Voyaging

The next two days passed interestingly enough, and it was two days before that Elflad returned. Apparently the Fisherlads, with his parents undoubted permission, kept him with them for a difficult transformation.

--Now, you must recite the poem again-- the fisherlad insisted when he, and a crowd of twenty or so fisherlads and lasses, climbed up to sit with me… one of the ‘fisherlads’ being my elf friend, and one of the lasses, I was given to understand, his sister. --And no translation, either-- he said to Tselnto, --I want them to get the full effect.--

I obliged, of course, and when I was done I was ‘forced’ to tell them poem after poem. One short poem (a a famous teaching poem about nest building) they forced me to repeat over and over again until several people in the audience (including Tselnto, who had heard it before, and the elflad and his sister, and the chief fisherlad) had it memorized.

--That… that was a very different experience-- the elflad said. --My name is Teletore, by the way and this is my sister, Trintri. I can see why my buddies wanted me to hear that as a fisherlad.--

--I don’t understand-- I said --How is it different?--

--It is… emotional. Before I heard the sounds, and they go together very well, as I said the first time. But this time, even tho I didn’t understand the words, I heard the emotions. I can’t describe it better than that.--

--Oh-- I said. --I mean, of course poetry is emotional.--

It certainly changed the rest of the trip, though. Whenever I wasn’t flying, fishing, eating or being quizzed by Tselntro, I was reciting poetry to the gang of Fisherboys and Fishergirls.

Speaking of Fishing, I did my regular fishing, of course, but one thing I had forgotten was that the boat stopped every day for an hour and everyone went swimming and fishing. The first day it took me by surprise, but soon I fell into a routine. I would ‘fish’ with them, and they would put an enormous basket on the deck for my ‘catch’. I tried to out do my ‘gang’… we would weigh their fish and my fish after each hours swim. Sometimes I won by most days they beat me rather easily. Of course, they had a big gang!

The other thing we did during swimming time, and it took us almost a week to think of this, is I would ‘give rides’. I told you how it was impossible for anyone to ride on me, but Teltore came up with this idea, like I said after two weeks, for me to swoop down and grab some boy by the hands. Then I would swoop up, like I was trying to lift a heavy fish. I couldn’t actually get aloft with them, but I could get a decent altitude and speed, and then I would let go, and the boy in question would dive from there into the water. This was the other thing that kind of slowed my catching fish… with one boy after another holding out their hands to me. It was great fun, though, and I think it made me really popular.

So, all in all it was a great trip. We had one storm which made me kind of miserable, but it only lasted a day or so, and the fishing was, for some reason, great afterwards, which almost made up for it. They did send a Fisheman up to me to ask if I wanted to go into the hold, but really! That would have been ten times worse.

And then, when they told me we were getting near, I started hovering over the Schip for much of the day, as high I could get. Then, on the second day, I saw it… at first a tiny speck on the horizon and then, when I went closer, it resolved to a long cliff with, I saw eventually, a castle and a harbor. They had improved the harbor dramatically since my time, with long piers jutting out past the reef on both sides of the harbor, with several boats tied up to them, and men carrying goods to and fro from them.

“So, you saw it?” Telentore asked me, when I landed.

“Yes. It is beautiful.”

“Are you going to fly ahead? Is it too far?”

“No. No.”

He looked confused at my answer. “You’re not going to fly ahead, but it isn’t too far?”

“Yes.”

“Why not?”

I put my head under my wing but, in spite of all I could do, he didn’t go away. Instead he, and the gang, inched closer until they were touching me on all sides, waiting. Eventually I couldn’t take it any more and pulled my head out. “I’m scared.” I said. “I haven’t seen my brother in so long, and he has never seen me… like this” I said, holding out my wings.

“He’s your brother!”

I stared at him “Eagles don’t have brothers… not really, anyway. My mother’s next, is still an egg! Once he hatches, I will hardly ever see him; at least that is what I have heard.”

“But this isn’t your ‘Eagle’ brother, this is your ‘Farmer’ brother… and Farmer’s do ‘brother’s’. Your Farmer brother will do anything for you, and he will be glad to see you… even like that,” he said, grinning.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m a Fisherboy, and we do relationships. And I’m an Elf, and we do cultures. And… and I’m your friend, and, yes, I’m sure.”

I sat there, perched, for quite a while. And then I went down and got a fish, because it was going to be a long trip.

—

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Von