"To Unknown Shores" Avalon Academy #10
Go back thousands of years ago to see our first glimpse at The First Voyagers. What will Osiris find on the mysterious island that has suddenly appeared across the sea?
Avalon Academy of the Arcane is a Magical Slice-of-Life short story series that follows the daily lives of various students and staff at a magic school housed on the wandering island of Avalon.
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“It’s just as you said, the fishermen spoke of an island out there which they have never seen before. The market was abuzz with the news when they came back with the day’s catch,” said Mazda, wiping his forehead as the heat of the day began to truly beat down from above. “Right where you said they would see it. Just past the cape.”
Osiris nodded, and lowered his head in thought. His vision last night had been correct, absurd as it was. Islands didn’t just… appear. Yet, as the fisherman said, it seemed, they did. At least this one. The one from his dreams.
Something would be there. Something that would explain the reason for this entire journey, and his visions that had guided them. Answers about this… power he had. How he could make the fires of his forge burn hotter, how the tools he made worked better and longer than that of others, how he always knew when it was going to rain, all of it.
“What does it mean, Osiris.? This island? The appearance?” Mazda asked. Looking up, Osiris saw a look of genuine concern. When Mazda’s powers had started to form, his reaction had been one of fear, instead of the wonder Osiris had felt. Of course, Mazda had nearly burned down his workshop. The flames of his forge had burned hotter and brighter than either of them had ever seen.
“It means answers may be close at hand. Let us speak with the others to see what they think we should do.” Osiris said, walking back to the camp. It was not long before he saw the circle of simple tents just outside of the small fishing village.
Inanna smiled when she saw them return, her dark eyes practically sparkling. “It was there, wasn’t it?”
“That’s what the fishermen say, yes.” Osiris said, coming to sit next to her. She kissed his cheek, and hooked an arm around his as he settled.
“Surely, we must go. We have traveled so far.” She said, looking to Mazda, then over to Enki.
Tiamat grumbled, shaking her head as her long, curly black hair undulated in the salty breeze from the sea. “This is folly. We should not have come here, nor should we go to this place. I trust not these so-called visions of yours.”
“Who is the greater fool? He who commits folly, or she who follows him through his folly, even though she doesn’t believe him?” Enki said, smirking with that relentless charm he was known for.
“Or the fool too foolish to think for himself,” she snapped at him.
Enki laughed. “Tia, you wouldn’t be here if you did not want answers. You were pulled here just like the rest of us.”
“Enough, I’ve heard my fill of you two bickering. Three months of this constant back and forth… Either lie with eachother, or fight to the death, for the sake of the rest of us with ears.” Ba’al said from his tent. They both looked to him in utter disgust.
Marduk came to sit next to Osiris. “So, the island, it’s real? They really saw it?”
“Yes, it is.” Osiris said.
Marduk nodded thoughtfully. “Well, I say we should see this land. What say you, everyone?”
Amun nodded, as did Set and Mazda. Ba’al seemed reluctant, but nodded his approval. Tiamat didn’t meet Osiris’s eyes, but didn’t object. Enki happily raised a fist into the air. Kronos and Rhea bowed their heads. Odin rose and tapped his staff in the sand. The rest silently nodded their approval one after another.
Finally, Inanna smiled, saying, “We must go.”
Osiris grinned, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. “Then go we shall.”
It was early afternoon before they had worked out a deal with a few fisherman to take them to the island they had seen. Osiris, Inanna, Enki, Marduk, Mazda, Odin, Kronos, Rhea, and Tiamat had chosen to be the first to come. There was only so much room on the boats, so it had been decided that a few of the group would go first, and the rest would come once the first had returned with news of what they had seen.
A green mass loomed on the horizon as they came around the cape. He could even see the hazy silhouette of a mountain in the distance. He knew immediately that this was the land he had seen in his vision. The sensation of seeing it in front of him sent a chill down his spine.
They made it to the fine sandy shore as the sun began to hang low in the sky. The fishermen had to head back to rest so that they could wake in time to fish the next morning, but promised to return after the fishing was done for the day. Something told Osiris that they wouldn’t need to do so. He dug a hand into the beach sand, pulling up a handful of the soft, amber-colored earth. It felt, and looked, nothing like the sand of the fishing village, nor that of his home.
The taste of salt on the air from the sea felt, somehow, sweeter here, and less harsh upon the nose. A cool, refreshing breeze blew across the beach. It was such a stark contrast to the blazing summer heat that had beat down from above earlier in the day. He couldn’t make out the edges of ends of this island from where he sat. The island had to be quite large indeed, impossible for the fishermen to have missed every day of their lives.
“It is more beautiful than I could have ever imagined…” Osiris heard Inanna say. He looked to her slender figure standing on a small dune just past the backshore.
“What do you see?” Enki asked, walking through the beach sand awkwardly.
She looked back to him, then to Osiris, smiling with a warmth he had only seen twice before. “Paradise.”
Enki finally made it to where she stood. He looked back as well, an expression of utter shock on his face.
Osiris stood and made his way up to them. The others followed shortly behind. He almost lost his footing in the fine, almost powdery sand, but eventually he came to the top of the dune, and saw exactly what they had. Tears began to well in his eyes from the sheer majesty of the sight.
A seemingly endless expanse of rolling, grassy hills lay just past the dunes. Wind coursed through the innumerable blades, making the hills seem alive with breath. Something even darker green lay further in the horizon, but he couldn’t make it out. Even the mountain he had spied from the boats he could see now was wreathed in green. He had never seen such a green color in his life, nor so much of it. It was just as Inanna had said, Paradise.
Something called them forward, so they strode through the grass for awhile. The blades of grass reached all the way to Osiris’ hips. They were soft, almost like fine fabric, caressing them as they continued onward.
Tiamat came next to Osiris, the same sense of wonder he felt clearly painted on her dusky features. “Be this what you saw in your vision?”
“No,” he said simply. Her eyes snapped back to him, puzzled. He smiled and laughed, “What I saw was no where near this beautiful. I don’t know if I’d believed it possible even if I had seen it in the vision. It would have been too unbelievable.”
Soon they saw something he had only heard outlandish tales about, a forest of trees. Not like the date palms, or bushy tamarisk he knew well, these were tall, leafy, with bark the likes he barely knew how to describe. They didn’t even look like the Cedar trees he had seen brought in from lands far away. There were so many trees, too many to count. He placed a hand on the trunk of one of them, amazed at the spectacle. So scarce were good trees for building that this amounted to no small fortune. And the smell… so fresh, so full of life. They took a moment to take some fallen branches to use as torches in the failing light so that they could still see after the sun had set.
Eventually, they came to an opening in the ground. It was a cave carved into the side of one of the hills. They couldn’t fully make it out in the gloom of the night, even with the torches, and the sliver of moonlight from the waning crescent above. This was important. Beyond important. He had seen this cave. It was in the first vision he had, years ago. He had just forgotten until now. Osiris’s hands shook at the realization. It was all coming into focus.
“Should we make camp? It is getting quite dark.” Marduk said, lowering his pack.
Osiris just stared at the cave mouth for a moment, then he started walking towards it. “We have to go inside…”
“Osiris, maybe we should wait until morning?” Mazda suggested. Concern colored his eyes again.
“No. This is where the answers are. I know of this place.” Osiris said, looking back to Mazda.
Inanna placed a warm hand on his shoulder. “How about we split up. Some of us will go, some of us will stay and make camp?”
“I’m going. I don’t like the idea of waiting.” Tiamat said, crossing her strong arms over her chest.
“You went from skeptic to believer pretty quickly, didn’t you?” Enki said, chuckling.
Tiamat rolled her eyes, and made a vulgar gesture. “T’would be a fool not to believe what I see with my very own eyes.”
Enki just shook his head, laughing. “I’ll make camp. Get something together to eat.”
“I should like to go. Something is pulling me towards that cave. I’ll not ignore it,” Odin said, resting more weight on his staff. He was older than the rest of them, and this trek through the grassy hills had obviously been hard on him.
“Are you sure? Perhaps you should rest?” Osiris said.
Odin’s face became not unlike that of a stormcloud. “I said I am going.”
Osiris nodded, understanding that pressing any further would be pointless.
Mazda shrugged. “I shall make camp with Enki. Besides he always manages to undercook food.”
“Now, that’s just personal taste, Mazda,” Enki said.
Marduk was already pulling things from his pack. “Someone needs to keep an eye on these two.”
Kronos sighed. “I think Rhea and I will stay. She needs rest.” Rhea smiled. Heavy with child, her belly had started to swell in the past two weeks. They were expecting their first child after meeting for the first time at the start of the journey. He had tried to talk Rhea out of coming to the island, given her condition, and the fact that they really didn’t know what to expect, but she had insisted that she had to come.
Then it came to Inanna, but Osiris already knew what she would say. She simply smiled, took his hand, and pulled him towards the cave.
He wasn’t sure what they would find within, but Osiris knew it would change everything. The visions, their powers, this whole journey would finally make sense. There was nothing in the world that could stop him from getting those answers.