Rhea lamenting the loss of the 'red flesh' past and present, wherein she travels through time over a period of one hundred years to chronicle this, lead in to mapping Livan-drea….
“You must understand the reason that it has taken me so long. I had to wait a ‘risible’ amount of time to get thus far. Invisible or risible you say? Well yes! I mean ridiculous, absurd, comical, amusing, funny, hilarious, humorous, droll, farcical, silly, ludicrous, hysterical even rib-tickling number of days to arrive at this point. In some books throughout antiquity it has been written that a day is like a thousand years and vice versa. This is precisely my point. Chronological time is not easily interchangeable, but couple it with Kairos and the days, weeks, months and years no matter are undifferentiated. Time travel was of no bother for me, on one or two occasions Kiera went with me but that is another story that I cannot contend with today. I’m here to let you know that I have found and collected the materials necessary to map fair Livan-drea. The unique problem is that all the information is constantly changing.
Like anything that is alive and growing the challenge of mapping Livan-drea remains a deep mystery as to what direction and legend it will create, its inhabitants will steer. Thus far I can say that I am willing to look at the last 100 years. Beyond that I am asking for imagination on your part. I need you in this story.
The red flesh of the sea has become a lost legacy and I am not here to solve it but only to map things out a little. To put some pieces together to give a picture to the words that have been passed on through story and through the length of days it has taken over this short span of time. I want you to at least use your visual imagination to see schools of the red flesh in their rightful place. Occupying their territory and being predisposed to protectors not predators. Although I know you are conscious that in the delicate balance of all things in the biosphere predators have their place.
As I mentioned some time ago I did not really want to accept the task of mapping. Let’s just say it is not my idea of a good time. I think for stamp collector’s and local cartographers it would be their weekend hobby. For me it is a monumental task and I’m fast learning that it is about managing the overwhelming amount of information that is available. So I venture to take a small step and then the occasional leap into the unknown. Excitement, danger and adventure await. I dare say it is not for the faint of heart. It is the equivalent of Foundry work. A farrier at the Foundry while making metal works would concur with this since days are spent bashing and burning impossible materials which become a thing of beauty.
Sailors and fisher folk lived and died for the red flesh, they had no other possibility but to give their lives completely to the medium they worked with. Similarly the foundry worker came as close to the fire as they could stand in order to capture and produce their functional art.
What am I really speaking of you ask? Three things: mapping, fishing and metal work. All have a common thread and the mapping of Livan-drea is the trial so to speak, since chronicling this story never ends. There are small scenes within stories that beg to become the bigger story.
Yet the narrative will continue in the way it always has.
If for a small period of time I can gather together those parts which have been lost or forgotten and be done with this map then I will be happy since my time for this project is almost finished and I can give my full attention to Keira who is patiently waiting at the foundry with the other two apprentices to be suited up….”
