Healing on Sandyclay

Before you begin, it is important to know that what you are reading is not the original telling. There are things about every new place you visit that you cannot completely understand. At least, not from just one story. The characters you will meet do not look like humans. Their looks alone are unimaginable to most humans. But in all, nothing about this society bears any resemblance to anything on Earth.

What you are reading is a translation. This story was created using a Universal Translating Device (UTD). This means that every word of the story is translated into the user’s language of choice. The planet Sandyclay does not actually call itself Sandyclay. Sand and clay do not even exist on their planet. That was just the best translation of the word. Faith’s child, Strongeye, does not call themself Strongeye even in their own language. Their name originated from an ancient language that neither Strongeye nor their parent speak, as many of our names also do.

In short, none of this happened in a language you know, and none of this has anything to do with Earth.

It is a bright, hot day and most of the water-beings are by the hot spring. A water-being pushes through a chattering crowd that pays them no attention. The hot spring is above ground, with walls on all sides and a staircase to enter the water. The water-being reaches into the sand first, rubbing the dry, green grain onto their side, where there is a distinct tear in their scaly flesh. Some like to obstruct their wounds before entering the water so the healing process doesn’t happen too jarringly. Before the water-being even sits low enough for the water to touch their wound, it starts to close up. Within seconds they are completely healed. The water-being stays a moment longer than they need, as most do, just relaxing.

Faith watches from the back of the crowd. Behind them, Strongeye emerges and pats Faith’s arm.

“There you are, Mama. Are you going to soak today?” Strongeye asks.

“No. Not yet,” Faith says, watching a line begin to form by the spring, and people smiling.

Strongeye sighed. “I’ll have to inspect you at home for any external tears to your flesh, anything like that.”

Faith nods.

“Well, okay. The rest of us are finished,” Strongeye adds.

****

Seven hundred fifty days ago, Faith was wrapped in all of Cover’s arms. Cover was still alive then, but the others in Faith’s family did not know about them. The garden was where Faith and Cover often spent time. There were soft, round ground-beings to sit on, and tall, spikey ground-beings who stretched over their heads like a canopy. Yet, there were no ground-beings as tall as stems.The air-beings had not found this place yet.

“My children are waiting for me,” Faith said.

“You’re not leaving already, right?” Cover said.

Faith sighed. “Not yet.”

“Let’s count all the spikes here. You begin.”

“Okay,” Faith agreed, already beginning to laugh. “One, two—”

Cover threw a scaly arm over Faith’s eyes, and Faith shrieked.

“I can’t see, Cover!” Faith playfully pushed Cover’s arms away. “That’s better. One, two–”

Cover tried to do it again, but they were both laughing too hard.

“I understand,” Faith said. “Maybe you should count. I’ll help you.”

Faith lifted Cover above their head, trapping them in the air. They squirmed, kicked, and laughed until Faith couldn’t hold their laughter anymore and dropped Cover and themself to the ground. There, Faith held cover in all of their arms. 

****

When the family arrives at home, the patch of ground they rest on, Strongeye’s two children are walking ahead. Swimmer springs at Drifter and scratches them with no claw, and they both laugh.

“Stop that! You’re going to trample Mama’s ground-beings!” Strongeye says. Swimmer grabs Drifter by the horn just in time and they both stumble back.

Faith has been growing things on a patch of the ground for nearly a hundred fifty days. They grow a variety of ground-beings. Strongeye told them it was a good way to deal with loss.

“Sorry,” says Drifer.

“No, it’s alright,” Faith says. 

“Mama, how about you give them a trim?” Faith obliges and goes to the ground-beings. Behind them, Strongeye and their children begin to prepare nectar for the family to drink. Strongeye unravels the device and carries it to the nectar spot. They stick one end into the ground. Swimmer and Drifter each take a pump, but not before Swimmer places a bucket on the other end of the device.

“Ma,” Swimmer says, using all their force to push down on the pump. “Did you hear the news?”

“What news?” Strongeye shouts, crouched over their end to hold it steady.

Swimmer and Drifter give another pump, almost in unison. They look at one another and smile, then Swimmer’s face drops and they continue to explain.

“I heard it this morning at the reports gathering. The king is taking the hot spring. They’re going to use it to grow stems.”

“What?” Strongeye says. They whip around to look at Swimmer, pulling the nectar device out of the ground and creating a spray of nectar.

Faith looks up, not knowing what to do. They hate to see Strongeye upset.

Swimmer doesn’t flinch at the spray. “It’s true. Right Drifter?”

Drifter shrugs, shielding their face. “I don’t go to report gatherings.”

“Well, it’s true,” Swimmer says.

Strongeye turns, still spraying nectar. “The hot spring! Of course the king would do this. Air-beings will do anything to sabotage us.”

“I know” Swimmer says, “and just think of all the harm that’s come to us. Air-beings are not afraid to hurt us. It’s happening every day now, and people have to make extra trips to the hot spring. If the hot spring is gone, they can do as much as they please.”

“We’ve only ever had one thing. One! One thing they could never take. And now they’ve found a way. How?”

Faith is beside Strongeye. They’ve taken the stick from Strongeye and placed it back into the ground, and the nectar flows neatly into the buckets again.

“Well it’s true. They’re going to start pretty soon,” Swimmer says.

“Soon?” says Strongeye. “How soon?”

“Ten days.”

“Ten days? That’s no time. Who does the king think they are?”

Strongeye suddenly notices that Faith has taken their job. “I’m sorry Mama, you don’t have to do this.”

“I’m really sorry, Strongeye,” Faith says.

“Mama, you should rest.” Strongeye tries to take back the device, but Faith doesn’t move.

“I’m alright, I’m certain.”

Strongeye sighs with their whole body. It’s something they’ve always done, since they were a child.

Swimmer and Drifter continue to pump, and everyone is silent. When the bucket is full, Strongeye takes it to the middle of their home and finds the straws for everyone to drink. They hand the first straw to Faith, then turn around and pause again.

“What if you two start fighting again?” Strongeye says to their children. The hot spring was known to heal both physical and emotional injury, so Swimmer and Drifter went many days ago to end their quarreling.

“I just want all of us to heal,” Strongeye says.

Faith watches Strongeye, wishing they could help them feel better.

****

Six hundred days ago, the first time Cover and Faith went to water together, Faith remembers that Swimmer and Drifter had not quite grown up. It was a small pool on the side of a river. Cover stepped in.

When water-beings “go to water” it does not mean healing at the hot spring. Any type of water will do—a river, if there’s no traffic, a small pond or even a puddle. Water-beings “go to water” to make a deal.

“Faith, there’s one stone in here, but it’s too heavy,” Cover said.

“Let me see,” Faith said. They stepped in and easily lifted the stone.

“You’re so powerful. You ought to join a race.”

“A race? At our age?”

“I mean, why not? One of their obstacles is lifting heavy stones.”

Faith placed the stone on the shore so Cover could begin the ritual. Cover sat in the place of the stone, and since the water was too shallow to go over their head, they ducked.

Faith was sitting in the pool when Cover brought their head back up.

“Want me to tell you what I told the water?” Cover asked.

Faith smiled, helping them replace the stone. “Sure.”

“I said that if you never stop loving me, I will never let you forget how powerful you are.”

****

The next morning, the entire family goes to the report gathering, not just Swimmer. The listener’s dugout is crowded, but water-beings on the edge scrunch to make room for the family to step down into it. Although the crowd of water-beings is loud and restless, the ground itself is warm and comforting on Faith’s feet. Once the whole family is in, they turn to look at the platform.

Tiger, a strong being with scales that could cut paper, steps up on the platform.

“I have a report!” they shout. “Yesterday, when I heard about the hot spring, I went to visit the king.”

The crowd looks around, shocked. Faith sees Stongeye’s face and takes them by the arm, stroking their scales.

“I started to travel to the region of the air-beings. I made it to the bottom of the stems in the air region. There, I called up to the king’s council. I told them to come down to the ground and talk to me.”

Swimmer and Strongeye exchange shocked frowns, but say nothing. 

“I called and called, but no one answered. Then I saw air-beings jump out of the stem and fly away. So I called some more! I finally left. It was then, on my way back, that I saw the hot spring was barricaded, and impossible to enter.”

A collective gasp came from the crowd, and most of the water-beings started to chatter. 

“That’s right! It was locked with a cloud of fiery dust, impossible to pass through.”

Strongeye was silent. Faith pulled Strongeye closer to themself. Faith felt them trying to sigh, but trembling too much.

Someone from the crowd shouts. “What’d you do that for?! You went and upset the king!” The chatter gets louder, until Tiger speaks up again.

“The king deserves to be called out! What they are doing is cruelty for cruelty’s sake. They have no reason to grow stems in our hot spring, or anywhere in our region!”

The crowd gets louder again, and this time it is unclear whether it is in favor of or against Tiger’s words.

“You know this water-being, right?” Drifter asked Faith.

“A little,” Faith says. “Cover knew them. Cover talked with everyone.”

“Oh.” Drifter goes quiet.

“Listen!” Tiger says. “We don’t know that my visit caused the locked hot spring!”

Swimmer and Drifter look at each other and roll their eyes. Strongeye, in Faith’s arms, has stopped listening and is trembling all over.

“But even if it did, they have not won yet! The hot spring is still here for ten days.”

“Nine!” shouts the same person as before.

After announcements, Faith sits with Strongeye. Strongeye often insists on being the one to help Faith, but when Strongeye is like this, Faith can’t help but comfort them. They stroke Strongeye’s small fins. Meanwhile, Swimmer and Drifter climb out of the gathering pit. They sit on the edge as Drifter tells Swimmer a funny story.

“Mama, the hot spring!” Strongeye says, letting their body fall against Faith.

“I know,” Faith says. They stroke Strongeye with a few more arms. Faith has always hated to see their child upset. They stay together for a few moments before Strongeye finally pushes Faith away and stands up. They go to the edge of the gathering pit and start to climb out, and Faith follows. Suddenly, Strongeye turns around and looks down on Faith.

“Oh, Mama,” Strongeye says, as if brought out of a trance, “you’re not strong enough to do that on your own. Let me help.”

Faith assured Strongeye they were fine, but Strongeye never seemed to believe them.

****

Three hundred twenty days ago, in the garden, Cover asked Faith for Faith’s scales for the first time.

“Just a few, come on,” Cover said. “I lost some, and I have a big trip coming up.”

Faith said they weren’t sure. Cover held them a little tighter.

“I know. But it won’t be a big deal for you, Faith. You are powerful. You can take anything.”

When Faith believed what Cover said, they pulled a spike from the ground-being and held it to their arm. Faith scraped one scale backward until it popped off. They imagined the pain as a burning star that shined inside their body. They scraped another scale, and then another.

“Is that enough?” Faith asked.

“Plenty,” said Cover. “You’re amazing. Thank you.”

Later, when Faith went to the hot spring, they decided they would not agree to do that again.

****

Strongeye speaks very little the rest of the day. Faith tries to comfort them, but nothing helps. That night, Faith tries to smile as they gather around the nectar. It is then that Strongeye finally speaks.

“Mama, let’s go to the hot spring tonight.”

Faith’s smile drops as they look at Strongeye. “Tonight? What are you talking about?”

Swimmer and Drifter put down their straws and stare at the two of them.

“Why not tonight? You need it, Mama,” Strongeye says.

“I’m not ready yet.”

“What do you mean, you’re not ready?!” Strongeye shouts. They start to tremble. “Mama, we only have nine days left.”

“Well I’m not—”

“It’s not like Cover is going to come back!”

Faith goes quiet. They just glare at Strongeye, who trembles. Drifter touches Stroneye’s arm.

“Ma?” Drifter starts.

“Please, Mama,” Strongeye says.

“The report said there’s a barricade,” Faith says. “We can’t go in anymore.”

Swimmer sits taller to speak. “You know, I heard that barricades like this one actually lose some strength at night. Maybe it’s not that bad.” 

It was an obvious lie, but Strongeye tried to go along with it. “Maybe it’s not that bad, Mama. Please. Why don’t we just see?”

Faith ultimately agrees. 

When they arrive at the hot spring, Swimmer stops abruptly.

“Are you okay, Swimmer?” asks Drifter, but when they see it they stop as well. 

 The cloud of dust is so thick they cannot see the hill or the hot spring at all. Strongeye reaches an arm out to the barricade, testing it, and Faith sees a couple specks of dust light up when they touch Strongeye’s scales. Faith pushes Strongeye’s arm away.

“You don’t have to do that,” Faith says.

“You’re right, Mama. You’d have to be very strong to pass,” they say, shaking their arm. 

Faith sighs, not trying to hide their anger. “I know, and I must be so weak.”

Just then, Swimmer steps up beside them. They try as well to put their arm into the barricade, making Strongeye yelp and Faith gasp. Swimmer quickly pulls back.

“Ow!” Swimmer says, then looks at the barricade again. “Actually, it’s not as bad as I imagined.”

“Of course you would say that,” says Drifter, appearing beside Swimmer.

“No, it’s actually— I mean, how deep do you think this goes?”

Drifter squints. “I mean, maybe all the way to the water.”

“Okay. That’s about five steps. Then we can climb into the water and heal anyway.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Drifter says. “Are you serious?”

“Of course,” Swimmer says. “You and I, together?” 

Drifter nods, and Swimmer takes their arm.

“You guys coming?” Swimmer asks Strongeye and Faith. 

Strongeye tries to pull Faith along, but they don’t move. Strongeye gives up.

“Clear the way for us,” Strongeye says. “We’ll be right behind.”

The siblings breathe in unison, and Faith and Strongeye wince as Swimmer leads Drifter into the cloud. In moments, they splash into the water.

“Woo hoo!” Swimmer says.

“What did we just do?” Drifter says.

Faith pulls away from Strongeye’s grasp and gets closer to the border. “Are you guys okay?” they calls.

“We’re great!” Swimmer responds. “Drifter is great. That barricade has nothing on us!”

Drifter groans, but it fades into laughter.

“Woo hoo!” Swimmer says one more time. Faith knows they are hugging in the hot spring, or bumping horns. With how fearless they just were, and how excited, they are the strongest thing Faith has seen in a long time. Faith sees the cloud of dust, its scary burning hue, and Faith hears Swimmer and Drifter laughing as the champions over it. At that moment, Faith starts to think, it’s no wonder the king needs a barricade, because water-beings are powerful. Faith starts to laugh.

Strongeye calls from behind Faith, “What are you laughing a—”

Faith turns around. Strongeye is looking at the sky, where two air-beings are swooping down towards them. 

Air-beings are much smaller than water-beings. They have only a couple limbs, and a pair of wings. Everything about their appearance is graceful. Before now, Faith has never seen them so closely, and strangely, Faith wonders why water-beings don’t just push them down. It would be fairly easy.

“It’s late to be in public,” one says sternly.

“There’s no rule about where we can be,” Strongeye says, trembling.

“Well, you must be out of the way when they start planting stems tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Faith didn’t stop themself from asking.

“By issue of the king, we start tomorrow.”

Strongeye has told Faith to remain calm and still when meeting air-beings, but here in the moment they are backing up, visibly moving. Faith wishes they could hold their child safe.

“Where do you think you’re going?” the other air-being says. 

“Should I do something?” asks the first.

“To be safe, yes.”

The air-being shoves Strongeye to the ground. Faith tries to jump in the way, but they don’t make it in time. The air-being uses their shard of cloud and slashes Strongeye’s body in one quick blow.

“No!” Faith cries. The air-being turns around, but stops, looking at their shard of cloud.

“Oh, look. It’s broken.”

“I see,” says the other air-being. “Let’s leave.”

They look at Faith. “Do not think about doing this ever again.” Then they’re gone.

****

A hundred fifty days ago, when Strongeye found out about Cover, it was after looking at Faith’s back. Strongeye was sitting in Faith’s resting spot with them when they noticed it.

“Mama! What happened to you?”

The answer was not one thing. By now, there were many scratches, lost scales, and spots. Strongeye ran their arms along each one.

“Mama, you can’t handle that kind of injury anymore. I have to take you to the hot spring right now.”

Faith brushed Strongeye away. 

“Really?” Faith said. “It doesn’t feel that bad.”

Strongeye wrapped around Faith to see their eyes. “What are you saying? Is your spirit unwell? It can heal that too. It can set your thinking straight.”

“Strongeye, I healed ten days ago. I can wait until next time we all go.”

Strongeye stood and looked down on Faith. They were astounded and in tears.

“Mama, look at yourself!” they said. They stared a moment longer, then sighed and left.

Soon after, Faith went to Cover.

The two found each other in the garden. It was night. Neither of them knew Cover would be gone soon. As Cover started to sit on a soft ground-being, Faith stepped in their way and sat on it first, making them laugh. Then Cover tried to sit on a different one and Faith jumped to reach it first as well. The third time, Cover just sat on top of Faith, and they both laughed more. After a while, Faith told Cover about the earlier scene with their children.

“So, Strongeye thinks you need to heal?” Cover asked.

“Yes.”

“Are you going to do it?”

Faith thought about it. They stared into Cover’s eyes. 

“I’m not ready to stop loving you this time.”

Cover said nothing. They knew what Faith meant. 

****

Faith leans over Strongeye.

“Mama, I can’t sit up.”

“You have to heal. We have to go through the barrier so you can heal,” Faith says in tears.

“Mama, I can’t. I’m sorry,” Strongeye says. They close their eyes.

Faith gathers Strongeye in all their arms.

“Mama, what are you doing?”

Faith lifts Strongeye with ease. They begin to walk toward the barricade. Strongeye’s eyes are still closed, and they’re grimacing from the pain, but quiet, as if falling asleep. Faith has no time to lose. 

They walk straight through the barricade, letting fiery specks shower over both of them. Strongeye lets out a wail, their scales lighting up like tiny stars.

“I’m sorry,” Faith says, but doesn’t stop. Faith climbs up the side of the hot spring. Swimmer and Drifter show their shock, but say nothing. They slide together to make room in the water, and Faith plunges in with Strongeye as quickly as they can.

Strongeye’s scales, singed by the barricade, immediately return to their normal bright color. The tear in Strongeye’s body begins to mend itself until it is completely healed. Strongeye breathes heavily, not yet opening their eyes.

In a hundred fifty days, it can be easy to forget what the water feels like. For one, it does not force or pull a wound together. Instead, it grows flesh and adds to what is already there. The same is true for internal wounds. The water does not take away positive things: love, joy, or gentle memories. Neither does it take away negative things: truths that hurt to know.

Somewhere inside Faith, they are seeing the side of Cover they’ve tried to forget. They keep their eyes on Strongeye and try not to notice. They feel thankful for those who love them, and for moments that showed them love. Cover is somewhere in between those two. They feel a sense of long-due understanding.

“Hey Ma,” Swimmer says. “As long as we’re here tomorrow, the air-beings can’t plant anything here.”

Strongeye opens their eyes. “Yeah,” they say gently. “What can they do to us?”

The family sits together in the hot spring and waits.