Stranded
A
Yahgahn Fable
If there
were a competition for best sailing culture among the Trelli, then the Uugards
would win it. The Uugard culture is a group of “Normal” Trelli that live almost
exclusively on the ocean. They live their whole lives either on ships or on
islands or on the shores of the continents. They make their living from the
sea, and love to help ship things among the continents.
Yet even
the Uugards can experience problems.
Once there
was an Uugard named Gwebkokyl[1],
meaning Ocean. She was named this because her skin was colored a deep blue, a
rare skin color for Trelli. She and her friend, a Yahgahn land Trelli named
Yethrone, would often play ocean games, since they both lived in the same
archipelago. One of these games was that they would ride around together on a
stout sailing raft.
(See picture of raft)
One day, on
one of their outings, they got so much into their game that they both ignored
the signs of a coming storm, and went further out into the ocean. It didn’t
take long for the storm began to get closer. Soon, the wind from the storm
behind them began to get faster after a while, and too late they realized that
they were in trouble. It was already raining hard.
“I’ll get
the rudder, you watch the sail!” Gwebkokyl yelled to Yethrone, a note of panic
in her voice.
“What’s the
big problem? A little wind and some rain is—“ lightning struck somewhere out in
the ocean, making thunder.
“It’s
dangerous on the ocean in a storm! Ocean storms have lots of power!” Gwebkokyl
yelled.
So Yethrone
got to work, trying to make sure that the wet, puffing-out sail didn’t get
blown away. Gwebkokyl struggled with the crude rudder, trying to use the wind
to push them back to the archipelago. But suddenly the poorly made rudder
complained loudly, then snapped off, releasing so much force that Gwebkokyl
almost fell into the ocean. She grabbed tightly to the floor of the raft, which
wasn’t much help, but Yethrone grabbed her before she could slide into the
ocean.
After
Gwebkokyl recovered herself, she said, “Well, there’s no way we can get back
now, unless the wind blows the other way and we turn with the wind direction,
or try to swim home. I don’t advise trying to swim. We’re safe as long as we’re
on this raft.”
The two
friends floated on the raft through the night, and didn’t dare try to sleep
until daylight came. There they floated on the raft, both asleep, and land
nowhere in sight.
They awoke
several hours later, and still no land in sight. They had no idea where on the
ocean they were, or even if they were still traveling in the same direction.
Gwebkokyl looked at the mast and sighed. Despite their best efforts last night,
the sail had blown away. Yethrone wanted to swim after it, because she could
see it, but Gwebkokyl said there was too much lightning. Just as she had said
that, lightning struck near the place where the sail was floating. They had
looked at each other with a look that said so much more than words.
It took
several more hours, but finally they saw land off in the distance. A trip of
another 8 hours might get them to that island. Gwebkokyl looked at the land in
the distance, eyes squinted. After a few minutes of looking, she cursed
silently, then said, “Daveki! We’re screwed.”
“Why?
What’s wrong?” asked Yethrone.
“That
island over there is Jophwaan Island. I can tell even from here.”
“How?”
“Well, it’s
a huge island, and it’s a dead island. It once had life on it, but now it’s
dead. Dead because of some foolish culture that existed before the Yahgahns
came into greatness.”
“Dead?”
Gwebkokyl
looked at Yethrone. “Haven’t you heard the fable about Jophwaan Island?”
“I know. I
have. But I can’t quite believe it. I didn’t know it was a real place.”
“Well, it
is. I don’t know how we’re going to survive there. I hope there’s water. I’m
not an Ocean Trelli, and neither are you. We both need fresh water.”
When they
finally got to Jophwaan Island, they couldn’t help but think that the fable of
that place understated the damage. All they saw around them were long-dead
trees that had fallen down, sand, and things washed up on the shore. The only
life on the island was mold and other simple plants.
“This
island is twice as big as the Severnorae Swamp, but all it is, is sand!”
Yethrone exclaimed. “It’s worse than I thought. These old trees give it a haunted
look.”
“Well,
let’s look around for water.” Gwebkokyl said.
They
started their search for water. But they searched all over the island for days
and found only puddles—enough to keep them alive while they searched for more
water. Lucky for them that Gwebkokyl still had a container to keep water in on
her belt. They were just about to give up when they found something. Gwebkokyl
sat down on a rock, exhausted, and the rock slid out from under her. A spring
spurted a small trickle of water into the air, and the two friends squealed
with glee. They refilled their water container, and then put the rock back
where it was, to keep the water in. They then used a large group of other rocks
to make an arrow pointing at the spring. So then, the only problem with the spring
was that it was a day’s walk from the shore to the spring, and the shore was
going to be their only source of food on Jophwaan Island.
They tried
using Gwebkokyl’s axe—which she luckily still had—to chop the old trees apart.
It was hard work, as the trees were very hard with old age, sun bleaching, and
lack of decomposers. Yet they finally got one tree half-chopped up.
But it
wouldn’t burn. They had tried using dried seaweed to start a fire, and that
burned nicely enough, but the wood they chopped refused to burn, no matter how
hot they got the fire.
“I guess
these trees, being dead for well over a hundred years, aren’t burning material
anymore,” Gwebkokyl said, sighing.
“Well,
we’ve got seaweed. That one area we found is a huge field of seaweed, remember?”
“Yes, but
we need that seaweed to eat. I guess we’ll have to forget about fire.”
“We can
still use the wood for shelter. Oh! And I’ve got an idea!”
“What?”
“We can
hollow out some old trees and use them to hold spring water!”
“And drag
them all the way back here? And back again when we finish getting the water?
And do that every time we need water?”
Yethrone
was silent after that for a while. Then suddenly she said, “No one comes here,
right?”
“No one in
their right mind comes here of their own wanting to.” Gwebkokyl answered.
“And
there’s no life on this island? Nothing to disturb something we made?”
“Wind might
be disturbing, but otherwise, not that I know of.”
“And we’ll
probably be here a long time, right?”
“Yes. This
wood is no good for making rudders out of. If we had good wood, I could make a
rudder, and we could get the psych out of here. What do you have in mind?”
Yethrone
drew in a breath, then slowly said, “Well… I was thinking that maybe we could
hollow out a bunch of trees and make a kind of a pipe from the spring to us. We
could have it flow into that rocky depression that’s just a few minutes away.
It’s deep enough.”
“You want
to make a tree-pipe from the spring to that rocky depression?”
“Uh… yes,”
Yethrone said, thinking that her idea was being rejected.
“Well, it
would be a long, hard project, but I like the idea. Sure beats walking for a
day to get fresh water.”
It was
a long, hard project. It took the two friends several months to hollow out the
logs, lay the logs along the path they had marked out, push the hollow trees
into the sand, and set up a contraption at the spring that would catch the
water first, then let it go into the tree-pipes when it had enough power to get
the whole way. It was an exhausting project, but when it was finished, they
only had to go to the spring every now and then to fix the simple device they
had made, or to unplug the spring if mud got in the hole.
And
finally, after years and years, a large ship got stranded on Jophwaan Island.
Luckily, nothing was broken, so as soon as the storm was over, they could push
off again. Also luckily, the sailors found Gwebkokyl and Yethrone, and
recognized them after looking hard at them for several minutes. For some of
these sailors were Gwebkokyl’s siblings, cousins, and second cousins. So they
offered to take the two friends home. But the two friends had built so much on
the island, not just physical stuff, that they were not sure if they wanted to.
They also weren’t sure if they could go back to their old lives. It was a tough
decision to make. Yet finally, they decided to stay. They were prosperous where
they were at, and it was their home. So the sailors promised to come back to
visit every now and then. It is said that their descendants still live on the
island.
The morals of this story are many. 1. Co-operation is the key to make society work. Without co-operation—working together—society could not function properly. 2. Be resourceful. Try to figure out new and interesting ways to use the resources you have. 3. Home is powerful. Wherever you call home, it will always affect major decisions you make. And lastly, never give up hope.
The
End