Lava's book (the stories that make it up)

~Lava~

Well-known member
Okay, I know that some of you have been following the progress that I have been making on my book. I am going to try to consolidate all of the different stories into one thread (thus only one link and a cleaner siggy for me).

This is a new one that I wrote. It is not part of the Bemanese story, but rather the story of how Bemanese stories ended up in the hands of an Earth author. It is the Prelude to my book right now. Called simply: "A Discovery"



One night, after being unable to sleep for a long time, I left my bed to walk along the shores of a lake that was not far from the place where I was staying. Not much was moving out on the lake and there was an unnatural stillness in the waves and wind. All of the surrounding area seemed to be held stagnant; I almost expected to see bats frozen in mid-air. The wildlife biologist in me was a little worried; it should not be this quiet by a water source in the dark. Not unless creatures are afraid to move about.
Slowly, I made my way down the lake’s shore, ever marveling at Nature’s lack of energy. I had at least expected to be relaxed by the breeze at the sound of water lashing the lake’s side. Rather than finding myself readier to fall asleep, I was becoming more awake by the shocking calmness. It was eerie and yet it enthralled my attention. I felt mixed emotions: part of me wanted to go back to the safety of my bed and be free from the insane quietness; the other part wanted to stay there and take it all in and if possible find its source. Perhaps I was stupid, but I listened to the part of my brain that urged me to stay.
Having seated myself on the sandy shore, I stared up at the stars. Orion could still be seen in the spring sky though the Pleiades had left to brighten other countries. At least the stars were doing what they ought. After sitting for a while, I noticed that my body, like nature, seemed to lose all ability to move. I was nearly in the throes of sleep.
Far from being upset by this turn of events, I strove only to make myself more comfortable. Why not? It was a clear night, this beach was not a common place for traffic (even in daylight), and I was well above the high water line. It seemed a nice prospect as opposed to the bed I had left which was not nearly as comfortable as the sand. I lay down and set about trying to doze off.
I cannot decide whether it was more fortunate or not that my brain decided it was not ready to sleep yet. Indeed, sleep was something that I desperately needed, but had I fully slept my night would have been far from being as interesting as it was. I would have slept through the coming and going of the little rough wooden dingy that ran aground on the shore near me only to be taken several hours later back out into the lake by the awakened tide.
I had been sitting in that half awake, half asleep state for nearly an hour before the wind picked up dramatically for an instant. It was only there long enough to waken my limbs and cause some waves. However, that was just long enough to bring the boat, empty, in to the shore and assure that I was awake enough to receive it. There was nothing but a few books, written in a foreign tongue, and a necklace in the boat. Nor was there evidence that former occupants of this little boat had met a bad end. It seemed that it had been set adrift for the sole purpose of people finding it. The items were carefully wrapped against the elements and placed in a beautiful wooden box (made out of the same wood as the boat only very smooth and sealed with some sort of finish). There was not an oar, a sail, or an engine to propel the craft. I removed the objects and further studied them and the dingy.
The closer inspection was nearly as shocking as the earlier stillness had been. The boat was handmade -- not with nails and not with any wood that I had ever encountered – in itself it was a work of art. Of the four books, only one looked like any I had ever seen before; it was a hardbound copy of a Webster’s Dictionary printed in 2003 however it looked as if it could have come from the medieval period due to its wear and yellowing, some of it was hardly readable. The other three were mainly in another language though one looked like it was an English/(other language that I did not understand) Dictionary probably used to make the Merriam-Webster readable. The necklace was a combination of stones and metals that I recognized and others that I did not. It was in the shape of a flying phoenix with its tail end bursting into flame; it was set with the chips of ten stones very prominently situated and other smaller ones all around them. Altogether, the things were of a foreign nature and most (except the Merriam-Webster which was no stranger to me) were very interesting.
I sat by the boat and tried to make sense of the language by moonlight while never noticing that nature had returned from its unnatural repose. My first reminder that I was outside was the fact that the boat near me suddenly moved and I got a wet rump as a large wave hit it. Sadly, the wave was unkind to me because it freed the boat from its plight on the beach and before I could stop it the boat was gone out into the lake again. Putting my remaining treasures back in their protective wraps, I headed back toward my long neglected room.
There, I placed my finds with my luggage and finally went to sleep. I was happy that I was on vacation and could further investigate them in the morning. In the further investigation, I found that the box had a false bottom and inside the false bottom there was a journal (well actually it was a Rite in the Rain ™ Field Notebook) written in a man’s hand. It was written in American English and had dates that ranged from late in 2004 to 2027 (which has yet to happen). It too looked ancient and well thumbed but fortunately he had used the pens that the company suggests so there was not much smudging.
It took me a while to learn the other language that the books were in. After that, though, I was able to read and translate them into English. The other two books seem to be two parts of one book filled with episodic stories about another civilization; some even seem to have been about people familiar with our world. The rest of this book consists of those stories which I liked the best. I know not how I was the person privileged enough to find them but I decided to share my findings with the rest of the world.
Also, I followed up on the journal and found an Elijah Goggers that lived in Miami. I brought the journal to him after I had everything copied and he received it gratefully. The Brian Goggers who wrote it can now rest assured that his father does know everything.
 
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This is the creation story of Razzetia, please read and critique:

One small angel wished to find a special and unique way to praise God for all of His marvelous deeds. He tried writing a song but nothing he wrote seemed to fit the notes that he was using and he found the lyrics quite cacophonous. Dancing did not work out for him either; it seems he was a rather uncoordinated fellow. The angel was becoming rather daunted by the task that he had set out for himself. He just couldn’t seem to find anything that he was good at. The pictures he drew or painted were good, but did not seem to express his praise for his Creator well enough. He was at a loss for what he could do.
Finally, the angel decided to seek help. He brought all of the failed attempts to the archangel, Gabriel, for advice. After looking at everything for a long time, Gabriel sighed; he told the young angel that he had the same dilemma. “Nothing I do seems to be enough, it all falls short or has been done before.”
“Yes, but I am sure that you have some ideas. I do okay with writing things but they are not rhythmic enough to make songs. There has got to be something that I can do.”
“Maybe, you ought to try writing without trying to make it into a song, poetry or something of that nature. It may be that God will like it whether it completely expresses your feelings or not, do not underestimate what He likes; after all, He loves the songs that the humans write even when they aren’t sung on key. Don’t worry about perfection too much, Josiah.”
Josiah thought a lot about what Gabriel had said. Writing did not seem like a very daunting task, he already had the beginnings of something from when he was trying to write a song. “Thank you, Gabriel, I may just try to write so poetry, or at least prose.”
As Josiah left Gabriel’s presence, he was already working something out. It would be a poem that included all of the best parts of God’s creations excepting the angels, of course, because they were not strictly part of any world that God had created. He talked about the earth and the creatures on it. He included all the other great worlds too and their creatures. The poem was long and beautiful. When it was finally finished, he brought it to God.
Josiah felt his heart jump when God picked up the poem with a smile. While God was reading it the smile broadened. “Yes, this will do nicely. I was considering making another world and this poem is just perfect for it.”
Josiah was puzzled. What did God mean? His poem was perfect for what? “Sir, I don’t understand.”
“This beautiful poem will make a great blueprint for the new world. I will take all the best things from all other worlds and put them in some manner or form into the new world.”
As shocked as Josiah was, he was grateful that God was actually going to use his poor attempt at praise for such an awe-inspiring thing as creating a new world.
God simply read the poem out loud and wonderful things started to happen. Where there was nothing before, a mist began to form. A flat plane appeared, then land and water formed. Two giant suns, one to the north and another to the south, rose over the land and a moon appeared but immediately began to set. Great trees began to sprout from the land, and sea creatures filled the water. Then it happened, the part that the angels liked to see best, the knowing creatures showed up; mer-people put their heads out of the water and laughed, Elves walked out of the forests on certain islands, other forests parted and started move by themselves revealing the dryads that were there, fauns and phoenixes were on islands, and, finally, creatures that reminded the angels of the funny stories that the humans tell about Santa Claus’s elves (that is funny little human-like creatures that were very silly but not stupid).
God ended the creation of the world by discussing things with the elves. He had a special task for them because like, most of the other worlds that God had made, the door to other worlds. In this world, it was a tiny island that God named Avar. The island was so far to the south of the world that one could not even see the second sun from it. Near it, and a little to the northwest, was to be the elves main island. God had chosen them as His gatekeepers.
God named the world Razzetia and from there He left it in the care the creatures that were meant to inhabit it. The new world grew and blossomed under their care and it was filled with all sorts of great beauties.
 
This is not quite a short story but it is part of my book (in fact it will appear right after Poetry).

The Whisperings of an Ancient Tree

As you gather round my roots, my dears,
And sojourn in my shade,
I'll tell you of the things I've seen in the years,
Since e'er the world was made.

Great kings have shared this space with you,
Tents have graced my lawn,
My roots have tripped some dancers too,
And I've been climbed upon.

I've borne witness to great councils,
Where the Calendar did begin,
And felt my island tremble,
As their ships came rooling in.

As time has passed,
I've been watching,
And hoping to be asked,
So I could tell these secrets,
Lest ticking time should steal
Them and my life away from me.

Beneath my ancient branches,
They argued then agreed,
Before they left this island,
Great things were decreed.

Dear children, you are standing,
Where the calendar was wrought,
They forged it here beneath me,
And to the world, it was brought.

A year was sectioned into seventeen months,
And a month into twenty-three days,
Summer, fall, Winter, spring,
A calendar ordained.

Indeed, this place is special,
As such places often are,
So here I've stood for centuries,
The lone marker of it all.

I've whispered out this story,
To all who came my way,
And pray to God,
He'll let me continue,
Until the judgment day.
 
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Here is the revised version of "Foiled Plots"

"Nana, guess what we are learning about in history class right now.”

“I don’t know boys, what are you learning?”

“We are discussing the Irati Exile.”

“Oh, really, what have you learned so far?”

“Well, there was a group of men who did not like the fact that Grandpoppa and the parliament decided to move the capitol city away from the cliff. They tried to kill Grandpoppa and burn the city down…”


“Who threw that stone? When I find the person who tried to injure the prince, they will be flogged.”

“Dad, I think it was that boy over there. The rocks came from that direction and he is the only on over there who would have thrown a rock at me”

“Hey boy, why did you throw stones at my son? No, do not run away from me… Guards, after him and be quick about it.”

A set of burly men started to pursue the young boy that the king had sent them after. The boy led through half of the side street and alleys in the city before darting down an alley that dead-ended rather than passing through into another street. The royal guards though that they had him cornered and accordingly advanced toward the young scalawag. Just as they did, the boy wheeled around, seemingly unafraid of the large men that had been chasing him.

“Go tell my brother to stop crying like a baby. It was only a couple of pebbles and I have always had better aim than he does. I still cannot believe that he will be king someday. Yes, I am Princess Rebecca; I am surprised that none of you recognized me. You needn’t tell my father that I was the one who threw the stone at Mr. Whiney-Pants. With the way he treats me, he deserves it. Besides, you guys would get in trouble just as much as I would; after all, you are supposed to be watching me to make sure that I am not getting in to trouble. Now get going.”

“Yes ma'am, we will go right now.”



“Nana. You are not listening. Why did you start smiling all of a sudden?”

“I am sorry boys, what were you saying again? I guess I caught up in memories.”

“We were asking if it was true that a young peasant boy was the one who found out the plot on Grandpoppa’s life.”

“Yes, I suppose you could say that. Other than the boy, what else have you learned about the whole situation? I am interested in finding out what the history books are reporting about the story. I particularly want to know if it is recorded the way that I remember it.”

“Okay Nana, we will try to tell you what we learned verbatim:

In 1224 RY, the king decided to move the capitol city out of the City in the Cliff to a more centralized location. After the move was complete, a group of wealthy land-lords from the city decided that they did not like the move and some even choose to take violent action against the crown because of it. A young boy discovered their plot and enabled the authorities to stop the attempt to burn down the city and the assassination attempt on the king. The people were still able to do some violence before they were captured; they burned the old capitol to the ground. After the capture, the men responsible for the plots and their families were exiled to a northern island that is now modern-day Iraat.”

“Is that all! That disgustingly small bit of information is all your teacher told you about such an exciting and pivotal time in Bemanese history. Do you want to know the real story about the Irati Exile?”

“Only if it isn’t boring. Did you know the boy who saved everyone?”

“Yes, I knew him well.

It was the year 1227 and I had just turned twelve. We had only been living in the new city for six months and, already, Ben and I had explored pretty much every nook and cranny of it. I spent a great deal of time with Ben during childhood. Though both he and I were children of government officials, our favorite game was running wild through the streets dressed as peasant boys (Yes, I said both of us were dressed as boys). Neither of us was in any danger of being discovered because we could both provide alibis for each other if we were ever questioned. Often, I would play his part. We had a lot of fun dressing the same and switching off when people were chasing us. People could not tell the difference.

On a day when I had to wait for Ben, I amused myself by roving through the yards close to his house. As the time drew nearer, I headed through the yard of the inn behind his house and started to climb the wall that separated the inn’s yard from Ben’s garden. A group of people came into the yard and since, at first, they did not see me, they started discussing plans to raze the city and kill my dad. In my efforts to get closer, I made a miss-step and called attention to myself.

My first impulse was to finish climbing the wall and run, but I checked that impulse immediately. I knew that I could gain nothing by running away and I recognized an opportunity to gain information if I could gain their trust. Using my “street-wise boy” act, I told them a story about having to work as a currier in the castle because my father was out of work due to the city’s move. I offered my help to them and after a little convincing that included verbally abusing my brother; I was able to win them over. All was settled as far as they were concerned so I continued over the wall, finding an astonished Ben on the other side.

We worked it out together so that, on days when I could not go and be a deep-cover spy, he could go in my place. Ben and I “helped” the plotters for a full month and between us, we were able to glean enough information from them to incarcerate every person in the group for attempted murder. About two days before the date that had been set for the attack, I went in to talk to my father dressed as a peasant boy. I told him everything I had learned.

Though they escaped the city and burned down the City in the Cliff, they were eventually captured. My father exiled them to an island that Bemanese sailors had recently discovered. Ever since that day, they and their descendants have made the lives of our sailors miserable.”

“Is that really what happened, Nana, or are you just trying to trick us?”

“For the validation of my claims, you can appeal to Granpa Ben boys. He was involved in it too and will most certainly back me up. Go ask him if you do not believe my story.”


King James sat bolt upright, stunned at what the peasant boy was telling him. When the boy was done, the king furiously sprang from his chair and literally ran across the room. Calling out to his guards, he told them to summon his family and to send the boy away while they were doing so. The guards exploded if laughter and the stunned king became even more puzzled by their insubordination.

Then the boy stepped in front of the angered king. “It is okay, Poppa, the reason that they are laughing is because they know that I am your daughter, Rebecca. They would not laugh at you were it not for that.” As Rebecca spoke, she pulled off the boyish hat and wiped the make-up and dirt off of her face. It took a minute for the king to recover from this latest shock, but when he did he, he dismissed the guards to do his bidding and gently scolded Rebecca for the deception and her ill-decorum. After scolding her, he gathered her into a giant bear hug, thanking her for her quick thinking.



“I miss you Daddy. I cannot believe that you have been gone for thirty years now.”
 
Hey guys, this one is part of a new one. It is the first chapter of one of my novellas. Please read and critique. If you guys like the form, I will post the next chapter too.

Chapter 1: How Humans Came to Razettia

Journal Entry: Dec 14, 2005
Two weeks ago, we found safe harbor on an island that I have never really encountered before now despite the fact that I have been pretty much everywhere in the journey southward toward Antarctica. Tropical Storm Epsilon must have blown us further off course than I had thought. We finally fixed our boat yesterday. Well, at least most of the way; our radio is still out and we don’t have the materials to fix the hole in the wall from Xavier being tossed into it by the waves. Those repairs will just have to wait until we hit Puerto Rico. In a couple of hours (it is just now about 5 am), we will again start our journey south. Half of the crew have yet to wake, in fact the only reason that Michael, Esperanza, and I are awake is because my wife was not feeling well. In about 30 minutes I will wake up the rest of the guys so that we can work out our position. We are probably on some private island that is vacant for most of the year. I haven’t seen anyone else here, that is certain. Oh well, I had better get the crew up, Esperanza’s parents are probably wondering why we are running so late in our trip to Puerto Rico. After Puerto Rico is when our fun begins; Antarctica here we come.

Later, same day...
Well this is a pretty kettle of fish we are in. We were scarcely gone from the little island when Sharron Simms comes up to me, screaming and telling me that we needed to turn around. She said that if we didn’t we would be drawn off the edge. She then took my hand and dragged me toward the bow.
She was not kidding, off of our port bow there was a distinct edge. It was gradual and we could have sailed over it without doing our boat damage assuming that gravity still worked and we were not just sailing into an abyss. Nevertheless, I was very unwilling to take that chance with my family and friends lives or, for that matter, my expensive expedition yacht that I designed myself. So I went up to the boat house and told Edward to turn around and head north instead.
This time, upon reaching the island, we skirted it and went northwest towards a larger island that could be seen on the horizon. We could tell that this next one was a pristine land full of trees and beaches that would have made tourists drool. I was beginning to wonder if all of us had not really all died and were all somehow in heaven. The island we were seeing was much too large to not have been discovered before and was much too beautiful to have been left alone, untouched by the likes of Sandals or for that matter the Spaniards from the 1500’s. Then we saw it, a gentle harbor with many beautiful galleons and clippers, all old-fashioned and made out of wood. It was a little to the north of our course so we directed the Antarctica into the harbor and proceeded to the nearest empty berth.
It was not long after we were docked when we saw them. They were not human, it was as if we had stumbled onto the set of fantasy movie with all these tall, stately elves, dwarfs, and grave beautiful centaurs gathered around our berth in alarming numbers. From the crowd stepped a kingly elf with deep brown hair that came down to his waist, beautiful cobalt-colored clothing, and a delicate, richly adorned, silver crown that no human, not even the fancy silversmiths who work for companies like Zales or Tiffanys, could have ever crafted. Even more surprising was the fact that he greeted us in English, saying, “Welcome to the island, Ava, of the world’s rim. You have just come from Avar, an island whose name means ‘Door from Other Worlds.’ I am the elf king, Avaron, keeper of the door.”
It was hard to walk up to all these people, but it was my duty as leader of our little expedition to lead the rest. I told Avaron my name and then proceeded to introduce the rest. I first introduced Esperanza and then went on to introduce my half-brother Edward’s family. Next it was the Simms, then the Albens, and finally Michael Tannet and his fiancée, Anne. After the introductions, all of us but Esperanza and Michael, our ship’s doctor, followed Avaron around their magnificent little town. Esperanza was still not feeling terribly well.
Tonight, we all ate dinner at Avaron’s palace. The dinner was wonderful, and the castle was open and airy; all together the night was glorious. However, I doubt that the banquet and the palace is how I will remember this night, rather it was the conversation that took place at the table that is the most memorable. Avaron told us that the elves had been sent to Ava at the beginning of the world by God to wait for those whom He decided to send through the door at Avar. He also stated the God also told the elves that one day a turbulent ocean in another world would bring humans through the door, and that the storm that brought the humans would seal the door behind them as though a key had locked it; no more would enter through Avar’s door. Avaron told us that we must be the humans that God had spoken of.
What was more exciting was that he told us that he can sometimes see the future and when he had seen Esperanza come off the boat, he had seen an image of her carrying around a pair of twins. Apparently, this confirmed a suspicion that Michael had about Esperanza experiencing morning sickness due to a pregnancy. It is very late right now and we just returned to the boat. I will tell the rest tomorrow.
I guess if we had to blunder into another world this was the best voyage we could have chosen to do it on. We decided after our last time down to Antarctica that we bring the whole of our families the next time and make the trip down toward Antarctica a vacation. More tomorrow.

Journal Entry: Dec 15, 2005 (I guess I will continue using our dates until I can
thoroughly learn the calendar here)

As a continuation of the story of last night’s banquet, I must say that my nephew, Xavier, was quite smitten with Avaron’s only daughter, Ava. It is kind of funny because Xavier, at age seventeen, is already six feet and nine inches tall, which by elvish standards is apparently normal height, but on Earth he very tall; whereas, Ava is rather short for an elf, only five feet and ten inches tall. Xavier could be called an introvert; he has always preferred books to talking and is rather shy though he has never been completely socially awkward. It surprised all of us who know him that he and Ava spent the whole night talking to each other. Avaron told us that he was equally surprised about Ava, it is not normal for her to become such quick friends with a stranger and often she would sit up in her room during banquets and only come down if she had to. We would not have thought this by the way she and Xavier were acting but then to, perhaps it is because they are both not normal for their societies that they felt attracted to the each other.
The chief of the discussion of dinner last night was about the fact that Michael and Anne were not yet married. After finding out that they were not, Avaron decided that he was going to have a wedding for them today. He arranged for everything right down to the bridal gown over dinner. So, this morning I did not even have to drag anyone out of bed everyone, was eager to go about the activities of the day. Xavier, who is normally the one I have to literally drag out of bed, was up before anyone else, well except Esperanza, he helped me get a breakfast going for the crew.
Everyone else spent the morning doing little stuff. Alice, though she hated the sea and being on boats, stayed on board the Antarctica to assist Esperanza who was again experiencing morning sickness. Edward and I went to the village carpenter to see about fixing the hole in one of the walls that Xavier had accidentally caused when he banged his head into it during the storm. Michael, Anne, Xavier, and Nathaniel and Rachel Alben all went back to Avaron’s palace. Alan and Sharron Simms went to the house of a centaur who knows all of the herbs and plants of this island; Alan is our naturalist on the boat, he gets real joy out of checking out animals and plants.
This afternoon, Michael and Anne became man and wife. King Avaron, who performs the duties of high priest on the island as well as being king, and Rev. Nathaniel Alben both, presided over the wedding. I got to be the best man and Sharron was the Maid of Honor. Alan, though he is only thirty years old himself and not a father yet, is big, jovial, and generally looked upon as a father figure by the younger crew, therefore, he was chosen to give away the bride.
No wedding on Earth could compare with this thrown-together-at-the-last-second marriage; I really do believe that the other women from our world were quite jealous. Though hardly changed from the night before, the hall carried a beauty and a grace that only elves can achieve. Anne’s dress was made of satin and lace, but neither the satin nor the lace was like that which we have ever seen before we came here to Razettia. The dress was long and straight; it had a train. Both her dress and Michael’s wedding outfit were embroidered in silver thread and the dress had diamonds and sapphires woven into the lace. Her veil was held on by a delicate, silver crown also set with diamonds and sapphires; Michael nearly fell backwards when he saw her because the elves made her look otherworldly with all the braids and loops they did in her hair. All of us were dressed in fine clothing as well.
 
sorry, it was too long for the post here is the last paragraph.

Part of their wedding ceremony was spoken in Elvish and the rest was in English, and that was simply impressive. It was not like any wedding that I have been to on earth, it made all of the women cry because of its beauty and it was not the type of thing that bored the men. After it was over, there was another large feast. With all of the different peoples (humans, centaurs, dwarfs, and elves) at it there was a great amount of different stories going around. We were learning some interesting elvish words and they in turn were finding some of our words interesting. I am going to close this out for tonight, I hope that Michael and Anne have a long and happy marriage in our new world.
 
I think that this could still have held our interest with being longer, taking more time to let us enjoy getting to know the characters.
 
Well here is the second chapter

Journal Entry: Dec. 25, 2005
Merry Christmas. The elves tell me that we are still only in their 16th month and that they have 17 months in their year. This is going to take some getting used to. They have also told me that, while you cannot see the second sun this far south, there are two suns in this world. Apparently their year is 26 days longer than ours because of this and because of the fact that their world is shaped kind of like a bowl with a slightly convex lid. At any rate it is not perfectly spherical and we are on the lid side of their bowl. The elves say that the other side has no lands on it and it is the domain of the mer-people though they say that you can actually sail around their world if you had a ship that could store enough food and water to prevent you from starving. Perhaps we will try it someday.
We haven’t slept on our boat for several days instead we have been staying in Avaron’s palace. We are even going to have a Christmas Day service in the great hall later on. We brought our fake Christmas tree off the boat and tried to come up with presents for all our new friends. Esperanza had already gotten presents for all of the crew while we were still at home. She bought little semi-precious stones for everyone the last time we were in Puerto Rico. It is great that we finally get to share one of our customs with our hosts.

Journal Entry: Jan. 6, 2006
All of us are getting pretty fluent in Elvish. I think we speak it more often than we speak English. Xavier and Ava are becoming inseparable. There are so many things that we are doing and learning. Michael has been helping out a centaur who is the local apothecary. He is being shown all sorts of local remedies to various ailments. The centaur also has something that helps with morning sickness so Esperanza is able to do a lot more than she was when we first came. This is good because my wife hates being stationary and sometimes I think she enjoys the Antarctic adventures we have had more than I do. Perhaps this is why she married me.

Journal Entry: Jan. 31, 2006
We are just finishing the five day festival for the Elvish New Year. It is not like ours, it is a solemn feast with very little drinking and partying. It was much more pleasant. I must say though, Xavier is rather enjoying the fact that they serve wine at meals here; he says that boys at his school would be jealous if they found out that he was getting to drink wine with a very pretty girl every night. Esperanza only drinks water. It looks like we will need to be getting her some new clothes soon, she might be working on developing a baby bump on her slim figure.
Speaking of Xavier and Ava, with the way things are looking we may be having another wedding before we leave here. It is very rare to see one without the other and they are constantly giggling and walking along the beach together. Xavier has definitely changed for the better since we came; he is much more sociable and not such a wet blanket. He seems to be made for this world. I think he has hit another growth spurt too, I think he has grown an inch since we got here. Heaven save us from my too tall nephew.

Journal Entry: Feb. 16, 2006
Well, my nephew just celebrated his 18th birthday in a way that few boys get to (or are willing to) do. The day after I wrote in here last, Xavier and Ava pulled myself, his father, and Avaron together and they told us that they wanted to get married. They told us that if it were possible they wanted to do so on Xavier’s 18th Birthday. They also told Avaron that despite their love for this island, when we leave here (probably in another month or so), they would like to go with us.
So as we marked the end of our second month on Ava, everyone prepared for a wedding. As in the case of Anne and Michael’s wedding, both Rev. Alben and King Avaron presided over it, but unlike the previous wedding, it was held in a special outside garden where the royal weddings have always taken place. Ava’s dress was not unlike the one that Anne had worn; only it was sleeveless, with a special over dress made of shimmering lace. Instead of a veil, she wore a crown that was very much like the one in which Avaron had greeted us. Together Xavier and Ava looked like a fairy couple, and their wedding seemed enchanted.
I agree with Xavier, the boys in his school would be very shocked and probably very jealous of him, even the ones who used to make fun of his height. He has in fact grown since we came here, he is even taller than Ava’s older brother. He is now just half an inch shy of seven feet tall; I still cannot believe that he is now eight inches taller than me and nearly twelve inches taller than my brother.
Also, none of us our wearing our old earth clothes anymore. We are all wearing the typical clothing of pretty much every elf who lives in this land. Long, lose dresses for the ladies (which is such a comfort to Esperanza considering the fact that she is definitely starting to look pregnant) and lose pants that can be buttoned at the knee and tucked into knee boots if the person desires, also lose shirts (kind of like the ones seen at Renaissance fairs only without the cuff); both the ladies and us men wear capes too.

Journal Entry: March 2, 2006
Life on the island has returned to normal here, normal for what it was before we came or at least as normal as it can be. They just sent a ship out to a colony of theirs on an island called Zamboosie (it is apparently a sacred site for the elves and indeed all the inhabitants of this world because it was the place where a great council was held and where they decided upon their calendar which I have yet to learn some of). It has sparked some wander lust among my companions and we would have probably left with them except for the fact that Alice, Edward’s wife and Xavier’s mother, refuses to leave. For right now we have had to content ourselves with exploring the island and trying to learn everything we can about our new world. Also, we have been trying to prepare as much as possible so that we can leave whenever Ed is able to break Alice down enough to get her to finally consent. Meanwhile, Esperanza, who is over her morning sickness, and I are working on names for our impending little ones.

Journal Entry: March 16, 2006
Finally. It took a lot of prodding from everyone, from her son, her husband, me, Esperanza, but we finally got Alice to say yes. We have just pulled out of the harbor at Ava and are now steadily plowing northward toward Zamboosie.
I will admit that there was much hubbub today on Ava. The whole island shut down so that its residents could go down to the docks to see us off and to say good-bye to their princess. The younger ones came especially to watch the Antarctica because it is a huge boat made of weird materials and it does not need oars or a sail to run. For the most part, the older people came to say good-bye rather than satisfy their curiosity.
It must be said that the good-bye was rather tearful on both sides, because the three months that we spent on Ava were really happy times. Ava and her father cried the most. Even though it was her choice (Xavier would have stayed on Ava if she had chosen not to go), Ava was sad to depart from the only home she has ever had and just as we got on the boat she told me that she was worried that she would never see her dad again. After all was said and done, the departure was rather uneventful.
The ocean is calm so we are making good time; we will probably be a hundred nautical miles from here by nightfall. I am down on the deck near our helipad right now and one can really tell that Ava is excited by the speed we are going at. She is currently talking really fast to Xavier about how she would have never thought that such speeds could be reached by a boat this large. It is amazing to see how those two glow while they are around each other, I wonder if my father was thinking the same thing whenever he saw me and Esperanza. Too bad he will never that he is now three times a grandfather, that his only son (Edward was my mother’s child from a husband who died shortly after Edward was born) is not dead (and nor is his step-son) but very much alive and that his daughter-in-law is having twins soon. I would imagine that my mother does because she is in heaven right now.

Journal Entry: March 24, 2006
Well, the night that I wrote the last entry was was very beautiful. All the stars seemed to sing and dance around the boat, and though the stars were not actually singing or dancing, the mer-people were. Every-so-often a mermaid or merman would leap up out of the ocean, singing beautifully in an unknown language until they were back under the water. The moon, too, added its glory to the night wafting colorful rays of light onto the water below us. Except for the gentle hum of the Antarctica’s engine and the occasional mer-song, the night was wonderfully quiet and all of us sat on the deck without saying a word.
The same thing was true for the next three days and nights, but the fourth day turned foul. We seemed to catch up with the now Hurricane Epsilon, and the storm whether it was actually Epsilon or just another storm did not like it. Our boat was tossed by the waves for three days and we driven further west than we had intended to go. By the time the sun shined on us again, it was quite clear to all of us that Alice wished that she had not come on the trip at all even if not coming meant that her family was in this world and she was not.
Now that the sea has calmed, the voyage has become wonderful again; the sky is clear, there are rainbows, and mer-people have started coming around the boat. The gentle wind tempted us to come onto the upper decks and finally the helipad since it commands the best view. From the helipad, we saw it; there is a large landmass in the distance.
 
My first comment was just for the chapter that immediately preceded it. Let me now go back to earlier chapters of yours. (I just don't have the energy to correct all spelling; there are just a few errors in that.)

The "finding" prologue was rich with colorful descriptive language. I liked being shown a hint of _how_ someone in another world studied our language. (The Earthman's job of learning the alien language must have been extra hard because of never _hearing_ it spoken.) But I would have enjoyed it more if there had been some clearer indication of _where_ on Earth the "finder" lived.

In the story of an angel seeking his own way to praise God, it was a delightful conclusion for God to use the angel's composition to design a world. It reminds me of the Creation prologue in The Silmarillion, when the angels called Valar were singing along with Eru Iluvatar (= God) as He created the universe. One thing, though: it was a slightly jarring note for any angel to be _awkward_ in movements.

Almost forgot to say: wasn't the tree poem something you posted on-forum a long time ago? It looked familiar.
 
Yes it was, all but my latest two postings and the prologue had already been posted before. I just combined them all into one thread so that I didn't have to link to five (now) different threads in my signature. I did change something in that poem that I have yet to change on here.

I need to clarify something I guess. The two most recent posts are actually part of a novella that occurs within my book. The format of the book is basically three short stories/poems and then a novella. This format repeats itself. In all my book will include 3 short novellas (six chapters each) and 9 short stories/poems.
 
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After four months of not working on my book at all, I have finally started working on it again. In the past few days, I have finished another chapter of the novella.

Chapter 3: On Zamboosie
Journal Entry: March 25, 2006
This island is very similar to Ava in its inhabitants. Yet, it is also very different because it is pretty much unexplored. We are going to have fun with this island. It only has one little colony on an island that looks like it could be the size of Puerto Rico. The colony is centered around the place where all of the people met to write their calendar. It has this huge tree, almost the size of one of the California redwoods, in the center. They say that she (their trees pretty much all have genders here) is the only way that they know where the council was held and so they don’t have any houses or paths near her lest they damage her root system. Their town is basically a big circle of buildings around the tree but at a respectful distance.
Since this island was the destination of the galleon that left Ava two weeks before we did, there were many familiar faces to meet us when we disembarked. The elves who knew were all happy to see that we had weathered the storm well and were eager to introduce us to the rest of the population of this small colony. Yesterday afternoon was spent in getting acquainted with Zamboosie and all who lived there.

The evening was spent on the Antarctica, with some of the more prominent citizens of the colony. The people on Zamboosie were taken on a tour of the boat and we crew fed them food from Earth. All of the physicians in our world would be disgusted at us because we let them have sodas. I think that they thought that the food was good but I doubt preferred our foods to those of this world and I am pretty sure that Ava shares their opinion. The evening culminated with a ride in the helicopter for those who wanted to go up in it. The ride was probably the highlight of their night. Today we have been talking to the people here trying to find out how much is actually known about this island. I think that some of us are going to sail around it to see how large it actually is.

Journal Entry: April 4, 2006
Edward, Michael, Esperanza, Xavier, Ava, and I left the settlement to sail around the entire island on the 27th of March. This island seems to be literally the size of Florida; it is far larger than I expected just based on seeing the little peninsula that the town of Zamboosie is on. It also has quite a bit of habitat change on it. At some points the coast looks like the White Cliffs at Dover, other parts are similar to Hawaii. There are beaches of pure white sand. Like my first reaction to Ava, I must say that if this island were in our world it would be a tourist trap.

We have seen a great many seals and sea lions playing on the rocks and dolphins and other whales swim near the boat as though they were curious about what it is doing in their ocean. In fact, the water around the boat teems with life; all sorts of colorful fish and other sea creatures inhabit the areas that we have been through. I am sure that I saw a Steller’s sea cow which is extinct in our world.

Every-so-often, we find a nice harbor to put in at and go ashore for some nice exploration. On shore, there are so many tropical birds and plants; there were even a few species that were unknown to Ava. One of the best new species was a group of odd fuzzy, lizard-like creatures that lived in holes on sandy beaches, and barked and for the most part acted like a litter of hungry puppies; we named these upzies because of the resemblance to the two afore mentioned species. Definitely though, our most favorite new species so far looks like very curly ear-less teddy bears. They are small enough to fit in one’s hand; we named these little animals Snurps. Today, we met up with an old not-so-friend of ours, the Alligator, but this one was a great deal more aggressive than any of the alligators that we had ever seen in the marshes of Florida and the rest of the deep south. I think it will be interesting to get back and compare notes with Alan and the rest; we have seen so much.

On another note, Ava is starting to get really good at our line of work. She has a very acute eye and possibly may make a better explorer than Xavier who has a tendency to over look the things going on at his feet. I am really glad that they decided to stay with us.

Journal Entry: April 14, 2006
We are back in town, we got in yesterday.

The inland group also made some important discoveries in their travels near the village. Alan found a large stand of rubber trees about two miles out from Zamboosie, and even closer to Zamboosie he found a large cave near the sea that was filled with pure rock salt. They became more acquainted with the animals that they had seen on Ava, and met some new ones that were indigenous to Zamboosie. All of the animals that Alan and all came across were well known by the locals, but with the plants, it was a different story. All told, they found about thirty-nine new species of plants: nine were beautiful flowers, fifteen were herbs, two were conifers, five were kinds of grasses, six were types of fruits, and the other two were vegetables. They also found a great deal of plants that grew on earth like pines, cypresses, and a many other useful plants. They were very careful to map out all of the area that they covered and catalogue all of the new finds, so that we could compare notes when we came back.

Now that we are back we are working on trying to give the Zamboosians a full accounting of our work. Some of what Alan and I found will be useful to them as food crops so that they will not have to get as many supplies from the elves on Ava.

A little family matter to report, Esperanza just said to me, “Brian, come here and feel this.” So I went and was rewarded with a kick in the hand from one of our little ones. She said it was not the first time but it was the first time that I was in the immediate area to be able to feel it. I cannot wait to see them. I wonder if they are identical or paternal twins.

Journal Entry: May 28, 2006
It has been a while since I wrote in this journal, in fact nearly a month and a half by Earth reckoning, but that is excused by the fact that it was lost. I finally found it in one of our store rooms on the Antarctica though I know not why it was there. This ship is designed so that we, the crew, would have all of the comforts that we would have at home and, therefore, it took me a long time to rule out all of the other places that it was more likely to be. I almost despaired of finding it, but I happened to have business in the storeroom today and found it there amongst the sodas.

That being said, I think the crew may be starting to get a little restless. My brother sent me down into the storerooms to see whether we were going to need any stores to continue our journey on into the unknown waters of our new world. We definitely need to take on some perishables and we need to find something in which to manufacture bio-diesel. We have the equipment to do it we just need the right type of plant to do it. I am so glad that I decided to make this boat so that it would run on diesel and bio-diesel; we will not run out of fuel even here in this strange world. I am also glad that I decided to install machinery to make bio-diesel into the engine room.
We haven’t done much exploring since we got back from our trip around the coast. We have been focusing on building friendships and learning more about the customs of our hosts. Today we took the time to go to the center of town and visit the site where they made the calendar. There we were told the story by the tree who actually was there at the time. It was amazing. I wish that this sort of thing were possible in our old world; there are so many things that we could learn from the trees if they could talk in human speech.

Journal Entry: June 17, 2006
Edward is furious and Alice is to blame for it. A day ago, she announced that she would not get back on “that blasted boat.” I cannot see why she would call the Antarctica a “blasted boat,” if it were something small and uncomfortable it would be one thing, but as it stands the ship is a cross between a research vessel and a luxury yacht. It carries not only all that was needed for our studies in Antarctica (including a hull that allows it to go fast and still break arctic ice) but it also carries everything needed for its crew to enjoy ourselves. There are six small cabins toward the prow of the ship; a large library with both fiction and reference books, and all the logs of our previous trips; and the kitchen is fit for a five-star restaurant chef. It is large and comfortable; we even have air hockey, ping-pong, and pool tables.

There has been very little time to write with all of our social engagements and having to inventory what we have in our storerooms. We also tested the engines and have done any maintenance that was required, we checked the water filtration system, and brought a large stock of vegetables for use in making oil for fuel onboard. We have had so much to do that we have spent a great deal longer here that we wanted to.

Now we have to deal with Alice, who says that she will never take to sea again and wishes that she had never left Florida. She says that this island is so much like Florida that she wants to stay on it. She also is very unwilling to leave her new friends. Edward is going to have a lot of work on his hands to get her to actually come. We cannot do without a carpenter on board if we are going to live in an uninhabited land. I suppose I could do the carpentering and the piloting of the chopper if he ends up having to stay but he and I both know that he would hate giving up the sea; it is in our blood. We are scheduled to finally leave here in a week.
 
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And now I triple post.

Journal Entry: June 14, 2006
Despite all of the pushing and wheedling of her husband and son, Alice has remained unmoved on the matter. Ed did not give up hope until yesterday morning, we spent all day yesterday moving Edward and Alice’s stuff into a house that is vacant in the village. We don’t leave carpenter-less though, a young elvish carpenter and his family are going to join us on our expedition. We also still have a couple of pilots for the helicopter too.

We are going to leave in an hour. Though I am so happy to be getting back out on to the open waters, I am also rather sad that we are having to leave my half-brother behind because of my stubborn sister-in-law. Edward has not talked to Alice since we moved the last bit of their belongings into their new house this morning; he also seems a little envious of Xavier and Ava because despite all of Alice’s whining and weeping nothing can persuade Xavier to leave the ship’s company. Now it is Alice’s turn to be furious about something since Xavier decided to come with us instead of staying with his mother and father on the island. We had to delay our trip a couple of hours so that we could move all of the new carpenter’s stuff into the boat. We are going to have to be careful because his son is rather young and this yacht is not exactly childproofed.

Later, same day…
We are off, and I get the feeling that my brother is of in the woods somewhere near Zamboosie Village sulking. He did not come to see us off. I thought that we were going to have to get some help with Alice when she ran up onto the boat and started yelling at her son for staying with our crew. Nathaniel and Michael reminded her that Xavier was an adult now and that he needed to have the right to chose what he did with his family. The real thing that made her decide to get off the boat was that I started blowing the boat whistle from the wheel-house in order to make sure that all of the little boats that were on the water near us would get out of the way so that we could pull out of the harbor. Alice made her choice and she and my brother are going to have to live with it. I feel sorry for my brother but Alice has been like this ever since the day she said “I do;” he will get over it eventually, I guess.

The new carpenter in our company is named Chastien. He has a wife named Miriel and son named Aerandir (they call him Aeri). Their surname is Calafindas. I am currently witnessing Alan trying to teach Chastien how to play pool and if Alan is not careful, I get the feeling that Chastien will soon be running the table on him. I think that while he is not my brother, he will make a good addition to our little party. They all will.
 
Chapter 4: The Trip to Beman
Journal Entry: June 28, 2006
I am writing this out on the deck of the Antarctica by moonlight and a deck light. Esperanza is a little ways off to my right speaking with a mermaid who just grabbed onto our boat. It is not an uncommon occurrence right now because the mer-people who can speak in what they call “land tongues” are very curious about our boat and about us. Most of them have seen elves before but they never have seen humans, some of them have never seen a boat before. They seem to think it quite sporting to try to grab a part of the boat and hang on for a while to talk to us. Sometimes we take them for a ride for nearly a mile before they decide to let go and then it is always interesting to watch them as they swim back toward where they first caught a hold of us because during the daytime the suns will catch the glint of their colorful tails and the water around them will be a myriad of different colors. As a thanks, they sing to us at night. The other day, one of them asked what I was doing as I wrote in the ship’s log. I told him that I was keeping a record of sea and weather conditions. This interested him greatly and so I showed him what I had written but he was utterly at a loss for what it said because I still write in English even if I speak elvish most of the time now.
Speaking of speaking and writing, we are teaching Ava, Chastien, Miriel, and Aeri how to read and write in English and they are teaching us how to improve our reading and writing in elvish. We had to do some of the read and writing in elvish before when we were on Ava and Zamboosie but Ava has done very little read and writing in English though she speaks it like a native. She is coming along better than either Miriel or Chastien. Aeri is only five so he is not doing as well as any of the adults. However, I do believe that he will be tri-lingual by the time he is grown because my wife is easily excitable right now (she is well into her third trimester now) and when she gets angry what comes out of her mouth is a jumbled mixture of elvish, English, and Puerto Rican Spanish.

Since we powered into completely unknown territory all aboard the ship have been keeping our eyes out for islands. We have yet to see land but even if we do not find another island we have been well rewarded for our journey because even though we have seen the dual sunrise for some time, after we left Zamboosie it has become more and more magnificent. A sunrise over the ice-covered slopes of Antarctica is like a flickering candle across a painting compared to the veritable rainbow of colors that grace the canvas of the eastern sky here in this marvelous world. The sea is very clear and great reefs can just be discerned if you looked carefully into the depths. We seem to be getting closer to a landmass though because the ocean floor is much closer than it was several days ago, however, that may be a glitch in our sonar equipment.

By the way, today is my brother’s 38th birthday. I guess that marrying at 18 must run in the family. I know that my mother’s first marriage started when she was still nearly two month from her 18th birthday (it was the late 60’s and her high school sweetheart was fixing to ship off overseas to Vietnam); she wanted to have at least one month of married life before he had to go. She was lucky that she that her parents allowed it because that is all she got. Edward was born ten months later and a year after the marriage started to the day, Edward’s dad died in Vietnam. He had only known that his son had been born for three weeks. Edward married his high school sweetheart at 18 as well. He was 15 when I was born. I was only 5 when Xavier was born. I grew up quickly like everyone else in my family but I did not marry at 18, I guess I take after my dad in that manner. He married, albeit an older woman, when he was 22. I was born three years later, my mom was 33. My father is only 10 years older than his step-son. My mom died in a car accident on Edward’s 19th birthday and never got to see her grandson. She didn’t get to watch me grow up either. Wow, all of that came from me remembering Ed’s birthday; I guess I will finish off the story though. I married at 20. It has been two years and twenty days since then. My 23rd birthday is in August. Edward and Alice were by far the oldest in our group. Michael is 28, Anne is 24, Alan is thirty and Sharron, Nathaniel, and Rachel are all in their late 20’s. I really don’t know how everyone in my crew agreed to follow a captain as young as I am. I was 19 when we made our first journey. I had already almost finished with a masters degree though (I worked hard to get out of school quickly and started college when I was 17, I was doing dual-enrollment classes before then).

Journal Entry: June 29, 2006
Land Ho! There is a small island off the port bow. The sonar was right. This island is not very big; it is barely the size of the Antarctica. We will not be stopping there for very long we will just be on there for a couple of hours at most. Hopefully, this island is going to be part of a chain. At any rate, it is a very encouraging sight. It means that there is at least one uninhabited island in this world other than Avar.

Journal Entry: July 5, 2006
It did lead us to another island. This one is bigger and may take as long as a week to explore thoroughly. We are moored in as close as we can get. There was a nice clear spot where we could put down the chopper so that is how we came ashore. Much of the plants that we have seen so far are very similar to the plant composition of Zamboosie and Ava. There are a bunch of lizards and seals and pelicans on this island. Some birds that we would call neo-tropical migrants in the US are here too.

Ava, Chastien, and Miriel are getting pretty good at reading in English. Currently, Ava is reading the Chronicles of Narnia. They were in the library because I figured that I was going to read them before I watched the new movie in the theaters when I was on Puerto Rico. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe hit theaters shortly after we left the US for the trip that landed us here. While I am still using Earth-dates in this journal (and probably will continue to do so until I run out of pages or at least run out of my 2006 calendar), I think I am getting pretty good at recognizing the Razzetia day that we are on. Currently it is the twenty-second day of the sixth month; so it is 22 Anquet, 859RY here. Half of the months are named for their number, Anquet means six in this variant of elvish. The calendar is 17 months with 23 days in each month.

Journal Entry: July 16, 2006
I am a father! Today, in the wee hours of the morning the Goggers twins were born. The whole boat is a buzz with whispers so as not to disturb the twins or their very tired mother. There was never any doubt that they would be fine during the delivery today because we have a great doctor, Anne is a nurse, and Miriel was a midwife on Zamboosie. They are finally here though. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have my father here right now or for that matter, my brother. I am glad that we are on another island because we will all go crazy, especially Aeri, if we had to stay on the boat with the law of whispers that Anne has decided to institute. You can tell that she has worked at hospitals before by the way she took charge and gave tasks to everyone; she was in her element this morning despite the early hour.

We decided earlier that if they were both boys that they would be named after Esperanza’s brothers and if they were both girls they would be named after her sisters, if we got one from each, they would be named after my parents. Thus Elizabeth and Elijah Goggers were given their names after my father and mother. We also, as a whole crew, have decided to call the whole group of islands the Eligog Strait. Little Elizabeth, Lizzie for short, is 18 inches long and 6 lbs. 14 oz. Eli is also 18 inches but weighs nearly a pound more than his sister. Esperanza has good reason to be tired. My babies have two birthdays: July 16th and Otso 10th based on the calendar being used. They probably will not fall on the same day very often, maybe never in their lifetime.

Journal Entry: July 31, 2006
With new babies onboard, we have had to slow down. Instead of rushing from island to island, we are lingering at islands where we think the air will be serene and healthy for the little ones and quickly left the ones that had foul odors and awful bugs. Though she hates it, Esperanza has had to stay on the boat when the weather is not good for the kids but occasionally the other women or even some of the men stay with the babies and let her explore a new island.

A couple days ago, Chastien brought back some large branches from a dying Cypress tree and he, with Miriel’s help, fashioned them into a beautiful cradle for the twins. We have also used some of the old clothing from earth to make some nice outfits for the babies. In turn, the babies have provided a source of entertainment for us when we are traveling; all of the women coo over them and they scarcely ever are resting in their cradle when everyone is onboard. They are constantly passed around from person to person so much that their poor mother has to go from stem to stern in search of them sometimes.
 
Journal Entry: August 23, 2006
Today is my 23th birthday. Esperanza made a cake. Today is the second of Nertal here. I am not certain that I will use the second of Nertal as my official birthday from now on or try keep up with the 23rd of August. That will be an issue to solve when next year comes along I guess.
We just left an island of considerable size, almost as large as Ava in fact. We are slowly creeping up this strait of islands and they are getting progressively bigger. Also we have found that the further north we go the colder it gets. Instead of the tropical weather that we found on Zamboosie, there are rivers that are still slightly swollen from melted snow and fresh blossoms everywhere. We are staying on the boat at night because it is still chilly once the sun goes down. We are also having to bundle the kids up against the cold when we do take them ashore. If we do take the twins off of the boat, we either carry them in our arms or we tie them up papoose style and carry them on our backs. I am beginning to think that we are getting close to an island that is at least the size of Zamboosie.

Journal Entry: September 15, 2006
Is this how Columbus felt? Probably not, if the history I learned when I was younger is true he thought he had found a new way to an old continent. We know we have found our way to a new continent. Also, Columbus found an island; what we are now looking at is a stretch of coast that blocks all view of the sea. Just by the size, I can tell that this is probably larger than Zamboosie. It may even be larger than Australia. After travelling hundreds of miles and being on the sea and its smaller islands for a four Razzetian months, we have come upon a mountainous land that is beautiful to behold for those of us who have not seen its like since we left our world. I have taken out our telescope and scanned the horizon and I am certain that it is continental in size. It may be the largest land in this world. The elves have never seen so much land in their lives and are very impressed to find out that we used to live on a land that big. With Esperanza right near me and the babies with her, I looked at this landmass and it decided me. While the sea is a big and beautiful place to explore, I think that we ought to make this place our home for the time being, at least until the children are older. Thus when we set foot on land this time, we will be entering as people inspecting a new home not as daring explorers there to gain all the information we could as quickly as possible.

Later, same day
On shore, we set up tents and our surveying equipment. When all was put ashore that we will need for the night, I called all of us together to discuss plans. The first thing that we decided was that BEMAN would be the name of our new home. B(rian)E(dward)M(ichael)A(lan)N(athaniel) is the name of our expedition company and so even Chastien and Miriel thought that it was proper to use the acronym the names of the men who, by deciding to set out with our families to explore the Antarctic, came to Razzetia and will begin to settle this new land.
 
On the whole, this is pretty good: enough color in the "little" events of the expedition that I don't feel deprived (yet) by the lack of monsters and battles. You have just a few errors in spelling and grammar to root out, of which only one is really conspicuous:

> > ...we need to find something in which to manufacture bio-diesel with.

You need to lose the word "with" at the end of that sentence.

Concerning the bio-diesel itself: renewable fuels are good in principle, but proponents of bio-diesel don't tell you that the refining process which _makes_ it uses so much energy, that so far bio-diesel is not justifying itself in terms of increasing a nation's energy efficiency. This is not to say that your characters could not have a process for making bio-diesel which IS efficient enough to make sense for the running of the ship; but you should make a _point_ of their having an improved process.
 
It is the thought that they can obtain it_almost anywhere_that led me to chose Bio-diesel, not a wish to make an environmentalist statement. It may not be the biodiesel that Brian improved but the engine.
 
I finished the first novella tonight.

Chapter 5: Founding Beman
Journal Entry: December 24, 2006
It is Christmastide again. And we are in a little settlement about three miles from our first landing site. I am in the doghouse right now, again. I brought Lizzie and Eli out with me when I went to go find a Christmas tree and I failed to tell Esperanza that I was taking them. By the time I got back, Esperanza was frantic. She was searching throughout the whole settlement. She thought that maybe Ava and Xavier had them because they simply adore their baby cousins. When she saw me come up with them, she ran out of the house and grabbed them from me and then, after they were put safely away in their beds she chased me around the village screaming at me in a mixture of Spanish, English, and Elvish. She told me that she will never let me back in my house if I ever do that again, I think she even slipped a few curse words into the tirade.

We have been so busy that I have not had time to write; little time was wasted before preparing an appropriate shelter when we landed. We knew that spring storms could make it very hard to travel back and forth between the boat and land every day. However, we made sure that the shelter was air-tight and could weather even a hurricane before trusting it to shelter any of the women or the children. The men of our party were practically living on land within a few days of our arrival here. Within a month, we had decent and even eye-appealing house a little inland from the place where we landed. It wasn’t a mansion and we all knew that it was not big enough to provide for our needs for the long-run but were rather proud of the little house and it would provide a home base for us while we were trying to find better places to live and farm upon.

Over the next few months, we started taking stock of the land we were on and trying to find a place that better suited our needs. Nathaniel, a chopper pilot like Ed and myself, along with Rachel, Xavier, Ava, Chastien, and Aeri, would fly about trying to find a place that was better situated for our settlement. My wife and I searched too but went on foot. Chastien set up a forge and started making agricultural tools. Michael cured wounds and did other doctoring and in general worked on the house. Alan went to work cataloguing the plants he could find.

They finally did find a good place on one of the helicopter trips. It is where we have our village now (what can I say, we build fast). Other than the lack of electricity (we are still working on that one), our homes are rather like the log cabins that they sell in places like the Smokies. We have taken by a stock of rye or at least a grain so much like it that it will be useful to us for food.

One day, a couple of weeks ago, we woke up to a great deal of snorting and whinnying and found that a herd of wild horses were roaming this way and that eating the rye grass. We succeeded in befriending the horses and eventually tamed some of the younger ones; when the rest of the herd moved on, four pairs of yearlings stayed with us. We also found other wild animals that were able to be domesticated: cows, pigs, dogs, and even a crotchety old cat. Aside from the rye, there were other plants that we found that were edible. Even with the snow outside (Chastien and Ava say that we are probably just now heading into winter), we have a good stock of food and it should last us through the winter.

Tomorrow, we will be celebrating Christmas. I have never had a real Christmas tree before, nor have I ever had to light it with candles but we will be able to celebrate Christmas pretty well anyways. For Chastien, Miriel, Aeri, Lizzie, and Eli, it will be their first Christmas; Ava celebrated it with us last year.

Journal Entry: February 28, 2007
Eli and Lizzie both took their first steps today. It was pretty amazing but also pretty scary at the same time because now we will have to so much more to make sure that they are safe at all times.
We celebrated the Razzetian New Year recently. Also, we had Xavier and Ava’s one “earth” year wedding anniversary and Birthday recently. Esperanza’s Birthday is coming up.

Journal Entry: March 17, 2007
It is Esperanza’s birthday and St. Patty’s day. There is not much to do for celebrations for birthdays here. We did make a nice meal to be shared by all. After that, Esperanza and I danced. She tells me that Xavier is not the only one in my family that has grown since we got here. I had thought that I might have hit a growth spurt of my own but was not sure. Esperanza decided that I was going to be measured after we danced because I was taller than she remembered. Apparently, I have put on two inches in the past year.

Journal Entry: June 17, 2007
Shortly after March 17, there was a day when it was too rainy to work on anything outside and we had nothing particular to do inside so I got out my 2006 calendar and started working on making a 2007 calendar based on the day of the week that New Years Eve fell upon. The actual date of Easter is lost to us because it never falls on the same Sunday as are some of the other holidays that vary from year to year; however, I think that we will celebrate Easter on the first Sunday of April every year. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, Halloween, and many of the other holidays can still be celebrated though because they always fall on a particular day or a particular date. Today is the third Sunday in the month of June, therefore, today is my first official Father’s Day. I am not the only one who is celebrating his first Father’s Day either. Just like my growth spurt, it kind of crept up on us. We knew that Ava was putting on a little weight when I last wrote but had no clue as to the reason because Michael was trained in doctoring humans, not elves. We began to suspect something was going on in early April because Miriel was starting to think that Ava might be pregnant (apparently it is hard to tell in elves until about two months before they are due). Two weeks ago, Ava gave birth to a tiny baby girl, not much bigger than Lizzie was when she was born. Unfortunately, I was not there to record the happening because I was off with Alan trying to find out why we see strange lights in the distance sometimes at night (it still continues to puzzle us). Little Bellasiel (Bella for short) was born on the 2nd of June. My brother is a Grandfather; I wonder how he will feel about that.

Journal Entry: October 31, 2007
I write this entry with a shaky hand. If one were superstitious, one would say that it had something to do with the date but I doubt those rules apply here anyways. This morning we awakened to a great deal of snorting and snuffling and so we went out to investigate hoping to find that we were being visited by our friends from last year, the wild horses. To our dismay, we did not find any creature of the sort. Not far from our houses, there was a giant dragon. He (at least I think he was a he) was blue but speckled with red scales so as to give the illusion of purple when looked at from afar. I do not care how the newer books from home may portray dragons; the people writing them have never seen a dragon pick up a cow and devour it whole. We have now.

Upon finding the source of the commotion, I must say that my heart quailed. I wanted to run but knew that excess noise would cause it to look our way and that would not be a good thing with the women and indeed three of our children standing with us out on our front lawns. We quietly crept back into our houses and then all of us men grabbed anything that might be useful against it and went back outside. We could not get the pitchforks or farming implements because they were in the barn which was blocked to us by the dragon. I did however feel that we had technology on our side because I had a couple of semi-auto 45 caliber revolvers and three hunting rifles placed in various houses in case we were to need to defend ourselves. Also, apparently, Xavier had brought the harpoon gun from the boat. Armed with the guns, bows, assorted long knives, a sword, and a couple of fire extinguishers, we went out to face the intruder who was ravaging our stock pens. We also had a very angry bull on our side.

Though we had no formal plan of attack, the first thing we tried was shooting it with the rifles (.30-30’s). They met their mark but did not immediately kill the beast. We shot it with about ten rounds each. Then we discharged the pistols giving it all of the ammo we had on us (about four bullets for each gun because we don’t have that much of the ammo for the pistols). It was slow to move but it still did. It turned toward us and let out a nasty belch of flame which didn’t have near the effect that I think the beast had intended. We got burned a little but the fire was not long lived thanks to Chastien who was manning the fire extinguisher. Michael, who is very skilled with a knife both on and off the operating table, took a bowie knife and threw it at the dragon’s eye. The success he had with hitting his target would have made Jim Bowie proud, but, though it was half blinded and badly wounded, the dragon still continued its advance. I was his target and he was going to have me except for the fact that the bull chose that moment to charge and was able to gore it very badly in the hind quarters. With the beast thus distracted, Xavier shot the Harpoon Gun directly into the creatures face right between the eyes. This was the final wound. The dragon fell down dead, crushing our stupidly brave bull and hitting me with its huge tail. I was sent sprawling and Michael is pretty sure that I cracked a couple of ribs. We will be having steak tonight and may even try to roast some dragon too but I am unsure how that will work.

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This incident has me really worried though about how safe we really are here in our little village. We are going to start a concerted effort first to find out what those lights are that we continue to see off in the distance at night and second to find a stronghold where we can have safety from dragons and other harmful creatures of that ilk.

Journal Entry: November 12, 2007
A stronghold still evades us, but we have finally found the source of the lights. There are fairies here and they are rather friendly now that they know that we will not harm them. Off the coast and a little to the south of our second landing site (it is closer to our new home than the first) there is an island that we had kind of written off as uninhabited but it appears that 4 inch tall fairies can hide very easily from people who aren’t looking for them very hard.

They can also make their island invisible to the naked eye. I guess they haven’t figured out how to make it invisible to sonar yet. We had almost written it off as a high point in the ocean floor or a rocky out-cropping that is mostly covered by the tides but then we landed the boat on the island.

We are going to help them build houses on their island and they have decided to also let us name it. Ava is set on calling it Aravir after the morning star in the Chronicles of Narnia (her favorite books in our library) and the fairies seem to be rather fond of the name so I guess that the name will stick.

By the way, I am down to the last few pages of my journal.
 
Chapter 6: Life, a Wrap Up
Journal Entry: June 3, 2011
I have been saving up these last few pages of my journal for a couple years now for something special to tell. Today, the first day that my brother got to meet his grandkids, seemed like as good a day as any. We have finally made the trip back down to Zamboosie to get some supplies. Only a few of us (Xavier, Ava, Esperanza, Michael, Anne, myself, and our kids) came this time, most stayed with the animals and our newest settlement inside a cliff at the north end of our country. It has been over five years since I last saw my brother and we plane to stay on Zamboosie until a couple of days after the Lizzie and Eli’s Birthday. The ship ride down here was kind of interesting with the eight children all under 5 on board. It seems that twins run in the family, Esperanza and I have two pair ourselves. Ava and Xavier also have a set. Michael and Anne have a little boy named John who is two years old.

Since there is no way to really communicate across the ocean here yet, it was a big surprise when we came into harbor and also when we came up to Edward’s door with a passel of kids in tow. Edward had a couple of surprises of his own to show us when we came up into the house; he was sad to inform his son that Alice had died in childbirth a few years back but he and his new wife were happily married two years ago. Xavier has a full sister and a half brother now. I must say that Ed does look much happier than the last time I saw him. He is in his lower forties now but his wife is a good deal younger than he is; she is only around 27 if you calculate by human years. She is also taller than he is but then too, she is an elf.

Edward was surprised by how much I have grown too. I believe that it has something to do with the air here and our diet because all of the humans under the age of twenty five have grown at least an inch since we came. On top of that, Ava has also grown. She is now the height of a normal elfin female though she is still at least a head shorter than her husband. Xavier is seven feet tall even. I am 6’ 7” which would severely disappoint my high school basket ball coach who had hoped that I would grow a little more before I left high school.

Ed thinks that we all have put on a great deal more muscle too. We told him that that was because we have spent the past four years building things like dams and castles (we built one called the Stellata on Aravir for the fairies). We told him that, by some geological anomaly, all of the mountains that we have encountered in Beman have been hollow, not like a cave but fully hollow so that one could build a city the size of Miami in some of them. Indeed, we found a safe place for our settlement in this beautiful white cliff that overlooks the northern ocean. We also told him that all of this build took place while our settlement was growing. Everyone has kids now and only Michael and Anne have only one. We have four. Xavier and Ava have three; Alan and Sharron have three as well but they had twins just like myself and Xavier. Chastien and Miriel have Aeri and Edward. Nathaniel and Rachel have Lucy and Jessica. All told there are 14 kids under the age of five and one child who is about to be ten in our little settlement.

We described everything in full. We talked about the dragon episode and meeting the fairies. We even told him about talking to the mer-people on our trip to and from Beman. We told him about the births of his three grandkids: Bella, Stella, and Xavier Jr. We also told him the births of all of his nieces and nephew: Elijah, Elizabeth, Marisol, and Emiliana. There was nothing that we left out. I can see my brother glowing every time one of his grandchildren go toddling over to him, saying “Dranpa, pick me up.” It makes me wish that my father had had this chance.

I may have space for at least one more entry.

Journal Entry: July 16, 2017
Today is my oldest children’s eleventh birthday. Eli and I went on a four day camping trip and we just got back. We found a few other place while we were out that we are interested in possibly putting up houses to stay in when we take trips. His brothers were rather jealous of him. Yes, I said brothers. I have six kids because Esperanza has always wanted a large family. She just did not expect them two at a time. We have had three sets of twins; two are identical sets and the other set is paternal. In all there are 26 kids in our little settlement. There are Chastien’s two sons (Aeri and Edward) and his daughter, Ava. Xavier has four kids: Bella, Stella, Xavier, and Avaron. Michael and Anne have two: John and Ashley. Alan has five: Jason, Lacey, Jake, Laura, and Jeff. Edward and Mirima (his new wife) came up to Beman when we left Zamboosie last time; he has three kids other than Xavier: Alice (named after hers and Xavier’s mother who died when she was born), Brian, and Jacquelyn. Nathaniel has three kids: Lucy, Jessica, and Rachel. Last but not least, there are my six: Eli, Lizzie, Marisol, Emi, Raul, and Miguel (we call him Mike).

In the nearly twelve years that we have been in Razzetia, we have built a city (well, I suppose it is still just a village; but it is not just houses any more: we also have a hospital and a church). We have made a water wheel and wind mill; they supply us with flour and electricity. It took a lot of ingenuity to make the electricity work in the way that we were used to in Florida. We also now have indoor plumbing; it is amazing how much can get done once you have a carpenter who used to do contracting before he joined my crew. The piping was also a feat but we found a way to do it.

Journal Entry: December 25, 2028
I daresay that this shall be my last entry. I saved it for a long time. A year ago, during our celebration of Christmas Dinner, Aeri, who is quite fond of read the books we brought from Earth, decided to propose to my Lizzie in the style that he has read about in some of the books.

After dinner was over, we had a dance in the assembly hall in our “City in the Cliff” as we are wont to call it. All the kids were there. After dancing a waltz, Aeri took Lizzie off the dance floor and got down on one knee. It was quite funny to watch him rattle away a sonnet in English. She, of course, accepted.

The next day, we had the wedding in our church. She was beautiful in the wedding dress that they made up for her since this proposal was not wholly unexpected. Mirima is a jeweler and since we have found precious stones and gold and silver ore; we had her make the rings. We had a ceremony like one we would have had on earth, the only difference is that it was said in Bemanese which is the mixture of English, Elvish, and Spanish we all speak. It was quite odd to have to build another house in Beman for my little girl. Now there is another baby in the settlement. Today, my daughter gave birth to twins. Like I said, they must run in the family. I am a grandfather now. Our life here has come full circle. Esperanza and I are moving on into our middle fourties. There are now eight families in Beman and there are sure to more soon because most of our kids are growing up fast. Eli and Lizzie are both 22. We have been here for a little over 23 years.

All of my friends who first started with me are happy here. I don’t think any of us would go back to our old world if we could. These past 23 have been some of my happiest. Our children are working on learning a profession. We have had some of the greatest adventures like when Xavier went to Alwin and met the Alwiners. They are silly little creatures that so much reminded him of Santa Claus’ elves that he decided to check and make sure that he was still in Razzetia. We brought Eli down to Ava to learn ship building a couple of years ago. Avaron and Ava were very happy to see each other and he was grateful to finally get to meet his grandchildren, all six of them. In fact a good, many of us have six or more kids. If you include Xavier, Edward has eight. We have fought dragons, raised kids, explored our land, been to a fairy dance, built a castle, established a state, and started making a thriving economy. We even went scuba diving to visit a mer-city.

I don’t know what will become of our little country in the years to come but it is thriving now. We enjoy a quality of life that is not too terribly less than that of the US. We also have a government and a constitution established. We have a school that teaches most of what we learned in school in Miami.

This world embraced us and in turn we have embraced it. Darn it, I am out of paper.
 
This remained entertaining right down to a cute ending. I confess there was a while that I wondered if there would be any action; close to the home stretch, you provided us a dragon. The fire extinguisher was a very nice touch.

Easter lost to them? Why? The observance date of Christmas is arbitrary; so could their Easter be.

The hollow mountains sound like enormous geodes.
 
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