I am using Facebook the way the Victorian writers in England used newspapers and other periodicals. Heres the beginning of chapter 7 of SAI-SAI, WATERMAKER. (Heres the back-story: The Godette Etuhm was sent down to earth on an important initiation assignment, in fact an examination to see whether she was ready to become a god. At the beginning of the assignment, Etuhm was to collect her three human handmaidens Sai-Sai, Ezin And Ahsah personally, with the help of the Giwi Steve. the Giwi were beings directly descended fromte Great ancestor of Water, Izir. The handmaidens were to help her with the assignment. The Godette Etuhm messed up and her aunt Vhu-Ta, the Great Ancestor of Wind, had to recall her niece, the Godette, back.) Chapter 7 “I am afraid you have failed,” said Vhu-Ta severely. “Oh no, Aunty!” Etuhm shrieked. Vhu-Ta, the Great Ancestor of Wind had ordered Etuhm the Godette of Mist back up from earth a few hours ago. The two were up on Vhu-Ta’s cloud, and as the young Godette answered her aunt, the water vapour that made up the cloud that they stood on began to churn. “Stop it!” ordered Vhu-Ta yet more sternly. “You have absolutely no self control. You’re going to cause a storm!” Etuhm hung her head. She could not, for the life of her, consider what she had done on earth that was so wrong that she had been recalled from her examination. “Pull yourself together!” Vhu-Ta told her niece somewhat more kindly. Etuhm had begun to sink into the vapour. Her feet and knees had already turned to mist before Vhu-Ta stretched out her hand. Not one to sulk, Etuhm took her aunts out-stretched hand immediately. At once she solidified and took on her god-like form. As with all gods, her form was close to that of a mortal, for gods always create in images of themselves. Etuhm rushed forward and threw her arms around her Aunt’s neck. “Thank you!” she cried. “Thank you for forgiving me, Aunt Vhu-Ta. Does this mean you’re going to give me a second chance?” “Stop it!” Vhu-Ta said again. “Even if it’s a storm of happiness, we can’t afford one right now!” “Why not?” asked Etuhm, refusing to be upset now that her aunt Vhu-Ta was in a better mood. “Because,” her aunt explained, “at the moment our foe is your Uncle Si-Ka. He is the Great Ancestor of Fire. You have seen trees burst into flame from lightening down below, haven’t you? That is one of the things Si-Ka does. He thinks he’s being clever.” Etuhm stared at her aunt. “Oh I forgot,” Vhu-Ta remembered, somewhat embarrassed. “You could hardly see anything when you were locked up in your ice-crystal before you were released for your examination! That was your Aunt Izir’s idea,” she went on with a dry laugh. “Your Aunt Izir never forgave your mother Ga-N’a for having children when she couldn’t.” As a young Godette who had been locked up in her ice-crystal since the beginning of the New World, after The Thing That Happened, Etuhm had not the faintest idea what her aunt was talking about. She continued to stare and all at once she felt very bad about messing up her examination. Life was much simpler amongst mortals. Compared to being on the cloud with her aunt, she had so much more power down on earth. “You are sent down amongst mortals to learn humility,” went on Vhu-Ta. “That is one of the greatest qualities a Godette or Godling must master.” “What’s the point in having power if you can’t use it?” asked Etuhm. “You have to learn first how to control it, and secondly how to use power wisely,” answered Vhu-Ta. “Of course, a Godette can be haughty and powerful.,” the Great Ancestor of Wind continued more kindly, seeing how depressed her niece looked. “It is all a question of for what purpose, how and when. This is what you were sent to learn. Unfortunately you failed quite miserably. You caused a storm at the very beginning of your first assignment. And you refused to fetch the Handmaiden Ezin in person. That refusal, as you know, caused a lot more damage to the school.” “Nobody would have known about that little storm in Sai-Sai’s kitchen” Etuhm pouted, finally giving in to a fit of the sulks. “Never say a thing like that when you are down there amongst humans!” Vhu-Ta admonished. “ You were most fortunate Sai-Sai did not panic and call in the police or the Veterinary Services or something.” A shiver went through Etuhm’s body at the mention of Veterinary Services, as she thought of what that earthly institution did to stray cats. “’Walls have ears’”!” said Vhu-Ta. “That’s what those humans used to say, several centuries ago, at the time that they worked themselves up to The Thing That Happened. I suppose a good number of them still say it,” the Great Ancestor of Wind went on with a disdainful sniff. “Humans! You do understand, don’t you, that technically you are their mother.” Etum rolled her eyes in a way that said “Pa-lease. Seeing this, Vhu-Ta smiled because in spite of her talk about humility, she liked to see her niece show spirit. “Were going to have to get you back down there,” the Great Ancestor of Wind told the young Godette briskly. “We will have to look inside your ice-crystal for a sign as to how we are going to do it.” In spite of the courage she had shown a moment ago, Etuhm felt her legs turn to mist. Seeing this, Vhu-Ta took the young godette’s hand again and together they walked over to the remains of Etuhm’s ice crystal. “Oh,” breathed Etuhm. She felt as though a great part of her was travelling, falling down through the cloud. “You have to use the energy around you,” Vhu-Ta lectured. “Whether you are up here or down on earth it is the same. That is how you will find out how to stay in the state you are required to be in at any given moment.” The atmosphere around Etuhm’s ice-crystal was so cold that Etuhm the Godette of Mist found the watery part of herself turning to ice-crystals that descended earthwards down through her Aunts cloud. This only made her feel colder still as the cold penetrated the spaces in her body that were made up of air. Etuhm gripped her aunt’s hand tightly and felt herself return to her normal Godette form. “Hm, heh!” muttered Vhu-Ta tensely, as she gazed into the ice-crystal. Etuhm stretched herself forward to take a good look as well. She saw a man and a woman who stood in a large, grand hall. “That,” said Vhu-Ta, nodding at the man, “is the Minister of Being.” The mighty ancestor drew in a quick, deep breath. She let it out in a sigh made up of a thin stream of air that went on for several minutes. Waiting for her aunt to finish exhaling, Etuhm grew rather impatient, but remained politely silent. “I will have to send an apology to my Elder Sister Izir, the Great Ancestor of Water,” Vhu-Ta murmured when she was breathing normally again. “I am sure I must have interfered with the pull of the moon on the earth’s waters. Out of the corner of her eye, Vhu-Ta caught Etuhm loooking down and smiling. “Luckily, I restored balance with my exhalation. The trouble is, my dear,” the Great Ancestor of Wind went on softly, “the situation is much worse than I thought. As I mentioned, that man down there is the Minister of Being. Ezin’s father.” Etuhm gave a small gasp. “The woman is Dima, Sai-Sai’s mother. “Your handmaidens are not nearly as far away from the Capitol as they should have been by now. I do not like to think of what might happen!” “Can you here what they are saying?” Vhuta asked the Godette. Etuhm listened carefully, tuning out noises from the earth’s woods and cities that were channelled up through the crystal. “Yes,” she said. “I think I can.” “Use your eyes and ears,” Vhu-Ta said. “Prepare yourself to re-take your examination.”
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 16:29:42 +0000
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