Chapter5
An. am feeling soooo depressed, i've only got one hit for chp 4 and 5 revs 4 the whole thing and 4 of thm don't count as i know them and they only went on my site because they knew me and are just doing it to be kind, i don't think they actually like it. this will probably be my last pg i bother to put up, there's no point in continuing. nobody's even going to read this, that's even more depressing.
The Raeraccs stood late in the night watching over Amonsovns sleeping form, looking so peaceful now with her golden hair tumbling around her face, the eagle like features calm and serene. They conversed together in their low, grunting tones and whistles. Raeraccs have a language of sorts, just as some animals have different alarm calls for different types of predators eg danger from above like birds so hide under/on the ground, danger from the ground like big cats so hide in the trees. The Raeraccs language is more sophisticated and they even have ways of describing things, though, most sounds have many different meanings depending on the context. The conversation now went something like this:
"She/he go/leave/be absent/not here soon/not yet/in the future?"
"Yes/true/correct afraid it is so/sorry of/it's ashame/its sad it is probable/possibly not but probably yes/most lightly"
"I/me is sad/is upset/unhappy/not pleased/not good miss/wish for she/he soon/not yet/in the future."
"Never mind/oh well goodnight/good/goodbye for now/see you later." The male Raeracc finished the conversation with a kind of acknowledgement that humans at least have developed, it is almost just a way of ending a conversation or acknowledging some one with out one and wishing the other well. He then padded off to sleep.
Amonsovn knew she could not stay long. Every morning she jogged to Racshyahrmalrl, Kataalacs cliff, and watched the rebirth of the Phinixac from the tree branch and contemplated on everything, sometimes she would stay up there for hours. Then she would jog back to the den taking a longer root to build up the muscles on her legs and keep the rest of her in condition. One such morning when she was jogging back thinking about the giant things the raiders had come in when she remembered something. A long time ago one of the people's ancestors had created a wind powered canoe and sailed it. They had discovered a huge landmass not that far away, but the raiders had not come from there, the raiders had com from further away.
She thought about it as she jogged, it could not be built like a canoe as animal leathers would not be strong enough to support the wooden pole that would hold up the sail. The craft would probably need to be solid wood. There were many things that would cause problems and many things would have to be changed.
When she arrived back at the den she started a small fire for charcoal and stripped some bark off the branches. She had never been brilliant at creating charcoal sticks but they would work and soon she had the writing equipment she needed and started making sketches, plans and ideas onto the untreated bark. Several times she had to refresh her materials. She worked like this for most of the day.
Along time she worked on the boat idea and began creating small models to test. Originally she had thought she would have to hollow out a huge log and the model for that worked but she knew she would have great difficulty in finding a log big enough. She then tried to find away to create a boat body out of many different pieces of wood but she could not find a way to make it water tight and all her models sank. She started to experiment with different types of wood and found that Uuragiahharis (pronounce: Or-age-ear-who-r-is) wood was very light and had a very sticky sap that seemed to help water proof it. She tried putting the sap in the joins in the wood, she knew some basic carpentry and had quite enjoyed it when she was young, it worked at first but then the sap got washed out. She found ,when in disgust she had thrown the model on the fire, that when heated the sap became much harder. She made a stone bowl, filled it with the sap and rigged it up over the flames. She boiled the sap and after various attempts made her model water tight. After that it was back to work on a sail design and also what to make the sail from.
Several months later Amonsovn had completed her boat. It had taken a long time. She had had to plan it and build it, both of which had taken a lot of time but then she had had to teach her self how it sail it, she knew the mechanics of it as she had designed it but It was much harder to do in the practise. The sail had also had to be redesigned several times and the actual making of it had been very tricky but now she was ready, she hoped, and it had been named Asspsieaichan (pronounce: Assps-iair-chan) meaning Last Light/Flame.
Provisions had also been tricky but now she had a large supply of 'salted' meat that she reckoned would last and she also had some fruit even though that would only last a week at the most. There was also several large hopefully water tight containers of fresh water. Well, this was it.
Amonsovn stood on beach in the bay and regarded her creation critically with her green-brown eyes, it was long and quite thin with various weights under the bottom to balance it and to try and prevent capsizing. The mast was a good stout pole all thought it would bend in strong winds so hopefully would not snap too easily and the sails were made of treated animal hides. She had spent ages on those so they now were virtually water resistant. She had plenty of spare and would rig it over the back end of the boat and sleep under it at night. She chose to sleep at the back because then she would be able to keep an eye on the steering device she had created when fiddling around with one of her make shift paddles, it consisted of a large board that was attached to a handle, she had made a crude tiller.
Mentally Amonsovn ran over everything she had put in and all the things she might need on a long voyage. Now it came to it she did not want to leave, the island was everything she had ever know, it had been her very existence but now she needed to leave, she had to leave. For one last time she walked to her home. The journey was quick and easy now she was in full heath. She walked for one last time through the ashes of her people. Around them she had knotted a living vine telling of her peoples last hour. The vine would grow but he story would always be there at the heart and as she made it she sent her prayers up to their Goddess Kra in a low lilting voice.
"Mother Goddess, my people are dead and gone. It was not within my power to stop this though I tried with all my heart and soul. It shames me that I live when they are dead, but as the last of my people I will strive on even though I am all alone. Let this be the last resting place of my people, make this holy ground, and let none of evil soul with evil intent ever enter this place, honour the souls of my people. They died bravely against those to whom they had done no harm. Innocents were killed. Let all those who desecrate this place from now on perish in fire and pain. Let none harm the eternal rest of my people." As she spoke she knotted the curse into the vine. In painful silence she then rose and began to tread around her home singing:
Their lives are at end,
Their time is over.
Their wills never bend.
They strived unto the last,
Keeping on for their people.
But they are now past.
So take them in your arms Mother Goddess, Mother Goddess
Take them in your arms I do pray,
Their hearts were strong yet loving,
They were fire yet still tender,
Their will was iron yet giving,
So take them in your arms I do pray.
Take them in your arms Mother Goddess.
Once round one way then back around in the other she went singing The Last Song, the song for those who have gone on, her last farewell to her people. When the song ended she strode down to the bay. She had to keep herself going or she would never be able to leave, yet she could not stay either, she would go insane. She turned and gazed back at the land as she was climbing onto the boat. The Raeraccs had appeared on the shore stepping out from the trees onto the sand. In her time with them she had picked up the rudimentary basics of their language although she still found it very confusing. There was one time when she had finally managed to get her first fishing line to work and caught some fish she came in and told them proudly, "I am a caught fish!" It had made the Raeraccs roll around on the floor emitting strange sawing whistles that she guessed was laughter, it had taken her weeks to work out what she had actually said.
Now she walked up to the two adults and the now full grown cubs that had been there when she was first taken to the den and their current litter of fuzzy terrors. She gently placed her hand on each of their foreheads intern and touched noses with them as she had seen them do in farewell. As she did this other Raeraccs began to emerge from the trees, some she knew, some she did not. Even a few Naish appeared. She stood and looked out over the arrayed cats and they all shared her gaze, proud amber eyes staring back at her. As she stood there each and every animal opened its mouth and emitted and strange, echoing, long, deep sound that grew louder and louder, the mournful cry reverberating around her, weaving its slow rhythmic pattern, its dance entwining her very soul. Mouths gaped and white teeth glistened around their gaping maws. The song that seemed to emerge from the noise was slow and beautiful it captured her completely and sound sprung, unbidden, to her lips and she too opened her mouth and sung. Together great cats and woman sang their last farewell together, a farewell of deep mourning as they knew they would never meet again until they left the earth for the great lands of the Gods in whatever afterlife awaited them. The song told of grief and mourning, it told of the pain of parting, it expressed feelings that are so hard to put into words, it told of the gladness they had met and the things that had been done together, it said it all.
When the sound died away Amonsovn dashed the tears from her eyes and promised herself that if she could she would return sometime. Then with great sadness she turned and climbed into her boat. There was no wind in the bay so she used her hand carved paddles and a long wooden pole with a hook on the end to propel her out of the bay where the wind caught the sail and blew her away to the loneliness of the open, endless sea.
The sea is a fickle lady and Amonsovn had to survive huge waves three times her height and calm days when there was not a ripple on the surface and she had to row to keep going. Amonsovn knew the constellations over the island well, there is a story that when Kra's lover the sun was away she had cried and these were the stars that now hang above still falling and in thousands of years time they will reach the earth on the last day of Time. What puzzled Amonsovn was that little by little the stars seemed to be moving across the sky, she still held on to the constellations that she knew to guide her in the right direction, she guessed that she was seeing the Goddesses tears from a different place but it was puzzling.
Amonsovn is about to hit the storm, the mysterious storm that seems to keep changing direction sweeping boats along the straights of Gibraltar. Selenes almost done.
an. why am I bothering to put this up?