name: The Republic of Iceland, or Iceland for short. He has no human name yet in canon.
Series: Afghanis-tan Axis Powers Hetalia
Timeline: 2007, before the financial crisis.
Canon Resource Link: Let them eat links.
Character Background: Don't sleep, okay? I'll make this as short and painless as possible. I promise.
So there was this island in the North Atlantic Ocean. It remained for a long time as one of the world's last large islands uninhabited by humans. But humans will find their way to uninhibited places (especially islands) somehow, so one day, one of the first settlers on the Faroe Islands stumbled upon it by accident. He was like, "oh hey, let's name this place Snowland!" and didn't realize that it sounds like an amusement park. Then other people discovered it too, and one of them, who is much saner, and a Scandinavian by the way, called the place Ísland, or Iceland in your good ol' English.
But the first permanent settler was an awesome Norwegian chieftain called Ingólfur Arnarson. He founded Reykjavík, which is Iceland's capital, and was followed by more Norse chieftains along with their families and slaves. The island was fully settled within 60 years, according to Íslendingabók, the saga about settlement in Iceland and whatnot. They estabilished a new Nation, and thus, Iceland was born. Time to change pronouns, folks.
The Icelandic Commonwealth (omnomnom) begun around the year 930 AD when the ruling chiefs decided that they were bored and want to form an assembly of some sort before their people went all ragey and throw a temper tantrum in form of a coup d'etat. We don't want that to happen, do we? And the Althing was established, insert applause here. It was sometimes stated as the world's oldest existing parliament. The basic idea is that there was no central executive power and laws were enforced only by the people. What is this tyranny you're talking about, there's no such thing as tyranny here. As a result, he enjoyed a mostly uninterrupted period of growth, hooray. Before we move on to the next installment which is the bloody Civil War, I feel the need to mention that in the year 1000 AD, Iceland has become a Christian and has adopted Christian laws. What about the pagans? Well, they weren't being barberqued in a stick like many of their European counterparts, but instead they were still allowed to worship their Gods, only secretly. He's being nice and fair like that.
With this comes literacy, and his people began to write everything (let's call this "The Writing Hype™" from now on) including all those awesome myths about Gods gouging each other's eyes out and whatnot. By the thirteenth century (yeah, the Civil War has started, I'll get to that eventually), literary production in Iceland was coming to its height. Especially since the bloody Civil War pretty much provided them all the materials they need. Gore, check. Betrayal, check. Infidelity, check. Revenge, check.
And here comes the Civil War, as I promised. It's the next installment in our History of Iceland series. It all started in the 11th and 12th century when the centralization of power had worn down the institutions of the Commonwealth, as the former, notable independence of local farmers and chieftains gave way to the growing power of a handful of families and their leaders. The Commonwealth officially ended when the Civil War started. This period was sometimes called Age of the Sturlungs, which referred to Sturla Þórðarson and his sons, who were one of two main clans fighting for power over Iceland. He successfully caused a havoc. His famous son Snorri (who was also the one compilling Norse myths into one book, which effectively immortalized his name in the world of literature) became a vassal of King Haakon IV of Norway in 1220 AD, and his nephew followed his footsteps in 1235. Said nephew used the power, prestige and influence of his family to wage war against the other clans in Iceland. Insert blood, blood, and more blood here. After decades of conflict, they finally got tired (probably because they ran out of tactics), found the errors of their ways, and...signed the Old Covenant. Which is basically establishing a union with the Norwegian monarchy. What an odd way to repent their sins.
He remained under his brother's kingship until 1380, when the death of King Olaf IV extinguished the Norwegian male royal line. Because of this, Norway joined the Kalmar Union, and Iceland, being his colony, had no choice but to jump in into the cult Union, too. Sweden and Denmark was also in the Union, but there's no such thing as sharing power, since Denmark was the dominant power and his big ego won't allow him to do so. But Denmark was such a jerk that he didn't need Iceland's fish and homespun wool. This created a dramatic deficit in Iceland's trade, and as a result, no new ships for continental trading were built. And since Iceland was so far away from Denmark, according to Danish people, he did a very good job in neglecting Iceland, unlike Norway. Yes, Denmark was playing favorites. As a result, Iceland was raided by an Ottoman pirate in 1627, known as the Turkish Abductions. Turkey was also a jerk. Moving on, with the introduction of absolute monarchy in Denmark-Norway in 1660 under Frederick III, the Icelanders relinquished their autonomy to the crown, including the right to initiate and consent to legislation.
Then the Reformation happened in the middle of the 16th century. King Christian III of Denmark, as a King would do, began to impose Lutheranism on his subjects. Iceland and his people wasn't an exception. Some resistance where thrown, but it was soon ended by the beheading of one of the two leaders of the resistence and his two sons. Following this, the Icelanders became Lutherans and remain largely so to this day. Afterward, in 1602 Iceland was forbidden to trade with countries other than Denmark, by order of the Danish government. The Danish trade monopoly would remain in effect until 1854.
Things weren't so well in the 18th century. It all started out when the climatic condition reached an all-time low and the Laki volcano erupted. It's super-effective! Pardon the Pokemon reference, it wiped out 9.000 people and killed 80% of the livestock. Along came starvation, and killed a quarter of his people. This period is known as Móðuharðindin, or the Mist Hardship.
Denmark and Norway got separated (finally) by the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, but Denmark's huge ego forbids him from handing Iceland over to his true brother. So he kept Iceland as a dependency. How predictable of him. Even so, a national consciousness was revived, which mainly inspired by romantic nationalist ideas from continental Europe and Scandinavian mainland. An independence movement developed under Jón Sigurðsson, whose birthday become the Nation's Independence Day (and hence, his given canon "birthday"). Finally in 1874, Denmark granted him home rule ("My little brother is big enough to handle almost everything on his own now, sob." or something like that. Don't forget to picture teary-eyed Denmark there) and it was expanded in 1904. Later on, there was The Act of Union, a December 1, 1918, agreement with Denmark, which recognized Iceland as a fully-sovereign state (The Kingdom of Iceland) joined with Denmark in a personal union with the Danish king. He estabilished his own awesome flag and asked Denmark to represent his foreign affairs and defense interests (but he still hold his grudges. Revenge is a dish best served cold, after all).
The Nazi badtouched the world, like France, but not Iceland, since England invaded him first on Operation: Fork. Don't even think of creating its sequel, Operation: Spoon or even Operation: Chopsticks. It all begins when the Nazi occupied Denmark, severing his communication with Iceland. Then the parliament (Althing, remember?) elected to take control of foreign affairs, electing a provisional governor, Sveinn Björnsson, who later became the republic's first president. And then Iceland was like, "I'm neutral, because it's your problems, not mine." and he was consistent with his words, taking action against both British and German forces violating the laws of neutrality. But England, being England, invaded him on May 10, 1940. His government instantly protested against what it called a "flagrant violation" of Icelandic neutrality. But then his current Prime Minister (or boss) decided that they should treat the British as guests instead, with sickening politeness. God, he's so indecisive. The Allied occupation of Iceland would last throughout the war.
The happy ending came in a form of referendum and following it, he formally become an independent republic on June 17, 1944, while Denmark was still under Germany's occupation (he deserves that). Despite that, Denmark's King still sent a message of congratulations to the Icelandic people. Denmark's ego has finally defeated?
After the establishment of the Republic, he became a charter member of NATO on March 30, with a (special) reservation that he would never take part in offensive action against another nation. Three cheers for pacifists. After all, his defense depends heavily on the United States. Denmark, Norway, Germany, and other European nations also increased their defense and and rescue cooperation with him since the withdrawal of U.S forces on 2006.
The next and last episode is the infamous Cod Wars, which a series of conflicts between him and the U.K from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s. Tsundere vs. tsundere. It took place in 1958 when the U.K was unable to prevent Iceland from extending his fishing limit (The Writing Hype™ has been replaced by The Fishing Hype™) from 4 to 12 miles off Iceland's coast. Probably because U.K was busy drinking at that time. Bullying Britain feels good, so he started the second Cod Wars in 1972-1973. He extended the limit to 50 miles (take that, U.K). Third time's the charm, so he started yet another one in November 1975. Since both are stubborn nations, Britain didn't recognize Iceland's authority in the matter and continued to fish inside the disputed area. Iceland don't like it when other nation didn't obey his will, so predictably, he threatened closure of the U.S.-manned NATO base at Keflavík, which, in the military perception of the time, would have severely impaired NATO's ability to defend the Atlantic Ocean from the Soviet Union. The NATOs won't become one with Russia. Because of this, U.K's government agreed to have their fishermen stay outside of Iceland's 200 mile exclusion zone without a specific agreement.
TL;dr: Denmark and England are jerks.
Abilites/Special Powers: Moe beam Iceland, like his name suggests, is a personification of a country, so he came with all the sparkling specialty of being a human country, including near-immortality (he won't die unless you kill all of his people and wipe his land off the map. He also age abnormally, obviously), faster healing, and all that jazz. And he can totally use that puffin of his as a lethal weapon. And emergency ration. Does that count?
Third-Person Sample:
Iceland thought that he was dreaming when he saw the huge mansion from a fair distance. It looks exactly the same like the one he saw in his dreams. He often dreamed about it, and lately, it seems like he couldn't dream of anything else. Every time he went to sleep, be it during daytime or nighttime, all he can dream about was the mansion. A vast, blur shade in the distance. He blinked and rubbed his eyes. No, he certainly wasn't dreaming. He remembered correctly that he was on his way to the Parliament, and that his boss called him sometime before, informing him about the meeting. Memories never lie, right? Besides, this place seemed so real.
Should he entered the mansion? What if it wasn't a dream and he couldn't ever go back? His heart skips a beat at the possibility of never coming back. On the flip side, he sees a prospect of an adventure. It's been a long time since he had an adventure, or something closely resembled it. It's getting boring escaping the heat of everyday life through books. After standing there for a few minutes, weighing the pros and cons and questioning whether this was real or not, he finally decided to make his way towards the mansion. Who cares if it was the real thing, he could always turn back or if it doesn't work, devise a plan to escape. The heroes in his sagas never hesitate to investigate strange places. Furthermore, the mansion was too intriguing to ignore. Meetings can wait, he'll make an excuse to his boss later.
It was a pleasant walk. The enormous fountain was grand, and he stopped for a few moments to watch the fishes. Why the rush? It's not like he was in a hurry. Well, said meeting has probably begun, but he figured out that if he's going to be late, he might as well make it extra-late. No one will scold him for doing so. The perks of being a Nation. After a short while, he arrived in front of the mansion's door, and after much fidgeting and questioning whether it's completely safe to enter the building or not, he eventually decided to open the door and peered in.
"Hello?" He called out quietly. "Is anyone in here?"
First-Person Sample: Italics=Icelandic.
[Action/Video; Icelandic/English]
[ In the beginning, there was only darkness. The darkness inside Iceland's pocket, of course. The new owner of the communicator haven't realized the presence of the communicator yet. But muffled sounds can be heard, the most thunderous being footsteps, as he slowly made his way into the mansion. ]
Hello? Is anyone in here?
[ This mansion is huge, he mused to himself. And when he looked up to the ceiling, he couldn't help but let out a small gasp of surprise. The domed ceiling looks so much like the blue sky he'd just seen outside the mansion. Or even the blue sky above his capital. ]
What is this place?
[ And he finally realized the weight in his pocket. There was some shuffling noise as he fished out the device. He didn't notice that it was broadcasting at first, proven by the fact that he stared blankly to it and started to observe it. ]
This isn't my cellphone.
[ Some random pinching and it finally occured to him that the device was recording. Maybe someone could enlighten him on the other side, so he shifted the communicator a bit, giving the viewers a nice view of himself. Platinum blond hair, pale blue eyes, with an equally pale skin to match and generally looked like a seventeen year old boy. That's Iceland for you, Wonderlanders. ]
It appears that I'm, uh, lost. [ Switching to English because it might be easier for whoever listening on the other end of the line to understand him. Not everyone can speak his language, right? And there's no thick, villain-y accent in his English, only a little. ] Can anyone tell me where I am?
[ He didn't like the situation now. He wanted to turn back and return to the street he formerly walked, one of the streets in Reykjavík which headed towards the Parliament House, but he couldn't do that, could he? When he gazed out from the door (the one he came from) into the distance, tracing back his footsteps, it appears to him that there was no sign of a busy street anywhere. It's as if he got spirited away into an entirely new world. ]
What is this place?
Application;
Name: Morgana
LJ: decaydreams
E-Mail: belovedofdeath@yahoo.com or love_likewinter@live.com.
IM: AIM -distortedfire
Character Name: The Republic of Iceland, or Iceland for short. He has no human name yet in canon.
Series: Afghanis-tan Axis Powers Hetalia
Timeline: 2007, before the financial crisis.
Canon Resource Link: Let them eat links.
Character Background: Don't sleep, okay? I'll make this as short and painless as possible. I promise.
So there was this island in the North Atlantic Ocean. It remained for a long time as one of the world's last large islands uninhabited by humans. But humans will find their way to uninhibited places (especially islands) somehow, so one day, one of the first settlers on the Faroe Islands stumbled upon it by accident. He was like, "oh hey, let's name this place Snowland!" and didn't realize that it sounds like an amusement park. Then other people discovered it too, and one of them, who is much saner, and a Scandinavian by the way, called the place Ísland, or Iceland in your good ol' English.
But the first permanent settler was an awesome Norwegian chieftain called Ingólfur Arnarson. He founded Reykjavík, which is Iceland's capital, and was followed by more Norse chieftains along with their families and slaves. The island was fully settled within 60 years, according to Íslendingabók, the saga about settlement in Iceland and whatnot. They estabilished a new Nation, and thus, Iceland was born. Time to change pronouns, folks.
The Icelandic Commonwealth (omnomnom) begun around the year 930 AD when the ruling chiefs decided that they were bored and want to form an assembly of some sort before their people went all ragey and throw a temper tantrum in form of a coup d'etat. We don't want that to happen, do we? And the Althing was established, insert applause here. It was sometimes stated as the world's oldest existing parliament. The basic idea is that there was no central executive power and laws were enforced only by the people. What is this tyranny you're talking about, there's no such thing as tyranny here. As a result, he enjoyed a mostly uninterrupted period of growth, hooray. Before we move on to the next installment which is the bloody Civil War, I feel the need to mention that in the year 1000 AD, Iceland has become a Christian and has adopted Christian laws. What about the pagans? Well, they weren't being barberqued in a stick like many of their European counterparts, but instead they were still allowed to worship their Gods, only secretly. He's being nice and fair like that.
With this comes literacy, and his people began to write everything (let's call this "The Writing Hype™" from now on) including all those awesome myths about Gods gouging each other's eyes out and whatnot. By the thirteenth century (yeah, the Civil War has started, I'll get to that eventually), literary production in Iceland was coming to its height. Especially since the bloody Civil War pretty much provided them all the materials they need. Gore, check. Betrayal, check. Infidelity, check. Revenge, check.
And here comes the Civil War, as I promised. It's the next installment in our History of Iceland series. It all started in the 11th and 12th century when the centralization of power had worn down the institutions of the Commonwealth, as the former, notable independence of local farmers and chieftains gave way to the growing power of a handful of families and their leaders. The Commonwealth officially ended when the Civil War started. This period was sometimes called Age of the Sturlungs, which referred to Sturla Þórðarson and his sons, who were one of two main clans fighting for power over Iceland. He successfully caused a havoc. His famous son Snorri (who was also the one compilling Norse myths into one book, which effectively immortalized his name in the world of literature) became a vassal of King Haakon IV of Norway in 1220 AD, and his nephew followed his footsteps in 1235. Said nephew used the power, prestige and influence of his family to wage war against the other clans in Iceland. Insert blood, blood, and more blood here. After decades of conflict, they finally got tired (probably because they ran out of tactics), found the errors of their ways, and...signed the Old Covenant. Which is basically establishing a union with the Norwegian monarchy. What an odd way to repent their sins.
He remained under his brother's kingship until 1380, when the death of King Olaf IV extinguished the Norwegian male royal line. Because of this, Norway joined the Kalmar Union, and Iceland, being his colony, had no choice but to jump in into the cult Union, too. Sweden and Denmark was also in the Union, but there's no such thing as sharing power, since Denmark was the dominant power and his big ego won't allow him to do so. But Denmark was such a jerk that he didn't need Iceland's fish and homespun wool. This created a dramatic deficit in Iceland's trade, and as a result, no new ships for continental trading were built. And since Iceland was so far away from Denmark, according to Danish people, he did a very good job in neglecting Iceland, unlike Norway. Yes, Denmark was playing favorites. As a result, Iceland was raided by an Ottoman pirate in 1627, known as the Turkish Abductions. Turkey was also a jerk. Moving on, with the introduction of absolute monarchy in Denmark-Norway in 1660 under Frederick III, the Icelanders relinquished their autonomy to the crown, including the right to initiate and consent to legislation.
Then the Reformation happened in the middle of the 16th century. King Christian III of Denmark, as a King would do, began to impose Lutheranism on his subjects. Iceland and his people wasn't an exception. Some resistance where thrown, but it was soon ended by the beheading of one of the two leaders of the resistence and his two sons. Following this, the Icelanders became Lutherans and remain largely so to this day. Afterward, in 1602 Iceland was forbidden to trade with countries other than Denmark, by order of the Danish government. The Danish trade monopoly would remain in effect until 1854.
Things weren't so well in the 18th century. It all started out when the climatic condition reached an all-time low and the Laki volcano erupted. It's super-effective! Pardon the Pokemon reference, it wiped out 9.000 people and killed 80% of the livestock. Along came starvation, and killed a quarter of his people. This period is known as Móðuharðindin, or the Mist Hardship.
Denmark and Norway got separated (finally) by the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, but Denmark's huge ego forbids him from handing Iceland over to his true brother. So he kept Iceland as a dependency. How predictable of him. Even so, a national consciousness was revived, which mainly inspired by romantic nationalist ideas from continental Europe and Scandinavian mainland. An independence movement developed under Jón Sigurðsson, whose birthday become the Nation's Independence Day (and hence, his given canon "birthday"). Finally in 1874, Denmark granted him home rule ("My little brother is big enough to handle almost everything on his own now, sob." or something like that. Don't forget to picture teary-eyed Denmark there) and it was expanded in 1904. Later on, there was The Act of Union, a December 1, 1918, agreement with Denmark, which recognized Iceland as a fully-sovereign state (The Kingdom of Iceland) joined with Denmark in a personal union with the Danish king. He estabilished his own awesome flag and asked Denmark to represent his foreign affairs and defense interests (but he still hold his grudges. Revenge is a dish best served cold, after all).
The Nazi badtouched the world, like France, but not Iceland, since England invaded him first on Operation: Fork. Don't even think of creating its sequel, Operation: Spoon or even Operation: Chopsticks. It all begins when the Nazi occupied Denmark, severing his communication with Iceland. Then the parliament (Althing, remember?) elected to take control of foreign affairs, electing a provisional governor, Sveinn Björnsson, who later became the republic's first president. And then Iceland was like, "I'm neutral, because it's your problems, not mine." and he was consistent with his words, taking action against both British and German forces violating the laws of neutrality. But England, being England, invaded him on May 10, 1940. His government instantly protested against what it called a "flagrant violation" of Icelandic neutrality. But then his current Prime Minister (or boss) decided that they should treat the British as guests instead, with sickening politeness. God, he's so indecisive. The Allied occupation of Iceland would last throughout the war.
The happy ending came in a form of referendum and following it, he formally become an independent republic on June 17, 1944, while Denmark was still under Germany's occupation (he deserves that). Despite that, Denmark's King still sent a message of congratulations to the Icelandic people. Denmark's ego has finally defeated?
After the establishment of the Republic, he became a charter member of NATO on March 30, with a (special) reservation that he would never take part in offensive action against another nation. Three cheers for pacifists. After all, his defense depends heavily on the United States. Denmark, Norway, Germany, and other European nations also increased their defense and and rescue cooperation with him since the withdrawal of U.S forces on 2006.
The next and last episode is the infamous Cod Wars, which a series of conflicts between him and the U.K from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s. Tsundere vs. tsundere. It took place in 1958 when the U.K was unable to prevent Iceland from extending his fishing limit (The Writing Hype™ has been replaced by The Fishing Hype™) from 4 to 12 miles off Iceland's coast. Probably because U.K was busy drinking at that time. Bullying Britain feels good, so he started the second Cod Wars in 1972-1973. He extended the limit to 50 miles (take that, U.K). Third time's the charm, so he started yet another one in November 1975. Since both are stubborn nations, Britain didn't recognize Iceland's authority in the matter and continued to fish inside the disputed area. Iceland don't like it when other nation didn't obey his will, so predictably, he threatened closure of the U.S.-manned NATO base at Keflavík, which, in the military perception of the time, would have severely impaired NATO's ability to defend the Atlantic Ocean from the Soviet Union. The NATOs won't become one with Russia. Because of this, U.K's government agreed to have their fishermen stay outside of Iceland's 200 mile exclusion zone without a specific agreement.
TL;dr: Denmark and England are jerks.
Abilites/Special Powers: Moe beam Iceland, like his name suggests, is a personification of a country, so he came with all the sparkling specialty of being a human country, including near-immortality (he won't die unless you kill all of his people and wipe his land off the map. He also age abnormally, obviously), faster healing, and all that jazz. And he can totally use that puffin of his as a lethal weapon. And emergency ration. Does that count?
Third-Person Sample:
Iceland thought that he was dreaming when he saw the huge mansion from a fair distance. It looks exactly the same like the one he saw in his dreams. He often dreamed about it, and lately, it seems like he couldn't dream of anything else. Every time he went to sleep, be it during daytime or nighttime, all he can dream about was the mansion. A vast, blur shade in the distance. He blinked and rubbed his eyes. No, he certainly wasn't dreaming. He remembered correctly that he was on his way to the Parliament, and that his boss called him sometime before, informing him about the meeting. Memories never lie, right? Besides, this place seemed so real.
Should he entered the mansion? What if it wasn't a dream and he couldn't ever go back? His heart skips a beat at the possibility of never coming back. On the flip side, he sees a prospect of an adventure. It's been a long time since he had an adventure, or something closely resembled it. It's getting boring escaping the heat of everyday life through books. After standing there for a few minutes, weighing the pros and cons and questioning whether this was real or not, he finally decided to make his way towards the mansion. Who cares if it was the real thing, he could always turn back or if it doesn't work, devise a plan to escape. The heroes in his sagas never hesitate to investigate strange places. Furthermore, the mansion was too intriguing to ignore. Meetings can wait, he'll make an excuse to his boss later.
It was a pleasant walk. The enormous fountain was grand, and he stopped for a few moments to watch the fishes. Why the rush? It's not like he was in a hurry. Well, said meeting has probably begun, but he figured out that if he's going to be late, he might as well make it extra-late. No one will scold him for doing so. The perks of being a Nation. After a short while, he arrived in front of the mansion's door, and after much fidgeting and questioning whether it's completely safe to enter the building or not, he eventually decided to open the door and peered in.
"Hello?" He called out quietly. "Is anyone in here?"
First-Person Sample: Italics=Icelandic.
[Action/Video; Icelandic/English]
[ In the beginning, there was only darkness. The darkness inside Iceland's pocket, of course. The new owner of the communicator haven't realized the presence of the communicator yet. But muffled sounds can be heard, the most thunderous being footsteps, as he slowly made his way into the mansion. ]
Hello? Is anyone in here?
[ This mansion is huge, he mused to himself. And when he looked up to the ceiling, he couldn't help but let out a small gasp of surprise. The domed ceiling looks so much like the blue sky he'd just seen outside the mansion. Or even the blue sky above his capital. ]
What is this place?
[ And he finally realized the weight in his pocket. There was some shuffling noise as he fished out the device. He didn't notice that it was broadcasting at first, proven by the fact that he stared blankly to it and started to observe it. ]
This isn't my cellphone.
[ Some random pinching and it finally occured to him that the device was recording. Maybe someone could enlighten him on the other side, so he shifted the communicator a bit, giving the viewers a nice view of himself. Platinum blond hair, pale blue eyes, with an equally pale skin to match and generally looked like a seventeen year old boy. That's Iceland for you, Wonderlanders. ]
It appears that I'm, uh, lost. [ Switching to English because it might be easier for whoever listening on the other end of the line to understand him. Not everyone can speak his language, right? And there's no thick, villain-y accent in his English, only a little. ] Can anyone tell me where I am?
[ He didn't like the situation now. He wanted to turn back and return to the street he formerly walked, one of the streets in Reykjavík which headed towards the Parliament House, but he couldn't do that, could he? When he gazed out from the door (the one he came from) into the distance, tracing back his footsteps, it appears to him that there was no sign of a busy street anywhere. It's as if he got spirited away into an entirely new world. ]
What is this place?