King of the Wilderness

The next morning, they were awakened by the cries of seabirds.

Lin Yu’an, at the dock, not only refilled the main fuel tank but also completely filled the two auxiliary long-range tanks beneath the wings.

Next would be the most thrilling and challenging part of the entire journey, beginning the sea-crossing flight returning to the mainland of the United States!

"Ready?" He asked his family through the intercom system.

"Anytime, Captain!" Aliya responded excitedly.

The turbine Beaver roared off the water with a vigor surpassing that on land. Soon, Ketchikan Town disappeared behind them.

Ahead of them was the boundless and awe-inspiring blue Pacific Ocean.

For nearly four hours ahead, their view would consist of no land. Only the below, a sea surface undulating in the sunlight like blue velvet, and the endless, azure sky above.

At first, Aliya and Emily were utterly excited and curious. They saw pods of dolphins leaping and the massive silhouettes of blue whales, the size of hills, swimming slowly beneath the sea surface.

But gradually, as only the sea and sky remained around them, that sense of human insignificance and loneliness in the face of boundless nature began to quietly grow.

Emily began to feel a bit nervous, instinctively gripping the armrest of her seat.

Aliya noticed her mood and gently placed a hand over the back of hers.

Lin Yu’an also noticed and started to explain to them with a calm and confident voice over the headset.

He pointed to the large glass screen of the cockpit: "Look here, this is our GPS moving map. We are now on this preset aerial route. This line is an aerial corridor figured out by numerous transoceanic pilots as the most stable and safest."

He pointed to another screen, "Look at this, it’s our real-time weather radar. There’s a small rain cloud cluster a hundred nautical miles ahead. Our avionics system has automatically planned the most economical route to avoid it for us."

His calm and confident explanations were like the most effective sedative, instantly smoothing out all the unease in their hearts.

Aliya and Emily knew that the man piloting the plane had anticipated and addressed all possible risks for them.

All they needed to do was thoroughly trust him.

By noon, when a thin green horizon finally appeared between the sea and sky, Aliya was the first to cheer.

"Land! I see land!"

"We made it! We successfully crossed that awe-inspiring deep blue ocean!"

The forest-covered coastline of Washington State appeared before them.

At Boeing Field in Seattle, they refueled and took a short rest. In the VIP lounge of the FBO, they ate a lunch that couldn’t match the deliciousness of Juneau’s king crab but was full of the taste of the civilized world.

In the afternoon, they took off again to begin the final leg of this epic expedition.

They flew eastward, crossing the majestic Cascades Range, vast farmlands of Idaho, and the winding Snake River.

Finally, the GPS dot on Emily’s tablet overlapped with the large area marked as "Giant Stone River Heritage Ranch."

"We... have arrived." Her voice carried a faintly dreamy sense of unreality.

Lin Yu’an piloted the plane and gently descended.

He didn’t head directly for the 2000-meter private runway but instead began a low-altitude circling over what would be their future kingdom, reminiscent of a king inspecting his territory.

Below, the magnificent thirty-thousand-acre land unfolded before them in perfect form.

They saw the "Mirror Lake" sparkling like a sapphire, its surface reflecting light like a gemstone.

They saw the winding Giant Stone River draw a graceful arc across golden meadows, herds of elk startled by the plane’s roar, galloping across the vast grasslands.

They even saw a small figure waving at them beside the "Eagle’s Nest" main house, which sat on the ridge like a work of art.

It was the real estate agent, Arthur Vanderbilt, who had long been waiting for them.

Lin Yu’an spoke to his family through the intercom with a voice full of pride and gentleness.

"Ladies and gentlemen, young passengers. I am your captain, Lin Yu’an."

"Now, please fasten your seatbelts and stow away your tray tables."

"Our plane is about to land."

"Welcome... home."

With that, he maneuvered the turbine Beaver, akin to a solar bird, to a perfect curve, aligning precisely with the private runway bathed in golden twilight.

Then he slowly landed, leaving the first trace on the vast kingdom which would belong to them perpetually from today.

After taxiing several hundred meters on the runway, Lin Yu’an lightly tapped the brakes and skillfully turned onto the taxiway leading to the helipad beside the main house.

"Let’s disembark." Lin Yu’an said with a smile, undoing his seatbelt, "Our butler has been waiting for quite some time."

The butler he referred to was the well-dressed real estate agent Arthur Vanderbilt, who had been waiting on the helipad, hair neatly combed and wearing a sophisticated Barbour hunting jacket.