Tzoli's Red Leather Journal

The Song of the Sea - Lesson One

**It had been several days since Miss Kita had come by to see me. I near suspected that she was not coming back and I would be left with an unfinished story. But she did come, her smile bright and her gait bouncing.

I am pleased she has come, for I felt a deep curiosity within me as to the next part of the story. We parted at such a point that it was uncertain to me where it would be going.

I found out today that she makes up the tales as she sits down with me to tell them. She said this easily to me when I asked her how she thought up her tales. It angers me that she can pluck stories out of the kha as easily as others pluck magic. She is gifted with a silver tongue and doesn't even realize it. Alas, I suppose that is there is a reason I am but a scribe, and she, the story teller.**

[Part Three- The First Lesson of the Great Womac]

Over the next several days, the Great Womac cared for Jiri. His head had been cracked, giving him spells of dizziness and a great head ache. He learned that he was indeed lucky to have such a pain though, for over those days, he realized two things: Womac was no witch, for a witch would not care for him as she did and he was lucky he didn't fight her for he suspected that she could have put him down with but the snap of her finger. With her, he never had to speak, for she already knew the words in his mind and his feelings of gratitude. She was a good woman despite the fact that most considered her a monster.

"Womac, tell me, can I defeat the real witch? I wish to free the village from the curse and continue on my journey," he said one morning. It was the first morning he had awoken without his head pounding and the room spinning, so he felt a bit unencumbered and enlivened by this.

Womac looked at Jiri, a smirk playing on her lips, "I think the chance you have to beat her, is the same chance you have of swimming across the sea." She laughed and sat down next to the lad, looking into his eyes to see if his head was still cracked. Looking at him, she smiled and placed her hands upon his temples, chanting a few words. She opened her mouth and blew her sweet breath over him. In a moment, Jiri felt enlightened. As he inhaled the smell of spun sugar and spice, he saw the vision of a feather behind his eyes. The feather floated upward, spiraling around him. "I will teach you what is needed for you to know so that you may defeat her." Jiri could not speak, all he could see was this feather floating away from him.

All night he had dreamed of his feather. All night he had flown through the air chasing it. At one point he turned into a bird. At another, he was the feather. At one point, he was the wind holding the feather aloft. And so he dreamed.

The next thing Jiri knew, it was morning and he gently landed to the earth; his dream cradling him gently into the warm couch. "It is time to begin," a voice said softly behind him. He turned and saw Womac, but there was something different about her, he just couldn't put his finger on it. "Come, we will go for a walk by the sea."

And so, the pair left the house for the first time in several days. They walked along the shallow cliff side that overlooked the sea. For most of the day Womac said nothing as the pair walked. Jiri did most of the talking. He talked of his brother, his family, his home. He talked of his hopes for the future, his desire to run the family farm. All in all, he talked of nothing. As the sun began to set out on the horizon of the sea, Jiri found he had nothing more to talk about and fell silent. He stopped walking and looked out over the water. Womac stopped beside him and looked out over the water. She spoke finally, "In the face of such beautiful and vast things, all people lose words, both in their mouths and in their minds. The first lesson you must learn is to lose those words. Remember this feeling so that you can always be a clean slate should the need arise."

Jiri knitted his clean brow, thinking on this for a moment as he looked down the cliff's edge. As if on cue, a bird flew out from the cliff and off over the sea, a feather molting from its tail and floating up on a breeze, then down into the water. Jiri watched the feather for a moment and felt, for a moment, peace. The feeling was all consuming, though, it did not feel like it was his own and he immediately fell into confusion, a confusion that pushed the feeling of peace aside.

Womac nodded to him, "That is all for today. We will continue to the next lesson tomorrow." She led him back to the hill that acted as her house. Once again, Jiri found words to put into his mouth and began to talk, though he could still feel the sting of the peace and silence that had drifted over his heart.

"Why does it sting so now?" he queried her later that evening after they had taken their supper of fish and roots.

"Silence is a hard thing attain when you have so many other emotions weighing down on your heart. I suppose you brother lived with this sting his entire life if what you tell me is true. We seek to fill ourselves rather than empty ourselves. If we are full, then emptying ourselves later leaves a hole inside of us. A hole that stings because we want to fill it back up." As she parted her perfect lips, a small breath escaped, "They say those who are empty and full of silence can attain great wisdom. They also say they are called to the Lady of the Sea so she can fill them up with her song as she once filled all the people of this land."

With a wave of her hand Womac dismissed the matter, "For now, you should sleep, tomorrow will be much more trying that today was. Tomorrow we will pluck the red strings that bind everything together trying to play the melody of magic as it rings through the kha."

Posted by Tzoli at November 13, 2004 05:37 PM