Kthaahthikha

II - 1300

'There is a city,' he said, ' that lies far away beyond the Black Sea, away amidst the mountainss in the dark of the forests. It is shadow-bound, and those who claim to have seen it say that it is a place where the sun never shines. The men are as beautiful as houris and the men as handsome as the full moon, and all as pale as snow.

'As I said, I myself have nver visited this place, yet it is said to be the most glorous of cities in all the world. Styles congregate there from as far apart as Japan and fabled Mu, and fountains spout-forth waters of a thousand shining hues. I said that I know the proof of its existance, and i shall tell you of it. For many years ago I sojourned in the wastes of the Arctic, a foolish man drawn far afield upon a whaling vessel. I have not always been a trader, and nor have I ever been sensible.

'I took myself to Russia, and though the people their treated me as something of a curiosity, I was young and strong then and showed my prospective employers to be wirthy of a berth. I had shipped before on several vessels of varying styles and cuts, and soon adapted myself to the management of a flat-bellied whaler.

'My most noted aspect was my harpooneering. I am frail now, but then I might drive an iron through a mast, and I offered to do so upon first stepping aboard ship. My offer was refused in exchange for some less destructive and (so they no doubt thought) less fanciful display of abilities, and I flung the harpoon to pin a gnat to a bollard forty feet away.

'They took me on, as I have said, and in little time we were away upon the heaving seas. I cannot express the joys I felt in being a sailor in those days. This was before I turned away from the sea to experience something more than ports and the women therein. Back then I was enchanted with the vastness of the waters, old Ocean who runs endless about the Earth. My father had told many yarns of his voyages to the Indies, and being weened on such things there was little surprise in my desire to emulate him.

'The ship made north, for the ambition was to examine the Arctic circle, and see if it might be possible to lower on Right Whales in the months when there was light. We took in a number of beasts, it is true, but one there was less eager to submit than the others. Off the coast of greenland we found it, a vast old brute scarred about with the striking of many irons. We were in sight of land when we came upon him - a rare enoughg occurence - and in the distance I could pick-out the esquimaux upon the shore, moving about in their furs beneath the towering, snow-laden peaks. They were reading their skin coracles even as we came up over the horizon, and no-doubt cursed us heartily when they saw the sails.

'The whales were basking in the deeps off of a visible shelf, a most striking drop from a fathom or so to untold cables in depth. One might sea the shift from green to blue, and the ship held to a distance as we lowered the boats and pulled with all our might.

'The whales had now knowledge of our approach until we were nigh amongst them. It was extraordinary luck to come upon such a shoal, and we set at once for a vast green figure that ran its course to north. Tchekov, the third mate, was sitting in the stern, letting loose his cries as we rowed upon the beast. As it neared, I was called up to for, and taking a harpoon in hand that was firmly affixed to the line, I levelled my aim as Tchekov pushed his way up aside me. We looked down into the eye of the beast and I flung with all my might, but as i did the creature rolled and the harpoon snagged in a fluke. It was then that the whale, pained and alarmed, dove before I might send another into it.

'The common course of action in a time such as this would be to cut the cable, and so it was that - eager to avoid wreck - both Tchekov and I went for our jack knives. Over-eager, unfortunately, for in stumbling old Techekov fell over the side, and both the jack-knives followed him down into the deeps. Trapped as we were, all that could be donewas to fling him an oar, for the whale was towing us northwards at a steady clip, and there was not a blade aboard to cut that strong hemp line.'

The Moor chuckled, stretched, and prodded the waning embers in the hearth. 'It is growing low,' he said. 'If you wish to sleep, tell me, and I shall fiunish it in the morning.'

'I would rather hear it now,' I said. There was nothing so improbable in this tale, I reflected, aside from the usual mariner's imbellishments, and I was genuinely curious to see it run its course.

'The ship, unfortunately, could not follow at an equal pace, and we were being towed-along by that whale as easily as you might lead a well-trained horse. Our only recourse was to chew and tear at the line, even as the ship and boats fell over the horizon and the chillness of the weather bgan to make itself better known. We had our monkey-jackets, but they were no great use, and it became a practice to row contrary to the whale in an effort to warm ourselves and tire the thing. It did little good, for so strong was this whale that several of the oars were snatched away by the sea, and we were forced to halt for fear of losing them all to the avaricious waters.

'I have long been an admirer of the sea, but I must confess that I have never found her an amiable mistress. There is much wonder to be found in her, but it is quite difficult to truly love her - unless it is as a child loves a cold father, or a dog a hrash master.

'In any event, the cable gave, and the boat slowed to a gradual halt. The whale, whatever God had in mind for him I do not know, slipped away into the waters in a thickened emerald shadow, and we were left adrift on that glass-ceiling universe.

'There was little that could be done save to row back to south, but by this time it was night and overcast - for we had been at sea a time and the seasons were beginning once more to turn. The boat having spun with its halt, there was no means of telling the way. Coupled with this, all were chill and weary, and so we clustered together for warmth and awaited the dawn.

'It was in the small hours that I awoke to the clearing of the sky. The moon hung above and the stars were glittering brilliant like jewels of blue fire. I contemplated rousing the others, but dismissed this. Clustered as one mass, it was no unbearable - the cold - although it was the deepest chill in which I ever slept. It is fortunate that the majority of men were of a Russian peasant stock, and used to cold nights short of fuel.

'I could not sleep myself, for the numbness in my ears and nose. I looked out over the water, the waves catching the moonlight as they broke upon a distant shore. Against the purple silk of night there rose a jagged wall of black, and at its heart there shimmered a point of light. This intrigued me - to see such a beacon in the northern wastes. I wondered if perhaps it were a sealers' colony, or a clutch of Danes attempting to fuel an existance on little more than salmon and cod. The current seemed to have slowed now, and there was little movement, although it seemed that that range grew gradually larger as the time passed. I determined now to rouse someone, and shook the shoulder of Kozlov.

It seems to be going well so far. Hooray for imaginations and written-language.