Zaratan, Social Leviathan

393 AC - I stand before him in my ceremonial robes. Sig insisted that I be accompanied by bodyguards from the Tagmata, but I know that a few soldiers won't make much difference if the Leviathan decides to get aggressive. No, all I can feel in the Skein is a combination of curiosity and joy. If he smashed our ship, it would be out of playfulness or clumsiness. The result would still be the same, of course. His giant head draws closer to us. Our whole ship could fit into one of his nostrils, without even touching the sides. We're nothing but ants compared to him. But the closer he comes, the more the dendrites of his Skein start groping around.

I feel his filaments tangling with mine, and he doesn't hold back, to say the least. In exchange, I ask for his hospitality. I share with him the key concepts of who we are – not through intellect, but more in relation to our underlying nature, the good and the bad… even though these concepts are essentially very human. The gargantuan turtle asks me if we come from below, from under the clouds, and I reply that no, we come from much further away. Narrowing his eye, which looks like a tiny moon, he tells me that we look like those who came to see him before the archipelago broke up and dispersed. Before the red wing made them abandon these shores…

TEIJA