The Traveler

Click on the player above if you'd prefer to listen.

    Once, long, long ago, we looked into the night sky and saw many things. Some cultures believed they saw the souls of their ancestors watching over them. Others believed they could see heaven shining through the night sky. One boy looked up and saw an escape. 

    Tarnasil lived underground with others of his ilk. Those who would raise him left him forgotten, for a boy is an embarrassment to their kind, and he was smaller than the rest, but he persevered. His blood found him inadequate, so they abandoned him. Left to die, his rescuers found the babe in a pit on a journey that may be found within these pages as well.

    Rescued and raised by those who did not sire him, Tarnasil was different than those of his kind. Tarnasil had no fear of the world above, for there was no time to learn fear. When his rescuers stumbled upon him deep in the caverns, though he was alone, the babe did not cry. They took him up and out of the vile caves and into the moonlit night where all at once he saw the stars, and awe overtook him. 

    Tarnasil grew weak and small, surrounded by those who would not welcome him. His rescuers were his family, and they loved and nurtured the boy, but he found no friends in strangers. He outgrew his family as all boys do, and left to find himself. On more than one occasion, when entering a new town, he was chased out as quickly as he walked in. As was the case when he was only a child, Tarnasil found no friend in strangers. He could find no partner to share a home, no one who would stand by his side. Only the stars kept him company at night, and in them, Tarnasil knew home.

    He spent many years learning everything there was to learn about the stars above. Tarnasil traveled across Uir, letting them alone guide his travels. He faced many challenges, natural and otherwise, but Tarnasil fostered no fear, for he never learned fear. He knew that, no matter the problem that plagued him during the day, whether animal or man or nature, Tarnasil would be surrounded by friends when the sun fell beyond the horizon. 

    In his life, Tarnasil experienced many things. He traveled further than anyone had, and by more means than most, but none thrilled him like travel by ship. Only on the waters did Tarnasil feel the most connected to the stars. Only when they completely surrounded him, reflected on the surface of the waves which bore him around the world, did he feel truly alive. This illusion, however, proved to be a short lived one. Quickly, the man recognized the shapes, the friends he had made in the sky, their mirrored images in the water, and he felt duped. This led Tarnasil to wonder. His friends' mirrored images were not real, but what lie underneath them? Under the waters, under the earth, could his friends have brothers? This led Tarnasil to his longest journey yet.

    Tarnasil was far from a fool. He knew from his experiences in his childhood that the caves which bore a man downward held not his friends' brothers. Were he to find his friends' brothers, he would have to look where all feared to look. When Tarnasil shared stories with the crews of the ships on which he traveled, the men all shared a fear of the end of the waters, but none had ever seen this marvel. Tarnasil oft thought these men fools. Why should a man be afraid of what they could not see? Tarnasil was afraid of nothing, and so he would see the end of the waters, for he could imagine no other manner by which to find his friends' brothers. 

    Men and women of the world above feared and ran from Tarnasil when he was young. As he grew, these injustices continued. Only by garnering his reputation as The Traveler did people recognize him, and this recognition brought with it some respect he was not previously met with. Unfortunately, this respect would not outweigh the fear that seafaring men had about the end of the waters. Tarnasil approached many crews for this adventure, and though he had a reputation as an accomplished traveler, as The Traveler, he was unable to find a crew who would swallow their fear and face the end of the waters. To Tarnasil, this was unacceptable. He was unafraid, and he must find his friends' brothers, but none would aid him on his quest, so he did what any self respecting man would do. Tarnasil built a boat.

    His first boat, not a fine thing to behold, but a wonder itself. It only held one man, for that was all Tarnasil required. He packed the things he would need on his long journey to the end of the waters. He kept food, water, a blanket, and one small notebook, for how else would he remember the days happenings so he could tell his friends come night time? And their brothers? How would he remember, in the coming excitement, all the stories of his journeys to find them once they met? Tarnasil set sail early one autumn evening. As the sun fell beyond the waves, he pushed his skiff out to sea, spending the last moments of sunlight writing of the journeys that led him to where he found himself that eve. Tarnasil finished his writing as the sun dipped beyond the horizon, then he wrapped himself in his one thin blanket and drifted, both to sleep, and closer to the end of the waters. Over the next few weeks, Tarnasil wrote in his notebook during the day, and sang stories of his journey to his friends as he drifted off to sleep and ever closer to the end of the waters. On more than one occasion, Tarnasil felt a twinge in his heart. He wondered if he were wrong, he wondered if he would make it to the end of the waters to meet his friends' brothers, and he wondered if he made a mistake. Whenever he felt these doubts creep into his mind, Tarnasil would remind himself that these wonders and doubts were fears, and Tarnasil was afraid of nothing, especially not of things he could not see, and so he sailed onward. 

    He was only able to keep track of time through the writings in his notebook, for he ran out of food and drink early on, but his friends provided for him. They sent him fish and birds to eat, and showed him how to make water in his small boat for one. They taught him things he only assumed were possible through religious convictions or devilish afflictions, but it seemed as though they wanted him to find their brothers as much as he did. It wasn't long, however, until Tarnasil ran out of pages in his notebook. His friends thought this a sad ordeal, for how were they all to revel in the journey if none remembered when reunion came? So, the stars taught Tarnasil to weave words. A tapestry of thought, of story, and of passion was created over the months at sea. This sail, unfit for the harsh airs that whipped around on Uir, would be just what he needed, were he to find his way to the edge of the waters.

    One cool summer morning, Tarnasil awoke to a lack of sunlight. Strange, he wondered, for he knew where he left the sun the night before, and he always knew where he could find it when the morning came, but it was not there? He felt well rested, so he could not have awoken too soon, so where was the sun? Looking out over the waters to ask his friends' reflections, Tarnasil was shocked to see figures he did not recognize. Shapes which confused and bewildered him. Tarnasil looked above him to find his ships' sail would no longer billow in the wind, but lie dead against the mast, hanging between him and the familiar figures of his friends. He looked ahead of him, where the boat always drifted, and found his tapestry of words pulling him forward, away from the waters which brought him to this new place, and in that instant, he knew he had found it. Tarnasil bellowed a loud laugh, and felt a twinge of sadness. He found his friends' brothers, and began to share all the stories from his notebook and his new sail, but he had missed that which all men feared, the edge of the water. 

    Tarnasil then realized that this was unimportant. He did not need to fear anything anymore. In fact, he could go back and be a beacon for those who would be afraid, for it was then that he learned that, this thing which all men feared would be the doorway leading to a new world, a world where all men could find friends to watch over them, just as his friends, the stars, watched over him as he passed to this new place, and in that moment, The Traveler found himself, and he was happy.