FACING SUNRIZE, pt II
BANANA PATCH FANTASY PRODUCTIONS
Soon they reached the Pali. They stood for a moment in owe of the ocean before them. Haleakala Volcano towered behind them. They stood silent in Nature's living spectacle as their hearts beat wildly. A trail led down thru the mangled growth of guava, avocado and mango trees. They followed it. The Pali was a great outcropping of rock. It thrust itself up out of the sea. It was a steep climb down it's face. When they got about half way down the trail, the vegetation became sparse.
"We'll have to climb down from here," he said. "Be careful now! Hold onto the grass and shrubbery...and watch out for loose gravel. It's a long way down if we slip." She follows his lead. When Maji sees she's doing fine, he goes ahead to make sure it's safe. Then waits for her. She descends slowly and carefully as the trail winds down around the cliff face, savoring each step, each breath taking moment admiring the view.
"How're you doing?" he calls to her. "I'm just fine honey," she assures him. "Don't worry now. I know how to climb." "Okay" he shouts back, and continues downward. He disappears thru the brush as the trail continues to wind.
She follows silently. She's thinking, "I feel so strange today. In between worlds. Where am I and who am I supposed to be?" As she continu- ues down the trail thinking, she forgets to pay attention, and slides on loose gravel around a turn, hitting her head on a stone. She's knocked out and begins dreaming.
Harmony dreams she's Lali, but all grown up. She thinks of herself as Jzurlea now that she's a woman. That's what everyone in the Village calls her. She's walking alone along a trail in the Pine Tree Forest. She wasn't paying attention and trips over the root of a tree that's exposed in the road. She gets up and dusts herself off. Her toe hurts alot though.
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Chapter 9, page 1
It's a cloudy day and the ground is damp beneath her moccasins. She weaves through the forest following the familiar trail. Walking along, she listens to the crunch of the grass beneath her toes. She breathes the crisp air deeply. Within the next two moons, leaves will appear again on the trees. Soon planting time would begin. She loved this land, but it was not enough for her anymore. She thought of Hokami, and wished she could be with him by the waterfall. Perhaps time would roll around to that again...someday. Her two sons were almost grown and would be 13 this year. She hadn't seen them for two years. She could bear it no longer. Now she would say goodbye to this land, and Sittingjing-gongala. She would be going south to Phoenix where the boys were in the Government School. It had not been up to her. The Agent came to the Village and took all the children five years and older. Took them by force. Now she would go visit them. Maybe she would stay in Phoenix. She didn't know how to survive anymore without her family. Salanka shot herself when they took her children. Her Grandmother passed away long before that.
She had cried for two years, praying she would die too. But wanting to live to see them again....she thought, after that, she could die in peace, knowing they were well, and could make their way in this world without her. The mourn- ing doves were wooing their beloveds in the branches. She listened to their songs as she followed the trail deeper and deeper into the forest.
At last Jzurlea came to the cave where her Grandmother's body lay. Pushing aside the stone that sealed the cave, she bends down to protect her head, and goes in through the mouth of the cave. Standing silently just inside to adjust her eyes to the darkness, she feels nauseated by the stench saturating the heavy air. Through the dim light that filters into the cave, Jzurlea sees a dark figure lying upon a stone ledge towards the back of the cave. She approaches it as tears well up in her eyes. The great grizzly bearskin covers her grand-mother's remains. Carefully, she pulls back the old grizzly coverlet. Gongi's bones are bared, and rest quietly intact. The bones of her hands hands are folded in sweet repose upon her chest. Jzurlea sits down and strokes her grand- mother's skull gently, trying not to disturb the hair. She touches the bare bones of Gongi's hands calling to her, sobbing softly in the pungent darkness.
"Grandmother....Grandmother....I'm here now," she says, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Are these the same hands that soothed my child- hood hurts...? Remember how we sat by the fire and you taught me so many old songs...? I've missed that. I sing alone now.... What is death like Grandma. Is it better than this life? It can't be worse...." When she stroked the bare bones of an arm, she could feel her own words vibrating within them.
Just then, a little mouse peeped it's head through one of the ribs where the old woman's heart had been. It seemed frightened and sprung up, making a dash for a place to hide. It ran, scampering across Gongi's hands, disturbing the bones. Hands that, for so long, had lain quietly folded, one over the other, would now reveal the secret they held. As the hands fell open, a small object of stone rolled into Jzurelea's lap. Jzurlea was frightened by the mouse and screamed loudly. Her voice echoed in the little cave. It made her laugh. Then she saw the Stone Head Fragment in her lap. She picked it up and looked curiously at it. It was carved and was strangely familiar to her. She had seen it before, when she was very young. It was slightly luminous and was of a milky color. Crackles of vermilion, azure and lavender highlighted the delicate carving.
The stone had a power of it's own. She felt irresistibly drawn to it. There was a sense of heat coming from it the longer she held it in her hand. As it heated up, it began to shine, and she could see it's features in the dim light of the cave, awaken. The stone had the face of a woman carved into it. There was a faint smile on the lips. A very ornate crown sat upon the head. It seemed inlaid with precious jewels, but the crackles of precious elements running throughout it, gave it this appearance. It looked as though beads hung down from the crown, around the ears, falling the full length of the hair, mingling with it beautifully.
Jzurlea held the stone in both hands and pressed it to her bosom. The warmth was comforting. Within the stone, she began to feel a pulsating, and out of the vaporous silence, she thought she heard a voice. It was a very high pitched voice, and was singing in a very ancient language. There were many trills in this language, and it sounded very much like a bird singing. She looked at the stone again, and this time saw that the mouth was moving. She was so alarmed by this, she dropped the stone head and it fell again into her lap. At once the singing stopped.
When she dropped it, the stone head fragment fell face down...Now she could see that the back of the stone was also carved. Leaning closer, she squinted to make out the features of the carved surface. The backside of the head was carved into the face of an owl. As if in a dream,...she remembered a boy on a passing train handing her an owl with no head. It made her think of the people with no head who had come on horses. With guns they came ...and taken her children. She held the stone in her hand turning it over and over as she examined it.
"What was it the Empress said," she thought to herself. Then she remembered. The Empress had told her, that if she could find the head and restore it to it's body, she would be able to help her people very much. Now, here was the head. Where was the body? Hadn't she stashed it in the cave somewhere? She really didn't under- stand the meaning of it and why the head was off the body in the first place. She thought of the prophesy Taweya spoke of in one of his stories. It fortold of a time coming when a Man with no-head would arrive he would be smart and beautiful but had little understanding or compassion. He would destroy the village and the villagers. She didn't want to think of it. It was a terrible story. She didn't believe it anyway. But Harmony knew of that story and was born into that time...”and the land was covered with cobwebs...” she remembered hearing, but the people were frightening and chose a pitiful path that ruined earth and sky. Even water, and the hearts of the human beings was corrupted and the connection to the sacred ancient past was broken.
As she was thinking thus, she kept turning the head over and over. It almost felt alive. Then she heard the singing voice again, and as she sat there in the darkness of the cave, a mist slowly gathered and rose about her. She was so enchanted by the beauty of the voice, she didn't notice the mist. Nor did she hear the raindrops beginning to fall outside. She sat there, hidden like the pulse within the body. She breathed within the heart of Nature's symphony all around her. She listened only to the voice, and couldn't withdraw her attention from it. Now Jzurlea began forming the sounds with her mouth and was singing in the strange language of the stone head,...as if she'd spoken it all her life. She could feel waves of light pulsating from her, and uncannily, knew now, the meaning of the lyrics.
Though the rain beat down harder outside, Jzurlea was unaware of it. Then all of a sudden, a large bolt of lightning crashed close to the mouth of the cave, and a brilliant light appear-ed. Startled, she turned away fearfully, and sheltered her eyes from the light. Slowly as the light subsided, filtering through the brilliant haze, she could see a shining white horse. It pawed the ground just outside the mouth of the cave. He was a full grown stallion, and upon his head he carried one great horn. It spiraled forth even as the lightning bolt itself. Huge wings, iridescent, like mother of pearl, he kept folded close to his sides. He pawed the earth impat- iently, throwing his beautiful head back, and tossing his great mane, which was the same color as his wings and tail. He snorted loudly, looking straight at her. He called to her by a name she knew in her heart.
"Lemurlalo," he called to her. She was amazed and afraid, but couldn't look away or run to hide. Again he called to her. "Lemurlalo." His voice seemed like an echo, and vibrated strongly and deeply within her, stirring old memories. They came hauntingly back, twist-ing down the painful corridors of Time.
"Lemurlalo," he called to her again. This time, as if spellbound, she rose, still clutching the stone head fragment in her hand. The singing had become very soft now, but she could still hear it, and felt the words deeply penetrate her as she sang them.
Kuivato Appears to Jzurlea in Gongi's Cave
Please go to: Chapter 9, page 2
