Tale from the Deepwater

Chapter 60

From far above, Maren saw a few dim, scattered lights and deemed them to be a habitat. But there was something else in the distance that caught her attention. She had seen bonfires in the village but this seemed to be something much bigger, and isolated. As she flew nearer, she realized it was burning on the water's surface. She had the smaller body of water before from up in the air and had asked Nia what it was. It was not as vast as the ocean but was running parallel to the planes till as far as the eye could see. Nia had said it was a river, but that she had never seen one herself, only heard of it. Now in this river, there was a rather large structure burning in the water.

She knew she would have to go near enough to see what it was, but even when she did, she could barely identify it. It was wooden, like a house, but it wasn't one. Only then did she remember seeing something like this tied with a pier in the lake in the village. But this one was much bigger and built differently.

She looked at it disintegrate in the water, the flames and the smoke carried downwind to the direction opposite hers. She wanted to get closer to the familiar warmth of the fire, but she knew there were people on the bank, hiding. Or that was what it looked like since they were that close to the trees or under them. They looked almost like prey hiding in the forest, ducking their heads out occasionally. She knew they couldn't see her in the dark as she could see them.

In a while, she heard some sounds coming from their direction, and she could barely make out what they were, but it seemed more and more like they were singing or chanting something. It was becoming clearer that they had set the boat to sail and if that was so, it was strange to her that they would let the structure disintegrate. It was certainly like this in the village back there, where she remembered the havoc that was created when thatches were flying in the storm and everyone was trying to protect whatever they had built even as they panicked. Especially something that looked so precise and seemingly needing a lot of time and effort to build.

Suddenly, three bells rang, when very little of the boat now remained, and everyone started rushing away from there, almost running away. Truly odd, she thought. Nevertheless, now the bank cleared, and when she was sure they were not around, she flew to the still-burning boat, trying to get a closer look. But the nearer she stooped, the hotter it became, and disproportionately so, unlike village bonfire. She realized she should go no further. But then, she saw eddy around the boat and thought she saw it lift. There were no waves. She thought she saw it wrong. It was when she was pondering this, that a flame was caught by the wind, and before she could do something, the spark touched her wing and set it on fire.