Excursion

Chapter Eight - To See The World

  To my surprise, Salandil took a great deal of convincing to come with me on our excursion. Although he thought very highly of Esis, he was born a Vannakai, so he had that ingrained stubbornness against anything outside the desert border; especially after I told him that the Empikah lived on the ground, and not in the sky. But after I insisted that the world beyond was lush, green, and full of friendly people and Empikah, he agreed.

  Esis' task of persuading Chief Rincott to let us join him on his trip back to the Empikah went fairly well. The chief was under the opinion that even if Esis wasn't an excellent leader, he would be a capable guide to take us into the world beyond his. However, he was amazed and appalled that the Empikah lived upon the ground and demanded that Esis speak with the elders about this new information so they could update their books. By the time the end of the week came, all the plans had been laid and Esis' meeting with the elders had taken place without any major difficulties. He sent a message to the Empikah people, telling them he would be late in returning and that he was bringing two guests. Interestingly, Esis didn't have to use one of the messenger hawks to deliver this information to his people. All he had to do was stand out in the sand dunes for a couple minutes in silent contemplation. Meanwhile, Salandil and I packed our bags for the coming voyage.

  Esis assured us that we didn't need to pack much and that there were many places to stop and refuel along the way. Thus, we only packed our necessities. Still, it was enough to fill two large duffel bags which would be strapped on the sides of our yaks. Esis packed less than we did, and when I caught a glimpse of the contents of his colorful knapsack, I noticed that he had only brought food, water, and a change of clothes.

  Chief Rincott wished us farewell with extravagance. He hosted a large ceremony and festival the night before we left, and hired the local minstrels to sing. Near the end of the celebration, he bestowed us with charms to protect us from harm, and made us promise to keep a journal of everything we saw so we could tell our stories when we returned.

  The next morning, I leaped out of bed with a newfound enthusiasm, even though the lavish celebration had lasted far into the early hours of the morning. I saw that Salandil and Esis were already up, double checking all the bags to make sure we had everything.

  Once we began, I felt like the freest man in the world.

  The first leg of our journey was uneventful, as our tribe's territory consisted of sand, sand, and more sand. Our celestial yaks weren't tripping or losing track of one another or going lame, so it wasn't fraught with any peril. It was just really boring. The scenery didn't change one bit until we got to the Vannakai's border. And even then, all that was different was that there were more rocks.

  "Esis?" I inquired once the sun began to set.

  "Hmm?"

  "How much longer until we start to see something other than sand? Or is sand the only thing that the world is made of?"

  The white-haired man seemed to get offended at the theory of a sand-filled world, for he protested with gusto.

  "Oh, no. No, no, no, no. No. There's much more to the world than sand, Nomen. You'll see what I'm talking about tomorrow."

  It was hard to believe Esis that night as I shook sand from my boots, picked sand out of my yak's hooves, and combed sand from my hair. Whenever I squeezed my eyes shut, I tried to think of a world where the rough, stinging grains were nonexistent; where the entire earth was colored in varying shades of red, blue, and green as in the elders' stories. No more golden-brown, no more reflective heat, no more grit, no more sickening sound of tiny pebbles rubbing against a person's skin...

  But that night, I dreamed of sand.

  The next morning, I jotted down a few quick sentences in the journal that Chief Rincott had given us. There wasn't much to report, but I figured I should say something. Following behind Esis and Salandil into the rising sun, I sat atop my celestial yak, listening with disgust as he crunched his way through the dunes. It was several hours still until the sun was at its highest point, and I was already baking. I didn't want to drink too much from my canteen for I felt I would be wasting it, but the couple drops I let slide from the mouthpiece onto my tongue tasted like liquid heaven.

  Suddenly, in the distance, I saw a massive sand dune. It was bigger than any other dune I had seen on our trip so far, and looked perfectly unscathed. The only lines across it were from the wind whipping and dancing across its surface, shaping and molding it into a giant of a thing.

  "This is it, Boys!" Esis cried, his mouth breaking into an enormous grin. "This dune is our last landmark before we can say 'good-bye' to this world forever."

  As we approached the dune, the larger it seemed to become, until it appeared to be absolutely impossible to climb. Yet Esis – with numerous kicks and smacks upon his yak's backside – wove his way up the sliding, churning, perilous surface.

  At first, the sensation of climbing up such a monster on a celestial yak filled with me with a sense of awe. The sun caused the glistening grains underfoot to ripple and glow like tiny crystals, and seeing our footprints trail behind us – the only ones upon the landmark – made me feel important, in a way. But, as we climbed and climbed and climbed some more, my distaste for sand began to well up once again; this time, even stronger than before. You can imagine my excitement when I finally smelled something other than sand and dust floating on the wind. I saw the top of the dune in sight, just a hundred feet away... fifty... twenty-five... ten...

  And suddenly, there we were. Standing upon the peak of the largest sand dune in our entire region, looking out towards the magnificent sun, and feeling the breeze in our hair. Lo and behold, as I looked out in front of us, I instantly saw the source of that strange, almost foreign smell that had taken hold in my nostrils for the last couple hundred feet up the dune. It was fish.

  For there, spread out before us like a blanket of crystals and mirrors leading to unseen worlds, was a vast sea.