The Aleutian Islands in October have clear and open skies, strong and cold north winds, and undulating sea surfaces. Mid-autumn at this time may be the most suitable time of the year for sailing among the islands.
According to the local Unanga tribe, ice floes will begin to drift from the north of the island starting in early November. And in November, there may be a cold wave overnight or a snowstorm, and the entire sea area will be frozen! From that time on, it has been a long winter, with heavy snowstorms, heavy storms, cold waves, and long polar nights... All the creatures on the island have to hibernate in their nests. It will not be until late April or early May of the next year that warm winds and sea currents will arrive from the south, breaking the freeze in the port and announcing the belated arrival of spring!
However, the arrival of warm spring will bring another obstacle to navigation, which is the sea fog that permeates the entire island chain. The Unanga people do not know the cause of sea fog, but according to their experience passed down from generation to generation, such sea fog is the "spirit of the southern wind god" and is related to the warm wind blowing from the south. Sea fog appears in spring and reaches its peak in summer. At its peak, it covers the area from morning to night and dissipates only at two hours at noon. And when autumn comes, the south wind turns to the north, and the sea fog will become less and less and shorter. However, with the cold north wind, it will bring "the spirit of the northern wind god", that is, raging cold storms and sea tides! …
"Blessed by the Lord God! Therefore, only the gap between the Southern Wind God and the Northern Wind God, that is, May and October every year, are the days that are relatively more suitable for sailing in this island chain! ... So, we are going west now. , it’s just the right time! Praise the Lord God! He protects us!…”
"Praise the Lord God! God bless the fleet!"
Mikey the Knowledgeable stood on the bow of the long supply ship, looking at the rough sea, the flagship leading the way, and the Kamigayama Port gradually heading east. An unknown fear welled up in his heart. However, his face, which was red from the cold, always maintained the calmness and piety of a leader.
When the sun rose into the sky, Mikey the Knowledgeable prayed loudly to the Lord God, boosting the morale of the entire longship. His wife, White Bear Gaowa, blushed and took the lead in sitting on the oar seat at the bow of the boat. She rowed a thick and long oar, and the muscles of her arms bulged hard. Every time she paddled, it seemed to suppress the undulating waves by half a meter!
"The Lord God guides us! Move forward! Along the extending island, move towards the island in the west!..."
On the flagship of the Snow Wolf, the exploration captain Zuvallo showed another kind of excitement leading by example. He personally sat in the oar position at the bow of the boat, and while looking at the sea in front of him, he rowed the oar vigorously and shouted excitedly. The sixty oars behind him were filled with strong, hard-working kingdom warriors and Northland sailors. As for the twenty reserve crew members, they tied their bodies to the deck and lay panting to rest.
"God bless you! Rest for two quarters of an hour! Change to the next team!..."
The eighty people on the entire ship were divided into four teams of twenty people by Zuvalo. At each hour of rowing, each team can only take turns to rest for two quarters of an hour. On the sea surface of the archipelago in October, the day length is only about five and a half hours, and the time for rowing is usually only four hours. In fact, in the Ancestral Islands where sea conditions are difficult and windy, in order to maintain the fleet's emergency physical strength, the stable speed of the Kingdom's longship is about 30 miles an hour, and it can only row about 120 miles a day.
And when evening comes, according to the thousands of years of survival experience of the local Unanga tribe, they must approach the shore and find a campsite sheltered from the wind as soon as possible! Because on such dangerous oceans, rowing at night cannot see the distance clearly, and the risks are unimaginably high. If you encounter large rocks along the coast, or a sudden storm, the ship will definitely be destroyed and everyone will die! ….
Under the guidance of Unanga's guide, the two long boats rowed westward for three days at a speed of 120 miles per day. They arrived at the equally vast island of Atka from the high mountain island of Atka, which extends for hundreds of miles. 'Adak' Island (Adak).
"Atka! The ancestral mountain giant! Adak! The ancestral two-headed giant! Two heads, two smoking mountains!..."
Listening to the guide's description, the knowledgeable Mickey blinked his eyes and looked at Adak Island in the evening under the glow of the setting sun. This island is quite large and is almost connected to the Kami Takayama Island. The biggest feature of the island is that there are two volcanoes separated by a hundred miles from east to west. They are located on two protrusions on the north side of the island, just like a two-headed giant!
"Well, the two-headed giant 'Adak'...witness the Lord God! Then let's call it God Twin Peaks Island!..."
"Pfft! Ahem!..."
Upon hearing such a name, Zuvalo, who was drinking water, instantly squirted out a mouthful of water, turning it into a faint white mist in the cold wind.
"This! Mickey? This name..."
"Ah? Zuvalo, what's wrong with you?"
Mikey the Knowledgeable was startled, looked at the two volcanoes on the east and west, and then looked at Zuvalo who was wiping his face, and asked doubtfully.
"These two peaks are very clear navigation signs! Isn't this name appropriate?"
Zuvalo, the exploration captain, opened his eyes wide and looked at the two volcanoes that were symmetrical from east to west and almost of the same height, and then looked at the protrusions where the two volcanoes were located, which happened to be surrounded by the harbor... He was silent for a while and murmured Whispered.
"Lord God! It's very appropriate, very appropriate! Mickey, you are really a genius at naming! It turns out that the ancestor giant sleeping here is a female giant..."
There are two volcanoes on Shenshuangfeng Island, as well as warm hot springs, and the Unanga tribe relies on hot springs to survive the winter. The largest Unanga tribe, with about a hundred people, is camped in the bay under the west peak, occupying the warmest embrace of the giant. The kingdom's two longships visited the leader of the tribe, delivered copper axes, salt and flint, and also recruited two local guides. Then, the fleet only stayed for one day and continued westward.
After passing the Shen Shuangfeng Island 'Adak', tens of miles to the west, there are the staggered islands of 'Kanaga' and 'Tanaga' that extend for two hundred miles. In local tribal mythology, these are two twin giants who sank in the icy sea. Their heads turned into volcanoes, and their bodies turned into islands, entangled with each other and dying together...
"Blessed by the Lord God! There are so many volcanoes on the islands here! Well... let's call these two intertwined islands the 'Shen Twin Sisters Island'!... Hey! Twin sisters, twin peaks, why does it feel a little wrong? That's right! In the mythology of the Unanga people, the influence of matrilineal tradition is a little too obvious..."
However, the matrilineal influence in Unanga mythology seems to have only just begun. A day's distance to the west from Shenshuangnu Island is a volcanic island that suddenly appears. The area of this island is very small, and the height of the volcano is about three to four hundred meters. There is only a small tribe of dozens of people on the entire island. They call this island "Little Girl", which is the dead young female giant.
"Well, after passing the Goddess Island, and going west for another two or three hundred miles, there is another larger volcanic island, the Goddess Island in the tribal legend!..."
"Going further west from the Island of the Goddess, the voyage becomes more and more difficult, and there are fewer and fewer islands that can indicate the direction! From the Island of the Goddess, we found a group of Unanga with forty or fifty people. A small tribe, and an old guide who has been to the western seas, Wu Baiya..."
"Then, we spent eighty kilograms of whale meat and one hundred kilograms of flint to exchange this old guide from the tribe! He is the oldest grandfather in the tribe. He was originally prepared to... He committed suicide this winter. The reason why we gave so much whale meat is because as the oldest man in the tribe, his body was supposed to be a spare ration for the tribe to survive the winter. This custom of committing suicide and sharing food, It is the tradition of these island tribes, everything is for the continuation of the tribe!…”
The twilight is golden and red, and the vast ocean stretches as far as the eye can see from east to west, north and south. A small island less than ten miles in radius hangs alone in the middle of the sea, revealing low rolling hills and small volcanoes. This small island in the sea that is hard to find is a key anchorage on the voyage to the west. It is also the shelter island that the old guide Wu Baiya led the fleet to accurately find!
Right now, two longships from the kingdom are docked on this small island, waiting alone for the night, for the rising sun, and for the adventure to set sail tomorrow morning to the next big island in the ancestral island chain. "Mother Island" more than four hundred miles away!
"Hey Yo Naga! The sun has risen, shining on the little daughter of the ancestors, in the east east of the east!... Hey Yo Naga! The sun has risen, shining on the eldest daughter of the ancestors, where I am going... Hey Yo Naga! The sun sets, and I see the mother of my ancestors, that is the hometown where I was born... Hey Yo Naga! The sun sets into the sea, and I meet my last grandmother, in the west of the west of the west!"
As the sun set, the old guide Wu Baiya sat on the low hills, looking at the red sunset in the west, as if he saw his dead ancestors and himself who should have died. His turbid old eyes reflected the blood-red color of the sunset, flashing with long-lasting memories and those ancient, desolate times. In his low and hoarse Unanga language, he sang the songs passed down by his ancestors, and his songs floated in the cold sea breeze.
At this moment, the exploration captain Zuvalo, the knowledgeable Mickey, and the white bear Gaowa were all patient and listened attentively. Of course, the first two are just supplementary, and only White Bear Gaowa can truly understand them. When she heard the end of the song, her eyes suddenly opened wide and she exclaimed "Yeah!"
"Hey Naga! Behind my grandmother, there is the mausoleum of the ancestral giants, where the sun sleeps! The sleeping snow, the sleeping mountains, the sleeping land, the sleeping sun, bury the dead giants ...Hey, Naga! O giants of death, there are so many corpses, the cold is endless, and the vastness is endless!”
