Each of the stars and constellations, Uncle taught him, are fixed, fiery points in a huge dome or firmament made of brass. This enormous brass roof rests, at its foundations, on the four corners of Tremn, which is a mighty disc, three hundred tvinshaffs deep, suspended over the burning fires and oceans of ice which make up the Realm of Gahimka—a deep abyss ruled over by the evil spirit, Afflish, and his cohort of evil beings. The four corners are realms of ice ruled by giants, separated from the kingdoms of the Tremna by an impenetrable ocean, the Great Encircling Ocean. Above the dome is the glorious Kingdom of the Great Spirit, called the Realm of Ganka. He still remembered his uncle’s expression, which lit up with an ethereal radiance, as if the light of Ganka had descended upon him.
“There all the lesser spirits circle round the throne of light, which is the abode of the Great Spirit,” said Matuka. “All the good followers of the Right Religion of the Holy Tamitvar are admitted into their company, in mansions of pure whiteness, surrounded by sweet rivers, gardens and orchards laden with the most succulent fruit. Each one who is admitted is given a robe of woven gold-thread with green and white brocade and a crown encrusted with the most luminescent and sparkling diamonds. The monks and priests, bishops and patriarchs, have the most glorious palaces and thrones of solid gold where they are waited upon by ravishingly beautiful damsels and spirits of such brilliance that there is no need for any other source of illumination. If only I were a monk! But perhaps you could one day enter the orders of the mendicants, if only you weren’t so bearded!”
The words still echoed in his ears and the images of Ganka still permeated his every thought. He desired access to that glorious realm and every moment yearned for the company of the bright spirits and damsels above. He also feared the terrible realm of Gahimka and the bonds of unbreakable iron which held all the offenders of the Great Spirit in everlasting bondage and torment at the whim and will of the hideous Afflish.
Even as these images were conveyed to his mind, he felt that the barrel no longer rubbed against a cavernous ceiling and it had emerged into the fresh, night air. It seemed to be driven by a fast current along a stream before being sucked into the current of a river which splashed against the walls of his prison as it tossed to and fro. He was carried down the river for some hours, far beyond the borders of his native tugaff or ‘local borough’, until the river seemed to slow and the barrel rubbed up against the muddy, reed-covered bank where it became lodged in the sticky, black mud. He heard the sound of feet approaching and he shuddered as they splashed and squished in the mud and rustled the reeds, until he heard breathing and the sound of hands upon the barrel.
“Heika!” a voice exclaimed, which was the Tremni expression for halloa or an interjection of surprise. “What have we here? Some barrelled shkometv rinds or kutv-knobblies, I imagine, from the forest upstream. Who would cast away such dainties? Perchance it was lost by happenstance. No mind; it now belongs to the servants of the Great Spirit. Father Entva Intoff shall be most delighted!”
The man lifted the barrel and found it extremely heavy. He groaned and fell backwards.
“Hey ho, what devilry is this? Shouldn’t be so hefty!” A cry was released, not from the monk but from the barrel, as it fell into the mud.
“A cry! A cry!” shouted the man. “A being lives within! Shall I open it or exorcise the critter?”
Recovering himself, he approached the barrel and cautiously pried open the lid. Shocked by seeing the cramped and squashed little bearded boy, he jumped backwards with a shriek.
“Monstrosity of monstrosities!” he cried. “Is this a hobgoblin or a forest sprite?”
“I am neither!” protested Ifunka at last as he emerged from the barrel, somewhat bruised with aching limbs but otherwise unscathed. “I’m just a boy—an orphan. Some bad men attacked my aunt and uncle and I escaped down the river in this here barrel. I am cold, tired and hungry and you are a servant of the Great Spirit! Please help me!”
The monk appeared to be a man of medium-height, pale green skin, a typically hairless face, protruding chin, long ears and thick brow. His dark green hair was cropped short, after the manner of the monastic orders, and covered with a dark green cap, indicative of his status as a junior monk. His habiliments consisted of a long, brown robe extending to his ankles, revealing leather slippers and dark, green hosiery. Above this he wore a cape and hood of the same colour. In his right hand he carried a tall monk’s staff extending to his shoulder, upon which he leant.
“I am indeed a servant of the Great Spirit—a monk to be exact. But how shall I help one who has been cursed by Afflish the Accursed—even the Great Demon?”
“This is only a beard,” Ifunka retorted. “Not a curse! Has not the Great Spirit given you a nose which is too long and eyes which stick out like a bitv-frog? How then can you, who are imperfect, call me accursed?”
With these words, Ifunka was comforted, for he knew that any true servant of the Great Spirit must be a good person and heed his request. The words sunk in and the monk’s heart softened towards the pitiful figure of the tiny, bearded boy.
“There is much wisdom in your small frame,” said the monk. “I am impolite for I have not yet given my name. How now! I greet thee—” he bowed, the traditional greeting of the southern provinces. “My monastic name is Brother Wiffka of the Holy Order of the Brothers of Bishgva of the Right Religion of the Sacred Tamitvar. You may address me as Brother. What my I call your diminutive self?”
“My name is Ifunka Kaffa, son of Kandaspu and I was raised by my honourable uncle, Matuka Wobga.”
“What clan—what tribe?” asked the monk. The Tremna each have two names, a first name and descriptive appellation, or a surname. Sometimes this latter is the name of an eponymous ancestor and sometimes the name of a hamlet, village, town or city from which their family derives. They also identify themselves by the name of their clan, tribe and, in some cases, hereditary title or dignity.
“My mother was of Clan Bishkwa of the House of Avis but I do not know my father’s clan or tribe.”
“Bishkwa, eh?” the monk remarked. “A goodly clan yet not renowned among the Children of Votsku.—but a good omen, for it sounds like Bishgva. Perhaps you can join our order, as you have no father or mother and your uncle and aunt may have died.”
“Can I become a brother?” the boy asked, eagerly.
“If the Great Spirit accepts you,” he replied. “For we do not all have the same path in the way of the Tamitvar. Some men are leaders—other workers, other teachers, yet others soldiers, and a few priests and monks. We must all accept the path given us by the Great Spirit on high. He has chosen me for monkhood. We must go to the Abbott and ask if you can stay with us. Come!”
And they went off down the path leading to the monastery.
Chapter II.
The Novice
Ifunka was a boy, with all the hopes and dreams, worries and fears, that any boy has. But he was not a Terran, i.e. an inhabitant of Terra (known in layman’s terms as earth). Rather, he was a Tremna, a member of an intelligent species from a world called Tremn. Tremn is a lush, roughly earth-sized planet with vast oceans, one major continent as well as a number of smaller continents and islands, orbiting an M-type star called Vookt (or Vukt) within the habitable zone of the Delrush System. This peculiar planet, inhabited by a bizarrely plant-like species of humanoids, is so remote from earth—distant by some billions, nay, trillions of miles—that similarities between its inhabitants and those of earth might be wholly unimaginable.
Physically, there are some similarities—the Tremna are bipedal, have two arms and two legs, ten fingers and ten toes, two eyes, and other humanoid features. Yet there are also many differences in terms of skin colour, methods of energy assimilation, hair and lifespan. The Tremna, you see, are green aliens—not stereotypical green aliens with antennae, but green nonetheless. The shade of green differs depending on the climate, rang
ing from bright green tones in the northern regions to dark green in the southern deserts and islands; for each shade of green they had a different name. The Tremna have hair on their heads but the rest of their bodies are hairless, except for some of the wild tribesmen of the frozen north, who have hairy chests and legs to protect them from the cold. They stand between five and seven feet tall on average, with some of the island tribesmen being exceptions. The great king, Ishmael, is said to have been eight-foot tall, but then legends do tend to exaggerate things.
Hair varies in colour and shade, with most Tremna either having green, brown or black hair, while some residents of the Old Central Kingdom and northern tribes have blonde, bright orange or ginger hair—Ifunka being one of the latter. The Tremna eat and drink like human beings but are, for the most part (i.e. the civilized portions of the continent), vegetarian. Food, however, is not their only source of energy as the Tremna can go for up to a week without eating, due to their unique ability to photosynthesize. Their skin receives energy from sunlight and processes this into natural sugars (fructose) which can then be digested within the body. For the process to work, the Tremna must drink water and have access to sunlight for several hours each day. They can survive in the dark but only if they eat substantial amounts of fruit or cane sugar. The Tremna also differ from Terrans in their physical resilience, being able to heal quickly, easily recover from most illnesses and live for about two centuries on average. Their similarities in character and society far outweigh their differences in appearance, as they, like all humanoids within the Milky Way Galaxy, have civilizations, complex social interactions, mores and taboos, spoken languages, clothing, arts, religion, technology, laws and government, and other accoutrements of sentient development.
Terrans are, in fact, by no means unique and earth is not in the centre of the universe, let alone the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy. Humans, that is, those intelligent beings which possess humanoid form, complex reasoning capabilities and spiritual natures, are ubiquitous throughout the galaxy and, what is more, the universe in general, at least that part of the universe which follows the same laws of physics as ours. The Tremna—or at least those educated in religion—believe as much, as their deity, the Great Spirit, is also entitled Owaman Aretveyeng (‘Lord of the Worlds’) and Wonff Amoniraheyeng (‘Master of the Star Systems’). In other words, they believe in one God which created and rules over the whole of existence. The idea of multiple star systems is an ancient one, reinforced as it was by Tremna history. The Empire of Tremn once had contact with other planets, including the not-so-distant Nyza, which is also within the Delrush System, but we will have to recount this story another time. In fact, the whole existence of Nyza has, for many centuries, been covered up, due to the propaganda of the Holy Theocracy. So let us return to our narrative, which revolves around the bright but awkward little boy named Ifunka.
The monk led the poor, dishevelled orphan through a stretch of dense forest, after which they debouched into a large, man-made clearing full of beauty and industry, for the meadows that lined the border between the encompassing forest and the cultivated fields of shkiff and braksh-wheat, petv-barley and small, walled orchards of tornish-trees, producing the small, succulent, cherry-like tornish fruit, were full of a diversity of sweet-smelling flowers which combined, in their delicate odours and variegated textures, colours and leaf patterns, a beauty which altogether stimulated and ravished the senses of sight, touch and smell. All of these, including many other examples of agriculture, viticulture and horticulture, formed the purlieus of the monastery itself, consisting of a host of buildings more than four kobotvs in length and width—an example of the monastic complexes which dot the face of Tremn and constitute its primary engines of spirituality, agronomic development, philosophy, history and natural science. As such, they are the very beating heart of a green and vibrant planet with an ancient and noble civilization, based firmly on a core of religious values enshrined in the Holy Tamitvar—their sacred book.
The monastery lay half a kobotv distant, with one broad, cobble-stoned path leading up to it, along which carts, drawn by ffentbaffs—large elephant-like creatures with green hides, large eyes, huge curled tusks and long trunks—proceeded to and fro. These creatures were covered in a layer of fur, with long flexible tails that could be whipped round for self-defence. Their ears were small and round and their backs humped. They constituted, along with the gobitv-hounds of the icy north, the sheshkabaffs of the desert and the hubaffs of the forty seas, the principal beasts of burden specially used for transportation. Others, like biffbaffs, are small, donkey-like creatures used for short-distance transportation. Huge, twelve-legged meshtobishbaffs are not usually domesticated but are occasionally used for transport by the wild tribes of the Great Desert of Yatvegab in the extreme south-eastern peninsula of the great continent of Tremnad, also known as ‘Tremn of the Great Expanse’. In the Old Central Kingdom, i.e. the seven original provinces directly surrounding the City and District of Kubbawa—capital of the Holy Theocracy of Tremn—viz. Ffantbav, Tremael, Nubrak, Wafftayunda, Wadakit, Okayeshvi and Ritvator, ffentbaffs are the primary mode of transportation.
When they had set upon the path, a ffentbaff-cart pulled up and the brother who drove it halloed the two of them and, with eyes staring widely at the unusually hirsute boy, invited them to hop on, which they proceeded to do. The name of their host was Brother Bobka, whose unusually long nose rivalled the protruding facial appendage of Brother Wiffka himself, who was generously well-endowed in the nasal department. Ifunka half-wondered whether nasal protrusion was an essential pre-requisite for taking holy orders or if it was a consequence thereof. Perhaps the faithful too often plucked the noses of their saintly superiors in the hope of benediction or perhaps they grew long so as to become useful pointers when reading old manuscripts or voluminous tomes. While thus engaged in fruitful contemplation, Ifunka beheld the monastery itself in all its splendorous beauty. It consisted principally of a huge, circular building called a tvagshaff, four stories high and two below ground, with protruding cornices above intricate friezes, supported by a colonnade. Thick vines from the roof gardens hung from parapets above the cornices. The gardens were watered by an aqueduct running the full circumference of the building, fed by a high channel of water which connected to the monastery roof and extended more than sixty tvinshaffs from ice-topped Mount Gvamffash in the Province of Okayeshvi. The same aqueduct channel emerged from the opposite side of the tvagshaff and continued along an identical, lofty channel through the thickness of the Great Forest of Ffushkar which covers five of the western central provinces, extending across monasteries, villages and towns before reaching the old Great Wall of Kubba Gven, first Emperor of Tremn. This wall extends the full circumference of the Old Central Kingdom with the aqueduct flowing along its edge, providing hydration for the white-armoured Potveke Yetva, the Iron Guard, who protect the borders of the seven central provinces and capital district from outside intrusion or invasion. The aqueduct of the Great Wall is also fed by several other aqueducts sourced in various sections of the kingdom, including one channel which extends all the way across the Varome Sintva, the White Mountains, unto the far-distant province of Nor. This aqueduct finds its source in Lake Tvi, which pours out into the Sea of Matvakakan on the far western flank of the continent. The entire system constitutes one mighty, interconnected, trans-continental system of running water that secures the theocracy against drought, starvation, want and privation.
Within the tvagshaff was a central, circular courtyard called a wimbush, within which was a circular pool and fountain, sweet-smelling gebnav-rose bushes and sheltering leff-trees with towering white boles, thick branches and fluffy, pink flowers. Outside the tvagshaff were numerous, circular accommodation blocks, two or three-stories high, thimble-shaped granaries, small shrines dedicated to various angels and saints, and the domed residence of the Abbott and his family, for he alone, of all the monks, was allowed to have children, albeit wit
h one of the priestesses of the Temple of Ffantplain, joined to him in a special, priestly marriage. She would visit him once a month for three days to provide conjugal services and visit his children before returning to her temple, there being twenty-five months of fifteen days each in the Tremna year, and ten intercalary days, with each day being twenty-five hours and some minutes in length. Temple priests, however, would marry one priestess and live together permanently with her while each bishop and archbishop enjoys the company of five priestesses who share his bed in alternation, with one for each day of the week, there being five days in a week and three weeks in one month. The children of these marriages are initially raised by their mothers with the support of wet nurses and nannies, before being sent off to religious boarding schools, separated from their parents until they are ordained as priests when they reach their maturity.
As Ifunka looked upon the vista before him, he was delighted, for he was drawn in by the abundance of lofty, circular buildings—an atmosphere of contentment and peace being displayed on every visage. He wanted to be one of these people who belonged, who were part of something greater and mightier than themselves. When they reached the lofty, black wooden gate which served as the main portal to the monastery proper, the great door slowly opened its gaping mouth with a stentorian groan. Two plainly dressed monks of equally minimal stature and exceedingly rotund frames, appeared—their main occupation involving regulation of the egress and regress provided by the portal thus mentioned.
Green Monk of Tremn, Book I: An Epic Journey of Mystery and Adventure (Coins of Amon-Ra Saga 1) Page 2