Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!-Chapter 1463 - 1016: The End of the Ancestor Archipelago, the Tombs of the Ancestor Giants
The Aleutian Islands in October have clear and expansive skies, the sweeping cold northern wind, and the undulating sea waves. At this moment in mid-autumn, it might be the most suitable time of the entire year for sailing among the islands.
According to the local Unanga Tribe, starting from early November, drifting ice will gradually come from the north of the islands. By the end of November, it might be a sudden cold snap or a snowstorm that will freeze the entire sea area! From that moment on, it will be a long winter of great snowstorms, heavy gales, extreme cold snaps, and long polar nights... All the creatures on the island must hibernate in their nests until the warm winds and currents arrive from the south in late April or early May of the following year, announcing the belated arrival of spring!
However, the arrival of warm spring will bring another obstacle for sailing, which is the sea fog that permeates the entire island chain. The Unangas do not know the cause of the sea fog, but according to their centuries-old experience, this kind of sea fog is the "southern Wind God’s spirit," related to the warm wind blowing from the south. The sea fog appears in spring, reaches its peak in summer, lasting from morning to night and dissipating only at noon’s two-hour duration. But when autumn arrives, the southern wind turns north, and the sea fog gradually becomes less and shorter. However, with the cold northern wind, it will bring the "northern Wind God’s spirit," which are the surging cold storms and tide waves!...
"Chief Divine bless us! Therefore, it is only in the gap between the southern Wind God and the northern Wind God, namely May and October each year, that are relatively more suitable days for sailing between these island chains!... Therefore, our current journey westward is perfectly timed! Praise the Chief Divine! They bless us!..."
"Praise the Chief Divine! Divine bless the fleet!"
Scholar Mikki stands at the bow of the supply longship, looking at the turbulent sea, watching the leading flagship ahead, and also looking at the gradually receding Divine Peak Mountain Port, feeling an inexplicable sense of dread. However, his frostbitten red face always retains a leader’s calmness and piety.
When the sun reaches its zenith, Scholar Mikki fervently prays to the Chief Divine, invigorating the morale of the entire longship. Meanwhile, his wife, Da Xiong Gaowa, with a flushed face, takes the lead on the rower’s seat at the bow. She rows with a hefty long oar, her arm muscles bulging forcefully, each stroke seemingly pressing the swelling waves half a meter down!
"The Chief Divine guides us! Forward! Move towards the western island along the extending islands!..."
On the Great Snow Wolf’s flagship, Exploration Captain Zuwaro adopts a different kind of exhilarating leadership. He personally sits at the bow’s rower’s seat, gazing at the sea ahead while rowing vigorously, his voice also resonantly shouting encouragement. Behind him, on the sixty rower’s seats, are sturdy, diligently rowing Kingdom’s Warriors and Northern Land sailors. As for the twenty standby crew, they bind themselves on the deck, breathing heavily while lying down to rest.
"Chief Divine bless! Rest for two quarters! Rotate the next team!..."
The entire ship’s eighty men are divided by Zuwaro into four teams of twenty. Each team can only rotate resting for two quarters each hour of rowing. In October, the island sea area has about five and a half hours of daylight, allowing approximately four hours of rowing. Actually, amidst the hard sea conditions and undulating waves of the Ancestor Islands, maintaining the fleet’s emergency stamina and the Kingdom Longship’s steady speed is roughly 30 li per hour, resulting in about 120 li per day.
And when evening arrives, according to the Unanga Tribe’s millennia-old survival experience, they must make landfall, finding a wind-sheltered encampment at the first instance because on these perilous ocean surfaces, rowing through the night when the distant view is unclear poses unimaginable risks. If they encounter large reefs along the coast or sudden storms, it is surely a shipwreck and fatal outcome!...
Under the Unanga guide’s guidance, the two longships rowed westward at a speed of 120 li per day for three days, traveling from the expansive Divine High Mountain Island ’Atka’ to the equally wide ’Adak’ Island.
"Atka! Ancestor’s High Mountain Giant! Adak! Ancestor’s Double-Headed Giant! Two heads, two smoking mountains!..."
Listening to the guide’s description, Scholar Mikki blinked, gazing in the sunset glow at the evening Adak Island. The island is not small, almost connected with the Divine High Mountain Island. The island’s most prominent feature is the two volcanoes separated by a hundred li east to west, each resting on the protruding parts on the island’s northern side, resembling a double-headed giant!
"Hmm, double-headed giant ’Adak’... witnessed by the Chief Divine! Let’s call it Divine Twin Peaks Island then!..."
"Pfft! Cough, cough!..."
Upon hearing such a name, Zuwaro, who was drinking water, instantly spat out a mouthful, turning into a faint white mist in the cold wind.
"This! Mikki? This name..."
"Ah? Zuwaro, what’s wrong with you?"
Scholar Mikki was taken aback, looked at the two volcanoes in the East and West, then at Zuwaro who was wiping his face, and asked in confusion.
"These two peaks are very clear nautical markers! Could it be that this name isn’t fitting?"
Exploration Captain Zuwaro widened his eyes, looked at the symmetrical, almost equally tall volcanoes in the East and West, then at the protruding part where the two volcanoes stood, which just so happened to form a bay... He was silent for a while, then murmured.
"Chief Divine! It’s fitting, very fitting! Miki, you are truly a naming genius! So, the sleeping ancestor giant here is a female giant..."
Divine Twin Peaks Island has two volcanoes, as well as warm hot springs, and the small Unanga tribes that rely on the hot springs to survive the winter. The largest branch of the Unanga tribe, which has about a hundred people, is encamped in the bay under the western peak, occupying the warmest embrace of the giant. The Kingdom’s two longships paid a visit to the leader of this tribe, offering Bronze Axes, salt, and firestone, and also recruited two local guides. Then, the fleet stayed for only one day before continuing westward.
Past the Divine Twin Peaks Island ’Adak’, heading west for dozens of miles, lies the two-hundred-mile stretch of interlocking islands, ’Kanaga’ and ’Tanaga’. In the local tribe’s mythology, these are twin giants, sunk in the icy sea. Their heads became volcanoes, and their bodies formed the islands, intertwined and died together...
"Chief Divine bless! The islands here have so many volcanoes! Hmm... these two interlocking islands shall be called ’Divine Twin Sisters Island’! ... Huh! Twin Sisters, Twin Peaks, does something feel a bit off? Oh, it’s true! In the Unanga people’s mythology, the influence of matrilineal tradition is quite pronounced..."
However, the matrilineal influence in the Unanga people’s mythology seems just to have begun. One day’s paddle westward from Divine Twin Daughters Island lies an abruptly emerging volcanic island. This island is small in size, with the volcano rising to a height of about three to four hundred meters. The whole small island hosts only a tribe of a few dozen people, who call this island ’Little Girl’, named for the deceased young female giant.
"Hmm, passing the Divine Little Daughter Island and heading west another two to three hundred miles lies another larger volcanic island, the legendary Divine Elder Daughter Island!..."
"Beyond the Divine Elder Daughter Island, the voyage becomes increasingly challenging, and islands to guide the way become fewer! We found a small Unanga tribe of forty to fifty people on the Divine Elder Daughter Island, and an old guide who had ventured into the Western seas, U White Crow..."
"Then, we exchanged eighty pounds of whale meat and a hundred pounds of firestone to rescue this elderly guide from the tribe! He was the oldest grandfather in the tribe, originally prepared to commit suicide this winter. The reason we gave so much whale meat is that, as the oldest elder in the tribe, his body was meant to be the tribe’s backup food supply to survive the winter. Such customs of shared suicide are the tradition of these island tribes, all for the continuation of the tribe!... "
The twilight is golden-red, the East, West, North, and South are all endless vast oceans. A small island less than ten miles around is suspended alone in the middle of the sea, showing its low undulating hills and small volcanoes. This difficult-to-find small sea island is a crucial anchorage in the westward voyage, also accurately located by the old guide U White Crow as Shelter Island!
At this moment, the Kingdom’s two longships are docked at this small island, lonely waiting for nightfall, waiting for sunrise, and waiting for the adventure to set sail at dawn tomorrow, heading to the next great island in the Ancestor Island chain, the ’Mother Island’ over four hundred miles away!
"Hey yo, ya nagah! The sun has risen, shining on the Ancestor’s little girl, in the East, East, the East! ... Hey yo, ya nagah! The sun has risen high, shining on the Ancestor’s elder daughter, which is the place I am going ... Hey yo, ya nagah! The sun has set, seeing the Ancestor’s mother, that is my birthplace ... Hey yo, ya nagah! The sun has descended into the sea, meeting the last grandmother, in the West, West, the West!"
As the sun sets in the West, the old guide U White Crow sits on the low hills, gazing at the red sunset in the West, as if seeing the deceased ancestors and himself who was supposed to be dead. His cloudy old eyes, reflecting the blood-red of the evening glow, flickered with distant memories, also conjuring those ancient, desolate times. He sang the songs inherited by the ancestors in a low hoarse Unanga language, the singing floating in the cold sea breeze.
At this moment, Exploration Captain Zuwaro, Scholar Mikki, and White Bear Gaowa patiently pricked their ears to listen earnestly. Of course, the first two were just making up numbers, only White Bear Gaowa could truly understand. And when she heard the end of the song, she suddenly opened her eyes wide, exclaiming in surprise!
"Hey yo, ya nagah! Behind the grandmother is the tomb of the ancestor giants, it’s where the sun sleeps! That slumbering snow, slumbering mountains, slumbering land, slumbering sun, they bury the fallen giants... Hey yo, ya nagah! The dead giants, there are so many, many bodies, the cold endless and vast, also the boundless and endless vastness!"
