Something had bothered Tenashar for a long time—ever since he first encountered the glass waterfall in the forest. “Tansatei, I once heard your voice, when I first saw the glass waterfall. At least I think it was your voice, but it was in the tone of an elderly woman. Did you talk with me while I was on my journey?”
“I only saw you vaguely,” she eagerly responded. “I tried to communicate with you, but hardly any of it got through.”
Sanashei intervened, saying that in some way Tenashar was right—Tansatei was communicating with him from another time. Sanashei looked up into the sky at the golden light of the sun and said, “Perhaps this is one of the last sunsets we shall see before our people need to go underground.”
The Orbs continued to feed on the world, but they were ceasing to function, and the child thing was never found. Much of the land became unable to support life. Some farmers tried to plant, but nothing sprouted. The signs were clear—it was time to go underground.
The oceans were rough before, but now the waters had become so hostile that to cross over would mean instant death. Flying was the only way to navigate the oceans, because its perpetual anger wouldn’t be quelled for centuries. Sahaynaivium, like the Senetha, surrounded them with a barrier that made there nearby oceans calm and pleasant so that fishermen could ply their trade.
As for the Orbs, one by one they ceased functioning, their programming running out.
There was no human maintenance to keep them running. Eventually, even the child thing would expire, as the years and centuries wore on. In two centuries, the child thing was no more.
The Senetha tribe completed most of their underground homes, yet the beauty of their mountain homes would always retain their lushness, as would the mountains and forests surrounding Nainashari’s cave.
Heitac continued to train new Aura-Laei-i in her mountain home. Eventually a large sphere would encompass all the lands between Senetha tribal lands and Nainashari’s forest as the various peoples gradually settled into this new life, their work continued for many years.
In the coming years, Tenashar would live to see the completion of the underground worlds. He would become an old man of wisdom in his community. In those years, Tansatei became his wife, and they had three children.
Tenashar heard that Jarviashar found someone and married and became a member of the council.
Tenashar and his friends settled into their new existence in Nainashari’s cave. Sanashei sat down with his son to talk about his mother and pass on wonderful memories of her.
Tansatei and Etutsha became Tenashar’s right-hand helpers, as did Knode, Marhidium, Siytai, Osinthaph, Thitwa, and Betaqal. Thus they created a new family. But sadly, they had to watch their world gradually die, and the paths to the other tribes’ lands became more and more difficult to travel.
Craftsmen, engineers, and Aura-Laei-i of the Senetha were building their own flying ships so that they could cross the deserts and pass through the barriers that separated the many tribes of the continent. Eventually, travel to other lands using flying ships flourished, despite what had happened to the world. So in time, as Tenashar grew older in body and wisdom, it wasn’t uncommon to have visits from his old friends, such as Athtap, Leineha, Seveaha, Obsiesa, Cleiadomph, Jarviashar, Woziar, and Medayi.
Many years later, travel tapered off and eventually ceased, and Senetha living generations after Tenashar’s time only knew of Sahaynaivium as a legend. But the flying ships continued in service, though the later generations of pilots only saw the deserts and empty oceans. In their time, the islands of Sahaynaivium were completely hidden. These generations could never imagine the beauty Tenashar had seen on his way to Himoicum.
Yet the desert sands themselves took on strange colors and gained a life of their own.
Some began to speak with voices of wisdom and command. This would be a world for a new generation of Senetha. They would learn the ways of the desert and make the world work once more for the benefit of their people.
Journey to the Grassland and Sea Page 27