My mother does not comment. Even she knowsthat my hopes will be thwarted. I continue to follow her toward theton’rek trees which lie ahead of us. We are engulfed by theirfragrant mist.
Suddenly she whips her face toward theDiamond Mountains to the north. “Ah,” she sings with delight,“Felix Benel has arrived.”
I feel like I’m shrinking into my feet. Thisis all too strange. Even as I reach out to take in the energy ofEnu, I cannot soothe the anxiety that ails me. He knows that I amthe last of his daughters to leave Enu. What news will he bring tome? I close my eyes to let the dread pass through me.
My mother’s warm hand touches me on the armand I open my eyes again. “You gather the ton’rek, Ad’ru. I willjoin him,” she says.
“You’re leaving?” I ask, disappointed.
She puts her scarlet eyes on me. They areglassy, the closest she has ever come to crying. Enuians do notcry. Ce’lah’ime touches my face again and then kisses me on the tipof my nose. She does this every time we part company. However, thistime, her lips linger longer than usual. What’s frightening is thatI feel nothing from her, none of the deep happiness usuallycontained within her. It can only be because she is nothappy and there’s no reason for it. I’m here with her, she’sgathering fruit for The Tilt, and my father Felix will join us. Whyis she not happy?
She reaches into her basket to give me aci’ke. “My gift upon parting.”
It’s only in my mind, but the tiny fruitseems to expand in her hand. It looks too heavy to bear.
“I don’t understand, Ce’lah’ime…”
I don’t reach for it. I don’t want to takethe gift, although it’s bad form to not accept it. I want her towithdraw the offer.
“Take it,” she insists.
“But…” I plead as I hesitantly put my handon the ci’ke.
After a moment of reading my face, she says,“You don’t want it, Ad’ru?”
I shake my head, relieved she asked.
“Well then…” She puts the fruit back intoher basket and then surprises me by handing it over to me. “Thenhold this while I answer your father’s call,” she says.
My hand creeps up to latch on to the handle.Oh how I wish she wasn’t doing this. I can still refuse her,although it would be a slight akin to striking her with my hand. Soreluctantly I take it and am left holding her basket, and mine too.A true smile has returned to her expression. The happiness fromwithin her emanates. My human heart expands with love and my angstflutters away.
“Be Oh, Ad’ru,” she says and kisses me onceon my lips. This makes me nervous again. She’s given me the kiss oflong journeys. I wonder if she’s going away with my father. Willshe not attend The Tilt? Yes! That has to be it. This is why she’sgiven me her gatherings and is leaving so abruptly.
Felix and Ce’lah’ime are bonded by somethingdeeper than mere love. My mother told me how they came to be.
To the Enuians, when Felix was born, he wasa novelty. They had never seen an infant before and so they wouldcome from every space on the orb just to get a glimpse and whiff ofhim. He was nurtured by Meni’he, the tiller in the east spectrum,for the first eight years of his human life. This is when he firstsaw Ce’lah’ime. He was just a child but she was not. As soon as hecould walk, he would roam the landscapes of Enu. Three years intohis human age he would climb the grassy mountain of Bar’tuk’mewhenever the sun tilted dut, or two degrees, west. That’swhen she appeared. Tek te’re’tu mank’et. The Golden Lady.Those were the first words he ever spoke. For five years, at thesame time of each long Enuian day, he would hike up the hill towatch the Golden Lady dive off the steep cliff into the crystalstream that ran along the ridge below.
At the end of his eighth year of life, Loel,the celestial guardian from the Higher Heavens, carried him awayfrom Enu to rear him in the ways of the Earth. He taught him humanlogic, science, languages, customs, and all about the power of hismind. My mother said it was during those years that my father hadseen and experienced the worst of mankind and at times the best.She’s says the worst is the reason he has very little joy.
He was twenty-six in human years when hereturned to Enu, and a curious-minded mathematician and astronomer.And, just as it was when he was a child, the Enuians journeyed fromall parts of the orb to welcome the half celestial-half human beingback to their world. With each kiss on the lips to mark his journeyhome - and there were thousands of them - he began to feel the joyonce again. The spirits of pure-hearted creatures, the perpetualdaylight, and then, the Golden Lady. Throughout the years he’dnever forgotten the way she leapt off the cliff, soaring throughthe air, arms wide, legs piked behind her, as graceful as a willowleaf rides a burst of wind.
He would have to wait until the sun tilteddut west to rest his yearning eyes upon the mank’et that he hadnever forgotten. He even looked for her among the faces of thosewho had come to welcome him back to the land from where hecame.
However, he did not have to wait until dutwest to see her. His humanity had set the mank’et creatures burningwith lust for him, for the magnetism of his physical form andsevere beauty, the brutish yet sweet smell of his human flesh andangelic composition. He was made from the heavens, and thatreflected in his appeal.
On the day Ce’lah’ime ventured east to findFelix Benel, the son of the human and the angel, she found himpruning the bo’vek’et bushes, preparing them for the season ofripening. When he caught first sight of her, something amazinghappened: her chest grew, giving her rounded breasts and nipplesfor suckling. With one look he had chosen her as a mate
