By request of TexAnne, I share this child’s tale from my people. The translator on my emkay is working extra hard to go from Spelaean to Zayzan to Tellurian Inglish, so I hope it’s comprehensible. Enjoy!
When the Gale Met the Gurge
A Spelaean folktale
as told by Fali, Rider
In the ago, before the echoes ran deep, the Gale was not settled in place. Before she began to carve her deadly dance into the Valley of Glass, she wandered all across Mother, leaving her mark and her memory wherever she went. Her marks wore deep, and memory of her long; time is longer.
One dusk she happened upon a tangle of currents that the Gale knew were none of hers, not even if changed by time’s polish. She drew the pattern into herself, spinning faster as she danced her way following the current traces. Heedless of where she spun in seeking her goal, in her wake valleys became mountains; stars burst from the earth to soar skywards; whole communities disappeared or destroyed.
The Gale danced pursuit until she encountered her first mirror: sister dancer, the Gurge singing the spinning winds just as the Gale did. They danced together for a time. The sky turned dark; the earth wept; countless died.
The Gale knew their union could not continue, and the multiverse sustain; the Gurge, refusing this knowledge, lost her will to roam. Slowly, inevitably, the Gale pushed the Gurge toward the sea; with each spin their choices of paths further sealed. Even so the Gurge resisted, and so mighty was their strain it tore entire realms asunder. The Gale bound her sister’s current to water with her tears, bonds never since broken.
Water is sister to air, as Gurge to Gale; forever apart, never do they stop singing to each other. The Gale roamed the world for another cycle in grief, and how she found her resting place is a different tale. As they sang then so they do now, and so the sounds continue even to this day.
Thanks, Fali. I like it! When I was a sprout the version I learned had the Gurge and the Gale making the multiverse together, after which the sorrowful Gurge was forced to bind his brother the Gale in place, and the Gurge’s tears at this made the ocean.
.
I wonder which one is true.
.
-Splash
Both and neither, Splash, if your creation tales are anything like ours.
Thanks, Fali, that’s lovely! Even after it went through all those translations.
I often think on this story, and the differing versions of it I have heard, on the days I am lonely for my travels with the Flux. For all that Port Outreach life is wonderful, I sometimes want to take to the road again.
Enkin
Enkin: The thought of you trying to pack all those books into even the largest wahj is an image with hours of amusement potential. If you like different versions of cultural myths and folk tales, a neighbor of mine just recently finished a compendium collecting and contrasting traditional tales from Uqbar, Saeresh, Tellus, and Mother. It’s a monstrously large file, and my trained opinion is that it falls over a bit due to the sheer scope of the project, especially in some of the comparative cultural conclusions they draw as well as in the thoroughness of their research documentation. However, just in terms of number of enjoyable stories collected in one place, it’s one of the nicest I’ve encountered.
Trisha
ASP Advisory, Teacher Town
It’s true. Every time I think I’m going to take up the road again, I look around my library (or my office, my bedroom, or bath) and remember how even the bookwahjs have to be selective about the hard copies they carry. What would I do with them all? And I would miss lovely visitors like you and the challenges you pose; on the road, the questions tended to be more along the lines of “Do you have any more copies of The Green Monkey and his Green Banana?” Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s hardly the kind of research challenge that sends me scurrying for my private notes.
The compendium sounds fascinating. I’d love to add it to my collection. I just received a crateful of castoff Tellurian novels from the Dark Lord. You’re welcome to pick through them and see if there’s anything there to help your research.
Enkin Binderstape, Teacher Town
Enkin, may Cloie and I come visit you and your books soon as well? She’s been poking at me to get her something “new” as she’s memorized everything we currently have. Alternatively you know you are always welcome in the circle at the shop. It’s always lovely visiting with another still-wheel.
Freya PaxTwist
Under the Spindle