His Return
Outside the crumbled shell where Meridia once stood
Maanta’s legs beat slowly in place as he hovered in the sandy water outside Meridia’s crumbled city. He had freed almost two hundred Meridian slaves after releasing the air pocket, but now the group huddled close to the city waiting for the sand to dissipate.
For what was the point in being freed if only to charge blindly into the unknown, to be devoured by creatures of the deep you could not see? The tailfinned people of Sangfoul might also be searching for them close by. The whipping sand in the waters about him was so thick that he could not see a finger before his eyes.
Where is Archa? he questioned in his mind. She knew I was coming to Meridia. She should have arrived by my side by now.
The others nearby jostled and whispered to each other, the sounds echoing in the storm of sand.
“Be silent,” Maanta spoke to them. “We do not know who could be listening. Wait until the sand clears to speak.”
With a hush they sealed their lips.
And then amongst the silence and clicking sand currents, he heard other voices, fainter voices than the hushed whispered tones of his group.
“Stay close,” came a deep male voice, on the brink of Maanta’s hearing.
Maanta cupped his hand next to the ear of the Meridian beside him, instructing her to stay put while he went to investigate. Then he silently swam away, moving slowly so as to keep noise to a minimum.
Maanta listened intently to the water about him, hearing every pulse of movement that came his way. Then one barely audible voice glided across from the distance. “Did you feel that?” it asked.
That voice, Maanta thought. It’s so familiar. Where have I heard it before? Anna? His heart raced. Could she be here? He quickened his pace, filled with desire to reach that voice as soon as possible. Surely it’s her, he thought, the memory of her sweet song unmistakable to his mind.
Then the first voice came, a little louder this time. “Probably an eel,” it said.
Maanta longed to hear the female again; certain it was Anna. Then, gradually, the features of a woman became visible through the sand, a silhouette before him. Surely that wasn’t the young woman who had spoken with Anna’s voice?
When he had last been with her, Anna’s curves had been slimmer than this girl’s and she had been shorter as well.
Awed and curious, he swam quicker. As he did so the sand dissipated before his eyes.
The girl’s features shone through the aquatic sand breeze, her curly red hair flowing behind her as her emerald eyes gazed longingly into his.
Anna’s eyes; he knew them instantly. She had matured and was more beautiful than ever, but still the same girl.
“Maanta?” Anna’s beautiful voice called to him. “Could it be you?”
Maanta rushed to her now with no caution to be silent anymore. Anna was the only thing on his mind. He wrapped his pale arms around her pastel-blue waist and back. “It’s me,” he spoke in her ears. “I’ve missed you so much.”
Others were speaking to him now but he paid them no mind, focusing solely on Anna.
“I feared you dead,” Anna wept through the water. “Where have you been? Why didn’t you come to me? I’m so happy you’re alive!”
Maanta held Anna close, not wanting to let her go. He traced his fingers through her hair and along her head as she moved closer. “I have seen so many things and been so far.” He could feel her warmth joining his own as he held her close. “There is so much to tell you. When we’ve settled in some place tonight I promise I’ll share it all with you. I’m just so happy to be by your side once more.”
“Did you think of me where you were?” Anna brushed her cheek against his.
Maanta’s thoughts went back to the mountain, when he had fallen from its cliff while daydreaming about Anna. “Sometimes I could think of nothing but you.”
She kissed his lips, strong and passionate, holding them together for long moments. Then his fingers brushed softly across her cheek, and they pulled back to gaze at eachother once more.
Maanta stared into Anna’s warm, pure emerald eyes, marveling at the spirit, purity and resilience within them. “I love you, Anna.”
The world about him seemed surreal as he said the words he had longed to say back in Orion’s Birth before being swept away to the world of air.
“Oh Maanta!” Anna hugged him even tighter than she had before and kissed him deeply again. “I love you too!”
“Ahem!” The loud, grunt-like noise came from somewhere close by, finally registering in Maanta’s hearing and thoughts. “If she gets a reunion like this, I dread the reunion I’ll receive.” Sift’s dark muscular body hovered slightly beside Anna’s in the swirling sandy water.
Maanta kissed Anna once more and then went to shake Sift’s hand. “It’s great to see you again too, Sift.” Maanta gave him a hug too. He petted Lola on the head where she float close by. “I can’t wait to hear all about what has happened to Anna, you and the others since I have been away.”
“Nor can we wait to hear what you have done, my friend.” Sift waved some of the Meridian warriors and Tao over to his side now to also greet Maanta. “Although, as you must have guessed, I fear our enslaved in Meridia have been lost.”
Most of the Banealian and Meridian warriors were paying attention to Maanta now, a few of them shaking his hand and giving him their best regards. Tao looked distant and stared off into the blank and distant sandy fog.
Maanta’s heart raced. He couldn’t believe he had waited so long to tell them about the good news. “It is true Meridia seems to be lost.” He gave Sift a heartening grin. “But the slaves of Meridia live. I freed them from the prisons beneath Meridia before the city’s collapse.”
“Do not lie to us, boy!” Tao snapped at him with a dark look in his eyes. “They are all dead! How could they have survived?”
“Tao.” Sift gave his comrade a stare. “If Maanta says they are free, then they are free.”
“Then where are they?” Tao looked dark and lost again.
“Follow me. I’ll show you.” Maanta swam forward and began to disappear in the sandy fog.
“Follow Maanta!” Sift shouted and waved his armored arm in the currents as he mounted Lola once more.
The group mounted their riding companions, and swiftly followed in Maanta’s wake with Anna and Sift in the lead. The only one who didn’t come was Tao, who swam off down to look for his son’s beheaded body that had sunk to the ocean floor during the battle.
“Venge will pay,” Tao cursed beneath his breath, consumed by a blind, lost hurt.
The sand whipped and curled before Maanta’s eyes as he swam towards the freed slaves about fifteen whale lengths away. Soon their faces and bodies became visible in the now settling sandy fog, stretching like a large circular wall in the water before him. He wasn’t able to see how many there were through the sand until just now. It was worth the sacrifice of our city, he thought. Thank goodness they are all now free.
Maanta swam into the group and was about to tell them about his discovery of Zharista Anna and the others close by, when the Banealian and Meridian warriors burst through the sandy fog.
“My people!” Anna cried as she raced to them, hugging those nearby as she arrived to their side.
Cries of jubilation could be heard over and over again in the coming moments as warrior Meridians met up with loved ones they had long believed dead.
“Candinar!” one man called out as he rushed to a freed Meridian’s side. “Brother!”
A female warrior noticed her malnourished husband in the mass of freed slaves and rushed to be with him, kissing him repeatedly.
The warriors of Baneal smiled and cried as they embraced the previously enslaved who had no family here to greet them.
But it was a bittersweet reunion, for with each family reunited, each person celebrating their freedom, at least twenty others had died in the massacre, fighting or enslavement. That didn’t
include the numbers of enslaved people of Baneal who were dying or had perished in Sangfoul.
The reunited kissed, held and comforted one another until the light streaming through the surface of the water above began to set and fade.
Sift suddenly appeared by Anna and Maanta’s side as they spoke with the first slave Maanta had freed. They had discovered his name was Medvedev.
Medvedev spoke of how he had been forced to mine lava from the caverns beneath Meridia; his hands now crippled and black as coal. He also told the heroic tale of how Maanta had freed him after the air had burst through the tunnels. “But I fear our people’s spirit will not be repairable after losing Meridia to the sand and coral ocean floor,” he spoke.
Maanta put his arm around the man. “Medvedev, it is our souls that make who we are, not the place where we were born.”
Medvedev had a blank stare as he spoke. “But you must remember, at least for many of us who were enslaved, our souls have been broken. Without our homeland, where will we heal them?”
Sift broke in to the conversation and spoke to both Anna and Maanta at once. “It is getting dark and we have left many of our people who are not warriors a good distance away from here. We should return to them before nightfall.”
“Good point,” Anna agreed. “We should be heading back to them.” She took a conk-shell that Sift had strapped to his side and held it to her lips. “My fellow Meridians and Banealians,” the noise echoed through the spiraled shell, “it is getting dark and we must return to others of our people we have left beyond these waters!”
The now-massive group stopped their talking to listen to her words. There was barely any sand left to block their sight.
“Travel closely!” Anna spoke. “For the people of Sangfoul may still lurk in the shadows!”
Within moments they grouped together and began heading back toward Tao. Once more Sift, Anna and Maanta led the group.
At first when they came to where Tao should be they did not see him.
“This is where he was?” Anna questioned Sift.
“Yes,” Sift answered while looking about him. “And we must find him. We cannot leave him behind.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Anna assured him.
The water was relatively clear now, so Tao should have been easily visible. But as darkness fell, Maanta realized it probably shaded Tao from their sight.
It seemed bizarre though; for if Tao was here why had he not swum to them the second they arrived? Their group now numbered almost three hundred, and would easily be noticed by anyone nearby.
Then, beneath them on the still-stirring sandy ocean floor, Maanta noticed a curled body, hands cupped to its face.
“Tao!” Maanta shouted down to him before showing Anna and Sift where he was. “Tao!” Maanta called again.
At first Tao paid them no mind. He didn’t look up, but after Sift also called for him he swam slowly upward.
When Tao arrived at their side his eyes were sunk with darkness and depression. “They’re gone,” he spoke with disparity.
Maanta couldn’t understand why Tao seemed so dark and lost. He should be joyous that the enslaved had been freed.
“It is true,” Sift responded to Tao. “Evanshade and the others of Sangfoul appear to be nowhere about.”
“Not them,” Tao spoke angrily now. “The bodies of our slain are gone, swept away by the currents which churned as Meridia fell. My son is lost. He should not have died this way.”
Tao’s son, Maanta thought. Why was this sparking a memory? The boy, he remembered. Tao’s son was the boy who greeted me in Baneal and begged to come with us to Orion’s Birth. He must have come here with the others to fight the people of Sangfoul and free our Meridian slaves.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” he said.
“Don’t be.” Tao’s voice cut the water, crisp and harsh. “He gave his life for a worthy cause.”
Maanta could tell that Tao was trying to justify losing his son, but the look in the other man’s eyes said something different. They spoke of hate.
And hatred can bring nothing of goodness to our world, Maanta thought. We have to help him try to move past his son’s death and find some other light in the world. Otherwise it will consume him and could bring harm to us all.
Sift put his arm around Tao. “Tonight we will hold a memorial for him and our other lost brothers.”
Tao looked distant and unwilling to respond.
Sift petted Lola’s smooth scales with his strong hands. “We must leave for the group now that we left in the waters outside Meridia.”
“Agreed.” Anna moved forward before looking back to Maanta. “Join me on my riding fish until we find you another riding companion or Archa meets up with us again.”
Maanta swiftly swam up and mounted the riding fish while hugging close to Anna’s waist.
The group traveled slowly through the currents as they made their way back to Millay and the Meridians and Banealians they had left behind. The recently freed slaves had no riding companions, and so wherever they went they moved slowly.
Maanta enjoyed it though. It had been so long since Anna had been by his side and he was relishing every moment of their contact.
“How far off is the group we’re looking for?” he asked her while holding tight to her waist. Cool currents zipped along his body as he and Anna led the group behind them, with Sift riding Lola at their side.
“Not far, only a little ways.” Anna took a hand from the riding-fish and caressed his hand where it touched her side. “But I’m not in any hurry. I like having you close like this.”
“Maybe I can hold you close as we sleep tonight.” Maanta smiled and stroked her fingertips, enjoying the warmth of her back against his chest.
The remains of Meridia faded from visibility as the group rose and dipped across a hillside in the darkening night. The coral, fish and terrain seemed to glow about them like ghosts in the eerie gloom.
As they swam above a swaying kelp field, illuminated by the paled light of the descending sun above the ocean, Anna slowed her and Maanta’s riding fish, turning her head in Sift’s direction. “Wasn’t this the place?” she asked him.
“I thought that it was so.” Sift looked carefully below them, squinting his eyes. “If they are here then they’ve done a great job of hiding.”
Anna halted their riding fish. “Then why haven’t they seen us and come to our side?” As she asked this, the field of illuminated kelp swayed and parted as hands pushed at the dense kelp leaves.
Bodies shot up from the kelp basin and swam quickly toward them. One particular female body headed in Maanta and Anna’s direction.
“Anna!” Millay called up in joy. “Thank goodness you have returned. We feared the worst when a fog of sandy currents consumed the water about us. We didn’t know what it could mean.”
“Meridia has fallen to a rising pocket of air that rose from beneath the seafloor.” Anna smiled. “But there is fantastic news. The tailfinned people of Sangfoul fled as Meridia fell, and Maanta has freed the once enslaved of our people.”
“Maanta?” Millay hadn’t noticed him before, behind Anna, but as Anna spoke his name he caught her eyes. “You have come back to us, Maanta.” She hugged the boy that she did not yet know. “I assumed you dead but Anna was always convinced you were alive. If you freed the enslaved of Meridia then you must be a great boy indeed!”
The other people who had glided up from the kelp basin were now welcoming their warriors and greeting the freed slaves. In the darkness, all movements and facial features could barely be seen.
“I am not great,” Maanta said. “I have done nothing hard or difficult that someone else could not.”
Sift had been listening to their conversation and spoke to Maanta now. “But you thought of an idea and put it to action where all the others did not. In truth that is certainly brave. Do not be so modest, Maanta.”
Maanta blushed, but tried to hide it from the girls by sitting up stra
ighter on the riding fish. “Thank you, Sift. I appreciate the compliment. I will never see myself as great though.”
“As you shouldn’t,” Sift patted Maanta on the back, “because if you see yourself as great that can lead to arrogance. True greatness can only exist in modest souls without corruption.”
Moments of silence passed as the group thought about the meaning of Sift’s words. Then Sift dove off in the currents to greet others rejoining them.
Millay looked around, concern in her eyes, and asked, “Why is Sebastian not by your side? Does he ride with Tao?”
“He was killed in battle,” Anna said, reaching out to hold on to Millay’s hand.
It was as if Millay’s heart dropped. “I knew we would lose warriors in combat. It is unavoidable. But I never thought it could be Sebastian who would fall.” She bit her bottom lip as she thought she would cry. “How is Tao?”
“He is not taking it well,” Anna spoke. “He seems to be slipping into despair.”
“I will go to his side and try to comfort him.” Millay looked worried. “It’s so good to have you back safe. I don’t know how I would have taken it if you would have fallen as well.” Millay swept off in the currents to look for Tao.
As gray darkness dissolved into the pure black of night, the group decided to rest in the kelp basin. They would wait there until morning, when they could mourn their dead and decide what action to take next.
Millay and Sift slept close to Tao and tried to comfort him before his thoughts traveled to the world of dreams.
Maanta held Anna in his arms at the edge of the kelp basin, slightly away from the others. Kelp swayed and clung to their bodies as they stared up to the moonlight shimmering across the ocean’s surface above.
Anna turned and whispered in Maanta’s ear. “We have laid down to rest now.” She kissed him softly. “You told me you would tell me tonight of the places you’ve been and the things you’ve experienced since we were last together.”
“You won’t believe me.” Maanta traced his fingertips down the bare of Anna’s back.
“I will believe whatever you tell me.” Anna laid her head on his strong, pale chest. “I trust you. No matter what you say I’ll know it is true.”
A cool hush of currents sent goose bumps up both of their bodies.
“It all began when I was ripped away from you by the gust of air in Orion’s Birth,” Maanta began.
Then he told her about how Noah and two of his sons had rescued him, after he had come to float on the crest of the ocean. He recited Noah’s story for her about God’s flooding of the world, and how he had learned to breathe air along with the other ways of the people of land.
She cringed when he told her that he had choked up his gills from his mouth, and she was shocked to discover that Noah was the man called Noa she had heard so much about as a child.
“How could he still be alive?” Anna asked.
He told her that he didn’t know but that Noah was now over nine hundred years old.
“Gelu must be strong in him!” she exclaimed.
Then Maanta told her of the letter he had received from Amaranth, and about the symbiotic creatures which he eventually tucked in his cheeks to assist him in his breathing underwater again.
She hadn’t expected him to tell her that he was the one who had released the air pocket from beneath Meridia, but she surprised him by thanking him. For without the loss of Meridia her people would have never been freed.
“I wanted to return to you so many times before now but I knew the only way to free our people was to release the air pocket as Amaranth had suggested.” Maanta’s fingertips traced Anna’s curly red hair. He kissed her forehead.
“It was worth the wait.” Anna smiled. “But what are we to do now?”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” Maanta still stroked her hair. “The people of Sangfoul will never rest until our people and the people of Baneal are either completely enslaved or annihilated. But before I left the world of air and land I spoke of our dilemma with Noah and his sons and I think there is a way for us all to live free and without fear of the people of Sangfoul.”
Anna raised her head and rested her arms on his chest. Her pure emerald eyes peered into his. “What way is that?”
“If I was able to breathe air and learn to walk and live on the land above water, then surely all our people can do the same.” Maanta put his arms behind his head and smiled back at her. “The people of Sangfoul could never again torture us because even if they were able to learn the ways of breathing air they could never walk because they have tailfins instead of legs.”
Anna thought for a moment, still looking in Maanta’s eyes through the flowing dark currents. “It may work. But we would have to convince the others that it is a good idea and they may be harder to convince of the truth of your story than I was. I would never be able to leave them behind.”
“Neither would I.” Maanta held her close in his arms as the two closed their eyes and drifted warmly off to the world of sleep.
In the morning they would tell Sift and the others of their idea.
The darkness drew Maanta downward to dream.
30