Arise
The water nearing Orion’s Birth
The second dawn was rising now in the water since Maanta had helped free the slaves caged in nets in Sangfoul, and he had not slept since that time, but it seemed eons in the past. Orange and yellow hues of the rising sun above the ocean danced in his sight as they dispersed the darkness of night from the depths.
And in the distance, beautiful dancing hues skipped across a marble structure which rose up from the ocean floor.
“Orion’s Birth,” Maanta breathed. “Orion’s Birth!” he called to all the group of about two hundred he was traveling in now.
They cheered in response and quickened their pace.
Anna looked to Maanta and smiled. “We are here,” she said as she rode quickly on her riding-fish’s back. “We are too close for the people of Sangfoul to stop us now. We are free.”
They swam closer and closer in the open water before Orion’s Birth, their hearts beating faster and faster as they knew they neared salvation. Soon they were at its rising, shimmering outer marble wall and pillars.
The group gathered around it in a large mass and awaited Maanta’s instruction.
“What do we do from here?” Anna asked him. “You know more about this place and its workings than any of us.”
Maanta rose up on Archa’s back above the gathering of Meridians and Banealians and took a conk shell from Sift as he rose. “When bubbles of the transparent fluid air begin to rise from the center ring of Orion’s Birth’s walls, go to that air and it will carry you up to salvation and the world of air and land above,” he turned as he said this, speaking to all their people and connecting with their eyes. “We will have to enter in waves, as we cannot all fit in Orion’s Birth’s center ring at once, but we will meet again where the currents of air take us.”
One woman in the group below sounded her voice. “When will these currents of air come?” she asked.
“I have no way of knowing,” Maanta told her, “but I have faith in Gelu, that they will come to take us away soon.”
A noise rumbled beneath them, shaking the ocean floor. Tiny air bubbles began rising from Orion’s Birth’s center marble ring and the runes covering its walls shimmered and radiated light.
“There!” one of the Banealian men said while pointing at the rising spheres of air.
“Now quickly fill Orion’s center ring with as many people as we can,” Maanta instructed them.
People dismounted their riding fish and began swimming cautiously into the structure’s center ring.
Quickly the air bubbles turned to streams of air rising upward, carrying the pastel blue and black skinned Meridians and Banealians up toward the ocean’s crest.
More and more people followed and were swept up in a symphony of rising bodies in the gushing air currents. Only half of them had yet to enter, but Maanta, Anna, Sift, Millay, Illala and baby Equilious still remained behind.
Millay swam in to the rising clear fluid, her curly hair flowing behind her, and was swept away in a blurring gust toward the world of sky above. More people followed her and were swept up in a dance in the clear stream.
The air stream’s noise echoed loudly in the water about them.
Maanta then noticed Illala swimming away from the rising air column with Equilious cradled in her arms. “Where are you going, Illala?” he called to her.
She was shouting something in the direction she was headed, but he couldn’t make out her words over the sound of Orion’s Birth’s rising air.
Out of the corner of his eye, Maanta saw Evanshade swimming from the distance toward her. And beyond him, not far off, was Malistour’s army. “Evanshade, they’re following you here!” he shouted to the man, but Evanshade did not hear his call.
Sift swam to Maanta’s side. “Go quickly to Orion’s Birth’s flowing currents with Anna,” he encouraged him. “I will see to Illala’s safety.”
Maanta gave Sift a worried look. “Don’t take long. The rising air currents of Orion’s Birth will not rise much longer.”
“I will be safe. Now go!” Sift curled away upon Lola’s back and charged toward Illala as she ushered Evanshade quickly toward Orion’s Birth.
Maanta and Anna rode their riding-fish close to the rising stream of air and dismounted. Anna rubbed the scaly back of her fish as Maanta kissed Archa’s forehead lovingly.
He glided down and looked into Archa’s eyes. “As we are swept up to the world of air, leave quickly,” he told her. “Meet me again on the shore of earth and air where you discovered me before.”
“Arch! Arch!” Archa bobbed her head in understanding.
“Are you sure we can breathe in the world of air?” Anna’s eyes were filled with apprehension as she looked into Maanta’s own.
“You can trust me.” He kissed her deeply. He then looked into her eyes to show her how sure he was that they’d be fine. “Ladies first!” He swept his pale arm toward the rising air pluming up beside them.
She smiled. “If there’s one thing I can always be sure of, it’s you, Maanta,” she said and then swam into the rising column of air.
It lifted her up and away quickly and Maanta swam into the rising air column just behind her.
The ocean about him blurred as he shot up in the rising air. He could see nothing beside him but blurs of blues, grays and yellows. But above him, in perfect clarity, he saw Anna’s strong slim legs, gorgeous back, outstretched arms and beautiful curly red hair flowing backward in the wind of the air column. The blurs about him became lighter and lighter.
He breathed the air about him and marveled at the fact that at one time, he felt as if he were dying when air filled his body, and now it felt refreshing. The creatures tucked within his cheeks sucked at the mists he still consumed in the air. Wind blew against his body and he marveled at the way it whipped about him.
Suddenly the air shot him above the vast ocean he had come from, thrusting him high up in the sky. A beautiful red, yellow and orange sunrise shimmered across the beach and lush green trees in the distance. The ocean beneath him glistened in its light. What beauty! he thought, as the momentum that had built up in the column of air stopped pushing him upward in the sky and he hovered for a moment in suspended animation.
He caught a glimpse of Anna beside him. His heart stopped. She was choking on the air and seemed to be feeling the burn of the sunlight on her body. She dropped quickly toward the ocean once more.
Maanta hadn’t warned the others of the pain and grueling experiences he had gone through in order to breathe air and function properly above the water. He had been afraid that telling them would discourage them from coming with him, and now his heart burned because he knew what they were going to go through.
After hovering for only a few seconds high up in the sky above the ocean, Maanta too, plummeted down toward the ocean’s rippling crest.
His body cracked against the ocean’s firmament and he almost lost consciousness, but he kept moving his arms and legs, looking in all directions at the Meridians and Banealians floating in the rippling waves of the ocean, unconscious.
How long did I float in the water, halfway between water and air? he wondered. How long was it before Noah came to my rescue? He swam to Anna, who wasn’t far away, grabbed one of her pale blue arms with his own and began swimming her toward shore, about a half-mile away.
Maanta smiled as he recognized Noah, Japeth and Shem racing down the beach to help him with the others. It would take much of the rest of the day to swim the others to shore, and months of work would have to be done to teach their bodies to breathe and show them the ways of living on earth.
“Thank you God for giving us this second chance,” Maanta said as he swam Anna toward shore.
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