NaNoWriMo 2010 - Part 5
Oct. 19th, 2011 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
loracarolAt midnight, Uncle Umi (he had never been given a different name- except at school where he was uncle Umi Sensei) stole into their rooms with a vase of sea water. Carefully he lifted out some seawater while he was in Daéja’s room, and it began to float above his hands. While it was still floating, he did a kata (think waterbending from Avatar, the Last Airbender. Yeah, I know this seems like a a total ripoff, but I swear there’s a real reason for that!) and the water formed a gag over Daéja’s mouth. Daéja woke with a start, and only froze when he saw it was Uncle Umi, then he carefully reached for kunai while keeping an eye on his uncle.
“Shh… Listen, I can not really explain right now, but I needed you to wake up without making a noise. Please, I promise to you that I mean you no harm- but I need you to trust me. Okay? I am going to remove the water gag from you now, please do not freak out.” And he did the reverse katta, and the water was gone from Daéja’s mouth.
“Why did you do that?”
“I have something for you and your sister for your seventeenth birthday. It is… Important. I just needed you to wake up without making a noise, now could you please go wake up your sister? You two can wear whatever you want- you can bring any weapons that you want to bring too, if that makes you feel any better.”
“Where are you taking us?” Asked Daéja, pulling on a white shirt after strapping down many rows of knives to his arms.
“The sea.”
Daéja froze. “Is it… Safe?”
“I swear upon my life and honor that you and Jaéda will be safe with me, even if I must give my own life to make sure of that.” Then Uncle Umi did the hand sign that signified to the magics of the Port Town of Civility that he was serious. Daéja felt the press of magic in the air, and he knew that he ‘Uncle’ was serious.
“…Could you leave so that I can finish dressing?” He asked, then “I promise to go wake up my sister after that. Please do not use the water on her- she might have an epic freak out. I think that the fact we almost drowned when we were younger still effects her more then she is willing to admit.”
“I will not- but please hurry. Time is of the essence.” And he left so that Daéja could finish dressing without feeling too creeped out.
Once he had finished dressing, Daéja made sure that he had the selection of hidden knives, weapons, blades, and miscellaneous weaponry that he was comfortable with attached to him. Granted, the arm blades were no secret, but the rest of it, well… People tended to not mess with him if they could, just because of the rumors.
After he was dressed in the clothing that he was most comfortable in (and, unneknownst to him- the sexiest in. Yes, just go with it….) he went into his sisters room, and hoped that the fact that they were both seventeen would not make it too awkward. Once in there, he carefully grabbed her hand, and tried to contact her, mind to mind. They had used to do flashes (words or phrases) when they were young, but they had not tried it, and it had started to wonder if it was all in his brain that it was possibly.
‘Sis…?’ He said, trying to wake her up gently. ‘Can you hear me?’
‘Daé- you have not tried this in a long time! It is good ot hear from you…’ She responded, before she snuggled into her blanket more. ‘Are you sure that you are not a dream, though? I mean, am I dreaming again? This does not happen for real anymore, does it?’
‘It is no dream Jaé, and you need to wake up now. Pleaes?’
‘If you are a dream, I am going to kill you…’ She said, before waking up and seeing him looming over her. “What? What are you doing in here?” She asked in an urgent whisper, trying to pull her blanket over her to hide her pajamas.
“Uncle Umi needs to take us somewhere- and he swore upon the magic of the city that he will keep us both safe, but we need ot hurry. Get dressed and any weapons you want and meet us in the hall way as soon as possible.”
Jaéda saw in the way he looked at her, heard in the way that he said it, and, oh yeah, frakking felt his emotions when he told her that he was telling her the truth, so she nodded her head in agreement and he left. As soon as he was gone, she started to dress. Carefully she slid on a white shirt made of a soft material that also happened to shed water (you never knew when it was going to rain was her motto), a black tunic with a slit up the leg, white leggings interwoven with metal mesh, and her trusty white boots. After that she started to arm herself, making shere that anything she could hide was hidden. She grabbed a hank of her hair and sighed. She knew that having long hair was impractical, but her hair refused to be cut short and stay short (literally- one time it grew a foot overnight when she tried to cut), so she grabbed some hair ties and went into the hallway while simotaniously putting her hair up. She put it in a bun, then slid tow more of her arsenal into the bun- hair sticks, as sharp as blades. She was quite proficient in the use of them too, able to castrate a man at thirty paces should she have so chosen.
“How do we know everyone is still asleep?” She whispered to Daéja and Uncle Umi.
“I have my ways, now let us go!” Said Uncle Umi back, and they left the slumbering house.
Once they were far enough out of the house that there was no danger of anyone in that house hearing them, Daéja decided to bring up his question about how the whole house was asleep once more.
Unfortunatly, Uncle Umi was not about to tell them the answers, merely telling them that they would find out everything in time in a comveniently narritvely placed info dump. (I wonder if that could be a song- let us try it! With my Pirate Info Dump, With My Pirate Pirate Pirate Info Dump you get the idea, right?)
“Besides,” he told them “it would ruin the narrative if I stopped you right now to tell you what is going on, instead of waiting for you two to be somewhere cool and scenery porn-esque to be told the Real True Tale ™.”
“Fine” Jaéda saod, twirling one of her knives around her finger as she walked in a sign that her brother recognized as her being supremely bored.
“Good, now we need to get to my boat- not my “fishing” boat, my other boat.” Uncle Umi continued, deciding to ignore the curiously bored look on Jaéda’s face. (Look, it is curious because she is bored, not as an oxymoron. Wanker.) That caught the twins attention. Uncle Umi did indeed had two botas- one was his “fishing” vessel, a rather boring beasty that was fast (for its type) and flashy (as only a Pirate’s vessel can truly be without looking horrendously gaudy), but when you saw one Flashy Pirate Vessel™, you had seen them all unfortunatly.
Uncle Umi’s other boat though- oh it was said to be beautiful. It was a smaller boat, and Uncle Umi had refused to allow it to be used for pirating. It had some sort of protection spell on it as well, so no matter what- people could not steal it, or even touch it without his permission- as though there were an invisible wall between the boat and then. It was also always protected, never even getting wet during a storm, and waves (though they could crash up higher then the boat was lengthwise, and crash down upon it with the fury of an angry stampede of horses) would hit, but then move on. Sure, the people on deck might get wet, but the boat itself would stay dry. It was fast, as fast as a hound after a rabbit, faster still when the wind was in its sails just right. It also had oars, but those oars were magicked (Ninjas? Pirated? No one knew – it was like the seventh mystery of the Port Town of Civility), and the oars would make the boat dance upon the waves with the smallest or largest pull (depending on Uncle Umi’s bidding). The boat itself was a deep blue color that shifted to light blue at the top and yet so subtly that no matter how many times you saw it, it still made no sense. For some reason the boat was made of ceder, and it smelled like a mix of ceder and cinnamon all the time- a friendly smell. The sails were a deep purple, and there were silver accents in it. The colors never faded, and the boat looked as though it had only popped into existence the moment you thought about it.
It really was too bad that the boat had a habit of being ‘convienently’ forgotten by people (magic again it was assumed) when it was no longer necessary to remember it. But still, a legend had grown up around the mythological second boat of Uncle Umi’s, with people starting to make jokes about what it could or could not do- just think of it as the anachronistic Chuck Norris (Ah Chuck A NORRRRRRIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!) of the fictional boat world.
Uncle Umi lead his two charges to the dock, and though the waves were tiny as they trid to aattack the two children, they were there. In fact, Daéja and Jaéda had no doubt in their minds that, had Uncle Umi not been with them, they would have died a miserable death by drowning or by having the waves crash them against the stones of the further out jetty over and over. Jaéda shuddered, but tried not to let the others see her. The almost drowning when they were young had frightened her more then she wanted to admit… It was one of the things Daéja had used against her while he was still wth Lacy, and though they had apologized and made it up to each other, it was still something that was a sore spot with her.
They finally got to the end of the pier, a spot that looked empty unless someone actively tried to moor their boat there, and then they would see the boat. Most of the locals and vendors and traders who came to the Port Town of Civility had learned long ago just to leave that spot alone, it was easier on their sanity that way. Carefully helping his charges onto the boat, Uncle Umi untied it from the deck, then got in in a Certifiable Pirateing Moment™. Once he was in the boat and everyone was settled, he started to row them backwards until they could turn around easily. He was able to row the boat by himself because it was magic, and he was magic too. But we will got to that later, sorry for spoiling something for you guys~ XD
Once away form the port, he stopped his rowing and rose the sails. The full moon (because it is always a full moon, so why on earth should I mess with tradition?) lit their way as they sailed, and Daéja and Jaéda looked in awe at the Ocean. It was a dark blue- almost a purple, even- except for where the moonlight hit it on the horizon, and there it was a silvery color. The sky above was a purplish bluish blackish velvet with tiny pinprick diamonds o’ light that were the stars in the heavens, and were too reflected on the water (though only barely). Because the moon was seemingly on the horizon, and thus more likely then not a sort of illusion, Daéja and Jaéda did not think they would catch up, but catch up they did until they were scant feet away form the actually moon’s reflection on the ocean. It was here that Uncle Umi layed down an achor, and started to talk to his niece and nephew by law.
“What you are abuout to see” was how he started, looking calm and collected and as though every fiber in his begin knew exactly what was going on- as though a new person was standing there, one who seemed to be more in this moonlit state then he had ever been. He continued on, despite the lengthy attempt as making him sound mysterious with “is not something I would like you two to be talking much about. I am showing you two this because it is something you need to see, but more then that- I am showing you this because, despite all your foibles, you two are genuinely good kids. Promise me that you two will listen to me, and do exactly what I say to the best of your abilities. I know you two have never been on a boat before, so I will use all laymen’s terms should I need you to do any boaty things. Other then that, please just trust me.”
“We will” said Jaéda confidently, looking over to her brother to assure his conformation. He nodded his head, but at Uncle Umi’s raised eyebrow he sighed and said:
“We will.”
Uncle Umi gave a miniature sigh of relief but then he moved on. He went below the deck and came back shortly with three harnesses attached to rope and tow lobster clips each. He slid his harness on first, showing them how they were to slide their legs into the leg loopies, and their arms into the arm loopies, and how after that they were to secure the front with a type of clasp, and then clip the very top with a different clip. It was all very complex, btu Daéja and Jaedea managed to get it- though Jaéda was very glad that she was wearing a tunic with split up sides and leggings rather then her usual dress or skirt type outfit. Once they were all hooked into the harnesses, Uncle Umi took the lobster clips and clipped them all into a spot on the mast. As soon as they were all clipped in, the rope itself seemingly vanished to leave only the harness and the clips.
“Alright” Uncle Umi continued, “what we are about to do now is sometimes dangerous, but sometimes not. In the interest of making sure that no matter what we are all safe, I have clipped us into the mast. Yes, the rope is magic. Technically you are clipped into the mast, but that will only activate should something happen to you where you are no longer on board, you fall unconsious, or any of us do a mental override. I would prefer if you two would leave the mental overrides to me, but here is what you say or think should something happen: ‘Dear Lord Mental Override Operate.’ The best part is, in the unlikely (or reather, impossible) event that this boat should flip over, it automatically flips right back. It is, in fact, impossible for this boat to sink, or flip under water. It is just one of those things, ya know? Okay, Jaéda, would you please go pull up the anchor?”
“Yes sir Captian Uncle Umi sir.” She said as she went over to do exactly as requested.
“Why is she calling me that?” Uncle Umi said to no one in particular.
“Some of the Pirate students at school informed us that, on board, the Captain is always Captain- even if off ship they are family.”
“Very wise. Alright, I need you to start bringing the sails down- we are going to row into this.” And with both children- or rather, young adults- doing chores, Uncle Umi sent a praryer to Poésha vas Martinierre gir Lona, asking that she allow him to speak to her before she decided to unleash her wrath on his boat and crew.
As Uncle Umi stood at the helm, Daéja and Jaéda got settled in the seats by the oars. Carfully winding up the anchor, he immediately felt the effect of the prayer he had said in combination with his will. His will was particularly strong that night, so the moon and the ocean knew what he was planning on doing.
The water inside the reflection of the moon began to swirl, creating a whirlpool that pulled the boat into it at an angle.
“Row straight for it!” Uncle Umi said, “Do not let it pull as in sideways- things could get bad then!” And he tried his best to steer the boat straight as well. He had occasionally come by himself, but all those times he was alone, the water had pull him in like a mother’s embrace, and now it was fighting him like not a mother. The little boat headed straight to the whirlpool, straining against the water like a wild horse. The boat hit the whirlpool and spun around the edge going down into the seemingly hole portal in the water. At the bottom of the ocean was a glowing light, a portal into another world filled with light. The boat kept going down the whirlpool until it hit the light and slid through it. The light was warm, and it embraced the boat and its inhabitants, drying them off in a warm breeze.
Coming through the portal onto the other side, Uncle Umi gave a sigh of relief, and let go of the helm. The boat knew where to go then. “You can let go of the oars” he said to his charges, and they let go with a relief. “No- stay in your harnesses, it is not time yet to get out of your harnesses yet, things could still happen.”
“Shh… Listen, I can not really explain right now, but I needed you to wake up without making a noise. Please, I promise to you that I mean you no harm- but I need you to trust me. Okay? I am going to remove the water gag from you now, please do not freak out.” And he did the reverse katta, and the water was gone from Daéja’s mouth.
“Why did you do that?”
“I have something for you and your sister for your seventeenth birthday. It is… Important. I just needed you to wake up without making a noise, now could you please go wake up your sister? You two can wear whatever you want- you can bring any weapons that you want to bring too, if that makes you feel any better.”
“Where are you taking us?” Asked Daéja, pulling on a white shirt after strapping down many rows of knives to his arms.
“The sea.”
Daéja froze. “Is it… Safe?”
“I swear upon my life and honor that you and Jaéda will be safe with me, even if I must give my own life to make sure of that.” Then Uncle Umi did the hand sign that signified to the magics of the Port Town of Civility that he was serious. Daéja felt the press of magic in the air, and he knew that he ‘Uncle’ was serious.
“…Could you leave so that I can finish dressing?” He asked, then “I promise to go wake up my sister after that. Please do not use the water on her- she might have an epic freak out. I think that the fact we almost drowned when we were younger still effects her more then she is willing to admit.”
“I will not- but please hurry. Time is of the essence.” And he left so that Daéja could finish dressing without feeling too creeped out.
Once he had finished dressing, Daéja made sure that he had the selection of hidden knives, weapons, blades, and miscellaneous weaponry that he was comfortable with attached to him. Granted, the arm blades were no secret, but the rest of it, well… People tended to not mess with him if they could, just because of the rumors.
After he was dressed in the clothing that he was most comfortable in (and, unneknownst to him- the sexiest in. Yes, just go with it….) he went into his sisters room, and hoped that the fact that they were both seventeen would not make it too awkward. Once in there, he carefully grabbed her hand, and tried to contact her, mind to mind. They had used to do flashes (words or phrases) when they were young, but they had not tried it, and it had started to wonder if it was all in his brain that it was possibly.
‘Sis…?’ He said, trying to wake her up gently. ‘Can you hear me?’
‘Daé- you have not tried this in a long time! It is good ot hear from you…’ She responded, before she snuggled into her blanket more. ‘Are you sure that you are not a dream, though? I mean, am I dreaming again? This does not happen for real anymore, does it?’
‘It is no dream Jaé, and you need to wake up now. Pleaes?’
‘If you are a dream, I am going to kill you…’ She said, before waking up and seeing him looming over her. “What? What are you doing in here?” She asked in an urgent whisper, trying to pull her blanket over her to hide her pajamas.
“Uncle Umi needs to take us somewhere- and he swore upon the magic of the city that he will keep us both safe, but we need ot hurry. Get dressed and any weapons you want and meet us in the hall way as soon as possible.”
Jaéda saw in the way he looked at her, heard in the way that he said it, and, oh yeah, frakking felt his emotions when he told her that he was telling her the truth, so she nodded her head in agreement and he left. As soon as he was gone, she started to dress. Carefully she slid on a white shirt made of a soft material that also happened to shed water (you never knew when it was going to rain was her motto), a black tunic with a slit up the leg, white leggings interwoven with metal mesh, and her trusty white boots. After that she started to arm herself, making shere that anything she could hide was hidden. She grabbed a hank of her hair and sighed. She knew that having long hair was impractical, but her hair refused to be cut short and stay short (literally- one time it grew a foot overnight when she tried to cut), so she grabbed some hair ties and went into the hallway while simotaniously putting her hair up. She put it in a bun, then slid tow more of her arsenal into the bun- hair sticks, as sharp as blades. She was quite proficient in the use of them too, able to castrate a man at thirty paces should she have so chosen.
“How do we know everyone is still asleep?” She whispered to Daéja and Uncle Umi.
“I have my ways, now let us go!” Said Uncle Umi back, and they left the slumbering house.
Once they were far enough out of the house that there was no danger of anyone in that house hearing them, Daéja decided to bring up his question about how the whole house was asleep once more.
Unfortunatly, Uncle Umi was not about to tell them the answers, merely telling them that they would find out everything in time in a comveniently narritvely placed info dump. (I wonder if that could be a song- let us try it! With my Pirate Info Dump, With My Pirate Pirate Pirate Info Dump you get the idea, right?)
“Besides,” he told them “it would ruin the narrative if I stopped you right now to tell you what is going on, instead of waiting for you two to be somewhere cool and scenery porn-esque to be told the Real True Tale ™.”
“Fine” Jaéda saod, twirling one of her knives around her finger as she walked in a sign that her brother recognized as her being supremely bored.
“Good, now we need to get to my boat- not my “fishing” boat, my other boat.” Uncle Umi continued, deciding to ignore the curiously bored look on Jaéda’s face. (Look, it is curious because she is bored, not as an oxymoron. Wanker.) That caught the twins attention. Uncle Umi did indeed had two botas- one was his “fishing” vessel, a rather boring beasty that was fast (for its type) and flashy (as only a Pirate’s vessel can truly be without looking horrendously gaudy), but when you saw one Flashy Pirate Vessel™, you had seen them all unfortunatly.
Uncle Umi’s other boat though- oh it was said to be beautiful. It was a smaller boat, and Uncle Umi had refused to allow it to be used for pirating. It had some sort of protection spell on it as well, so no matter what- people could not steal it, or even touch it without his permission- as though there were an invisible wall between the boat and then. It was also always protected, never even getting wet during a storm, and waves (though they could crash up higher then the boat was lengthwise, and crash down upon it with the fury of an angry stampede of horses) would hit, but then move on. Sure, the people on deck might get wet, but the boat itself would stay dry. It was fast, as fast as a hound after a rabbit, faster still when the wind was in its sails just right. It also had oars, but those oars were magicked (Ninjas? Pirated? No one knew – it was like the seventh mystery of the Port Town of Civility), and the oars would make the boat dance upon the waves with the smallest or largest pull (depending on Uncle Umi’s bidding). The boat itself was a deep blue color that shifted to light blue at the top and yet so subtly that no matter how many times you saw it, it still made no sense. For some reason the boat was made of ceder, and it smelled like a mix of ceder and cinnamon all the time- a friendly smell. The sails were a deep purple, and there were silver accents in it. The colors never faded, and the boat looked as though it had only popped into existence the moment you thought about it.
It really was too bad that the boat had a habit of being ‘convienently’ forgotten by people (magic again it was assumed) when it was no longer necessary to remember it. But still, a legend had grown up around the mythological second boat of Uncle Umi’s, with people starting to make jokes about what it could or could not do- just think of it as the anachronistic Chuck Norris (Ah Chuck A NORRRRRRIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!) of the fictional boat world.
Uncle Umi lead his two charges to the dock, and though the waves were tiny as they trid to aattack the two children, they were there. In fact, Daéja and Jaéda had no doubt in their minds that, had Uncle Umi not been with them, they would have died a miserable death by drowning or by having the waves crash them against the stones of the further out jetty over and over. Jaéda shuddered, but tried not to let the others see her. The almost drowning when they were young had frightened her more then she wanted to admit… It was one of the things Daéja had used against her while he was still wth Lacy, and though they had apologized and made it up to each other, it was still something that was a sore spot with her.
They finally got to the end of the pier, a spot that looked empty unless someone actively tried to moor their boat there, and then they would see the boat. Most of the locals and vendors and traders who came to the Port Town of Civility had learned long ago just to leave that spot alone, it was easier on their sanity that way. Carefully helping his charges onto the boat, Uncle Umi untied it from the deck, then got in in a Certifiable Pirateing Moment™. Once he was in the boat and everyone was settled, he started to row them backwards until they could turn around easily. He was able to row the boat by himself because it was magic, and he was magic too. But we will got to that later, sorry for spoiling something for you guys~ XD
Once away form the port, he stopped his rowing and rose the sails. The full moon (because it is always a full moon, so why on earth should I mess with tradition?) lit their way as they sailed, and Daéja and Jaéda looked in awe at the Ocean. It was a dark blue- almost a purple, even- except for where the moonlight hit it on the horizon, and there it was a silvery color. The sky above was a purplish bluish blackish velvet with tiny pinprick diamonds o’ light that were the stars in the heavens, and were too reflected on the water (though only barely). Because the moon was seemingly on the horizon, and thus more likely then not a sort of illusion, Daéja and Jaéda did not think they would catch up, but catch up they did until they were scant feet away form the actually moon’s reflection on the ocean. It was here that Uncle Umi layed down an achor, and started to talk to his niece and nephew by law.
“What you are abuout to see” was how he started, looking calm and collected and as though every fiber in his begin knew exactly what was going on- as though a new person was standing there, one who seemed to be more in this moonlit state then he had ever been. He continued on, despite the lengthy attempt as making him sound mysterious with “is not something I would like you two to be talking much about. I am showing you two this because it is something you need to see, but more then that- I am showing you this because, despite all your foibles, you two are genuinely good kids. Promise me that you two will listen to me, and do exactly what I say to the best of your abilities. I know you two have never been on a boat before, so I will use all laymen’s terms should I need you to do any boaty things. Other then that, please just trust me.”
“We will” said Jaéda confidently, looking over to her brother to assure his conformation. He nodded his head, but at Uncle Umi’s raised eyebrow he sighed and said:
“We will.”
Uncle Umi gave a miniature sigh of relief but then he moved on. He went below the deck and came back shortly with three harnesses attached to rope and tow lobster clips each. He slid his harness on first, showing them how they were to slide their legs into the leg loopies, and their arms into the arm loopies, and how after that they were to secure the front with a type of clasp, and then clip the very top with a different clip. It was all very complex, btu Daéja and Jaedea managed to get it- though Jaéda was very glad that she was wearing a tunic with split up sides and leggings rather then her usual dress or skirt type outfit. Once they were all hooked into the harnesses, Uncle Umi took the lobster clips and clipped them all into a spot on the mast. As soon as they were all clipped in, the rope itself seemingly vanished to leave only the harness and the clips.
“Alright” Uncle Umi continued, “what we are about to do now is sometimes dangerous, but sometimes not. In the interest of making sure that no matter what we are all safe, I have clipped us into the mast. Yes, the rope is magic. Technically you are clipped into the mast, but that will only activate should something happen to you where you are no longer on board, you fall unconsious, or any of us do a mental override. I would prefer if you two would leave the mental overrides to me, but here is what you say or think should something happen: ‘Dear Lord Mental Override Operate.’ The best part is, in the unlikely (or reather, impossible) event that this boat should flip over, it automatically flips right back. It is, in fact, impossible for this boat to sink, or flip under water. It is just one of those things, ya know? Okay, Jaéda, would you please go pull up the anchor?”
“Yes sir Captian Uncle Umi sir.” She said as she went over to do exactly as requested.
“Why is she calling me that?” Uncle Umi said to no one in particular.
“Some of the Pirate students at school informed us that, on board, the Captain is always Captain- even if off ship they are family.”
“Very wise. Alright, I need you to start bringing the sails down- we are going to row into this.” And with both children- or rather, young adults- doing chores, Uncle Umi sent a praryer to Poésha vas Martinierre gir Lona, asking that she allow him to speak to her before she decided to unleash her wrath on his boat and crew.
As Uncle Umi stood at the helm, Daéja and Jaéda got settled in the seats by the oars. Carfully winding up the anchor, he immediately felt the effect of the prayer he had said in combination with his will. His will was particularly strong that night, so the moon and the ocean knew what he was planning on doing.
The water inside the reflection of the moon began to swirl, creating a whirlpool that pulled the boat into it at an angle.
“Row straight for it!” Uncle Umi said, “Do not let it pull as in sideways- things could get bad then!” And he tried his best to steer the boat straight as well. He had occasionally come by himself, but all those times he was alone, the water had pull him in like a mother’s embrace, and now it was fighting him like not a mother. The little boat headed straight to the whirlpool, straining against the water like a wild horse. The boat hit the whirlpool and spun around the edge going down into the seemingly hole portal in the water. At the bottom of the ocean was a glowing light, a portal into another world filled with light. The boat kept going down the whirlpool until it hit the light and slid through it. The light was warm, and it embraced the boat and its inhabitants, drying them off in a warm breeze.
Coming through the portal onto the other side, Uncle Umi gave a sigh of relief, and let go of the helm. The boat knew where to go then. “You can let go of the oars” he said to his charges, and they let go with a relief. “No- stay in your harnesses, it is not time yet to get out of your harnesses yet, things could still happen.”
