“Can we explore other planets, even if we’re tied to the Ancestral Lands?” I asked him.
“Planets? Sweetheart, you can explore othergalaxies,” Uncle Ezra said. “The universe is always expanding, and there’s always more to see. You could spend a literal eternity trying to see it all, and it would never happen. Whatever you want to observe, or study, it’s here for you. All you have to do is make up your mind to go.”
I nearly began shaking with all the possibilities. I’d always had a heart for adventure, but exploring earth was like taking a vacation in your hometown compared to being able to watch stars collapse and visit far-off solar systems.
And that was just the capability of space. I hadn’t even touched on what the Ancestral Lands themselves could do. Dyami swooped back down, heading toward the Ancestral Lands once more. We crossed the boundary of night and day, and Uncle Ezra steered the thunderbird toward a beach.
The sand was crystal white here and gleamed like diamonds, while the ocean itself was completely clear. I could see all the way through the water down to the depths of the coral reefs hundreds of feet below, and watch the incredible creatures that swam within. I spotted a kelpie herd, a hippocampus, several humpback whales, and even a sea serpent before Dyami came close to landing.
Ancestors,the fish. There were millions of them, and they made a rainbow just as intricate as the one in the sky as we drew near. Aunt Stevie waited by the shore of the ocean, waving up at us.
“Did you like that?” Aunt Stevie asked as I slid off Dyami.
“Ilovedit,” I gushed. “Is there more?”
“Always,” Aunt Stevie said. “You want to see?”
“Yes!” I hopped up and down.
Stevie called to the ocean, and a half-griffin, half-mermaid type creature swam up from the deep, pulling itself onto shore— a cypher. It was her Familiar, Nihoni.
Stevie gestured for me to get on. I climbed onto the cypher’s back, and Nihoni began swimming out to sea. I nearly held my breath as she dove down, before I realized I didn’t have to. Nihoni surged forward, and I held on to her slick feathers as her fin propelled us fiercely forward.
She swam for a long time. I wasn’t sure where she was taking me, until I saw a drop-off in the sea ahead. Nihoni pulled up, allowing me to observe. At first, I thought it was some kind of underwater waterfall, until I realized it was much bigger than that. The drop-off was a sinkhole, over a thousand feet across and at least five hundred feet deep. The expanse was massive, making me feel as if I tried going down that hole, I’d be lost to the depths of the sea forever.
When Nihoni swam me back to shore, I was soaking wet. As I trod up the beach, I waved my hand by instinct, not realizing I was casting Toaqua magic. I dried myself off instantly. My magic worked even more effortlessly here than it had on earth.
“Wow! That sinkhole was huge. It was marvelous to look at,” I said.
“It’s actually a portal to the merfolk afterlife,” Aunt Stevie explained. “Once you enter it, you goreally fast, until you’re taken to their city. It’s like riding an underground roller coaster.”
I was ready to dive back down there and try it out, but Uncle Ezra grabbed my wrist. “Not so fast. You’ve gotta see the rest of this place yet.”
My disappointment over rollercoaster portals was whisked away as they led me away from the shoreline. Their Familiars stayed behind to play on the beach. I heard conversation, and my interest piqued. We walked back into the trees, but it wasn’t too long before they parted to make a clearing.
The clearing was filled with dozens of Hawkei. They wore deerskin clothes, and wore their hair braided with shell necklaces and earrings. The longhouses gathered around the area were made of cedar planks. There were hundreds of them, sitting among the trees in rows. Everywhere, people were weaving baskets, playing music, or working on building canoes to sail out onto the water. Their Familiars roamed throughout the area and lived beside them. Unicorns played games with foxes and wolves, while tigers and panthers rested with birds in the trees. Even ghastly creatures like manticores and cockatrices observed the tribe peacefully underneath the sway of the branches.
An overwhelming sense of serenity and rightness overcame me. This was the way my people always should’ve lived, in harmony. They finally had that here.
“We try to live as closely to the ancient ways as possible, here in the Ancestral Lands,” Grandpa Liwanu said. “Thoughsomeonecan’t seem to give up the video games.”
“You’ll tear my console away from me when the Ancestral Lands themselves are gone,” Uncle Ezra shot back.
I watched as a couple of children played in a puddle nearby, then ran away squealing from a snake. One thing struck me as I watched them. “What about all the kids?” I asked, gesturing to them.
“Children usually reincarnate very quickly, though they remain as children eternally here, if they died early in life,” Grandpa Liwanu said. “Infants who pass away in the womb can reside here and wait for their families, but most of them return to be born to the same parents during a different pregnancy.”
A fire roared in the middle of the camp, where people started to gather. Grandpa Liwanu gestured for me to follow, and we sat on the ground near the fire. An elder with long white hair sat at the head of the group, telling stories in the Hawkei language.
I leaned over to Aunt Stevie and whispered, “He looks old. I wasn’t aware age was a thing here.”
“It’s not, really. Your spirit just acknowledges them on how you perceive them to look,” she explained.
“So… Grandpa Liwanu looks older to me, but not toeveryone,” I said.
“Yep,” she replied. “If you ask your great-grandfather, Liwanu looks like he’s in his thirties, to him. Your spirit recognizes my spirit, and all that. It’s what you’re most comfortable with. But Ezra and I won’t look old to anyone, since we came here early. You won’t either.”
I bet the old dude telling the story looked like a hot tamale to the elderly lady sitting next to him. She was eyeing him like they were still in high school.
