A Twist of the Sands

by P R Glazier

  Chapter 40. The Eastern Coast

  The following morning they decided to leave the islands in the Sea of Beadreas. As beautiful as it seemed to them, there were also many hidden dangers amongst the islands. Nar’Allia pondered the violence of the volcanos in the area, the brutality of the Dragon Birds, the fact that there seemed to be no populations of people here, even the T’Iea had a temporary home, never staying for long periods of time and even their sanctuary did not seem to have been used in many years. The obvious place to go was further west, heed Serinae’s words to seek out the humans that lived on the eastern side of the continent, back to Dahl’Ambronis. Seek out Teouso’s people, seek out the sage of whom Serinae spoke. Serinae seemed to know a lot more about the situation than they, in fact she had provided the best clue as to the whereabouts of Minervar. The Leviathan on which they travelled seemed now at least to be a blessing, a way to get them to wherever they wanted to go, quickly and efficiently. Nar’Allia stood upon the bridge looking out to the west across the sea beyond the islands towards where she knew lay Dahl’Ambronis. She frowned, something tugged at her mind, then shrugging she assumed it was some desire to be back there, for there was her home, her father and her brother and sister. 

  They all seemed in sombre mood. Apart from agreeing the direction in which they should travel, none had suggested an actual destination. They sort Teouso’s people, that part was clear, but where to find them. Teouso had been Serinae’s old business partner of sorts. They had travelled together extensively. They had both been part of the company along with Minervar when they had embarked on their own adventures long ago. All Nar’Allia had to go on was a brief part of Minervar’s tale of those adventures. How Teouso, a shifter, had originated from beyond the Tolle’Fornosse’Veetri, the mountains of the great spine that divide Dahl’Ambronis between the west where Nar’Allia’s people originated and the eastern part of the continent, the part of Dahl’Ambronis they were now headed for. She knew from the stories that Teouso hailed from these eastern parts, but Dahl’Ambronis was a vast land mass, how easy was it going to be to find the easterners? That was the question on Nar’Allia’s mind.

  Nar’Allia was harbouring another thought, something that had occurred to her before, but now seemed like a more urgent thing. What if the easterners and the Pnook that used to live on the continent had a relationship, maybe it would be easier to find the ruined city and start from there? She found herself saying, “JDC, remember the brief discussion we had about trying to find the old Pnook city? Well perhaps we should make that more than just an idea; maybe we should actually try and find it.”

  JDC shrugged, “well like a said before it’s as good a place as any to head for, after all we do not have any better ideas eh?” He looked around the table questioningly, waiting to see if either Jonas or Amndo could offer an alternative plan. None seemed forthcoming so he said, “looks like we have a plan then, let’s set a course for the old city of Mechno Babaptruek,” then under his breath he said mainly for his own satisfaction, “and let’s hope we find something there worthwhile.”

  So it was after they had eaten, they all went up to the control room and JDC entered the coordinates of the old Pnook city, well roughly were he understood the city to have once stood. His finger hovered over the enter button for a few seconds hesitating, but he shrugged and pushed the button with a sigh. The Leviathan shifted its course very slightly taking them further north across the Sea of Beadreas. There course meant flying back up the chain of islands to the peninsula that Nar’Allia had thought looked like the old man’s dripping nose. 

  Nar’Allia had mixed feelings about leaving the chain of islands. She had met some dangers here, had cause to fear the place in some ways, yet it also held a beauty an attraction. She had found an untouched natural environment here, something that appealed to her T’Iea spirit. She had even found evidence that her people had at one time regularly visited the islands; they had left their mark upon the place. But she knew they had to move on, they had a hard and fast clue now if Serinae was to be believed and with a smile she thought that felt good.

  Nar’Allia found herself wondering what was at the far end of the chain of islands, they had stopped at the Isle of Pigs and not ventured farther in their flight, she asked Amndo if he knew what may lie further south.

  He smiled and looked a little mischievous. “Well, I have heard it say that further south there lays the end of the world, where the great oceans fall in a massive cataclysm over the edge and plunge into the great dark void. Great storms rage, all the elements fight one another for dominance. Any ship foolhardy enough to venture into those regions would be lost.” He nodded his head as if confirming what he had just said. “Sailors have long told of such tales.”

  Nar’Allia looked at him with a somewhat sideways glance. “Do you believe that?” Nar’Allia had some scepticism in her voice.”

  Amndo smiled at her and chuckled, “a very romantic notion, but no, I do not.”

  Nar’Allia smiled and asked, “you don’t have any T’Iea heritage in your family Amndo?”

  He chuckled. “Alas no. But it is true the islands extend much farther to the south, there the seismic and volcanic activity increases and the land masses are in constant change due to the volatile nature of the area. It is a conflicting land, a place of fire, water and ice. I assume nothing lives there due to the extreme nature of the forces that constantly rend the region and keep the land and sea in constant turmoil. The island chains are there because of the volcanoes, just as they are hereabouts. You witnessed the natural power of that single one we flew over a week or so back? Well imagine that multiplied a hundred times and you will get some idea of the sort of welcome you would receive further south.”

  Nar’Allia nodded, a vision of molten lava spewing out from the top of the mountain, the sheer power of the eruptions and explosions that tore the side out of the island lofty peak. The battle of heat and cold as the two liquids clashed, the hot liquid rock and the cold ocean waters. A battle fought between the young new land and the old ancient sea, both battling for supremacy in an ages old conflict born in the prehistory, born in the days following the Makers creation of the world.

  Amndo continued, “the islands sit right over two great shelves in the worlds crust moving in opposite directions, these two vast tectonic plates are themselves afloat on a worldwide ocean of liquid rock, an ocean of magma far below our feet deep within the core of the world. The two plates are moving extremely slowly towards each other, where they meet one plate rises up, forced over and above the other. This higher plate rises very near to the surface of the ocean or even above it.” He held out both hands with his fingertips touching as he pushed his hands together his fingers rose up until they formed a steeple before his eyes.

  Nar’Allia nodded, showing her understanding of what he was explaining. “So the continents of this world are afloat upon the sea of magma like a great ship?”

  “That they are, but when two plates collide, the forces split the edges and, the magma, deep within the world is under great pressure from the enormous weight of the tectonic plates and it finds a way through the cracks to burst through and spew forth like a fountain upon the surface of the world. These fountains form volcanoes like the one we witnessed. The rock cools once it is free of the underworld ocean from whence it came and the islands are formed. If it remains there for a time long enough, trees and eventually wild life is able to take a foothold and survive there.”

  JDC came to them and said, “come, look, we approach the mainland.”

  They walked over to the viewing windows where Jonas was already looking out. Just ahead of them lay the peninsula which jutted out into the ocean from the land mass of Dahl’Ambronis. It looked like the edge of a sword lying flat, the cutting edge lying uppermost as if its counterpart, the opposite edge, had sliced into the ocean below. The rock was very rugged and sharp pinnacles stuck up in numerous places, between these pinnacles lay deep fissures. The whole scene reminde
d Nar’Allia of the pictures of sharp teeth in a dragon’s mouth, she was reminded of the stories that she had loved as a child.

  She found herself wandering out onto the observation balcony deck and breathing the fresh air, looking down upon the sights and sounds below. She thought of the cataclysmic forces deep beneath her feet, the ocean of magma. Her thoughts reminded her of a favourite story from her childhood. One of her favourite books of that time had been ‘The Breath of the Dragons.’ It told of these mythical creatures, the Fire Drakes or Y’Lien’A as they were known in the T’Iea tongue of old. Also their distant cousins the Ice Drakes, known to the T’Iea as the T’Uin’Eeid. The stories told of how both races of ancient dragons flew through the vast nothingness listening to the word of Eny’Nin’Rel, the Maker and Father of All. Eny’Nin’Rel started to create other things and the great drakes soon discovered the young world of Eny’Nin’Rel’s creation. Were there had been nothing there was now something. The Y’Lien’A were the first to arrive and they proclaimed sovereignty over the young world for they could see that it was hot and not yet cooled from the forges of the Maker who moulded it into shape and carefully placed it within the dark void. The T’Uin’Eeid became jealous of the gain made by the Y’Lien’A, they felt cheated that they did not have a world of their own. They were disgusted that all new worlds were hot and not cold, they felt a deep jealousy, somehow they thought that the Y’Lien’A, because of their natural affinity to fire, may be closer to the creation process and therefore closer to the Maker himself.

  The T’Uin’Eeid plotted to take over the new world. One among them, an elder drake T’En’Ty, was sent to wrestle the new world from its appointed guardian Y’Lien’A, another ancient drake named Y’Zox’A. The great fire drake, Y’Zox’A, would not give in to his attacker the ice drake T’En’Ty and the two dragons met in bitter battle and fought long and hard. The ice drake  managed to grasp the young world in his claw, it burned him badly, yet he would not let it go and so he fled the battle with his prize. So it was the young world started to cool in the grasp of the ice drake who took it far away out into the dark void pursued by the fire drake that had originally grasped the world. Eny’Nin’Rel awoke and seeing his creation had been stolen went after them to subdue the two drakes. But the drakes were agile and kept out of his way. So Eny’Nin’Rel set a trap intent on capturing them so he could bind each of them with a chain. The first to fly into the trap was Y’Zox’A the fire drake. Eny’Nin’Rel tied the wings of The fire drake to keep him in one place, some say that the sun is the fire drake, still chained in the void burning brightly but unable to move.

  Eny’Nin’Rel then tried to rest the world from the grip of the ice drake T’En’Ty, but the world had cooled and ice linked the world and the drake together. So even though Eny’Nin’Rel managed to get the world out from the ice drakes claws, a piece of the world was left behind in the ice drakes grasp. Some say the moon is the ice drake, destined to fly around the world into eternity, forever trying to find a way to make the world whole once again in an attempt to please Eny’Nin’Rel and gain retribution for his great crime.

  But the remaining dragons of both factions never resolved their differences, even though their elders had been banished. So they continued to fight, locked in a constant battle for supremacy. The old stories told of how Eny’Nin’Rel, had tried on numerous occasions and in numerous ways to persuade the two dragon races to live in peace and harmony for the good of all, for he feared they would destroy each other rather than bow to their old enemies. The drakes were relentless in their fight, some crashed into the world and created fire and ice. In a fit of anger and frustration, Eny’Nin’Rel banished both races of dragon into the further reaches of the void. His wrath was so great he flung all of them that remained far out into the great nothingness.

  It is there beyond in the far reaches of nothingness that both the Y’Lien’A and the T’Uin’Eeid remain, destined to fly for eternity lost in the far voids. Both the Y’Lien’A and the T’Uin’Eeid realised their folly but it was too late. Both races shed many tears of sorrow. They pleaded with Eny’Nin’Rel for his forgiveness and such was the grace of Eny’Nin’Rel he allowed some of the tears shed by the drakes to find a way back to the known void so that all would be reminded of the great drakes and they would not be forgotten and thus have their place at the end of time when all things are judged. Thus it was, the fire drakes tears became the fiery stars and the ice drakes tears became the icy comets and meteors.

  Nar’Allia smiled a little, thinking on what she had witnessed over the last few days and what Amndo had told her, in her heart she thought it would be nice in some romantic sense if the two dragon races the Y’Lien’A and the T’Uin’Eeid still battled along the chain of islands they had visited. She imagined the great and terrible beasts in a timeless struggle, neither the Y’Lien’A and the T’Uin’Eeid could ever hope to win, they were destined to this life of turmoil. Slaves to their own vanity, perhaps even oblivious to why they fought. A battle that would rage on until the end of time, when Eny’Nin’Rel decrees that the world and the universe were to come to a stop, time itself would be brought to a halt. Then all of Eny’Nin’Rel’s creation, now slowed and halted, bowed and breathless, lay prostrate to await the great remaking of creation by the great Maker himself. The time of his choosing when all things were to be judged and the sum of creation made right once and for all.

  Nar’Allia was startled out of her thoughts, she became aware of a presence beside her and shaking her thoughts from her memories of the old books she found Jonas standing there leaning upon the hand rail looking down.

  “Beautiful isn’t it?” He nodded in the downwards direction.

  Nar’Allia looked down, she hadn’t noticed but the peninsula had widened and its top became flat. A few rocky outcrops could be seen below sticking up through a sea of rich green. A vast forest spread out below, so dense the land could not be seen between the trees, indeed the only thing that separated the trees visibly was the changes in leaf shapes and species of which there were too numerous to count. Bird calls could be heard in the canopy and other creatures cried out to them as they passed overhead. A flock of hundreds of colourful birds flew below them across the tree tops, completely unfazed or maybe unaware of their passage above, for the leviathan made little noise as it flew. In places, thick clouds or mist hung above the forest masking it from view, the air was very warm and very moist. The forest below had a clean musky odour that reached up to their nostrils even at this height. It smelled like hot spices, interspersed with a floral aroma, then changing yet again to a heavy, heady scent, all of which resulted in Nar’Allia’s senses racing and her imagination reeling.

  The peninsula continued to widen as they progressed along their route. Eventually the ocean could not be seen in any direction. The watery blue of the sea of Beadreas had been replaced by a sea of a different colour, a sea of green. The white crested waves of the ocean had been transformed into the puffy white of thin wispy clouds and water vapour rising from the rich, damp rain forests below. However, after a couple more hours of flight Nar’Allia again found herself wandering up and down the balcony decks on both sides of the Leviathan. She noticed that the dense forest was thinning. The air temperature had also subtly changed; the air here was dryer and somewhat cooler than it had been. The types of trees that grew were also changing, whereas the deep dense forest had comprised of tall trees with broad almost waxy leaves, the trees here were not quite as tall and they were spread out further from each other so that individuals could be seen and the brown sandy ground clearly visible between them. In fact it reminded her much more of the great wood of Gel’Te’Ertenya where she lived.

  All that day the woodland passed below them, only when night drew its shroud across the landscape did Nar’Allia return inside the belly of the great beast.