Chapter 9

Soon they reached the Pali.
They stood for a moment in awe of the ocean before them.
Haleakala Volcano towered behind them.
They stood silent in Nature's living spectacle as their hearts beat wildly.
A trail led down thru the mangled growth of guava,
avocado and mango trees. They followed it.
The Pali was a great outcropping of rock.
It thrust itself up out of the sea.

It was a steep climb down it's face.
When they got about half way down, the vegetation became sparse.
"We'll have to climb down from here," he said.
"Be careful now! Hold onto the grass and shrubbery...
and watch out for loose gravel. It's a long way down if we slip."
She follows his lead. When Maji sees she's doing fine,
he goes ahead to make sure it's safe. Then waits for her.
She descends slowly and carefully as the trail winds
down around the cliff face, savoring each step,
each breathtaking moment admiring the view.
"How're you doing?" he calls to her.
"I'm just fine honey," she assures him.
"Don't worry now. I know how to climb."
"Okay" he shouts back, and continues downward.
He disappears thru the brush as the trail continues to wind.
She follows silently. She's thinking,
"I feel so strange today. Inbetween worlds.
Where am I and who am I supposed to be?"
As she continues down the trail thinking, she forgets
to pay attention, and slides on the gravel around a turn,
hitting her head on a stone. She's knocked out and begins dreaming.

Harmony dreams she's Lali, but all grown up.
She thinks of herself as Jzurlea now that she's a woman.
That's what everyone in the Village calls her.
She's walking along a trail in the Pine Tree Forest.
She wasn't paying attention and trips over the root of
a tree that's exposed in the road. She gets up and
dusts herself off. Her toe hurts alot though.

It's a cloudy day and the ground is damp beneath her mocassins.
She weaves through the forest following the familiar trail.
Walking along, she listens to the crunch of the grass
beneath her toes. She breathes the crisp air deeply.
Within the next two moons, leaves will appear again
on the trees. Soon planting time would begin.
She loved this land, but it was not enough for her anymore.
She thought of Hokami, and wished she could be with him
by the waterfall again. Perhaps time would roll around to that
again...someday.
Her two sons were almost grown and would be 13 this year.
She hadn't seen them for two years. She could bear it no longer.
Now she would say goodbye to this land, and Sittingjing-gongala.
She would be going south to Phoenix where the boys were
in the Government School. It had not been up to her.
The Agent came to the Village and took all the children
five years and older. Took them by force.
Now she would go visit them. Maybe she would stay in Phoenix.
She didn't know how to survive anymore without her family.
Salanka shot herself when they took her children.
Her Grandmother passed away shortly after that.
She had cried for two years, praying she would die too.
But wanting to live to see them again....she thought,
after that, she could die in peace, knowing they
were well, and could make their way in this world without her.
The mourning doves were wooing their beloveds
in the branches. She listened to their songs as she followed
the trail deeper and deeper into the forest.

At last Jzurlea came to the cave where her Grandmother's body lay.
Pushing aside the stone that sealed the cave, she bends down
to protect her head, and goes in through the mouth of the cave.
Standing silently just inside to adjust her eyes to the darkness,
she feels nauseated by the stench saturating the heavy air.
Through the dim light that filters into the cave, Jzurlea sees
a dark figure lying upon a stone ledge towards the back of the cave.
She approaches it as tears well up in her eyes.
The great grizzley bearskin covers her grandmother's remains.
Carefully, she pulls back the old grizzley coverlet.
Gongi's bones are bared, and rest quietly intact.
Her hands are folded in sweet repose upon her chest.
Jzurlea sits down and strokes her grandmother's skull gently,
trying not to disturb the hair.
She touches the bare bones of Gongi's hands calling to her,
sobbing softly in the pungent darkness.
"Grandmother....Grandmother....I'm here now,"
she says, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Are these the same hands that soothed my childhood hurts...?
Remember how we sat by the fire and you taught me so many  old songs...?
I've missed that. I sing alone now....
What is death like Grandma. Is it better than this life?
It can't be worse...."
When she stroked the bare bones of an arm,
she could feel her own words vibrating within them.
Just then, a little mouse peeped it's head through one of
the ribs where the old woman's heart had been.
It seemed frightened and sprung up, making a dash
for a place to hide. It ran, scuttering across  Gongi's hands,
disturbing the bones.
Hands that, for so long, had lain quietly folded,
one over the other, would now reveal the secret they held.
As the hands fell open, a small object of stone
rolled into Jzurelea's lap.
Jzurlea was frightened by the mouse and screamed loudly.
Her voice echoed in the little cave. It made her laugh.
Then she saw the Stone Head Fragment in her lap.
She picked it up and looked curiously at it.
It was carved and was strangely familiar to her.
She had seen it before, when she was very young.
It was slightly luminous and was of a milky colour.
Crackles of vermillion, azure and lavender highlighted the delicate carving.
The stone had a power of it's own. She felt irresistibly drawn to it.
There was a sense of heat coming from it the longer she held it in her hand.
As it heated up, it began to shine, and she could see
it's features in the dim light of the cave, awaken.
The stone had the face of a woman carved into it.
There was a faint smile on the lips.
A very ornate crown sat upon the head.
It seemed inlaid with precious jewels, but the
crackles of precious elements running throughout it,
gave it this appearance. It looked as though beads hung down
from the crown, around the ears, falling the full length of
the hair, mingling with it beautifully.

Jzurlea held the stone in both hands and pressed it to her bosom.
The warmth was comforting. Within the stone, she began to feel
a pulsating, and out of the vaporous silence, she thought
she heard a voice. It was a very high pitched voice, and
was singing in a very ancient language.
There were many trills in this language, and it sounded
very much like a bird singing. She looked at the stone again,
and this time saw that the mouth was moving.
She was so alarmed by this, she dropped the stone head and
it fell again into her lap. At once the singing stopped.

When she dropped it, the stone head fragment fell face down..
Now she could see that the back of the stone was also carved.
Leaning closer, she squinted to make out the features of the carved surface.
The backside of the head was carved into the face of an owl.
As if in a dream,...she remembered a boy on a passing train
handing her an owl with no head.
It made her think of the people with no head who had come on horses,
With guns they came... and taken her children.
She held the stone in her hand turning it over and over as she examined it.
"What was it the Empress said," she thought to herself.
Then she remembered. The Empress had told her,
that if she could find the head and restore it to it's body,
she would be able to help her people very much.
Now, here was the head. Where was the body?
Hadn't she stashed it in the cave somewhere?
She really didn't understand the meaning of it and why
the head was off the body in the first place.

As she was thinking thus, she kept turning the head over and over.
It almost felt alive. Then she heard the singing voice again,
and as she sat there in the darkness of the cave,
a mist slowly gathered and rose about her.
She was so enchanted by the beauty of the voice, she didn't notice the mist.
Nor did she hear the raindrops beginning to fall outside.
She sat there, hidden like the pulse within the body.
She breathed within the heart of Nature's symphony all around her.
She listened only to the voice, and couldn't withdraw her attention from it.
Now Jzurlea began forming the sounds with her mouth and was
singing in the strange language of the stone head,
...as if she'd spoken it all her life.
She could feel waves of light pulsating from her,
and uncannily, knew now, the meaning of the lyrics.

Though the rain beat down harder outside, Jzurlea was unaware of it.
Then all of a sudden, a large bolt of lightning crashed
close to the mouth of the cave, and a brilliant light appeared.
Startled, she turned away fearfully, and sheltered her eyes from the light.
Slowly as the light subsided, filtering through the brilliant haze,
she could see a shining white horse.
It pawed the ground just outside the mouth of the cave.
He was a full grown stallion, and upon his head he carried one great horn.
It spiraled forth even as the lightning bolt itself.
Huge wings, irridescent, like mother of pearl,
he kept folded close to his sides.
He pawed the earth impatiently, throwing his beautiful head back,
and tossing his great mane, which was the same colour as his
wings and tail. He snorted loudly, looking straight at her.
He called to her by a name she knew in her heart.
"Lemurlalo," he called to her. She was amazed and afraid,
but couldn't look away or run to hide. Again he called to her.
"Lemurlalo." His voice seemed like an echo, and vibrated strongly
and deeply within her, stirring old memories.
They came hauntingly back, twisting down
the painful corridors of Time.
"Lemurlalo," he called to her again.
This time, as if spellbound, she rose, still clutching
the stone head fragment in her hand.
The singing had become very soft now, but she could still hear it,
and felt the words deeply penetrate her as she sang them.
The song was a lament, and this is the verse it sang:

"Long ago and far away, in a Golden Age of Being,
There was a kingdom isle so beautiful and real.
I, Lemurlalo was Queen with my King, Tam-ram-rem I, by my side.
Iniquity bent, I've come to rue those days and nights,
For the wind has torn our hearts apart, and the rain,
Has washed the blood away...all that remains,
Are memories...Memories, that will never go away.
Though Time has passed and new lives formed
The lessons unlearned bring ruin and remorse."

The song went on and on becaming so soft Jzurlea could no longer hear the lyrics.
She pressed her ear closer, straining to hear the painful melody.
The great stallion was pawing the ground and snorting impatiently.
"Come Lemurlalo," he called. "Come and sit upon my back.
I shall take you home now to your Kingdom...
the Kingdom of which our great Queen sings.
Come Lemurlalo, let's go home."
Jzurlea was quite stunned by all of this.
She stood at the mouth of the cave in wonder.
The great stallion's eyes were pink, and when he looked at her,
she felt they knew her so well. She stroked his nose tenderly
and ran her hand along his great spiraled horn.
It sparkled and crackled with electricity,
and gave her a ticklish feeling all over.
She turned back to look into the cave.
She could see Gongi's skull glowing softly.
She remembered her childhood days, and how peaceful
and happy their little village was then.
Watching Gongi sleep so peacefully made Jzurlea remember how
they'd slept together for so many years beneath the great grizzley bearskin.
She remembered the wonderful stories her grandmother had told her
on those long and frightfully cold nights of Winter...so long long ago.
For a moment she felt like it was all real again and they were there
together in the lodge under the covers.
Lali peeped her head out from underneath the fur.
Her nose was very cold, and it was running a little.
Sittingjing-gongala unbraided her hair and
took her buckskin dress off to bathe.  Gongi's hair was long and flowing.
It was dark, but silver hairs ran through it's length,
even as they did in her own now.
She loved touching her Grandma's skin. It was so smooth and soft.
Gongi sat down on the bed beside Lali, and pulled off her mocassins.
The fire in the center of the lodge was almost out, but in the dim light
Lali could see the great wide crack in the old woman's ass when she sat down.
It always made her giggle to think of it.
The old woman's breasts hung pendulously down, always moving.
Now she turned and kissed her grandchild on the forehead tenderly.
Gongi sighed contentedly and stood up again.
Quickly she pulled her cotton night dress over her head and turned back to Lali.
"Can I come in" she pleaded; but Lali refused and bubbling over with laughter.
"Please..." the grandmother pleaded happily playing the game
"Well, alright, but only if you promice to tell me a story Grandma."
"Let me in first" retorted the old woman.
"Let me in and I'll tell you a very special story."

"Lemurlalo, we must travel on," called Kuivato again,
distracting Jzurlea from her grandmother's arms.
Kuivato was pawing the ground again and snorting impatiently.
Regaining composure, Jzurlea spoke aloud.
Her voice echoed through the chamber of the cave.
She spoke as if in a trance.
Peering into Kuivato's clear eyes, in wonderment,
she tried to penetrate the mystery of her Self.
"Who are you?" she asked of him.
He was very impatient and rose up on his back legs,
holding his wings down as they wanted to unfold and fly away.
She was afraid and stepped back. He came down close to her anyway.
"We are old friends Lemurlalo" he said neighing assuringly.
She looked at him bewildered, unable to pull away.
"You must come with me now Lemurlalo, back in Time...
to discover, the Truth about yourself you've been longing to know.
Now you will find out who you are and have been,
and what you've done to deserve your life's path.
You tried to tear open the door of your mind and know all the facts,
hoping to understand your karma. Now you will have it.
I shall take you there and bring you back safely my Queen.
But we must go now, or we'll miss the juncture of
space currents that will facilitate our journey. "
His wings were trying to open, and he could hardly hold them down.
"Come on now Queen Muri, climb upon my back!
It will only be the twinkling of an eye, and
we'll be there and home again."

She hesitated, cocking her head curiously to one side.
"Old friends...?" she thought.
She was compulsively climbing upon his back now.
She watched herself doing this. The great pegasus
stood motionless as Jzurlea climbed up onto the ledge
near the mouth of the cave, and onto his strong broad back.
The rain had become a fine mist and the moon cast
a silver halo, with a rainbow about his head.
She held onto his mane.
The old moon smiled upon them again, as in days of old.
It was a marvelous sight to behold. She was not a young woman anymore.
Silver strands highlighted the rich brown-black of her shiny hair.
They flowed around her face and down her back softly.
Tears glistened on her cheeks and a wild feeling of freedom and
adventure reawakened her... She turned back now.
She could still see her grandmother's bones glowing
lightly through the darkness of the cave.
Calling out to them, she bravely said,
"The time has come Grandmother for me to take this journey of self discovery.
But I'll be back. I promice...I'm afraid, so be with me. Guide my journey."
After saying this, Kuivato's brilliant wings openned in the moonlight.
She was so astonished to see them, she gave a loud cry, like a newborn baby,
lightly pressing her knees into the stallions sides, and in that instant they were off!

Kuivato's immense irridescent wings caught the breeze and lifted
the Time travelers high into the boundless air effortlessly.
She held tightly to his mane, her legs pressed close to his sides.
She heard his thundering hooves beat against the dark highway of the sky.
They were traveling very fast, and the faster they went,
the louder the sound of his hooves became.
The steady rhythm, beat and crushed the air as it came down in echoing booms.
It was painful to her ears; painful to return to an age of innocense.
The deepest memories etched in her mind from lives and times past,
that transpired in the course of the evolutionary transmigration of her soul
...began to come into focus once more.
There were so many squandered lifetimes rewinding before her.
She wept to witness the unfortunate choices she'd made along the path...
the pain she'd caused others, but the fierce wind whipped them from her cheeks.

Now they were at full gallop.
She could no longer see the moon or the earth or even the stars.
They seemed to be traveling in total darkness for a while.
The wind was so great she could hardly breathe,
and she begged for him to stop.
But he wouldn't and only speeded up.
She could hardly hold on now, fainting as she gasped for breath.
Tears streamed down her face like blood from a wound.
Then she thought she heard a loud crack of thunder about to hit them.
Half conscious, she fell forward onto his neck, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Oh Please...please," she whimpered in his ear,
"bring us down now."

Instantly there was light, and Kuivato came swooping down
as he dived into the center of a large plaza.
The noble beast stood still allowing the momentum to settle
and for Queen Muri to catch her breath.
It was the same plaza she remembered from her dreams.
It was huge and consisted of a series of temples, of which
the domed temple stood out most prominently. There were
causeways leading to the University campus and her magnificent palace.
There were vendors selling delicacies and musicians playing for dancers.

Kuivato escorted his queen to the great steps of the main Temple.
She heard the trumpeteers heralding their arrival.
They stood playing their long instruments brightly on the balconies of the Palace.
She was shivering in delight throughout her body.
She wore a beautiful long gown and robe made from a silvery
gossamer fabric. Into it were woven golden threads in exquisite designs.
Threads of vermillion, azure and lavender highlighted the design.
Upon her head rested a beautiful golden crown inlaid with
many precious jewels. Hanging from it in long necklaces,
beads of precious stones mingled in with her golden locks.
Her skin was smooth now, and the colour of milky marble.
She was irridescent, even as her flying unicorn Kuivato.
She knew she was this Queen Muri, Lemurlalo,
and as they climbed the great steps of the Temple,
the stallion was throwing his head back and snorting gleefully,
prancing and lifting his hooves high with each step.
His great horn shone splendidly in the noon day sun.
Great mythological beasts stood as sentries at the great
wooden doors of the Temple. The beasts had a humanness
about them, but had fur, others scales, fangs, feathers and claws.
She could hear the drums rolling from atop the temple walls.
Slowly the great doors openned.

The sound of joyous singing greeted them.
Hanging down from the center inside the Temple, a giant crystal
brilliantly displayed it's many facets.
She was remembering now its' purpose.
Many strange creatures, like beasts, lined one wall.
Contained in compartments, each one existed in a sleepless stupor.
They were giants all of them, and they listened to her every command.

A huge alter dominated the west wall of the Temple.
Upon it were viles of coloured liquids.
Cups stood waiting to be filled.
In the center of the alter, an arc of blue light darted between two poles.
Kuivato stopped before the alter and bent his knees gracefully
allowing Queen Muri to slide off onto the marbled floor with ease.
She stroked his mane. At once a small and painfully twisted figure
appeared from one side of the alter and led the stallion away.

She could hear the heavy breathing of the great beasts coming through
the perifery of her awareness. She rested her hands upon the alter.
They were different from the hands that planted corn, and in their
season, husked and ground it into a fine flour and meal.
Jzurlea's hands were gnarled and calloused with work
and burned by the sun and Time.
But these hands before her,
were smooth and silky as polished marble itself.