O: 24

  “Oh, how sweet the scent!” Katuo breathed.

  She slipped deep into the great blossom, then used a hollow reed to pierce the nectar sac. A glimmering red draught trickled into her large pouch. Before emerging, she carefully scraped the flower’s tiny grains into a smaller bag, to be dusted later upon the pistils of the female blooms.

  A k’houbo extended its long neck toward her, waiting patiently as the girl climbed down along its dangling length.

  ‘That will be enough nectar, my dear,’ Lyndorin called out.

  ‘I know… yet I still wish to gather more,’ said Katuo, a trace of reluctance in her tone. ‘I love doing this so much!’

  Everyone set down their nectar pouches into the great panniers slung along the sides of the k’houbo herd, then mounted the beasts and rode back toward the village. Laughter and lighthearted chatter followed them along the way.

  ‘Just now,’ said Katuo, ‘it felt as though the flowers understood what I was doing, and welcomed me. I could sense it through their scent, and through very faint tremors.’

  ‘You are right, Katuo,’ Lyndorin said gently. ‘You speak the tongue of the ownan far more clearly now, both you and your two friends.’

  'I feel more at ease when I hear you with my ears and answer you out loud, rather than when your voice comes straight into my head through omi’Oa. Is that how everyone speaks with animals as well?'

  Omi’Oa was an art of mind-speech known even to ownan children, though Katuo had only recently learned of it and had yet to master it.

  ‘Yes—and yet, not quite,’ replied Lyndorin. ‘The ownan speak with nature through something else, something I find difficult to put into words for you.’

  ‘Something else?’ Katuo exclaimed. ‘Do you mean you have heard the Call of Oaa? Master Tiknahah told us we must seek it, and learn to hear it.’

  ‘The Master told you that you must hear the Call of Oaa?’ Lyndorin asked, her expression turning thoughtful. ‘Did he say anything more?’

  ‘Yes… I remember it well. He told us we must learn to see all things as they truly are, to loosen our hold on names, and to forget those that were never real at all. He offered no further explanation. At times, I feel as though I brush against his meaning, but even now it slips beyond my understanding.’

  Lyndorin fell silent for a moment. Then she said, ‘I can offer you a few hints.’

  ~~~

  Lyndorin slid down from the back of the k’houbo and motioned for Katuo to follow. She let the two k’houkos return to the village with their herd, then led Katuo on foot along a different path.

  'Do you believe the Master’s words are always true?' asked Lyndorin.

  'I do,' Katuo answered without hesitation. 'I believe them deeply. But now that you mention it, I remember a time when the Master also said: You should not believe my words. Only listen, and do as you must.'

  'OaaKiteh ~ Oaa transcends the narrow bounds of our minds,' said Lyndorin. 'If we rely only on what we already know, we can never understand the Call of Oaa. It is like trying to comprehend an endless forest by circling a single tree. And yet, before anything else, one must first realize that one has been walking only around that one tree.'

  'The Call of Oaa is merely a name the Master chose,' she continued. 'Do not cling to it. There are things the eyes cannot see and the ears cannot hear. They exist beyond our language itself. How, then, could the Master ever explain them with words?'

  ‘Then… how am I to come to understand such wonders?’ said Katuo.

  ‘OaaKiteh ~ The wonders you seek reveal themselves in the simplest of things, in all that surrounds us.’ Lyndorin slowed and came to a stop. ‘Come, shed the covering from your feet.’

  Katuo murmured, and the covering unraveled into slender strands of Yoonan, slipping away from her bare feet.

  They walked on in silence for a long while. The cool ground beneath her bare soles felt quietly delightful, Katuo thought.

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  ‘Close your eyes, my dear,’ said Lyndorin. ‘Do not open them until I tell you to. And keep walking as you have been.’

  Katuo’s steps soon grew unsteady. She wandered straight into a cluster of trees.

  ‘Ow!’ Katuo tripped and fell, her head knocking against a low branch, yet she did not open her eyes. She scrambled back to her feet and rubbed her forehead.

  ‘My poor girl,’ Lyndorin laughed warmly. She plucked a blossom from the branch. ‘Now lift your face, and open your mouth.’

  She let its nectar pour gently into Katuo’s mouth. The fragrance was rich, the taste deep, leaving Katuo light-headed.

  ‘That’s delicious!’ Katuo exclaimed. ‘Just what I needed—I was hungry!’

  ‘You may open your eyes, my dear. Now come this way.’

  They came upon a river close at hand. Watching its gentle current slip past, Katuo found her thoughts drifting back to the first day she had met Ramii and Hudyn, the day she had nearly drowned.

  Lyndorin cupped some river water in a leaf and brought it to Katuo to drink. The cool stream slid down her throat, soothing her thirst after the sweetness of the nectar.

  ‘Breathe deeply and evenly, my dear,’ Lyndorin said, slowly. ‘Yes… Now move forward. Simply walk, and do not swim.’

  Katuo walked into the river and lowered herself into the water. When it reached her neck, she hesitated.

  ‘Go on. Trust me.’ Lyndorin’s voice did not waver.

  A trace of fear stirred within Katuo, yet she held her breath and pressed on. Before long, she could hold out no longer, and she fought her way toward the surface. Lyndorin was already behind her. She caught hold of Katuo and guided her back to the riverbank.

  When Lyndorin saw that Katuo had calmed herself, she smiled warmly. ‘Are you well, little girl?’

  ‘I am… I was frightened just now.’

  ‘OaaKiteh ~ Take a moment and reflect,’ said Lyndorin. ‘Had even one of the things I guided you to do been absent, would you still be here in this world?’

  ‘Ah… I must think on it.’

  Katuo sat down and drew in slow, steady breaths. After a long while, she said:

  ‘I already had everything I needed, didn’t I?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Lyndorin, her gaze resting on Katuo with tenderness and quiet emotion. ‘You see it now.’ She placed both hands over her chest. ‘OaaDoroa ~ Oaa has bestowed all these things upon us so that we may exist in this world. We have been granted blessings beyond counting. That is why the ownan live in gratitude and hold Oaa in reverence.’

  ‘So many precious things were right before my eyes, and I never once noticed them,’ Katuo whispered. ‘It seems I have received far too much from Oaa. And yet I had not even thought to give thanks. What am I to do now to answer such grace?’

  ‘You need not strive to repay anything.’ Lyndorin gently smoothed Katuo’s wet hair. ‘All beings live as they are meant to, fulfilling their nature and doing what is right to sustain themselves. And so the land is at peace. This is all that Oaa asks of us.’

  ~~~

  O: 25

  Lyndorin and Katuo lingered by the river’s edge, lost in talk, until the river took on a new hue, as the blue of the sky slowly gave way to crimson. From afar, a band of children floated nearer. Each clung to a short log, kicking up spray as they came.

  ‘Ah! It’s Sister Katuo!’ one of them cried out. ‘Come down and swim with us!’

  Lyndorin stood up and called out, ‘Rudidi, is that you? It’s getting late, and you’re still out here. Head back to your tribe now.’

  ‘But we are heading back,’ Rudidi replied with a mischievous grin. ‘We’re just floating our way home.’

  ‘Sister Katuo! Come on, jump in!’ the little girl called out.

  ‘I’ll go with them,’ Katuo said to Lyndorin. ‘You needn’t worry about us.’

  So Lyndorin said her goodbyes and returned to the K’houbo Tribe, while the children cheered with delight as Katuo splashed into the river. One of them offered her a log to hold on to.

  Katuo played along and drifted back toward their settlement with the children. When they climbed ashore and warmly urged her to come with them, Katuo did not follow. She wished to linger in the water a while longer.

  ~~~

  Katuo no longer needed the log. She turned onto her back and lay there, her body loosening as she let the current carry her where it would.

  The sky had deepened into dark crimson. The river now held only Katuo, and the distant cries of creatures along the banks, and the soft murmur of water at her ears.

  Plop.

  Katuo flinched softly. A small creature leapt from the water and landed on her stomach. She tilted her head slightly and looked down. Its bulging, rounded eyes blinked back at her.

  “A little toad. Hello there,” she murmured. “How strange. I didn’t expect this land to have a creature just like a toad. Or perhaps you truly are a toad?” She smiled.

  She let the toad remain where it was and continued to savor the cool, gentle comfort of the flowing water.

  How light it feels… Katuo thought.

  …

  The water is cool and gentle… she thought.

  …

  This river has water… the thought came again.

  …Yet the river is not only water. It holds fish, silt and mud, moss and weeds, fallen leaves.

  The river is water, and fish, and mud, and moss, and fallen leaves... isn’t it?

  I am lying within the river as well.

  Then is the river Katuo?

  Or is Katuo also the river?

  …

  How light it feels… My body feels light…

  Is the river truly a river? Is water truly water, if it comes from rain, and rain in turn comes from clouds?

  I, too, come from the earth, from light, from sweetness, from water, from breath.

  Is this body truly mine?

  Am I real?

  These thoughts drifted through Katuo’s mind.

  They drifted on and on, until she wondered: are these thoughts truly mine? Are these thoughts real?

  Katuo no longer dwelled on them. She let them drift with the current, as her body did.

  Plop.

  The toad sprang from Katuo’s belly and returned to the river. She did not notice at all.

  How light it feels… My mind feels light…

  The thoughts grew empty. They were still there, yet empty.

  How light…

  Tears flowed from her eyes and mingled with the river.

  Katuo dissolved, mingling with the river.

  There was no longer Katuo.

  There was nothing.

  There was only a single Call. Or nothing.

  The Call of Oaa.

  ~~~