Relonor's Journal

by River Gheuens

  When my awe at the beautiful landscape was sated, my mouth started spewing sights, or objects, out to Vadoma, as she pointing out things to me.

  At some point, we had inspected the water, while we had a discussion over if the water was safe to drink. David ended this argument by discarding his mostly eaten carcass, before he did his hopping walk, while he was awkward with his wings, as he made his way to the edge of the lake to drink. After watching David for a few moments, we both dived on the water and drank our fill.

  We sat on the bank for hours, as we watched and discovered the life this cavern held for us, with my head on her shoulder.

  Spencer would be the one to unlock the secrets of this glowing life, several years later, as she deals with the biology sciences. I would go on to help her prove her theory, which stated the glowing was actually a chemical reaction to the sulfur in the water, as a species of microorganisms had a symbiotic relationship with the life which was in this cavern.

  Entry 15

  4 Months Before

  Turtle Subterranean Lake

  West of Groenplaats

  We had found a box which was not made of metal, and upon testing, we had found the box floated with ease, as it did not leak water into the inner area. We stripped down to place our clothes, and weapons, into the box, for them to stay dry while we swam areas of the cavern, in our exploration.

  My thoughts, which I had voiced them to their logical conclusions, was there had to be an exit from this cavern, even though we could not see a light source, other than the life’s bio-luminescence, which was in this cavern. The theory in my mind was water came into this cavern, as did the creatures within, thus it had to find a way in. With that in mind, I theorized the water had to find a way out of the cavern, or else the cavern would continuously fill, thus being filled.

  When we would get tired, we would take rest on the islands, which were throughout the lake. We would scare off the turtles, which would then slid into the water. The small rodents with the hands for their noses, the star-nosed moles as we called them in Moeraplaats, would scurry off, into the water, as we would approach the islands.

  It was the third night of sleep, while wandering the waters, when Vadoma looked to me before she sighed into the quiet. I was busy trying not to look at the semi naked form, on the rocks next to me.

  We had a few conversations, which went deeper into ourselves, as we shared things, which we would never tell another soul. Except for Spencer, but that is later in my story.

  On this night of stories, she had looked at me intensely, “You have promised not to share anything I tell you. This is one of those things you must never repeat to anyone. It is a secret, which we Romani hold to ourselves.”

  The Romani were ones of mystery. They used a language, which they never taught to us, as they would sing or tell stories in that language. I would later find out, this language was called Romanian. They would translate for us, after their stories or songs, but I had a suspicion not everything was translated, or there were parts which were made up for our benefits. They hide their secrets unto themselves.

  Vadoma went into her Romani bards voice but spoke in Dutch for me. She told of the story of their Romani family splitting into several parties, before setting forth from the West. They set out on the beams of this world, in the four cardinal directions. They had to travel over dry cracked land, with no trees or animals which they could find, as they found many rivers of molten stone, which flowed like rivers in their fissures. They traveled many days, and many of their people had died, before they had come to a mountain range. They found a pass through it to here. The Romani found this exact spot, by our camp, at the lake. For many generations, the Romani lived by this lake, as they recovered their Spirit as a people, for the trip had tried so hard to break their Spirit.

  One day, a hunting party came upon the lake. They declared Carnaval and had a feast, like our tradition of Carnaval. When the alţii asked the Mother of the Romani to come back to their village, the Romani Mother followed the alţii with her four Sorăs.

  On their journey, the Mother of the Romani, which is the head of the Romani people, as this was before she became Bunică, and her four Soră daughters, which are the Mother’s Heirs, or as you would call them Princesses, decided to take their secrets, while they watch over the alţii.

  Over the years, the Romani found a few of the alţii had started to develop the spark of magik, but in a different way than their people. It started with the alţii of the tents. A person with a spark, similar to a spark in an animal, would blossom together. The canines, cats, rodents or reptiles would bond with the people they would have for their life, or the animal’s descendants, when the original bond mate would pass into the clearing at the end of the path. Everything must die. However, the animal’s descendants would carry a spark, before one would blossom to the person. Though, one with this magik could only bond to one animal at a time.

  As the alţii of the tents formed the four clans from the one people, they took their four animal types with them. Granted, a person would be born into the Tribe of the Star-nosed Mole who would have the ability to talk with the Wolves of the North. When they would develop that spark of magik, they would go to their people who had the closest connection with their animals. Each clan took the name of the animal which had been bonded with at the time. They called the animals their spirit animals. The village expanded from Centraleplaats to the five villages, which are now here. The wench left out the Monks of the Mountains, but, yet again, this is for later in my tale.

  The spirit animals and their humans shared a connection, which went deeper than words. You could watch them speak, when they had physical contact, without speaking words. The human would look at the canvas the animal conveyed to the human. The canvas conveyed basic emotions or needs, threat or prey, or interpretations of what the animal heard, tasted or saw. The alţii, who held the spark of magik, said they had to quiet their mind to let the spirit animals talk to them. The Romani had found the Old People.

  With a prompt from me, she went into the magik of the Romani. She told me about the magik of her people. The magik would last after they would use it, while it went across a broad spectrum of specialties, as some people had a touch of all of the elements, while some were really good with one type of element.

  A person who was sensitive to magik, who holds a spark of power in them, can see the world in the dark, as they see other magic sensitives as their magik would glow, while dripping from their eyes.

  At this point, I remembered her quietly saying I had a spark. I asked her about the statement. She confirmed I have a magik spark. She had suspected, from the wind magik, which is present in my eye when I woke, I had the spark. She did not know until I used my spark, on the arrow, that I was touched, because I was different.

  She explained in detail when they would touch their power, how magik seemed to drip from the eyes of a person who holds a spark. I was different, which I am okay with, because being different is not unknown to me. Her voice contained wonder as she explained to me what she saw. My right eye, my good eye, held no magik in it or dripping from it. Whereas, where my left eye had been, the wind magik rotated where the eye should have been. It did not drip magik, but it pulls the magik back in upon itself. It is a rolling and boiling magik, in an ever present circle, which leaves the center of my empty eye socket free from any trace of magik.

  I had problems understanding the description. She explained it like a water spout or a dust devil, which did not help. The description of the magik looking like a water vortex in a river, which had the water spiraling around itself, was understood though.

  I had asked her about wind magik. I was finding this fascinating, as some of these facts were lining up with some of theories I have made. She explained she did not know much, as it was rare for someone, with just the spark for wind magik, to be born to the Romani, though she did not know of any of the Tribe, or my people, who had the spark of wind magik to them.

 
When I pressed the issue, she explained a very few the Romani held the spark, as it is a rare gift to have. What wind they did have, could be used to change the breeze for a brief time or to know when a storm was coming. None of the Romani could blow an arrow apart using just the wind.

  When I asked about her magik, she smugly replied she was good at healing. She could do charms to ward and protect; however, that was extent of her magik.

  My next question got a more intriguing response. I asked about how I would blossom.

  Then, like she is oh so good at doing, she captured my lips to silence me, before turning to watch the scene, which expanded in front of us, with all of the bio-luminescent animals, plants and fungi.

  Entry 16

  4 Months Before

  Turtle Subterranean Lake

  West of Groenplaats

  Time was lost to us in this cavern. It was now the seventh period of waking, as actual time was impossible to tell in this area without a sun, or the moons, to tell us what the time was exactly.

  We had come to several holes in the ceiling, which looked to have been where meteors had fallen through the roof of the cavern, as I had made several observations of the ground on the island one was on.

  David had flown out of the holes, into what I thought was a forest above us. After a while, he returned to us with a meal, as he brought a raccoon and star-nosed mole, for us to eat. On the island, which a meteor had formed, we made a campfire to cook the food over, with the dead branches, which had fallen through the holes to land on the islands.

  Vadoma’s words rattled around in my brain, from the other night, as I sat watching David, while thinking over his strange behavior. He joined us with another star-nosed mole for himself, as he landed not far from where he had dropped the animals for us.

  It may be that I am mad as a hatter; however, since he has joined us, he was becoming more than a hawk. I sat while I watched him slowly eat. He was calculating his next beak tear, while he was watching us, as he enjoyed his meal.

  I have watched the hawks, who love the branches of the trees in Moeraplaats, as they loved to hunt the star-nosed moles, which love the swamps. They would devour their meal as fast as they could, while keeping a vigilant eye on their surroundings, for anyone wanting to take their meal from them. David was not in a vigilant stance. Well, I mean, no more than his normal vigilant stance.

  Then, there was Davids screeching. At first, I thought he was limiting his screeching to not be so loud, because of the echoing. A few times, when I was thinking how things could go wrong, in a very artistic way in my head, I could swear the screeching was trying to laugh at me. Or at least, to what was going through my head.

  “Hey, wench.”

  “Spill. You have that thinking face again,” Vadoma teased me.

  “Well, yea. I have been thinking,” I said as proud as I could. “What else would I use thing thing on my shoulders for. But seriously, have you noticed David being strange?”

  “You think it is normal for a hawk to hang out with us, in a cave? A wild hawk, mind you.”

  “Yea,” I drew the word out, to show I thought it was strange. “Just a bit strange. So like, I know you said you do not know of any air elemental. Right, elemental?”

  “Yes, elementals. And, no. One of our best archers has a better than most handle on air magik, but…” Vadoma trailed off. “Are you thinking?”

  My theory flowed out of my mouth as fast as I could get the words out of my mouth. “I have a spark of air elementals magik stuff. And, David is a predator of the air, which he may be my spirit animal, but he does not speak to me.”

  Vadoma looked at me blankly. After a long pause, she sounded far off in her head, as she thought aloud. “Da. First, it is air magik. It is not a complicated naming process, so do not over analyze it. Secondly…,” she trailed off into a silence, with a long pause in the conversation. “Let me say a few things. First…”

  “You are still on your second point.” I smiled as I interrupted her.

  “Smart ass. Do you want to listen or knit pick me? You cannot have both,” Vadoma’s face bloomed into merriment.

  “Yes, wench.” See, I am well trainable.

  “Secondly,” she looked expectantly at me. “I have not seen one of the Tribe bond to a bird; however, I am not saying this is not possible. Only a very few of the Clans, or the tribes, have the spark of magik in them. You would bond to David…I cannot say. I can see a spark in his eyes too, but his eyes drip his magik, like most touched with a spark do. However, his magik tastes like your magik.”

  The conversation dropped into our personal thoughts after that. I watched a fish, who swam upside down, with whiskers, play with another fish in the waters, by the edge of our island. The white stripes, which glowed along his body and the red splotches to the other fish, turned to a dance of beauty in the lush plants, which glowed light green, with the snails and crayfish foraging over the leaves, before finding the best piece of food to eat, before going back in search for the next perfect morsel.

  I also noticed David watched the show in the water, when Vadoma had drawn me to her, to cuddled me to sleep.

  *** * ***

  I heard the sound before I saw the light. The sound of water running was building the further we swam, which pulled me from my contemplation.

  Then, light other than the bio-luminescence started to glow in the cave, as the cave narrowed down before taking a bend to the right. The water began to have a small current, as my excitement rose.

  There, in front of us, was an exit. Water ran over the opening, like we were behind a waterfall. The neck deep water we were in slowly receded, to being waist deep, then knee, before finally ankle deep. We peered out of the opening, which had water flowing over it, with an occasional fish swimming the water down.

  We inspected the rocks around the opening, in the roar of the water. I had gotten down on my knees to feel over the edge, to see if I could feel anything. What my fingers found was slimy, smooth stone. I did this in many areas, again and again, as I found the same thing.

  I caught Vadoma’s eyes, then motioned back the way we had come, with my head, before I started heading the way we had come. When the noise was to a level where we could talk over, I shouted, “What do you think, wench?”

  “Nothing good can come from this?” Vadoma yelled over the noise.

  I let out a laugh before yelling back to her. “Yea, sums it up, pretty much. Question is, do we want to search for somewhere else, or see what is on the other side of the waterfall?”

  “What if it is a really tall waterfall?”

  I thought on her question for a while, as I brought every map I have ever seen into my head, as I searched over each for the waterfall symbol, with the distance of the height. I was flagging any which could potentially be lethal. From that list, in my mind, I counted four which could be lethal, if we were above the safe height to jump. Out of the those, two were not in any possibility of us being near, which were then discarded from the mental map I was forming.

  I next went back to the maps in my head, while I noted all the water falls, while reducing the number to what was within the realm of us to be at. The number came to two tall waterfalls out of a potential two and forty waterfalls. That number was not a statistical fact, as the analytical part of my brain drew a map. I had about one third of the map as unknown. “Want to know the statistical probability of this being a lethal jump?” I yelled to her over the roar of the waterfall.

  She laughed at me before yelling over the waterfall. “Never tell me the odds! Wait. Do I want to know the odds?”

  “Nope.”

  “That bad?” She yelled the question to me.

  “Dunno, wench.”

  “You said you had the statistical probability though.”

  “Never said a word about that, wench.”

  “Want to jump like we are little kids again,” Vadoma asked, in the rapid quip exchange of words we got into. “We can let go of the world for a minute.”<
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  “In other words, you are wanting to try to get us killed again, in a horrible way.”

  Vadoma was chuckling. “Da. The scenery has not killed you, so I will kill you with a leap of faith.”

  We had made our way back to the shallows. We took turns getting dressed, while the other held the box. I did not look at her butt. I am all proper and lady like. I do not have those thoughts. However, I will refuse to tell you what the wind told me in those moments, or what she showed me. The view took me many moments to calm my arousal, as the wind giggled to me. Well, I thought she was giggly.

  Vadoma turned to me, while taking my right hand in her left, before drawing me to face her. When I was facing her, she held our arms out, then watched our hand as she entwined our fingers. Using the entwined fingers, she pulled me to herself. She was finding anything other than my face interesting, especially her water logged boots. She had a very shy tone to her voice, while she yelled to me, look she did it, so it happened. You can be shy while yelling. It is very cute. “I like you and stuff…and…well, I just thought you should know that.”

  Vadoma sneaked a kiss pass my guard, as she brushed my lips with hers in a whispering touch, which gave the longing energy all it needed to cry out in my loins. Her fingers fought, for their lives, to escape from mine, as she brought her wrists together before drawing an about to have fun smile on her lips. She threw herself sideways off of the cliff, as she started a twist of her body, as she went through the water.

  David decided to come see what was going on, as I watched Vadoma go through the water. The worry of her being okay was in my thoughts. He flew from a rock outcropping to my shoulder. I had a few moments to play with the theory I was having about David being my spirit animal. That would give Vadoma all the time she needed to clear the area of her persons. I gave David my full attention.

  “Hey, boy, we are taking the waterfall out. So, you go back to the hole in the cavern to get out that way. Okay?” I expected David to fly off, if my theory was right. I tried to canvas the hole in my mind, with him flying through it. David blankly looked at me. So, this theory is not….