Impossible Dreamers

Chapter 16 (twil-que): Selentaya

The people who arrived in that first flying machine, the first outsiders that any living Seren-ilian had seen, brought surprises.

It was difficult to know how many of them there were, as they didn't all leave the machine together, and it was hard for the people of Seren-ila to tell them apart. Some people thought the number was as small as degtwi, others counted as many as quetwi. The strangers did not answer questions on such matters, and it was clear that their way of counting was quite different from the Seren Way.

The visitors said that they came from a great land on the other side of the mountain called Bartyronis, and the most important part of this was what they called a 'city', where many people lived close together, called Tyropolis. Although the Seren-ilians told them the proper name of their own land, the strangers always called it 'the Grabble-lands', and they called Greblara and its sisters 'the Grabble Mountains'.

Discovering that the language the visitors spoke had much in common with the Seren-ilian language was a surprise, and at first it seemed a good surprise. There was, in Seren-ila, still a small band of people who had always thought there might be other human beings over the mountains, but even they never imagined they would speak a language similar to the Seren-ilians. At first it seemed a good things. But Seren-ilians would learn that understanding the words of other people was not, by any means, the same as understanding the people themselves.

The Bartyronians were welcomed by the Seren-ilians with all the friendship and hospitality imaginable. The visitors were offered food and lodging, and in the first days, they were happy to accept all that was offered, and seemed to enjoy the taste of Seren food. But they wouldn't stay in the Hall of the Wise, although it was a pleasant and beautiful living space. They preferred to stay in their flying machine. This seemed strange. Why did they choose to live somewhere that must be cramped and uncomfortable? But the ways of outsiders were not their ways, they understood. It was always the Seren way to respect the wishes of others, even if it was hard to understand them, so long as respecting their wishes did no harm to anybody else.

The visitors asked many questions about Seren-ila, but they spoke little about their own land, except to say that it was far in advance of Seren-ila, whatever that meant. They were asked if they were members of their Counsel of the Wise, but they ignored the question. They would not be drawn on how their Counsel of the Wise was composed, or any other questions about how things worked in Bartyronis.

They were shown the original copy of The Great Story, the one from which all others were copied, and asked what they could add to it. They said that they would look at the document. They took it into their flying machine, assuring Elara, the Wise One who showed it to them that they would return it soon. This seemed strange to Elara, but she did not wish to offend the strangers, so she allowed them to take the only copy. Some of the other Wise Ones questioned this decision, but Elara felt that it went with the Seren Way.

The visitors were inquisitive. But about things that seemed unimportant. They wanted to know everything about the physical layout of Seren-ila, and in this the Wise Ones were happy to help. The visitors were supplied with maps, and they travelled to all parts of the valley. They made notes, using small machines that they carried in their pockets. They wanted to know where and how food was grown. They were surprised to discover that the Seren-ilians kept no animals, and especially that they did not kill animals for food. They asked much about the sort of rocks that the Seren-ilians had found in holes in the ground, and particularly wanted to know about a yellow rock, with which the people of Seren-ila were not familiar.

They were pleased to discover the Seren Middle Meadow, a large, open space, which Seren-ilians valued for its peaceful views, and the many wild flowers that grew there. They measured the space very precisely with the small machines they carried. A group of them could be seen walking around that space, and they seemed to gain enjoyment from it. As they walked, they looked up at the sky, often pointing in the direction from which their flying machine had come. The Seren-ilians thought that this might be a sign that they were becoming homesick, which would not be surprising.