R3 early era time period: “I” (Tubell)

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The time has come to launch the floater.

We push the floater down the Blank to the edge of the water. The Blank softens and the water lifts the other end of the floater.

We give the floater a final push.

The floater moves entirely into the water.

The floater rocks gently on the surface. We observe the grand accomplishment with satisfaction. The floater looks big and impressive in the water.

We swim up and climb onto the floater. We get tentacles in the water and start swimming the floater away from the Blank.

We move the floater a short distance, but the cliffs of water keep pushing us back.

Several people jump into the water and push the floater with all their tentacles. It doesn’t seem to help.

After a lot of effort, we are all too tired to try moving the floater anymore. We drift back toward the Blank.

Everybody else is standing on the Blank. They have been watching to see what happens with the floater.

We didn’t get very far.

The floater drifts into the side corner of the Blank area.

We come to a stop on the Blank with a lurch. Some people climb off the floater and move away. Everybody feels exhausted and defeated.

I squat on the floater and look out at the water. I think about the difficulty we had moving the floater and being stopped by the cliffs of water.

An eye is distracted by land-plant leaf pieces blowing in the wind. I think about how we ended up at the far corner of the Blank, instead of the middle.

I have an idea.

I find This One and the Giant Shiny Leaf. I want to tell This One my thought about how the Giant Shiny Leaf could be useful.

However, given our current vocabulary, I instead say, “Blurpy, pfffft, Blurpy.”

After a long and strenuous effort, we get the Giant Shiny Leaf onto the floater. We lift up the Giant Shiny Leaf and position it against the side rail at the front of the floater. We secure the Giant Shiny Leaf in place with a lot of the long, low-growing plant.

The wind pushes against the Giant Shiny Leaf and the floater shifts. Because of the Giant Shiny Leaf, the wind pushes the floater back into the water.

Many people climb onto the floater.

The wind against the Giant Shiny Leaf pushes the floater away from the Blank. The Giant Shiny Leaf seems to be moving the floater very well.

The floater blasts through the cliffs of water. The floater bounces a little as it moves through cliffs of water, but it quickly settles down on the other side.

The Giant Shiny Leaf is working.

We are quickly coming up to where we want to stop. This is where we go to meet with people who still live in the water.

Sometimes people will want to go back with us to the land. Sometimes we just visit those who stay in the water.

There is a small pod waiting for us. A few tentacles wave in the air.

We arrive at the place where we want to stop. The floater zips past, going very fast.

We look back at the people in the water. It doesn’t take much time before we are unable to see them anymore.

It feels like the floater just keeps moving faster.

Nobody knows what to do.

The person next to me drops a fruit stem into the water. We expect to watch the stem float away behind us. Instead, the instant the stem touches the water, it’s gone!

With two eyes in the direction of the fruit stem, we look two eyes at each other. We now have a better understanding of how fast we are actually moving.

The Giant Shiny Leaf works much better at moving the floater than I would have thought. The Giant Shiny Leaf works better than I wanted.

The light passing fades to darkness.

The floater continues moving across the water, extremely fast.

As we awaken at the next light, everyone notices that the floater is not moving. The wind has stopped. The floater sits still and quiet in the water.

Then we realize that there is no land visible anywhere—in any direction. There’s nothing but water all around us.

We must be over the deep water.

I stare down at the dark water with three eyes. I get a very uncomfortable feeling. Nobody knows whatis out here.

I wonder if being afraid of the water “itches the tentacles” of anyone else. 

I look at the Giant Shiny Leaf. It has shifted a little from where we tied it. It occurs to me that being able to adjust the Giant Shiny Leaf should allow better control of the floater.

I hesitate to do anything with the Giant Shiny Leaf right now, though. If it got loose and fell off the floater—what?

I’m not sure but, I think that would be very bad.

If we lost the Giant Shiny Leaf, would we be stuck out here? Maybe we could swim back, but in which direction?

As the light gets brighter, the wind increases. The floater starts moving.

It doesn’t take long before the floater is moving very fast again.

The misty air begins to clear. We keep eyes looking for the land in all directions.

Several people at the front have apparently seen something interesting. They’re bobbing up and down, waving tentacles, and making high-vibration “Blurpy” sounds.

Everybody turns three eyes to look—and that’s a lot of eyes. 

It’s unclear in the hazy air, but it does look like the land.

The air gets clearer. Something is not right.

All our lives, we have seen the land—from far away while in the water to standing four tentacles on it. That is not the shape of the land.

This One moved on the land for many passings of the light before coming back to tell us about the Giant Shiny Leaf. The land might be bigger than we thought.

We can see a lot of land from standing on the hill by the Blank. Maybe there’s much more land than we realized.

We must be on another side of the land. I’m very curious to see another side of the land.

Standing at the back of the floater, a person newer to the land starts bobbing up and down and making high-vibration “Blurpy” sounds.

Everybody turns to look!

It is just barely visible, but it looks like there’s another land in the opposite direction. When the air clears enough, we see that the other land is the land, our land. 

We can now look in opposite directions and see land both ways.

There are two lands!

The land in this direction looks like the land, our land.

The land in that direction looks like new land! 

Another of the newer people is very agitated. The newer person bobs up and down, points a tentacle in the direction of our land, and makes “Nanbay” sounds.

I am surprised when the newer person jumps off the floater.

I move quickly to the back of the floater and search for the person who jumped in the water. All I see is water.

We are moving very fast. If the person was not injured from jumping into the water, it would still be a very long swim back.

Is there even food along the way? We are already hungry. None of us has eaten since we left the land—our land.

The new land is getting closer. It looks much wider across than our land. The tallest hill goes much higher into the air than any of ours, too.

The wind and the Giant Shiny Leaf keep us moving very fast.

The light passes to darkness and back to light again. The new land is very close.

This new land is much larger than the land that we have always seen. It is strange to see land that is shaped differently. The features and colors are different, too.

Yet, the new land seems familiar.

There are blank areas, cliffs, and hills. 

The most striking thing is the rich green color of the land plants. I have become accustomed to that color, and I like it. It is a pleasant sight.

We are being pushed toward one of the blank areas.

Somebody starts bobbing up and down and making “Blurpy” sounds while pointing a tentacle at the water. Immediately, many eyes are looking in the water.

We see large schools of fish and the kinds of water plants that we usually eat. It doesn’t take long to see that there is a lot of food here. A lot of it!

The floater catches in the middle of a cliff of water. The floater shakes and we are suddenly moving even faster.

Everybody wraps a tentacle around something.

The cliff of water is pushing the floater incredibly fast.

This reminds me of the first time I left the water. That was many light passings ago. I haven’t thought about it for a while.

The Blank is coming at us very fast.

Now I remember clearly. The cliffs of water hurled me onto the land, where I got stuck in the Blank. I thought I was going to die.

The Blank is very close.

Here I go again!

The cliff of water flattens down, and the floater loses speed rapidly. We skim across the shallow area to the edge of the water, still moving quite fast as we approach the Blank.

The floater slides out of the water and stops abruptly on the Blank with a lurching thud.

The sudden stop scatters people everywhere. People fall all over the floater. Some fall off the floater and onto the Blank.

We all sit where we fell and look around with all eyes.

It feels strange to be on land again.

It feels strange to look upon new land.

That plant over there. It looks like—it is! It’s Nanbay!

We have a lot to do now. We need to find places where land plants block the light during its passing. We need to collect Nanbay and food.

There is much to do.

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