The Shipping Forecast

Rockall - Part 1

Recollection. Remembering.

Oh little one, memory is a strange and fragile thing! It tricks you, sometimes, into believing something happened that did not. Or, more sadly, it makes you forget that which once was. This story is true, for I was there to witness it. At least, I think I was. I was very young, and saw, or at least was told at the time, the things that happened on that ranging, long ago. But whether it was really me who actually saw these things, or another who told me, I cannot be certain now. That is my burden to bear. Yours is just to be patient while I tell you my story, and perhaps, if you think it important, to remember and so pass on the tale to the young in your old life.

Anyway, it is a good tale, and only by telling you and others like you, will the tale be remembered in the future, for it is an important tale; one that should not be wholly forgotten, as you will hear. Many others have heard it before, of course. But in the retelling it is often changed, so that when you hear it back after many years, it holds a different meaning. In my lifetime that has meant peace and times of prosperity, and sometimes conflict and war. In the holding, I ask that you treat it with respect, and not alter it to suit selfish means. Not that I really have much choice in that. You will do as you will. Such is life.

I was young then, not much older than you in fact; older perhaps by a season or two. In many ways, I was fortunate to have been at just the right age. Just old enough to travel far. Too young to understand the danger that went with such an undertaking. Important enough that I was protected from danger.

Let us swim while I talk, as is custom. Keep close beside me! We won't go far, and will be back before dark. Tell me if I go too fast, or too slow. Good? Well, then, I will begin.

*

It began with a calling, and a self called Qi'tik.

The great pod-shoal of Nam'bia had been summoned, and so urgent was the call that not long after the pod-shoal masters reported to Qi'tik that all was ready, it got under way. It was the first gathering Qi'tik had ever taken ranging, and she felt the responsibility gnaw at her insides, sensibly tempering her excitement and pride at having been given such a command. Among her kind, Qi'tik was master of many skills necessary in such an undertaking, though unproven and, some thought, scornful of elders who she believed too rigid in their ways. This had sometimes proved troublesome, but despite her youth, Qi'tik had proved she could make the right choices, and she had an uncanny ability to see her way through problems. By the time of the ranging, Qi'tik had, by luck or cunning, involved herself in many crises that met the pod throughout her training and early seasons as a pod-martial, and so had unusually broad experience by the time she was a senior self in the martial ranks. So while she felt pride in being given the task of leading the pod-shoal, she also knew what she was taking on, and felt concern for those under her command and care.

At the start of the ranging, Qi'tik led the way; out near the front of the massed pod-shoals. Some way behind her, back amongst the main shoalings and pod gatherings, the queen-in-waiting swam with her aides and attendants deep inside the protective enclave of the family, also on her first journey away from the brine of home; down-current, into strange and dangerous places little travelled by the pod-tribe.

The journey was a necessary one, and yet it held enormous risk. When the message had been deciphered and its meaning understood (or at least agreed upon, there were some who still argued it could be interpreted differently), there was no choice but to make a ranging north, beyond where even the most brave or foolhardy ventured. No-one in the pod-tribe had a memory of such a journey; no story passed down through the generations told of crossing the great heat into the northern brine.

Indeed, only one of the older Grey Bastions travelling with the ranging claimed to have made the journey in their youth, but its memory was vague and the story it told made little sense to those who heard it. Perhaps, in hindsight, that was important. But in the rush to leave, important things are often overlooked.