“You survived; I survived. We’re together again. I once begged the gods to let me see you — if only for a moment. To see you and know you’d made it. Just once; that was all I ever hoped for.” ― Sarah J. Maas
Patience and practice are capable tools of teaching, but urgency and necessity are superior motivators. In accordance to this principle Nathan overcame his inability to communicate with Mana. Although he would be incapable of explaining it, he understood that he and Mana conveyed naturally through their thoughts. Communication on this level requires a clear mind and the ability to truly listen. At first Nathan struggled to comprehend Mana because he thought that listening required hearing. He then learned to control his impulse to complain. The boy thought that Mana was uncaring when he would protest. Eventually he understood that she lacked the ability to understand his distress. Eliminating the anger, the worry, the impatience enabled Nathan to understand Mana.
Nathan gazed at the elevated island surrounded by the cool mountain-top lake. He looked down beyond the bank where trees hung over the lake darkening the water’s edge. He looked further along the shore to where the great short-faced bears gobbled up the alewives. He felt secure that the animals were either unaware of his presence and unconcerned. They had an ample supply of food that was far easier to catch. He returned his gaze to the island. The sunlight reflecting off the water beyond the shade of the trees sent a beautiful ripple of bright sparkles illuminating across the lake as if the sunlight was gracefully dancing across the water.
“Mana, how did Whitney get to that island?” Mana was visibly encouraged by Nathan’s ability to rid his thoughts of problems. She nodded her head approvingly.
“There are as many friends here as there are dangers.” Nathan looked at Mana as he considered her response.
Silently he conveyed, “So, she got help? Can’t that ‘friend’ bring her to us?”
“These creatures don’t understand how to reason like you. They are guided by instinct. All creatures like those great bears are guided by the instinct to feed. Those same creatures have an instinct to protect. Many creatures coexist according to that understanding. In that way we become ‘friends’”
“You mean they don’t really have feelings?”
“I don’t know,” Mana paused considering Nathan’s question, “I don’t know what feelings are.”
Nathan searched his mind in an attempt to explain himself, “My pet, my dog Sadie, she knows when I am sad or lonely. She lays next to me to make me feel better during those times.”
“Do you feed your creature?”
“Yes.”
“She likely senses that the person who feeds her needs help. Otherwise she won’t eat.”
“Sadie loves me,” Nathan disapproved.
“I do not understand love.”
“She cares about me more than just wanting to be fed.”
“You comfort her when you feed her, she comforts you in the same way. These feelings that you think she has are different than what you think.”
“That’s not true. Sadie loves me,” agitated, the boy glared over his narrowing eyebrows.
“Her relationship with you is different than you understand. That does not mean it is any less. Her understanding of you is likely greater than anything you can explain. This creature though does not have feelings like you believe. You have to stop behaving in that silly way when you don’t understand something or you will be extremely frustrated. There is far, far more that we don’t understand than what we ever will comprehend.”
Nathan was not ready to surrender his point. He paused, searching for another tactic before he spoke again, “But your smile? That smile shows that you are kind or happy.”
“I don’t understand ‘smile.’”
“The way your mouth is–,” Nathan hesitated to consider, “is shaped.” He paused, “Look at me.” Nathan raised his lips in an exaggerated smile. He then lowered them making his lower lip protrude over his upper lip to indicate a sad expression. “You see what I mean?”
“Yes, I see that you can move your lips. So, lips are feelings?” Nathan understood that this conversation was not going to produce a response that would help his situation just as he understood that Mana was presenting him with another challenge that he was unable to comprehend.
“Okay, how do we get to the island?”
Mana smiled, “I don’t know.”
“Have you ever been to the island before?”
“No.”
“Mana, you have been here for a long, long time. Longer than some of the stars, right?” Nathan grandly gestured to the sky, “You have not been to that island in all this time?”
“I have been to this lake, but not to that island.”
“Why?”
“My instinct tells me that the lake is comfortable to swim in the shallows, to find food, but out there where the island is the water is very deep. The island also belongs to others.”
“Are there creatures that we need to be afraid of in that water?” Mana smiled again and Nathan understood the answer to his inquiry. “Swimming is out of the question, I guess,” Nathan was sure he could not swim the distance to the island at any rate.
The boy walked to a rock along the shore of the lake. He sat down and studied his surroundings. He recognized many of the plants and trees that he saw while others were foreign to him. Along the shore were a variety of dried-up limbs from trees brought to the shore by storms. Nathan also saw green vines growing out of the ground that wrapped around some of the trees in their desperate attempt to gain sunlight. The roots of the vines were strong causing the trees to lean from the taut connection the vines maintained with the ground. After surveying his resources Nathan announced, “We will build a raft.”
“Ok,” Mana responded.
“You will need to gather about twenty of the long pieces of trees that lay along the shore. I will try to gather as many of the vines as I can so that we can tie the logs together.” Mana looked at Nathan for further instructions. “Do you understand?” Mana appeared impressed, “This raft will allow us to ride on it to the island like the craft that we rode on earlier,” Nathan added.
“This raft will carry you across the lake?”
“Yes. We must wrap and tie the vines real tight so that the logs don’t come apart.” Mana walked away to begin her task of gathering the wood while Nathan went over to the ground where he spotted the first vine growing from. Mana gathered the logs in short time as Nathan struggled with the vines. The vines were as thick as his wrist in the ground. He tried yanking them out, but he could only manage to loosen the soil around the sturdy roots. Frustrated by that obstacle he spotted a large rock next to one of the climbers. He shimmied atop the rock and snapped the vine from its root where the vine was thinner. He yanked on the vine that caused the tree to shake. Fresh leaves floated in the air from the violent motion. Eventually he snapped the vine from its connection to the ground. The effort produced about ten feet of vine. “At this rate, I’ll have enough vines by the time I’m my dad’s age,” Nathan commented to no one in particular. Mana came over and regarded the boy. His hands were grimy as was his face.
“You could use some help.”
“Yes,” Nathan thought. Mana immediately went to work easily pulling the vines from the ground while tearing them from their ascent up the neighboring trees. In no time she had collected several hundred feet of the vines in varying thickness. Nathan had gone to work of laying out the logs that Mana had collected. He was struggling with one particular log when something caught his attention. Standing about ten feet from Nathan was one of the giant short-faced bears that had fed on the alewives at the mouth of the stream. The bear growled at Nathan. The silver hair on its neck raised. A sudden disturbance from the brush was heard as Mana appeared positioning herself between Nathan and the bear. Mana raised her arms in a threatening display heaving her chest forward as she let out a loud terrifying howl that echoed across the lake. On impulse Nathan ran and dove into the lake. He rested upon a thick floating log several feet from shore. The ancient species of balsa easily held Nathan afloat. The short-faced bear lowered its body and disappeared quickly into the surrounding forest.
“I’m lucky that you spotted that bear,” Nathan thought emerging soaked from the cool lake.
“We’re lucky that his belly was full of fish. And look, you’re all cleaned up.” Nathan laughed heartily recognizing that Mana could make light of such a disturbing situation. He had grown entirely dependent on her companionship. He knew that without Mana he would not have any chance to survive. Mana too sensed this new level of communication that the child expressed. She understood that Nathan was at peace with her. She stared at admiringly as she went to gather the vines that she had collected. She carried a large bundle of vines coiled around her shoulder. “I believe that these will be suitable.”
“Yes, they will do just fine,” he paused in thought, “I couldn’t do any of this without you.” If Mana understood him she did not show it. She was particularly interested in this project. She had learned through reasoning to make canoes using the sharp rocks along the ocean shore as a carving tool. She had discovered an ingenuity that made her tasks easier. This raft that Nathan had described required a different process of reasoning, one that Mana had never considered. Nathan showed her how the sturdy vines had to interlope each log binding the collection of logs together. He was no prodigy, he just reasoned that if his legos could be united to form a pirate’s ship logs could be bound together in some similar way. He reasoned that the vines should be arranged in four areas along the logs in order to ensure that they would not separate in the water.
Mana and the boy set out on their next task. Mana had the strength to easily wrap the vines around the logs. She indicated to Nathan that they needed to begin at the center of the logs and work to the ends in order to get the vines taut at each area. Nathan agreed grasping the logic. Mana of course was able to work more efficiently than the child given her size and strength. The wind from the lake had picked up providing a refreshing relief from the towering sun.
“Mana, when will it get dark?”
“The sun never goes away here.”
“How does that work? I think the sun turns around, or the Earth turns around the sun?” Nathan reasoned uncertainly.
“Here, the sun always is,” was Mana’s explanation. Nathan shook his head in confusion as they went about completing their task.
Nathan was impressed when he regarded the raft that he and Mana had constructed.
“You’ve done a good job Mana. I am proud of you.”
Mana looked at the child curiously, “What is proud?”
“Proud is,” Nathan paused to consider the meaning, “The way you felt when I made it up the mountain and stopped complaining.”
“I knew you could do it.”
“I didn’t think I would make it.”
“You had to.”
“Aw Mana. I’m just thankful,” Nathan could see that Mana was still confused. He walked close to her and wrapped his arms around her waist placing his head on her soft stomach. Mana felt the warmth of the child’s embrace. It was a foreign sensation, one that she had never experienced. An instinct long forgotten was released from an ancient vault inside her. She cooed quietly as she gently patted the boy’s head.
“Okay, let’s put the raft in the water. Actually, you need to put the raft in the water,’ Nathan explained knowing that he didn’t have the strength to budge the sizable craft.
“If that is what you want,” Mana reacted.
“Yes, that is what I want,” Nathan eagerly responded. Mana dragged the raft into the lake until she was at a depth to her knees. The raft however was not afloat. The logs were too heavy. Nathan was devastated. He stared off to the island about half a mile away. How would he ever reach Whitney? “The logs don’t float Mana.”
“I can see.”
“What are we going to do now?” Nathan inquired unable to suppress his distress, “Did you know that the raft wasn’t going to float?”
“Yes.”
Nathan was enraged, “Why didn’t you tell me before we went to all this trouble?”
“I did not know of any other way to reach the island.”
“But what are we going to do?” he mumbled, “I don’t know how to build a submarine.” Nathan was seemingly defeated.
“What is a submarine?”
“We just built a submarine.”
“But–”
“Mana forget about it. I don’t know what to do.”
“Think.”
“What, what do you mean?” he screamed in agitation.
“You did not believe that you would make it up the mountain, but here you are.”
“You helped me Mana.”
“I did not carry you up.”
Nathan thought. He considered the improbable task of going back down the mountain for the canoe, “There is no way that we can carry the canoe up the mountain.” He looked at Mana whose only response was her standard regard for the child, a vacant smiling expression. The impression of her painted smile was all that Nathan saw or understood. “I feel like one of those golden alewives in the stomach of a bear.” Mana did not respond. At the memory of the bear Nathan suddenly understood. He ran along the shore to grab the balsa log that floated in the water. He easily guided it to the shore. He surveyed the shore in both directions spotting several similar logs along the bank. “We need two other logs of this type,” Nathan reasoned. We will put them under the raft and tie them to the other wood with the remaining vines. The raft will float then don’t you think?”
“Yes, I believe the raft will float then.”
The two worked together on the revised plan until the balsa logs were secured underneath the raft. Once again Mana’s strength was vital in getting this step of the construction completed. Nathan was encouraged. He paused before he was to repeat his request of Mana to push the canoe back into the lake. His effort and the futility of his initial plan prompted him to further consider the scheme to get to the island.
“Mana, do you think we have the raft completed in order for it to reach the island?”
“I am not sure that you can make it as the raft is.”
“Why?”
“It is much heavier than the canoe and it will be difficult to paddle and guide the heavy raft.”
The wind blowing steadily now as if it were speaking to Nathan. He was stunned finding himself listening to the wind the same way he listened to Mana. Nathan recalled the time he went on his uncle’s sailboat. He was impressed with how the wind hurled the boat along while he sat securely in the cockpit next to his uncle who guided the direction of the sailboat with the rudder. “We need a rudder, it’s a piece of wood, like the paddle you had with the canoe that is placed in the back of the raft to make it go where you want it to.” He instantly began inspecting the beach remembering a wider flat log he had discarded while searching for the balsa.
“That seems like it will work to direct the raft, but how will you make the raft move along?”
Nathan thought, “I know,” he immediately began searching again, “For that we need a sail. Before you ask, a sail is a big piece of canvas that catches the wind. The caught by the sail makes the raft go very fast.”
Mana considered Nathan’s explanation. She was impressed with the ingenuity that the boy described. “Where will we get this sail?”
“That’s the next problem isn’t it? In our world people leave all sorts of trash–material laying around when they don’t need it anymore. You guys have more respect for your world than we do, that’s for sure.” Mana only raised her hands in a demonstration of further disbelief. Nathan realized that he could not explain why people in his world were so careless, either that or he did not wish to provide an explanation that would only serve to disappoint Mana. Once again Nathan surveyed his surroundings. He remembered spotting several trees where the vines grew particularly high. Those trees had huge thick leaves about six feet in length and nearly as wide. The vines had grown so thick in one area that they had recently hauled down one of the ancient palms. The fallen tree was beyond the shore and deeper in the woods. Nathan recalled the giant short-faced bear that Mana had startled. “Mana, I’m going to need your help again.”
“I expected so,” she replied.
Nathan explained his plan to Mana. She considered his idea. “The wind out on the lake will be strong. It might rip through the palm leaf.”
“Yes, of course you’re right. We will need several leaves to overlap each other. We can tie the leaves together with the thin vines that we have not used. If we curve all of the leaves in the same way they will act as one sail.”
Mana was satisfied with the explanation, “What will stop the leav–the sail from flapping out of control?” Again, Nathan recalled his boating trip with his uncle.
“We will need to find a long sturdy thin log to use as a mast,” he looked around at the remaining collection of vines. The thicker vines were strong and would not snap under the pressure of the wind. They could provide a frame for the sail while the leaves would be fastened with the thinner vines. He explained his vision to Mana. “What do you think Mana?”
“I believe that this is your best plan.”
“We will also have to construct a block in the middle of the raft to hold the mast in place.” To this end Mana and Nathan placed two thick logs lying across the top of the center of the raft. They used the log that was going to serve as the mast to determine the spacing of the logs. Next, they used two short pieces of wood to prevent the mast from slipping out of position sideways. They fastened all of this additional construction with the various thickness of excess vines that Mana had gathered. Together they hoisted the mast so that it was secure. Nathan arranged four of the thick palm leaves in a crisscross pattern. Two leaves ran vertically while the other two leaves were placed horizontally. He and Mana secured the leaves with the thin vines as if they were interns stitching together a patient. The only task that remained was launching the raft and sailing to the island where they understood Whitney was.
Mana spoke, “When I found you along the path in the forest you told me that the Lizardman said to stay on the path.”
“Yes. I think he saved my life. Two big mean cats riding on dragon-like horses wanted me. The Lizardman fought them off so I could escape. Did you know the Lizardman?” “What did he look like?”
“He was tall and had dark green patches on his back. His face and belly were white, well the underpart of his face and belly were white. He had a long thick tail. He walked on his feet like you and me. And he had a patch of orange hair on the top of his head. And he had Whitney’s sweater on.” Mana appeared concerned despite her pasted smile. “He had a hard time talking, as if he was not,” Nathan paused. He did not want to appear mean. Mana looked at him searchingly. “Lizardman did not seem to be very smart. The big cats made fun of him.”
“Shadow is the name of the creature who you call Lizardman. I know him well. Why do you speak of him as if he is gone?”
“He was very brave. He knocked one of the big cats over the side of the cliff where the river of fire is. Then in order to save me he jumped over the cliff with the other big mean cat. He told me to run and I did. I never stopped running until you found me,” Nathan was upset recalling the memory.
“Shadow is not like you in his thinking. He is like a small young creature in the way he sees things.”
“Like Justin in my class. He is a boy who everyone thinks is strange. They make fun of him behind his back,” Nathan hesitated. His expression told another truth. He looked ashamedly to the ground. “I have made fun of him too. But he is really nice. He is always smiling.”
“I must go and look for Shadow.”
“After we find Whitney right?”
“No.”
“But Mana, what?” the boy tried to suppress his shock less he realized the horrible reality of Mana’s announcement.
“I never intended on going to the island with you. That is your journey. The island is not for me or any other creature like me.”
“I can’t make it without you Mana,” Nathan protested.
“You won’t if you think that way. You have proven to me that you can do whatever you want to do. You are,” she paused, searching for the word, “you are remarkable.”
“I want to be able to do what you think I can Mana. It is just so hard.”
“Is your Whitney as remarkable as you?”
Nathan thought about his cousin who he often teased. He realized that he admired Whitney. She was very smart and kind. “Yes, she is remarkable.”
“Together you will find your way.”
“How will we find Kyle?”
“The same way you found Whitney. You are determined and you are favored.” Nathan appeared deeply anxious realizing that he had to accept Mana’s announcement.
“He’s dead Mana,” Nathan expressed considering Shadow’s fall.
“Still, I must see for myself. Shadow is part of my family. Get on the raft and I will push you out. The wind is really strong this time of day.”
Nathan hesitated. He reluctantly approached the raft. He suddenly turned to Mana and grabbed her in an embrace. “I won’t ever forget you Mana,” tears fell down his sunburnt cheeks.
Mana cooed, “Until we meet again.” Nathan climbed atop the raft. The rudder rested on a sturdy forked branch rising out of the stern of the raft. He had tied the top of the mast with the stringy vines to the long arm of the piece of wood that served as the rudder. He figured that in this way he could keep the mast tall when the wind propelled him across the water in the deeper parts of the lake. That was, of course, if his vessel worked.
He tried to be brave,“Goodbye Mana, thank you,” he said as he looked at her through his tear-blurred vision. Mana heaved the raft with determined force to the direction of the island. She might have warned Nathan of the great danger ahead of him, but that would not change his situation, besides Mana was sure that he was favored.
Nathan had fortune on his side. The wind was blowing from the shore where he and Mana had built the raft. The raft was headed straight towards the island. Mana had placed three boulders at the stern in order to keep the bow of the raft higher in the water. Nathan maintained a firm grip on the rudder. The palm sail caught the gust from the shore and the raft picked up speed. Nathan smiled proudly and looked back to the shore seeking Mana’s approval, but the beach was vacant. He felt his spirit falling until it plummeted to the beginning of his ordeal when he and Whitney witnessed Kyle being carried away by Zeborg and his horde of bats. Nathan was surprised then when he heard Mana’s thought as vividly as if she were standing next to him, “Don’t look behind, you have everything in front of you.”
Ten minutes had past. Nathan was impressed with how close he was to the island. His grip was so firm on the rudder that his hand throbbed. He suddenly sensed a change. He looked anxiously at the sail catching the steady wind. He looked around the raft. A commotion erupted around him. The sound of splashing in the water was so immense that Nathan thought at first large raindrops were falling from the sky. He soon realized that he was not getting wet and the sky above the lake was cloudless. He spotted a huge school of the golden alewives jumping out of the water on both sides of the raft as if honey was rising out of the lake. Their bodies created small splashes as gravity returned them to the water. Others followed. He knew enough to know that the fish were being chased. Forgetting Mana’s advice, he looked behind him. He observed that the water was parting as if a missile were heading at him. It was then that Nathan saw an enormous dark object surface. A long neck emerged from the water rising fifteen feet above the surface. The head of the sea monster appeared to be that of a dinosaur similar, Nathan thought, to one he had seen in his science book at school. In that picture the dinosaur rose prominently in the water with a large fish in its mouth. The dinosaur in the picture appeared content and confident. The dinosaur behind the raft was far more imposing in person.
Nathan often found himself restless in the back of the room when the teacher was speaking. He was frequently bored when he was expected to read and do math problems in the classroom as well. His sense of learning was experiencing. Sitting in a room where people talked to him did not comply with Nathan’s logic for acquiring knowledge. Early on in school he found that he enjoyed science because the activities often required the students to do experiments. The dinosaur book that Mrs. Lucas had in her room was one of his favorites. The pictures in the book were large and colorful. They introduced him to all sorts of prehistoric creatures that lived on the land, flew in the sky and swam in the water. As with most children the pictures captured his imagination. At any rate Nathan was not excited to see his first real live plesiosaur. Its large pointed teeth resembled some monstrous shark gobbling a seal out of water that he had seen in a commercial advertising for Shark Week. The plesiosaur was curious to see what foreign object was jettisoning across its lake. It effortlessly closed the distance between it and the raft. Its body rose even higher in the water as its head hovered alarmingly close to the stern of the raft. Nathan maintained his grip on the rudder as it was the only thing he could do otherwise he was paralyzed by terror. The creature apparently satisfied its curiosity as it swiftly disappeared from view causing an impressive wake behind the raft. Nathan hoped that the plesiosaur was returning to the lake’s abyss where it had come from. His heart raced faster than the raft could carry him. The shore of the island was nearly a football field length from him. He looked ahead and then behind him. The alewives resumed their mad leaping around him. His fear was heightened when the forty-foot plesiosaur leapt out of the water ahead of him. Surely the creature was attempting to smash the raft and make a meal of the child. At that moment the wind gained significant force propelling the raft with unanticipated speed. The reptilian’s body carried over the raft. Nathan could not help but marvel as the forty-foot creature soared over him. The end of its long tail crushed the mast as the plesiosaur landed behind the raft. The force of its body created a huge wave that sped the raft towards the island. Again, the plesiosaur rose out of the water behind Nathan bearing down on him preparing to strike the raft with its force. The wave from the great dinosaur’s leap, however, proved to be the deciding advantage for the boy as it swept his raft in the shallows where the creature could not follow. The rocks on the floor of the lake ripped the speeding raft apart. Nathan ended up flying into the water. Still in a panic state and dazed from his ordeal he rose to find that he was only knee deep in the water. He hurriedly rushed to the shore of the island. He collapsed on the grassy shore. As he looked beyond his demolished raft the wind ceased and the lake appeared peaceful. He looked at his hand where he still held the rudder firmly in his grasp.
Nathan waited for what seemed a long time staring beyond the lake to the beach where he departed. Mana was nowhere to be seen. His terrifying dash to the island where he barely outraced the plesiosaur had stunned him. The sun’s warmth seemed to reassure him like Mana’s embrace. He turned to regard the island. He dropped the rudder onto the ground and wandered up a worn trail. He arrived at an area where green leaves of the trees wavered playfully in the wind. Beneath one of the trees he saw one of his cousins. Nathan expressed his elation with an unconfined cry of joy, “Whitney!”
Whitney too was shocked. The children ran to each other and embraced. They held each other close absent of the obstinance that takes root as families grow distant. In the spirit of the island they were of the same tree Whitney thought. After a moment wrapped in timeless measure they released their embrace and regarded each other.
“Oh Whitney, you’ll never believe what happened to me. I was on this raft that we built to get to this island when–”
Whitney interrupted her cousin’s explanation, “Nathan, where is Kyle?”
Nathan paused for a long moment. His expression told Whitney what she had feared, “He is not with me.”
“What do you mean he is not with you?”
Nathan sensed Whitney’s admonishment, “Whitney. Whitney, when we came running through the waterfall you ran one way and Kyle ran another way. I was so confused and scared that I dove behind a fallen tree in the middle of you two.”
Whitney was reluctant to ask,“Did the bats get him again?”
“No, the bats were destroyed by the tumbling rocks.” Whitney waited for a further account. Nathan now felt as though he was being questioned for a wrongdoing. “Look Whitney, when I got up you disappeared into the trees and Kyle ran along the stream that came from the waterfall. I had to make a quick decision. It’s easier to follow a stream than it is to be lost in the woods.” There was no reply. “Don’t you get it? I was trying to keep you from getting lost. I feel terrible that I couldn’t get Kyle too”
Whitney finally saw the anguish in her cousin’s face, her countenance changed. She held Nathan’s hand, “Thank you for coming for me Nathan,” she observed his relief as she spoke to him, “but your plan for me not to get lost didn’t work very well.”
Nathan smiled, “At least we are lost together this time.”
Whitney thought about her experience with the spirits before Nathan arrived on the island. Their voices were still lingering in her head as if she had woken from a powerful dream. She remembered the figure of a lady standing in solitude near the shore opposite in direction from where Nathan had arrived. She looked in that direction. The woman was still there. Whitney began to approach the woman before she heard the voice of the family. She shook her head in understanding. She turned to Nathan guiding his vision in the direction of her pointed finger. “Nathan, there is someone you need to see.”