Excerpt: A Forest and a Desert

Xao sat on the edge watching Jai go. Jai knew Xao was watching and Xao knew it. It looked like Jai was trying very hard to contain himself until he was out of Xao’s sight, which wouldn’t be for another few minutes. Xao sighed and layed back, resting his head on his hands and a foot on the other raised knee. He looked at the sky, found his dream there. His eyes closed and he saw the same clouds, below him, so far below him, and his face felt a kind of cold; not the chill of a bitter day or from rain, but the numbing, exciting cold of a constant of wind, beating his hair, shouting a loving eternal call into his ear, into his face, into his entire being. He pushed the very real image of the back seat of a car blasting down the coastal highway and replaced it with his fantasy image of no carriage seat below him, no roof on top or anything at all above, no obstructions, no intrusions, no path or destination. He saw himself fly, passing over mountain ranges and deserts in an instant. The shout of the wind was the only sound and it went to his very core, inside his bones, inside his mio, inside his heart. He saw a break in the clouds and saw a world below him. He thought he saw his shadow crawling up and off the things of the world. He put his arms out and saw a change in the shadow, and suddenly it was a shadow on blue, and he was over the sea. He looked back and saw the west coast, and Dedo Noga on the edge of the beach, a tower of black rock on the sand. He saw it grow smaller until the land was born on became a speck. He looked below and saw he was nearly on the water, his broken reflection shimmering and shifting, though smiling and content. He looked forward and saw the blackness said to be a chain of volcanos in the middle of the sea, the only thing isolating his continent. He shot up and was over it, narrowly avoiding a pillar of smoke. Ahead a line emerged and grew, a land, another land, which no one of his homeland had ever seen. He saw the West, and it was coming upon him. He was slowing down and could see the lush trees on the beach, and soon a figure, who didn’t seem to see him coming. This person had one foot in the water and was about to depart. Xao stopped flying. He was in front of the person.
His Mother’s eyes opened and looked at him.
Xao awoke before Jai, looking down on his current pupil like he expected more.
“How was the river?” Xao asked, squinting at the sun Jai neglected to block. Jai sighed and walked into the cave and closed the curtain on one of the chamber halls. Xao sat up and looked in the cave. He recalled days training in that hall with so many others. He could almost hear dozens of footsteps echoing off the dark blue walls, and voices on this cliff edge, maybe a miniature tournament in a circle of students and masters cheering or contemplating. He remembered very few times at this Viento-miu cave that wasn’t pleasant. And now the only sound was Jai’s frustration and Xao’s silent sympathy.
Xao looked to the clouds.