Journey to the Grassland and Sea

by Robert Matsunaga

  Knode thought about Naydiacar’s grave. He spoke wonderingly about Naydiacar.

  Tenashar pressed Knode for answers. “Something told me that Naydiacar was important. There was something I felt about her. So tell me more about her. What was she like?”

  Knode shook his head and whispered words that Tenashar couldn’t hear. Then he turned to the farmer, thanking him. Finally, he sat and motioned Tenashar and Athtap to join him.

  “Naydiacar was training to be a pilot. There was a special relationship between her and Siytai, who was her instructor. I also taught her many things about the world and its natural forces. For a girl her age, her navigational skills were extraordinary. She knew how to sense wind velocity and in what direction the ship was going without the use of instruments and maps. We train our young children in such disciplines, so that in time they can take our place. Such ventures are sometimes dangerous. She knew what the risks were. But Siytai and I had always hoped to see her complete her training and grow into a young woman. It was not to be.”

  Tenashar was curious. “Who were her parents?”

  Athtap, sitting nearby, was deep in thought, listening attentively as Knode continued.

  “She had none. Another pilot gave her to us when she was a child. Many children on our island are orphaned at an early age when their parents go out in the fishing boats and are lost in the rough seas. But we knew that Naydiacar was not his child, or he wouldn’t have handed her over so easily.

  “You see, children are precious on our islands. In particular, few female babies are born. We’ve been trying to find ways to correct this, but nothing has worked. So you realize how important Naydiacar was to us. The whole crew raised her together. You see, a crew of a ship is like a family. Being in the air for long periods of time requires us to rely on one another.” Knode stared into the distance.

  Tenashar sensed that Knode was hiding something, but he said nothing.

  Tenashar knew what Athtap was thinking before he even said it. “We are just like you. Our children are precious, and we feel sad if anything happens to them. All people feel like this. But for many years, our children have been disappearing. Many of us have been trying to find out what happened to them. But the answers haven’t come.”

  “Athtap,” Knode began, “I don’t think hiding what I am going to say will make a difference. Your villagers’ faces have told me a lot. Their hostility toward us is something that I have understood for a long time. It’s true that our flying ships have been taking children from these villages for years. But we would never harm them. We thought that we were doing these children a service by educating them. Most of our people cannot have children. We intended to return them when they completed their education. This was our way of teaching your people about the world.

  “But now I see that you have so much more than we have. Naydiacar was originally one of your people. I don’t know which village she came from. I think Siytai is also from this part of the world. Marhidium and I were born on the islands.”

  For Tenashar, this was no shock.

  Tenashar stood up and walked away to stare at the distant horizon. Then calmly he sat down again, trying to keep down the rage that was still hidden within his heart. Tenashar held his composure well.

  “So, Knode, how do we get you back home? Your ship is broken into pieces. All of your crew has been lost. My heart sympathizes with you. You must feel as a father who has lost his children. But I cannot condone your actions toward our children. They were loved and missed by their parents. You had no right to do such a thing.” Athtap spoke with firmness and gentleness, controlling his anger.

  Tenashar was learning a lot. He tried to understand how difficult it was for both Knode and Athtap. In a way, they were both leaders of their respective tribes. One was the chief of a flying ship, the other the chief of the vast mountains and plains. Something had to reconcile their differences, but that would come later.

  It was important to find a way to bring these aeronauts home. Tenashar had thought that perhaps they could find a home among these villagers. Now he realized, though, that the ill feeling of the villagers would never allow any lasting friendship.

  “Knode, what have you decided to do? Go back or stay here?” asked Tenashar.

  “It’s not a difficult decision where we want to end up. For us all, including Siytai, it’s the islands that we think of as our home. Siytai loves his island home. My people perhaps took Siytai away from here, and he doesn’t know his own people. But he has been here many times since his childhood and shows no wish to return to this land. I know Athtap has deep feelings of resentment toward us.

  “I want you to know, Athtap, that the islands are very beautiful, and we must try to go back and help our land and its people. There are flowers that glow at night, and if you see that island at a distance, it is like looking at the night sky filled with stars. Throughout the day, the same flowers change color every hour, and no combination of colors is ever repeated.

  “But the islands are also dying, and my people are slowly dwindling.” Knode then fell silent again.

  chapter 7

  A Story of the Great Islands of the Eastern Ocean

  Tenashar the other people he had met with. Most of all, it was Nainashari that piqued their interest. Athtap had known about Nainashari, but none of his people had ever seen him.

  Knode said, “I have always wanted to meet such a man. We are still looking for a connection between the ruins on the islands and those on the continent, despite the tragedy that came to my ship and crew. I am not insensitive, but I have my orders.”

  He continued with humility. “Athtap, when we find a way home, I will try to persuade my people that no children should ever again be taken from the villages of this land. You have suffered enough. And if the children want to return to their birthplaces, we will tell them of their origins and let them decide for themselves.”

  Athtap accepted this with a dignified nod. “Many of them could teach us what they have learned from your people. It is not for me to hold a grudge against your people. You have suffered as much as we have. Continue to train the children. Perhaps you could even bring some of your people here. I, myself, just like Tenashar, would be delighted to visit your islands.”

  “What do you call this land?” asked Knode.

  “We call our land Ahenathinay,” Athtap began. “It is composed of a group of villages and peoples. My people are the Nathazen, and there are many other tribes. I will speak more, but first I want to know more about your islands.”

  Knode smiled weakly. “Our islands together are called Sahaynaivium. I am from a large island called Seneatuar Vaysaei told Knode and Athtap that similar problems existed in his own land, telling them of all that had been discussed at the councils his people held, as well as all, but I lived most of my life in Isedium. Of the islands, Cordonihalum is the largest. Corsicium has the tallest mountains, reaching far above the clouds. Sesiumthautzia is an island of beautiful beaches, and Himoicum is the capital of all the islands.

  “And there are many other islands—it would take too long to name them all. The days on the various islands are beautiful. Sometimes rain and sun combine to make hundreds of beautiful rainbows. On some islands at night, flowers sing and fly with their own glowing colors. Annually, we have festivals to honor these flowers. Our plains are green, very green, with flowers to add color. Waters so deeply blue it looks as if an artist painted it surround our islands. There is so much to say that I would be talking endlessly,” said Knode.

  “If I were one of the children taken from our land, I, too, would desire to stay in those islands.” Athtap smiled. “Your description makes me feel like I would stay if I visited those islands. It still doesn’t excuse stealing children from our lands, however.”

  Tenashar and Athtap pressed Knode to tell them more about his homeland. At first Knode was hesitant. Then he smiled and gave in.

  “Reefs protect our shoreline, making areas of calm waters around our be
aches. Outside of these calm waters, the oceans churn like storms. In all, there are forty islands, large and small. Each island has a unique environment, and each islander brags and argues about whose island is the best. It’s a form of friendly competition.

  “Tall spire-like structures are our local style of architecture—some even reach into the clouds—alongside low structures that resemble domes. Other buildings resemble the designs of shells, which are natural for our people, because the oceans surround us. Some are even built out over and on the water. Some structures and bridges are built right in and on the treacherous waters. The bridges connect one city with another, extending some of them far out into the sea.

  “Besides the forty main islands that comprise Sahaynaivium, there are hundreds of much smaller rock islands that spread out far beyond the main islands. Bridges also span some of these. That is how the sea cities are connected into a whole.

  “Our islands stretch far to the north, almost to the polar region, and southward past the equator. Cordonihalum is actually an island continent. It takes up almost half the northern latitudes. Isedium is only slightly smaller in size. So the capital city has a climate with slightly cold variations during the summer and winter. But they tend to be generally on the cool side. So this had made Himoicum the ideal place for gatherings of people from all the islands.

  “Many leagues from the capital city lie the ancient ruins. The scholars were quite aware that they are of some culture that came before us, but were not our own ancestors. They were an unknown race of people who resided on our islands many thousands of centuries ago.”

  Tenashar recalled Sanashei’s words about Cashmakil and felt there was some connection with the islands. Perhaps the Sileizan may have been responsible for the construction of those ruins.

  Knode said the ruins remained an enigma for the islanders. He said that some of the strange devices left behind in the ruins were still working. His people had no words for these devices. Some of the scholars and scientists called them machines, while others disagreed. It was impossible to understand what these devices actually were. None of their scholars could figure out how they worked. The devices weren’t living beings or machines, so this made them unclassifiable. The ruins were ignored by most of the population, as if they were part of the natural landscape.

  Knode continued his story about the islands. “The beautiful glowing and flying flowers have almost covered up everything on most of the islands.

  “There is a great king whose wisdom and skill presides over a council that is made up of highly accomplished craftsmen. Their function is similar to your Aura-Laei-i. Our king is more of a ‘Head of the Council’ or ‘Salseth’—a Sahaynaivium word. Such a leader is elected to the twenty-nine skies and rivers of the Trees that Reach the Stars. A Salseth has no servants, because they must do every task on their own. There is also no palace. They live only in a small cubicle.

  “As I have said before, many of the tall cone-shaped towers reach high toward the sun. Like most capital cities, the population is immense. Once, the people numbered in the millions. But in recent generations, the population has been declining, as few children are being born—an enigma that we haven’t found the answers for. Our women are generally healthy, and yet we can find no cause.

  “It’s a little painful for me to talk about why we can’t have children. Let me speak more about the natural world of Sahaynaivium. In Sahaynaivium, there is a peculiar bird that looks like a flower. It isn’t a flower, but its plumage has the appearance of transparent flowers. As a child, I used to mistake these birds for flowers, but my mother told me they were birds. They evolved to look like flowers as their way of escaping predators, which have since become extinct. Law for islanders to keep the birds as pets forbids it.

  “Many of the large animals that once roamed Sahaynaivium have been extinct for generations. The Jochiabi is now the largest animal remaining in the islands. It looks like an elongated otter, with a long, thick, pointed tail. The snout is also long and pointed, almost resembling a crocodile. Its ears are rounded like a mouse. The Jochiabi’s coat is a hodgepodge of various brown shades—black, red, and yellow—that includes all possible combinations. These animals have powerful claws that are used to dig up roots and tree trunks. Its fearsome appearance gives it the look of a predator, and yet the Jochiabi is the gentlest of herbivores. It can reach twelve to fourteen feet tall, and its length can get to a forty-five feet long. Ancient Sahaynaiviums used them as transportation. Of course, now we use vehicles that are powered using beams of light, electromagnetic energy, and various chemicals.

  “A rule has existed in Sahaynaivium from very ancient times that said cities are to be built in rough, arid regions or places where life barely exists. There is an abundance of life on the land and in the ocean because of these laws. Because the ocean surrounds us, seafood is in abundance. That is why we mostly eat seafood.”

  Tenashar thought there was a lot of pride in Knode’s words. Yet they seemed somewhat empty to Tenashar, who knew that even the beautiful land of Sahaynaivium was starting to die.

  Knode began to speak again. Tenashar, Athtap, and the villagers listened eagerly. “I was born in the mountain region of Seneatuar Vaysaei. We call the mountains the ‘Sky Region.’ We call it this because many of the mountains almost touch the sky. The mountaintops that reach beyond the clouds are a special place for our people. The sun’s brightness brings a glow and laughter to the children who grow up so high, and they develop a natural curiosity for the universe. They look up at the sky, night or day, without interruption, because the clouds are far below them. The children go to the observatories there and look at the stars. The astronomers teach them about the universe.

  “In this land, the homes and important buildings are built right into the mountains. There is so much lush plant and animal life that the people of Corsicium have great respect for their mountain home. Because the mountains are difficult to travel over, flying has become a convenient form of transportation. In Corsicium, we developed flight before any of the other island peoples.”

  Tenashar, Athtap, and the villagers that now gathered in large numbers had been listening to the many marvels of the islands. This gave Tenashar dreams of going to the islands. He was touched as he continued to hear of the wonders of Sahaynaivium. But only a small part of the story had been told, and there was so much to tell.

  Tenashar, Athtap, and the villagers were exhausted and needed to rest.

  chapter 8

  Messenger Ride Across the Plains

  After Knode went to bed, A-amar remained behind to speak with Tenashar concerning Knode. “Do you think that it’s possible to send these people back to their islands? Perhaps Nainashari or Ilaythesia could help with this. They live in another time and place. They must have more knowledge than we do.”

  Tenashar was determined. “If it is necessary, we will try to speak with them. But I think we should find the answer ourselves.”

  Tenashar was changing, growing up fast for his age. He hadn’t previously noticed this, but A-amar was treating him like a man. Even Knode had treated Tenashar in a similar manner.

  Athtap said, “You seem to think bringing Knode back to Sahaynaivium is important. Why is this? They could wait for another ship to come here, even if it takes many years. They would be made comfortable here.”

  Athtap’s questions were natural. None of the villagers could expend the energy necessary to get the Sahaynaiviums back to their island home. Tenashar had meditated on this problem for a long time. Yet no matter how he thought about it, there were no easy answers.

  Athtap’s advice to Tenashar was to be patient. “Although you have the wisdom to figure things out, there is still much to be learned. Every situation requires new thoughts. Use your imagination. You’re still young.”

  It was decided to send a messenger to all the towns of the Homvia, telling everyone what had transpired. From there, they would send another messenger on to Nainashari. Most of the villagers
believed that Nainashari could give them good advice concerning the Sahaynaiviums.

  Not everyone was sure about this, including Tenashar. He was not convinced that his friend in the cave could give them any advice on this. Yet it was best to try everything.

  Tenashar still secretly wished to see Sahaynaivium for himself. From what Knode had said about its wonders, he could imagine what it would be like to see the islands. He wished to be the first Senetha to make the journey and hoped another flying ship would come for Knode and his crew so that he could fly with them over the ocean.

  Knode, Marhidium, and Siytai were staying in a dwelling reserved for them. Tenashar entered to see what they were doing. He sat down next to Marhidium. She said, “I don’t knowing what’s happening. Everything is in confusion. I want to lie down and never get up. There’s nothing in the world. All things are going to die. I just don’t feel good or know what to think.”

  Marhidium spoke of the ordeal as the ship headed for the ground. “At first the air was smooth. We came closer to the mountains to observe the high settlements. Some of them were so beautiful! It reminded us of Corsicium. On a slow approach to the mountains, fog soon surrounded us, and the pilots weren’t able to see. We may have hit part of the mountain. All I know is that suddenly there was a huge windstorm that grabbed us and threw the ship into a valley filled with even higher winds. The pilots managed to gain control, bringing the ship out of the valley—if this hadn’t happened, we would have all certainly died.

  “However, the engines suddenly failed! The controls didn’t respond anymore. We feared what would happen, so Naydiacar and I lay down on the floor. Siytai and the other pilots must have done the same. Knode stayed in his chair and braced himself.