^ The Sky Is Broken ^ Part 2

Where am I ?

What is this place ?

What has happened to me ?

What is this place ?

Where am I ?

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>

These were my thoughts as I awoke. Many others were swirling in my head like a hurricane at its deadliest, but these were the ones that kept coming to the front of my mind.

I was inside some sort of structure. A very small one. The top was only a tail or two away and the sides were only a little farther. At least there were no sharp sides. The thing I was lying on was very hard; not at all like the clouds I was used to sleeping on. And this whole place, where I was, was so dark; hardly any color, hardly anything cheerful. I started to cry. I missed my sunny, airy world. Even the creature who watched over me was dark and sad. She looked as if she hadn't smiled in a long time. Then she spoke. The words were so alien yet I somehow understood them. I cried out to the Creator, "Whyyyyyy?!?!" I cried my self to sleep again and the Creator spoke to me. He told me I was needed here to help these creatures. He told me not to worry; I would find a way home. I felt much better after this. And when I woke I was ready to talk to the creature that had been watching me.

When I opened my eyes she was in the same place, but this time there was a male with her. Since I was not sure of their language yet I would not wind with them. Connecting would be much easier and much faster. I only wondered if their minds had developed enough to connect. Well, I would find out.

<Hello. Can you hear me?> The two creatures looked at each other for a moment, a startled and puzzled look on their faces. I could hear them asking themselves if they had heard me, but it seemed as if they couldn't hear each other.

<Can you not hear each other? Can you only wind to one another?>

<What does she mean by wind?> I heard the female ask herself.

<She could mean speak> the male thought.

<Yes. That is what I mean. Can you only speak to one another? Are you not able to Connect?>

After being surprised, for a moment, that I could hear them, the male said, <No. We can not hear one another's thoughts. How can you hear ours?>

<Your thoughts are loud. I do not know how you do not hear each other's. You are almost shouting. Please try to think quieter.>

<Sorry.> came two quieter thoughts.

<That is all right. You are still young. You will learn; I will teach you if you wish.>

<Yes. That would be wonderful.> said the male.

<By the way> said the female, <My name is Qinna and he is Tochaa. What is your name?> So as not to talk over each other one would lean forward when talking and they would gesture so as to try and include the other person in the conversation.

<Oh! Forgive my manners. I am Cumula, daughter of Strat and Cirra. May your wings never falter and you never fear to fall... but... I fell> My face contorted with the horrific memory. <I fell so far. I fell out of my home. How will I ever get back home?> I looked at the two before me. <Do you know the way home? Do you know why my body changed? Do you know what happened to me?>

"Whoa. Slow down a minute," the male Tochaa said. "First, I think it would be better if we all spoke out loud. And second, I'm sorry, but we don't know anything about you. We have never seen your kind before. If you tell us everything we might be able to figure something out."

"Mmmmaaaa nnaaaasseeeehh ffee... Oh. <I'm sorry. I forgot that you speak differently. I shall try again.>

"Yes. Try to say hello," said Qinna.

"Hello? What does hello mean," I asked.

"It is our greeting," she explained. "Now, can you tell us what happened?"

"I was flying to meet my sister at Cloud Nine (that's a place where we rest and eat) when all of a sudden I felt this wave of something. It felt so entirely strange that I was in shock for a moment. Also the force of the wave knocked the breath out of me. So my wings stopped. And I fell. When I realized I was falling I panicked. My tail started to go numb and I couldn't feel my wings at all. Then the streamers on my arms went numb and the ones down my back, then my arms. I was so scared I couldn't breath right, then my head went numb and I fell unconscious. I could not see anything before I went unconscious; it was like a void. The change in temperature brought me back to consciousness a minute or two before my body hit the ground. When I looked at my surroundings all I could see was darkness and sadness. This land is so sad; I don't know how you live here. Anyway, I saw these structures and came here. The rest you know."

< < < < < < < < ^ * ^ > > > > > > > > Qinna's POV

Amazing. This girl was simply amazing. While she was talking about her fall her eyes clouded over so we could look at her more directly. Her skin also seemed more dull. The cloud splotches and the rest of her skin almost blended together in a slight grayish tint.

"How old are you," I asked her.

"I don't know how to say it in your language. I am many millions of passings of the sun. We measure time in twos. The rising and setting of the sun is a day. Every 200 days is a sen. Every 200 sen is a span. Every 200 span is a cirren. I am 4 cirren old. Do you have day as a measurement?"

"Yes, but we do not measure it by our sun because it does not move," said Tochaa.

"Do you mean you must always see that... that thing in the sky? You have no reprieve from that saddening eye sore in that wrong sky? No wonder you are such odd colors and your eyes are so pale. But we will not talk of that right now. I told you I am 4 cirren old; that is 32 million days. Actually my birthday was yesterday so 32 million and one."

"Actually, this is the third day after your fall so 32 million and 4," I told her. She was quiet for a moment, drawn into herself.

"I hope the Creator has told my parents where I am," she finally said. "I hope they do not worry about me. This has never happened in all the history of my people that I can remember. It could have happened before and maybe that's where our greeting came from, but it must have been many suns ago. (A sun is 200 cirren.) When I return I shall have to ask the Elders." She sounded so confident that she would go home. I hoped she wouldn't be disappointed.

We talked for a few minutes longer until I suggested we eat lunch.

"I am very hungry," said Cumula. "What do you eat here?"

"We eat many things. I think it will be easier if we know what you eat," I answered.

"We do not have a wide variety of sustenances. We eat dew drops and sweet cumulus and when the nimbus comes we have lightning. Sprinkle it with some rain and it's nice and tangy. We drink sunbeams and moon beams and if we ever go low enough there are the stratus pools. We swim in them too. On special occasions we get to eat shooting stars. Ohhh, those are soooo good. It's like a little puff of sweet, toasted on the outside and creamy on the inside. Soooo good."

"I'm afraid we don't have much to offer you then. We don't have sunbeams or moonbeams, but we do have water. We don't have dew drops or cumulus or lightning, but we do have bread and fruit and meat. You can try some things and if you don't like them then we'll find something you do like. Don't worry we'll find something you like."

I went into the kitchen and put together a plate with a little bit of everything. I then brought it to her and she tasted everything, making sounds of pleasure and wonder at tasting new flavors and textures. She ate everything I gave her and asked for more of the same saying that she liked everything that had been on the plate. I told her we would wait a little while to see if everything agreed with her because we did not know how much like us she was. I was very surprised that she was sitting up and eating so soon after such a deeply traumatizing experience. It gave me hope that she would soon be walking around. Maybe she would even be able to show us where she fell. We might just be able to figure this problem out.