Chapter I
The Stirring
(In cursive, in a journal)
Sun Season 55
I have made up my mind to leave my home and those I love. Selfish perhaps, but the urge that wells inside me has made me enough of an unstable man. Eating, drinking, sleeping, farming, are all encumberments to my spirit. Do not others feel my hearts passion as well?
We are an ancient people with no memories, no heritage, no birthright, no records. Our buildings are timeless, built of stones hewn from lost quarries thoasands, maybe hundreds of thousands of year ago. Why are we here? Who are we? Without answers our lives have no meaning, no matter how momentarily enjoyable we percieve them to be. We struggle with the sand and sun to survive, a simple existance. A hollow and tasteless existance. If not for these chronicles, even my life and death would be quickly forgotten among the endless sands and heat. How many have passed on before me, being birthed into darkness and returning there after a petty number of seasons? I leave tommorow. I may never come back. I hope for something, crave to find it. May some gods grant us knowledge, for we are a souless people.
(signed Thomas Sanjus Grey, journal entry over).
Thomas had never felt so lost in his entire life. The path was uncertain, and the return unlikely. That is what many said. A beautifully aged woman, through her tears spoke. “Thomas, I love you. Please do not get lost. Find your way back to me, Thomas.” They kissed tenderly and embraced for a moment. He took her by the hand and led her around the edge of the city. It was an amazing place. The city wall towered over them, being seven heights of a man. The rock was a light white, speckled with black and the surface was partially smooth. “This rock could stand forever my love,” remarked Thomas as he tenderly touched the stone. A voice from the distance brought his mind back.
“It is remarkable and I wouldn’t believe it unless I had lived it myself Thomas,” Counsillor Markus called from afar, standing with Thomas’s pack and a warm greeting. “It took eighteen seasons to build it. Marvellous. The mortar made of the redrock silt from the broken water silos. That was a stroke of needed genius, both the reuse of the silos and the water harvesting crystals. But more than miraculous, how did you know where the forever stone was?”
“Deep inside my heart I could feel it. Sense it. I knew our salvation was beneath the sand and I just started digging. Don’t you remember?”
“Of course I do,” Markus nodded his head, ” although I never tire to hear it.”
Thomas smiled and bowed slightly. “Fortune is oft tied to the tail of Misfortune isnt?”
“We are all sad to see you leave. It will be a blessing to see you return, even if you do not bring anything back. You have been our fortune,” Markus remarked. “Goodbye my friend.” They hugged firmly and put on his small pack. Thomas took his wife’s hand again. She made Thomas agree to let her walk with him until the suns had gone down, when he would start to travel with great speed. The heat was waning and sunset approached. They walked slowly as the town glimmered in the light behind them, niether talking. She was an amazing woman and part of Thomas wished that she could come with him. Her garden was the most productive of the city. Thomas believed it was because her warm and gentle voice carried love into the fruits when she sang to them. Her mind was so reasonable, her hands so caring. Her deeds were larger than life, much like her husband’s. He celebrated her and relished her success. Their romance was without an equal memory.
Thomas softly began speaking. “Do you remember when we were first wed?” Thomas lifted his head and smiled broadly. “And the ring I got you is the second most beautiful thing in the world.” His wife grasped his hand and leaned over onto his body. Teasingly she whispered into his ear, her lips against his face. “How could you know that – you haven’t even travelled past the rock ridges?” Thomas laughed, “I cannot be wrong, and when I return having seen everything you must finially agree with me.” He pulled up her hand and turned her body towards his. His kissed her hand and looked into her eyes. “It is a magnificent ring though. I fought the largest wurm ever seen, my spears length covered with scales from the hundred times I peirced him and removed my weapon.” Thomas began to motion with body, acting out the sence. “He turned at me, both of us exhausted, and charged. His mouth was wide enough to swallow me whole. He took part of my arm into his jaw, I too weak to dodge. I thought I would die, but then I remembered that song you used to sing at night, the one when I would hear as I watched you from the window. I couldn’t die, I was to be married to you!” Thomas loudly described the battle. ” I took hold of his tooth and pull it out from his purtrid mouth and stabbed him in the eye. He bellowed and thrashed mightily. It took a half turn of the suns before the beast finially lie dead at my feet.” Thomas breathed deeply, blushing a bit. “But you’ve heard that before, haven’t you? Still incredible though to find a peice of the fire-colored stone in it’s belly.” Thomas raised up her hand and looked at the ruby circle on her finger. Etched on the surface was a picture of flowing water all around the band.
“The endless waterfall, do you think you’ll find it out there Thomas?”
“Of course. We all know what a river is, although we have never seen one. There is no chronicle describing it. Many of us have had dreams where we have put our whole bodies in the flowing water. How could we all know that a river is without it existing?”
“I believe you Thomas.” Her voice trailed off. ” I believe you.”
