The gardens of Aeoliah        Chapter 8       

Chapter 8

* The mysteries of the scrolls *.

This time Anthelm had to wait for receiving this scroll. The mathematical scrolls were coming easily, but these...

 

It was late in the afternoon. There was Elnadjine; they were seating before their new marrow home. They had to redo it, because, you expect, the squash houses do not last more than a few years. They used this opportunity to relocate: their new marrow, of a velvety orange spotted in red like an apricot, they had planted the seed, then had directed its growth from its germination, so that it now lies under a very compact bush with tiny fragrant leaves, near the bottom of the village, somewhat away from the centre. Entrance side, it was a great strawberry field, besides one of the paths of the village, where two geese could land comfortably without too much trampling. As for the first house, they had made two rooms, a pastel orange study room with the scroll bearer, and a sky blue bedroom. More a second oval door, facing the inside of the bush, in a tiny clearing of dense and woolly moss where it was so good to gather sitting in a round. Poetic strangeness, there are several varieties of chlorophyll on Aeoliah, and even if, for spiritual reasons green was dominant, this moss was purple.

Nellio and Aurora also had rebuilt a house looking in this same clearing, small well of colourful greenery, delicately buckled and deliciously fresh, with a small access tunnel through the bush. It was so much intimate and they were so friendly that they sometimes loved each other in the small mossy glade. Algenio and Liouna were also planning to resettle near them.

This evening, there were Anthelm, Elnadjine, Nellio and Aurora, and then Tzilnia-Linia, returning from the fields with a bag filled with small bays with a wonderful scent, for the evening meal. Tzilnia-Linia was really very pretty, with her very round face and her short black hair in corkscrew meshes, always wandering on her forehead or on her neck. Posing her bag, she smiled kindly at them, and they laughed together without nothing was said. It was the time where the warmth of the day starts to decline, while the crickets are preparing their evening concert. At this time, the Eolis, usually so active, sometimes enjoy the sweetness of life. A pair of yellow birds had made their nest in the bush, completely invisible; they were chirping softly, barely audible.

Tzilnia-Linia was now speechless, then she went into an happy and fresh laugh-smile, with her large bright hazel eyes. Anthelm turned to Nellio to find out what joke he did to her, but he had his great innocent look. Elnadjine began to laugh too, Aurora and Liouna smiling apart in their meditation, sitting back to back into a recess in the bush. Tzilnia-Linia again opened her little mouth to make «Oh», Anthelm looked again at Nellio, but this time Tzilnia-Linia showed the sky: two superb white geese were circling in the azure, still too high to hear them fly. Elnadjine put her hand on Anthelm's shoulder, sensing a famous moment.

 

What a majestic show that these two large luminous geese descending gently in large circles! Even Aurora and Liouna got up to see the geese all in white, except for the edge of the wings, legs, and beak, of a delicate mother of pearl pink. Aeolian life, having no predators to worry about, has no need of being discrete, and all the creature are free to adorn themselves with the most sumptuous colours, according to their desire.

One of the geese was wearing two silhouettes, the other scrolls. They seemed a little hesitant about the place where to pose, as sometimes when the person they seek recently moved. Finally, after one last passage above them, they arrived right in the field, in front of long-squash-house. The place was sufficient, but short, forcing them to heavily beat their wings for braking before hitting the ground. The wind made hats and dresses fly. Finally they slowly and methodically folded their plumage and laid down, to allow their occupants to descend.

And what occupants! They were an Eoli and an Eoline who seemed small, although they were not. He had a round face and very black hair, just down to the neck, spreading on the side a bit like ancient Egyptians, with fine undulations, a bit like the Africans, but with no beard or moustache, as often the Eolis with black hair. What did not prevented him to be quite manly. He was dressed in a large bright red dress, a relatively rare colour among the Eolis, and he looked even more slender than the others. She, as if forever smiling, had her face a bit more triangular, while wearing fine blond hair, long and fuzzy. Her dress was pure white, which is not very common either. The style was also different: less wide sleeves, no groove in the neck, but a horizontal fold just below the Chin. Their badge, the four-pointed star with a heart, that absolutely all the Eolis of Aeoliah wear, was not embroidered: the star was shining gold and the heart of vermilion onyx, beautifully shaped and polished, mounted on the dress with a small lace. The young Eolis were already quite intrigued at this unconventional spectacle. Sure that these two were not coming from any random village.

 

The newcomers came forth, smiling, towards the small silent group. Then they all together made the universal gesture of brotherhood of the Eolis: outstretched arms, each takes in his right hand the left elbow of the other, forming a circle, eyes in the eyes, to admire the soul of the other. Finally they said their names: he was Ozoard and her Orzeilla. Ozoard very ceremoniously addressed Anthelm, with a high pithed voice:

«We are bringing you a scroll that you requested, on behalf of Adenankar.»

They approached the second goose, who was waiting patiently near the appetizing small strawberries. She would however not touch them, because her charming little soul knew that they were of Eoline planting. On her back, scrolls were waiting, a pink one Anthelm had requested, and five others, purple, about the profound wisdom. Anthelm suddenly felt a shudder of desire: he wanted to read them all, but he did not asked. The first goose carried on his back blankets of dried petals, lined with pink cotton, to sleep during the long night flights: a true flying carpet, equipped as a luxury caravan, and incomparably more alive than those of the thousand nights! Say, it is really nice, a goose.

 

Anthelm and Nellio asked in the same time: «where are you from?

-We come from... Irizdar.

- ...

«-You do not know Irizdar, the caves of Irizdar? uttered Ozoard, comically feigning a great astonishment.

The new Eolis made a circle, attentive. They certainly heard of caves, but they were unaware that Eolis could live in them. Ozoard giggled.

«In Irizdar are caves of light, very dry so that we store the scrolls here, and also a school of wisdom, but this is difficult to tell about.» He wanted to speak, however, Ozoard, because it was becoming talkative. Orzeilla said, cutely leaning her head on the side, a very suave voice with a curious and moving whispering timbre:

«It is very beautiful, the caves of light. A shining pink or orange moss is lining the walls; it purifies the air and absorbs moisture, so that scrolls can be keep very long.»

Then, they started to talk each following the other, very quickly, as if they had only one thought:

«It is very beautiful: the moss makes a pink light with iridescent orange, red or purple.»

-It is not so clear as the day, but we still see good enough.

-Where there is no foam, there are stalactites or stalagmites, which bring water.

-And putting fat on a stalactite, in places, can direct the flow of water, and thus the sculpt.

-Like that Orzeilla started one six thousands years ago; in returning every six months it will be finished in about five thousand. (She laughs) It already does several loops, and other Eolis also sculpt arabesques, and even weave them, it looks nice. (The face of an Earth speleologist finding interlaced stalactites!)

«We can also carve the stalagmite, but it is more difficult. We can make gours, or tubes where the drop comes singing: it makes music, and even drops organs.

-If we allow it to grow, the moss becomes very thick; we need to remove it from time to time.

-The thick moss absorbs all the noises: it is an incredible silence in our caves, it is so great to meditate there.

-This is the badge of the Irizdar Eolis, in gold and onyx.»

The new Eolis were flabbergasted. Then they began to ask questions, everyone at once, and in the very first first what were stalactites, stalagmites and the gours (you know, friend reader, except maybe for the gours, which are pretty basins with walls of concretions, and water overflowing all around).

They liberated the geese of the equipment and scrolls they wore, and took them to Anthelm's workroom, while the geese flew freely away. With all that, they little discreetly arrived late in the evening meal! Ozoard and Orzeilla were greeted like stars, because in truth, apart from the new Eolis, everyone knew them very well since a long time. We were not bored with these two.

 

And they were not bored! They laughed firmly and sang until very late, when the ring was already almost entirely in the shadow of the planet. Ozoard and Orzeilla were a bit like troubadours, travelling from village to village, while maintaining a residence in the caves of Irizdar. They had brought with them their music instruments. The Eolis instruments are always big, compared to them, otherwise their sounds would be too acute and inaudible. Built on the same principles as ours, their slightly differ in forms. So Ozoard had brought a kind of violin, carved in a single piece of a large leathery dry leave. Naturally this leave is about thirty centimetres long, but the instrument manufacturer had retained only ten centimetres of the petiole, for the handle, and the first six centimetres of the leave itself for the resonance table, in shape of a slender nicely ribbed heart. Orzeilla played a kind of harp, mounted as a Cimbalom, with a magical sound, but too heavy to transport on the back of a goose. Fortunately there was one in the village, in a shelter near the place, which was brought diligently, with many «han» and «ho»: the Eolis love to make centipedes for wearing together large things! To do this the harp had handles all around. Ozoard and Orzeilla played divinely well, and Orzeilla was distinguished by its wonderfully smooth, wide, deep voice which moved the hearts. While the Eolis often sing in choirs, Orzeilla was doing the melody alone, and the village the Responsories, as often when a particularly beautiful voice is available. Aeolian music is more complex than that of Europe, a bit like Hindu music.

As the evening was passing by, the enthusiasm of the beginning gradually changed in a tender complicity. To go to bed late or getting up at night is part of the life of the Eolis; but remember well, friends readers, that we are not Eolis and that we need deep sleep from the evening until early in the morning, without making too many exceptions.

 

The day following this memorable evening, Anthelm and Elnadjine rose up as usual, to admire the sunrise and getting enchanted of the wonderful auroral ceremony of the birds, from the rock which overlooked their mauve clearing. Then they gathered the dew for washing, in the company of Nellio and Aurora, in the small clearing of mauve moss. Each has his basin; first we wash the face, then naked, we run cool water all over the body; on a purple background the skin looks deliciously golden. Between Eolis, it is funny, we spray each other, we are without worries and it is so good to live!

Elnadjine, enthusiastic with the new day, scooted to the reserve-pumpkins to fetch for a knife and a kind of Eoli pineapple (a fruit with a delicious pineapple taste, but sweeter, with the appearance and the size of a kiwi). Aurora went looking for leaves (to avoid spreading sweet juice on their precious purple moss) while Nellio and Anthelm headed to the fields to pick strawberries and the delicious murlines berries, unknown on Earth, blue like a plum and big like a chickpea. Just some were enough for their tiny stomachs.

Returning a few minutes later, they found as usual Algenio and Liouna, but through the narrow greenery tunnel under their bush, they first heard the high pitched voice of Ozoard and the moving one of Orzeilla. Nice!

They formed a nice little gathering, at eight, and the clearing of purple foam was barely enough to welcome them. Ozoard had already engaged the discussion full throttle, they only had to ask him a question from time to time, and still, to keep him running. On Irizdar, he was inexhaustible. Nellio asked, in the tone of one who poses a beautiful riddle:

«How can luminous moss live, if it never sees the Sun?»

Ozoard looked at him with a smile, for a moment, making the others laugh. Then he explained:

«The light mosses are not genuine green plants. They are a relic of the oldest plants of Aeoliah, before the time of chlorophyll. They appeared at the bottom of the oceans long before the oxygen in the air. In this time they drew their physical energy from volcanic fumes, which always were abundant in some areas of the oceans, where the tectonic plates separate. The light mosses learned to shine in this time, in symbiosis with some small animals that could then see in the depths of the ocean. It has been carefully ensured that they do not disappear, and there always are some cultivated somewhere on Aeoliah, in special centres. Those of Irizdar are there since millions of years, and they live of methane and ethylene emanations which get into the deepest caves, from the ancient volcano that you call the evening mountain."

Ozoard, who was not waiting for us, continued:

«The Irizdar caves are a labyrinth with in short three levels.

«In the deepest parts, far below the plateau of Irizdar, the foam does not grow because there is too much water. It is all black and hot. There are entrances at this level, but in another valley, much lower and very far on the other side of the Irizdar mountains, where the air is drawn in by the heat. It is also in these depths that the hot gas leaks from a network of cracks, and then it is diluted in the air. All this is very well arranged: indeed, too concentrated gas would explode. The air draft caused by the hot gas regularly brings warm and healthy air above, in the inhabited caves. We not often go in these deep and obscure parts, where the mystery lurks...

«The intermediate level is the most spectacular. There is enough water, without excess, so the moss flourishes, and there is a lot of light, especially near the wells from which the charged air comes from the depths. There are large rooms quite beautifully coloured and decorated with carved stalactites, house-stalagmites with balusters and illuminated windows, and small streams with magnificent gours. The main entrance is at this level, much larger than your spinning pumpkin, so that one enters by flying. It overlooks the great plateau of Irizdar, poetic landscape of rolling hills covered with forests, dotted with ponds and many fields and villages. In the intermediate level caves are the meditation rooms or ceremony rooms, the school of music with its organs and its giant harps, many decorated galleries and also the waiting rooms.

-Waiting room? What is this?

-It is a place where we can leave our body and go in a trip in the worlds of the spirit, for long periods of time. The Eoli body can get in lethargy during tens of days, while the soul explores or works in another plane. The waiting room is ideally warm and wet for this. The light moss covers the ground, so that we just have to lay down on a bed of light...

-Can we do such a thing?

-With a bit of training, yes.

«The third level, the upper parts of the Irizdar caves, are the most complicated; they are partially filled with pillars and stalagmites with the most bizarre forms, carved by nature or by distant ancestors. The moss does shine less because the air arriving there was dried and exhausted by the moss of the lower floors. But it is perfect for the conservation of the scrolls. It is therefore the place where is established the school of wisdom of Irizdar. The whole Irizdar mountain is a large boulder, covered with nests of greenery. The Eolines houses are carved in the limestone, perched well above the trees. These rocks are traversed by the third level galleries, lit by mosses, and also by many windows. In porches opening in full cliffs, whole villages gather among hanging vines full of wonderful flowers: the Eolis of the school are living here, the students and the Gardeners of the Souls.

-Rock, it must last longer than pumpkin.

-Ah yes it does. More inside the mountain, there are galleries with carved shelves for the scrolls. And, still deeper, other things, very important.»

From time to time, Orzeilla, with a mischievous smile, handed a piece of fruit to her companion, otherwise Ozoard would never eat anything. What a speaker this Ozoard.

«And the gardeners of the souls, what are they doing in there? Souls are not usually found in caves.»

This very pertinent remark appeared to unseat Ozoard, who eventually responded: «well... the great school of the gardeners of the souls is in fact in the world of the spirit; they have only some masters and students in Irizdar, who are the correspondents in Irizdar of their great school in the world of the spirit. Also this small school of gardeners partnered with the great school of wisdom of Irizdar, to take advantage of the egregore. Or it offers an option for the wisdom of the Irizdar school, which has thousands of students. As you can imagine the two have much in common. It is very useful, you know, schools, because at a time of our life or another we need to study new knowledge, to form our understanding.

-And the badges?

-Ah the badges! Gold and onyx!

-Of gold? Where is it coming from?

-From the depths of the caves, where it is always dark, there is a vein. We do not touch it, and take only what the underground river of Irizdar makes free, by erosion. Otherwise there would be no more in a few thousand years!

-And the onyx?

-Ah, onyx, it is another story. It is the Eolis of the mountain who bring it. They must surely find it somewhere «up there».

This saying, Ozoard had a small not very solemn gesture to «up there»: the Evening mountain and all its bizarre secrets where they were not invited!

«It is so much work to cut, onyx! It is haaaard!»

These explanations largely led to the end of the meal. The Eolis are not the kind to stray around a table, so they tidied up and went to the garden, the best time for gardening being as everybody knows early in the morning.

Ozoard and Orzeilla were strongly needed in the village, and the new Eolis could not keep them for them alone, even if they came for them. But they were not asked for gardening, no, only to play music and sing with their beautiful voices to accompany the work.

Anthelm and his friends could hear them for a moment, from their fields; then they disappeared totally from the village, shortly before lunch, and reappeared only in the evening, just as the day before. Then, speaking right and left, they arrived near Anthelm's long squash, coincidentally at the same time that him and his friends.

They therefore found themselves in the yard with the pretty purple moss, and waited a bit before resuming their conversation where they had left it. Yellow birds were chirping as the day before, in the bush so thick that one could see them only when they flew out. Just like the Eolis, they were housed in a tunnel of greenery, but in the heights of the bush. Sometimes the nests of the birds are so well made that we confuse them with Eoline houses! The foliage of this bush was particularly dense, and it absorbed the sounds, so it muted the voice of an Eoline of a neighboring house, who was singing a sweet melody, with from time to time the voice of his companion who commented on who knows what.

Little by little Ozoard spoke again.

«The Gardeners of the Souls must learn a lot of things on the spiritual bodies of the beings, their energies, their feelings, their minds, and even on their material bodies, which are probably the most complicated. They have the privilege to intuitively know some mysteries of the soul and of the Universal Source of life, but it is difficult to talk about this. They spend many years learning, and many more in training under the direction of their masters. And the Gardeners of the Souls of Irizdar often use the waiting room, to attend their high school of Soul Gardeners, in the world of the spirit, and for other things which I should not even talk to you!»

These last words rather stirred up the curiosity of the new Eolis, who had taught (see the previous chapter) that many extraordinary things could take place in their own village, without they had the slightest idea of them. Liouna was often daydreaming with the evocation of the Soul Gardeners, especially since Adenankar revealed her that she attended the same school than him. That such a school existed within reach of flight from her village suddenly moved her deeply, without she clearly understand yet why. She regained no memories of her past, and perhaps she would never find any. But this was not a problem, because she kept a very powerful intuition: it would be enough to feed her already trained mind with some basic concepts to rediscover all what she deeply knew. For the time being, Adenankar could take care of her without help, and he already gave her some bases, that she mastered in a few weeks, instead of the years usually needed.

 

Anthelm wanted to know what was going on in the deep parts of the caves of Irizdar.

«In the depths of Aeoliah take place amazing activities. Just below the surface of the soil, dead organic matter is recycled into humus. Lower, occurs the transformations and recycling of minerals, the underground water circulation for sources, or, much deeper in the ground, strongly mineralized waters which regulate the shivers of Aeoliah and form some metal ores. Even deeper are the magma chambers of volcanoes. Our beautiful planet Aeoliah gave us gifts like the caves of Irizdar, gold, and many other wonders.

«But the Spirits of the Depths and of Earth give a poetic life to these processes, which would otherwise be only pure mechanics. They circulate the energies of life in the rocks, and give them presence and mystery! On the surface, they have areas of forest for them alone, especially in wet hollows, where the Eolis do not live.»

Anthelm and Nellio remembered the inexplicable grave laughter they heard in the forest without flowers, near the torrent, when they were lost while going to Adenankar's house. Indeed such places do not give a desire to live there!

«The spirits of the depths also work for the plan of Aeoliah, but in a scary way. They must be left in their places. This is why we do not often go in the Irizdar deeps, even though we can fly to the ear in the dark, or even dress with tunics in light foam. Anyway it is prettily impressive and dangerous.»

Still another carefully packaged implausibility: to fly with the ear. The Eolis have a sonar like bats. But they know everything, these Eolis! I feel a complex arising in some readers, so that I indicate a trick to comfort you. We Earth humans, also have a sonar, not so efficient than bats or dolphins, but still usable in some situations. The most amazing is that no one knows! Strange humanity, who rubs shoulders every day with the fantastic, without seeing it. Go in the mountains, in a place full of different echoes: with a little attention, you can recognize the direction of the echo produced by each mountain slope or rock, its distance (from the time), and, eyes closed, thus make a three-dimensional mental picture of the scene. This is the sonar! This is no more complicated than that. Once it helped me well in a mountain hike where the mist surprised us... With training, you can even see in the street, as some blind people are doing. But back to our Eolis.

«And the school of music, asked Nellio.

-It is also, as we like, an option of the school of wisdom, or an independent school, because we do not need so much deep wisdom studies to make music than to make Gardener of the Souls. The music school is installed in the high parts of Irizdar, where natural light replaces the light of the moss; they also have balconies of greenery and flowers at the very top of the cliffs of Irizdar. but the larger instruments are in large rooms of the average level, specially equipped with organs, and many other things.

«Because you see, the music we usually do in the villages has its place in nature, among flowers and forests, near the brooks or the rocks. And, depending on the hours of the day and our states of souls, warm vibrations from the Sun or softness of dusk, we sing or play different modes (Ozoard meant what Hindus call the ragas, but or course those of the Eolis are different). For these music of nature and cheerfulness, instruments of nature are fit: wooden flutes, violins, voices...

"But there are other kinds of music that the villages know less, and which play for the stars, or for the admiration of the Universal Source of Life; these tunes can be played outside of nature, independently of the hour, in silence, in direct transparency with the Cosmos. On some friendly planets (I went on one) who know how to build electrical apparatus, they have instruments where the more harmonious sounds are entirely manufactured by calculating machines (Ozoard is speaking about digital synthesizers. In the time where I wrote this book, few such musics were available, but much more are now, under several styles, for instance the space ambient). On Aeoliah we have wonderful caves where the music of the infinity can resonate in the purest silence of the soul, with instruments such as organs or giant harps, which can produce purer cosmic or celestial sounds. As they are very large, they can also produce more bass.

-(Nellio) But the music of the soul and the music of nature, is it not the same thing?

-(Ozoard) it depends on. We can figure that the music of the soul can vibrate in the nature, or direct in the infinity. It is the same thing, but it lives in completely different modes, with different pitches and different sounds. This is why we cannot listen them in the same way.

-(Anthelm) Oh that is sure we need to go to Irizdar.

-(Ozoard) when you will feel a deep desire in your soul, you will go. In the meantime...

-(Aurora) in any case I would like to hear the musics of elsewhere.

-(Elnadjine) The ones we do here in the village express quite well the beauty of our nature. And it is true that the morning or evening each have their music, and we love to listen them at this time. I would never get the idea of shifting the hours!

-(Liouna) Tell us Ozoard, how did you managed to go on another planet? You left your body in a waiting room?

-(Ozoard) I did this once. But on this friendly planet I went with my body.»

The young Eolis widened their eyes from this statement!

(Aurora) «How, with your body? But this is not possible: how could you travel such distances? Even the geese cannot fly so high: there is no air!» (The Eolis know the immeasurable dimensions of the physical universe, because they learned this in their elementary school. So the declaration of Ozoard strongly pique their curiosity.)

«Oh no, not all this distance: we take shortcuts, in a way. We go into cosmic ships.»

These last words still more excited the young Eolis, who made a circle around the speaker. They heard mentions of cosmic ships and of the Galactic Fleet, only while reading the scroll on the formation of the worlds, without any explanation. For us earthlings, these words do arise a lot of images in our mind (all absolutely false by the way) but for the new Eolis the mystery was total. What is a cosmic ship? What does this look like? Who are the Cosmic Guardians? To what could they devote their life? Surely not to walk Ozoard, in any case. Or to grow strawberries. Remember, friend reader, that the word «Cosmos» relates essentially to the order of the universe, and only besides to the icy cold void of interplanetary space! For an Eoli this word evokes zero image of science fiction or interstellar war; for an Eoli, the Cosmos, it is the Laws of Life, Its ineffable Goal and greater Will! The new Eolis knew this, and suspected in this story of cosmic ships a whole world of unknown and exciting spiritual activities, which they felt had the utmost... cosmic importance!

Ozoard was covered with questions! But his answer was hardly understandable: «wait, wait! Oh la la! Ah! A cosmic ship, it is a kind of egregore, which can at will move from the material world to the world of the dreams, and back. In the material world it takes the form of a house, like a huge pumpkin, able to retain the air. There are some which are as large as a whole village. When it enters the world of the spirit, then it can reappear at any other point in our material world, without any intermediate path. It is very convenient for visiting other universes, or the other worlds in our universe. And the cosmic guardians live in these cosmic ships...

-(Algenio) we can go in the worlds of the spirit with our body?

-(Ozoard) not quite like this, but do not forget that our universe is also a world of the spirit among others, created by the thought of the Universal Source of life. It is not fundamentally different from the other worlds of the spirit: it is a plane among countless others, just more rigid and more persistent than our dreams. I mean that it continues to exist even when we do not think at it, which is an amazing property if you think about it. There are even more stiff ones, where go the souls who are very strongly affected by evil, for example whose who failed their Earth evolution.

-(Liouna) I was wondering why the corporeal world was different from the worlds of the spirit. In fact, in its essence, it is not.

-(Anthelm) Oh there there! In any case, Nellio, if ever you go in my thoughts, do not forget to remove your socks full of earth.

-(Liouna) What are the Cosmic Guardians doing?

-(Ozoard) these are kinds of Gardeners of the Souls, but they use other methods. They are the Guardians of Life, in charge of protecting it. They work in parallel with the Souls Gardeners like those of Irizdar, sometimes they help each other. Their purpose is the same anyway: make all souls happy. With Aeoliah, their only notable work was to deflect the dangerous meteorites, during its formation and sometimes even in the present. They are also involved in the material realms, using their powerful cosmic ships, which requires still more wisdom than work in thoughts, like in Irizdar. But I cannot say more because...

-(The others, in a chorus) We are not yet ready for these things!

-(Ozoard) Uh you are but... not all the fun at once!

Orzeilla maliciously made diversion: «Hey darling taste these murlines. It is time to eat, we shall talk about spaceships another time.

Let us pass over the explanations that Ozoard had to provide on many other topics: what he taught the new Eolis these two days would in fact need a big book. We shall have opportunities to see parts of this in the course of this story, especially towards the end. So they had two days and two nights of passionate discussions, interspersed with garden and even a bit of sleep, except the second afternoon where Ozoard and Orzeilla disappeared like the first, who knows where.

Nellio noticed that, when they reappeared, they had on them, weak but recognizable, the aerial and incomparable scent of the large mauve flowers which grow only on the tree of Adenankar. Ozoard was not coming here just to tell them beautiful stories. But still, he succeeded into raising their curiosity! And if it was the purpose of his visit?

Anthelm pointed out that Liouna was already on the way to Irizdar, where she would certainly have a lot to do. She replied that anyway, he requested so many scrolls that eventually he was noticed by their guardians. This is probably what owe them this incredible visit, which seemed from another world!

 

The third morning, when getting up, they found the two white and pink geese waiting in the strawberries field, besides Anthelm's long marrow house. They were saying nothing, they did not move, they were just waiting. A few strawberries had disappeared, but well, they left them heartily. Ozoard and Orzeilla arrived for the third time to the lunch, but we expect that this time it was to say goodbye. Unlike the first two days, they ate together without saying anything, in a complicit silence, simply enjoying their mutual presence, fully enjoying the wonderful scent of the delicious fruits, in their courtyard of purple moss, still cool from the night.

The flowers of Aeoliah exude their fragrance at different times of the day: perfumes of the night, subtle and light, elusive or without discernible origin, the most beautiful perhaps. Perfume of the morning, fresh and invigorating; those of the day, heady and warm, or resinous; those of the evening, suave and sweet, and even those of rain, that we always are happy to feel again. In their small courtyard, there always was a fresh and pleasant scent coming from any particular plant, perfume of damp soil and sheltered foliage, impregnated with sap barely separated from the air by a so tender film.

Just at the end of the lunch, they heard the two geese opening their wings and smooth their feathers ready for flight. Ozoard and Orzeilla then stood up without a word, and again made the Eoli fraternization gesture for the departure. The new Eolis, especially Anthelm, felt a lack of this departure, not really sadness, an unknown feeling for the Eolis, but a void in their souls...

Just Ozoard asked: «and the scroll? Did you liked it?»

Anthelm realized that he even not unpacked it, so exciting was the discussion with Ozoard: it rested in his study room, with others which they sheltered here. Yet he had awaited for it, this scroll!

Time to reload the other purple scrolls, and the amazing visitors rode their goose, making happy goodbye.

It was time to go to work in the fields. The merry Eolis soon started to work, but they were still a bit in Irizdar...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gardens of Aeoliah        Chapter 8       

 

Scenario, graphics, sounds, colours, realization: Richard Trigaux.

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Legal notice and copyright Unless otherwise noted (© sign in the navigation bar) or legal exception (pastiches, examples, quotes...), all the texts, graphics, characters, names, animations, sounds, melodies, programming, cursors, symbols of this site are copyright of their author and right owner, Richard Trigaux. Thanks not to mirror this site, unless it disappears. Thanks not to copy the content of this site beyond private use, quotes, samples, building a link. Benevolent links welcome. No commercial use. If you desire to make a serious commercial use, please contact me. Any use, modification, overtaking of elements of this site or world of the Eolis in a way deprecating my work, my philosophy or generaly recognized moral rules, may result into law suit.