by Zohar Neiger
Janet grumbled that Alioth and I would be too heavy to carry alongside all the supplies, so I turned slowly to Akhet's gleaming face, wondering about the way they flew me to the top of the sledding track.
Oh no.
"I can't carry Alioth, Houyi, so there's no other choice." Akhet seemed very pleased with themselves at my panicky expression.
"It's a very long distance," I stammered, "will you be strong enough to…?"
"We'll take a break in the middle," Akhet smirked and leaned forward, "but not for me, for Janet."
Alioth climbed unto Janet and patted them encouragingly, hugging their neck. Her emerald walking stick hung off her waist.
"Let's not keep them waiting," Akhet purred.
I stood back-to-back with Akhet, my chest trembling.
My shoulders sent grappling hooks into my heart and froze, muscles clenched and tight. As I felt my feet ascend from the ground, they prickled with gathering sweat. Akhet’s feathers swallowed me like the throat of a dragon, feeling as if every moment I will drop down. My eyes – oh – I could faint with how quickly the sight before me moved. This is much higher up than last time! I was a lens of a camera falling upwards into a pit, desperately trying to focus on something, anything.
Soon, though, it all stopped. The takeoff turned to soft soaring. The wings strapped to my body became a large blanket, warm and comfortable like cuddling in a winter night. I was laying down on her back, feeling her neck and ankle wings flap steadily through the wind blowing on my skin.
Situations do appear different depending on whether you are anxious.
“Alright?” Akhet said. I hummed a positive.
The sky above was pretty. Down there it was plain old blue. Up here it was the steely color of a fountain pen’s ink puddle, which dripped down and covered the atmosphere when God was indecisive what to write.
Here I am, being carried by an angel. But it was so damn bright.
A few flaps later, they spoke up above the loud speeding wind. “There’s some time till we get there, do you want me to tell you a story?”
I laughed. “A story?”
“Yeah, a story, like those Salvador used to like?… Just watch the sky and listen.”
I rolled my head to the side, feeling her firm shoulder blade against my cheek. “Sure, why not?”
"But before I do, Houyi," Akhet said, and I could tell they were smiling while saying so, "It's going to be an exchange. A story for a story. We're friends, right?"
I looked down at the wings holding me in place firmly, my gut twisting.
30
The Man Who Went Searching for the Sun
Akhet's Story
Legend I/III
Legend tells of a man who went searching for the sun.
With a rickety raft and mind, he strutted through the dock with a paddle firmly in hand. He’d parade across the shore, the sand digging into the spaces between his toes. Captains of going ships asked him if he wants to come aboard, become a sailor, enjoy the high seas with more than just a glance. He’d always refuse with a satisfied smile, the sea foam gnawing at his feet.
Captains of coming ships gave him a glare, worried that he’ll startle their passengers. They asked him if he’d please leave the shore. He’d always refuse with a satisfied smile, the sea foam gnawing at his feet.
It was only to the seashells that he whispered he wants to go to the sun. Who wouldn’t? The sun was the brightest and warmest of all entities. It was perfectly round and so beautiful! So beautiful!
The sun, he mustered the courage to speak to a crab, the sun is the only one who makes me happy. It melts away all sadness when it comes. The moon was similar, but it was just a reflection of the light of the sun. A substitute! A wannabe! What would the moon be without the sun? The same thing I would be, he said, a lifeless, lightless, listless, being.
So the man dug his raft into the sand one night, and the current sent him floating. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye! He waved to the people in the upcoming ship, and to a captain he had seen many times before. What would that shore be without the crazy man looking for the sun? She thought.
The thirsty paddle was finally wet, and the man paddled furiously, the sound of the water on wooden hull louder than his growling stomach.
When the sunrise arrived, his paddling grew even faster.
Who wouldn’t want to reach the sun?
Somehow, it’d always escape his grasp as it climbed up in the sky. When it was about to set, his paddling was turned to race the other direction. He would sit quite still at noon.
Who wouldn’t want to reach the sun?
Well, I’m the only one working for it, truly working for it, he thought.
Months had passed on the shore he had left, and the captain made her way to it for another day of work. On the untouched groove his raft left in the sand, a bottle now resided.
She walked up to this item, carefully removing a piece of paper from within. It had messy handwriting stained by seawater. Only three words stood silent and dead on the page:
“I found it”.
31
The Man Who Was Afraid of Dogs and Rain
Houyi's Story
Legend II/III
Here you go, Akhet. You asked.
Legend tells of a man who was afraid of dogs paired with rain.
As only a boy he marched in tidy lines and held spears his fingers could not fully wrap around. This, he did out of duty for the army folk who clothed and sheltered him when he was orphaned by a flood.
As the boy's legs grew longer and his lungs larger, he found happiness in his superior, a princess, who had him promoted.
The princess could not return to him after the promotion. So high above, said she, we both are. Won't people ruin our reputation with gossip? Isn't honor more important than love?
So high above, said his friends too, you can almost touch the heavens. How can we be friends to you?
And though he tried to reassure them, when it came down to it, it was time for him to command them. How could they be friends to him?
They were greatly outnumbered when it came to the ratio between troops and trees – but a dangerous hound had been reported to stalk the woods at night, and someone had to deal with it before it hurt the townsfolk.
Splitting into groups, the deeper in they walked, the more the clouds grew heavier and larger, and they kept walking between two thickets, one above and one below. The beast's shadow crawled from a distance, a giant wolf with poking out fur.
Evacuate, evacuate! Clearly it was far too large, and spears only impaled its flesh but did not faze it, a regroup was in order, evacuate!
Making sure all his troops cleared out safely left the man alone, soaking wet with pounding rain.
He tried to run, but the beast's snarl was right behind him, and it was fight or die. He nearly tripped, scared of the electric eyes ogling him from within the monster's skull. All it took was a step backwards, a small stumble on a tree root, and a patch of ground right next to him to be struck by golden lightning.
The thunder boomed behind as the man was burnt to a crisp. His hair and eye once the color of ash, now the color of bone. His chest and leg turned to the color of suffocation, with neuron scars lacing his skin forever.
And he crashed to the ground.
32
Hoku Lele
I felt the soles of my feet wet at the cold contact with the soft rippling water, just barely rising above the most bottom layer of my skin. The sky above us was crystalline clear, causing the entire world to appear a pleasant blue, both sky and ground, with the reflection of the sky embedded in the thinly spread sheets of water.
Namak Lake, our destination, was actually a flat expanse of land, known as a "salt flat", according to Akhet, with ground splintered and broken like dry flaking skin. However, now a pane of water which didn't absorb covered it all, reflecting the sky.
I looked at Alioth in a perplexed manner, hoping she’d have an explanation as to why Akhet
had their fists to their hips and was surveying the entirety of our peripheral vision with a beam. Alioth was biting her lip and did not speak.
“We must camp out here tonight, we must!” concluded Akhet after another bout of looking around.
“Here? Why must we camp out on water?” I crouched down and measured the water level, which did not exceed the white part of my fingernail.
“I want to show you something at night.”
I eyed them down nervously for a moment.
“Let’s set up camp!" Alioth jumped and slipped a heavy blanket off Janet’s back.
Honestly, these two will kill me one day.
“Is it water resistant?” I ran to help her.
“It’s very thick, so it should be ok,” she groaned when she lifted it. Janet grumbled. “You’re stronger than any of us, Janet!”
We found a little hill which wasn't wet and pegged up the tent.
"I think a storm is coming, you should head inside, Houyi," Akhet said solemnly. They pointed into the tent.
At Akhet mentioning the storm, Alioth smiled and retrieved a tin can from her bag, putting in on the ground.
"You come too, Akhet," I said. "What's the tin for, Alioth?"
"Rainwater can be used to make pigment," she beamed, scooping Sahar from Janet's hammock and entering the tent.
I looked at Akhet, jerking my head toward the tent.
Akhet sniffled, pouting her lips and looking off into the horizon. "Lah. I still have-ta make some preparations for tonight. You and the demon get some rest."
I resisted the urge to criticize them for calling Alioth "the demon" all the time. It's something Alioth should settle on her own.
I sneezed for the fifth time that morning. "Ugh," I groaned nasally at Alioth leaving the tent again. "Alioth, did we bring any tissues? I think I'm catching a cold."
"Oh!" Alioth hopped, approaching the bag, taking out a small wrapped item. I took it, on closer inspection seeing it was some kind of snack.
"What is this?" I said, confused.
"It's a stale granola bar I packed back at my house!" she replied. "If you have a cold, you can't smell, so you won't mind the taste, will you?"
I opened my mouth, realizing I don't know how to react, so shut it again. I looked at the wrapper, shrugging and biting down. I guess we shouldn't waste food...?
Crunchy.
After the tasteless snack, I was indeed exhausted. Telling Akhet of the incident left my heart hollow and my head begging to rest, so a nap was welcome. Alioth graciously granted my request for Sahar to be placed outside the tent while I sleep, and I made sure to fall asleep before the raindrops started, hoping thunder doesn't strike.
I remember waking up for a few seconds as a grubby hand tucked me into another cover.
…
Akhet called us out of the tent, waking me up with a huge grin on their face. They handed Alioth and I small wooden boxes, demanding we use them as stools on the wet ground.
Alioth was holding the closed tin can filled with rainwater.
We lay down our boxes, sitting on top of them. Akhet stood before us, wings elegantly cloaking them from the bitter wind. Above us there was a navy-blue sky, a night much brighter than yesterday’s. All the flickering shimmering stars raved as if to send us a message in Morse code. This sight completely engulfed the world around us when reflected on the thin layer of water on the ground. I squinted so my eyes don't hurt from the brightness.
There was no horizon.
“I will tell you the daring tale of Akhet the Seraph and Hoku Lele,” Akhet declared with perfect diction, much unlike how they spoke before. Their storytelling speech pattern. When they began storytelling, the surreal world around us that was all sky and all stars, ground and earth, became their stage.
“Centuries ago in a desert much like the one we crossed, an angel descended from the mist of the clouds, feet dangling over the breeze that lowered them down.”
The gentle slushing of the water beneath Akhet’s moving feet became the sound of the howling wind they told of.
“After they had lived in that desert for quite some time, they had seen the fall of empires, and buildings like you have never seen being built. This angel was contented, or so they thought. Deep down they knew that every time Ra made his journey into the kingdoms of night, a longing weighed down on their shoulders like pyramid bricks on the spines of workers.”
Akhet made a flourish with their arms.
“One fateful night sealed their destiny, for they were watching the shooting stars fall like raindrops on windowpanes and noticed a figure moving spastically in the distance. She looked as if she was juggling bright light after bright light.
The angel got closer, they got closer to see what this was. Little did they know they were about to gaze upon the most beautiful creature to ever cross their sight, whose glamor rivaled their Papa's. A ku’pua of the stars, leaping into the air to seize and clutch the shooting stars between her fingertips, shrinking them temporarily so that she could—“
They stopped to heave a deep breath.
“So that she could draw her bow and arrow and shoot them back into the sky.”
My eyebrows furrowed. I will ask questions later, right now I’m sure it will annoy them. I tried not to sneeze in the middle of their story.
I seemed to recall a fact about the light of the stars in the sky.
“The angel turned to talk to her, but the shooting star shower ended, and with its end she seemed to fade into inexistence. They had to find her again. They felt the painful longing in their heart disappear when the enchanting view of her shooting the stars back into the sky appeared. They had to find her.”
Akhet took a break, standing with a calm posture for a few moments in which we were in fascinated silence. I couldn’t stop looking at them.
“The angel began their search where many ku’puas were said to reside, the captivating snowy volcano in Hawaii known as Mauna Kea. There, only there, could they find those who knew her name. They found her name was Hoku Lele. The name caused an awakening in their bones. They had to find her.”
I snuck a glance to Alioth, who looked awestruck, irises illuminated by the glow of the stars and Akhet reflected within her pupils.
“Shooting star showers were their last resort. They waited for years in Mauna Kea, grasping at every lead they could. They grew fond of the mountain, but eventually the shooting stars led them all across the world and back to the desert from whence they descended, then further East. Their faith kept them strong. Hoku Lele, wherever she may be, they will find her.”
Silence brushed the air like a metal crusher. In this moment, I grew progressively more relieved that Diana was not the one Akhet wanted.
They stood motionless as they did before starting the story. I began clapping, then Alioth joined me. They smirked and bowed.
“Aw, that's kind of you.”
“Akhet, what is a ku’pua?” Alioth asked.
The Seraph’s gaze shot at her quizzically. “Oh, I thought you knew. They’re… well, the best way I can explain is they are shapeshifting superbeings that can manipulate different natural concepts like the stars, nature, the sea, things like that. They’re also healers.”
“A little like shamans?” Alioth inquired.
“Hm,” Akhet’s lips drew forward as she contemplated the question. “I suppose yeah, shamans can’t shapeshift, though.”
"But, Akhet," I interrupted, "how do you know Hoku will be up on a mountain?"
"Well, common sense, no?" Akhet grinned. "Ya shoot shooting stars, ya wanna be as high-up as possible."
"Hm." I coughed into my sleeve. "Say, Akhet, isn't love in that way a sin?"
Akhet seemed taken aback, almost offended, by the question. I regretted talking. I saw them shoot their nervous eyes to Alioth. "Lah. I always thought of it differently. I think, well, avoiding matters of the flesh is a form of hubris, no? God created creatures with libidos, whilst He cannot sin, He cannot feel lust. Th
us, if we try to act like Him and avoid lust, we're thinking of ourselves as mighty as God."
I saw Alioth frown at this statement.
"Is that the form of love you have?" I asked, just to confirm.
"I have… I have, I, well, many kinds," they smiled. "I'm capable of, of more than I was created for."
“What did Hoku look like?” Alioth asked quietly.
Akhet sighed, looking relieved, and closed their eyes.
“In the flashes between her shooting stars, I could see a soft face. From the waist up she looked like glowing Amber, and from the waist down she was fiery. A burning one. Her rounded lips were being bitten by her teeth as a consequence of her concentration. She had flowing blue hair, wildly reacting to the wind like the waves of the sea, yet steadfast, like a throne of lapis lazuli.”