First Flight

You can call me Vlad. I am so excited yet anxious for the last few days that it seems that my head is reeling most of the time. Now there are so many reasons to be excited about that it is impossible to think that I had lived oblivious of these possibilities all my life. First, Zinaida has agreed to go with me on my quest. Second, we are finally going to break the traditions of our flock and search for the place mentioned in our folklore. Last but not least, all this is a secret which only three of us know. I guess, it is getting a bit incoherent for you, so I will have to start from the beginning.

              As far as I can remember, I have always lived with my parents. Most of the year, we lived in this swampland of the Ob river. I absolutely love this place since it is so full of food. I really love the roots of hellbore that are so abundant here along with an occasional meal of lemmings. I also love to play in the marshes with my friends. Last year of course, my parents forced me to go with them at this time of the year to the other land. I didn’t like the journey at all. It was boring and strenuous. I felt it was quite pointless to go looking for food and a place to drink water when we have it all right here on the banks of the Ob. Especially, I didn’t like the strange food grains which were widely available there. I must admit that I did like the sunny weather though. 

              Last time, I had suggested that we must not go with the rest of the group and stay here, right by the Ob. I got a good share of admonishment for this terrible suggestion. My father, Pyotr believes that when snow starts floating on the puddles, we must all go. It is a tradition. He says that the sun moves during this time of the year and we must move to the distant land where the sun moves to. There is a legend that many thousands of years ago someone like me just refused to move with the sun and was punished. When the rest of this group returned with the sun, they found him dead. He was all skin and bones. It looked like he had no food to eat for a while when he had died. So, off we went like so many of the other families to the strange land.

              That was of course last year. This year it is different. During my terrible journey last year, my parents were by my side and they guided me all along. I often got a round of scolding from my father but my mother sang some songs when I was totally bored. It was not that bad. I had expected that this year too, it would be a similar ordeal. However, to my surprise my parents told me that I needed to travel like all others from my flock without my parents by my side since I was, well, an experienced member now. My father was particularly harsh on me and asked me to mind my own business this time. It seems that I was still a whining kid even after completing a round trip which was unacceptable. He questioned my intellect and abilities and he said that he feared that I would never become a prominent member of our group due to my cowardice.

              Now, I was just bored with all the journey, I was not a coward. I realised that this year something had changed. I should have seen it coming. Ever since we returned to our swampland, I was asked to look for my own food by my parents. It was fun and I could eat what I wanted, so I didn’t mind. My parents hate eating lemmings unlike me, so I was a bit relieved actually. My parents sort of did not care for me at all. The more I thought of this now, the angrier it made me. However, it also made me determined to prove to them that I could actually handle myself without their help. In fact, I could handle myself much better. I had a plan, but I needed a team to actually execute it.    

I had heard stories about multiple lands of plenty. It seems that many years ago, some of us actually used to travel south-east wards after reaching the halfway mark of the regular route. There was another land of plenty out there where we could get as much to eat as we wanted to and plenty of water to drink. I had heard the weather there was also pleasant and warm. I had in fact asked my father about this land and he had told me that it was a lie. It was impossible to have these two lands of plenty because there is only one sun. If we follow the sun on our regular path, how can there be another land because clearly there was no another sun. Now, I didn’t like this kind of cynicism though I kept my mouth shut because I was just a kid. My plan was to go looking for this other land of plenty. I knew that it would be quite an adventure but it would be good to have a partner and at least one elder as a guide.

I started reaching out to members who had done just one round trip like me. A lot of them were not interested to do the arduous trip yet again. However, most of them objected to my plan when I told them that I wanted to explore if we could reach the other land of plenty. A lot of them told me that I was crazy to think that I should even try. Just as I was about to get dejected, I met Zinaida. She was a bit elder to me and had done the round trip a few times before. At first, I didn’t want to tell her my crazy plan but one day while we were looking for fish in the slush, she told me that she found the annual tradition very boring. I picked up some courage and told her about my plan and asked her if she would join me in my search. To my surprise, she neither laughed at me nor did she call me crazy like the others. She told me that she always wanted to search for the other land of plenty which she too has heard about. However, she never found anyone else who would be interested in this pursuit. That was till now. I was amazed to hear the same passion and I knew that I had found my fellow traveler. Further, we both found true happiness in sharing this secret of our dream which others considered to be crazy.

While looking for a guide, we remembered Sergey. Sergey was called insane by the other elders. Sergey kept to himself. His wife was dead and we didn’t know if he had kids. He was very old and knew a lot of incredible stories. He had told us about this other land of plenty many a times. Further, he was fearless. We had all watched him in awe when he kicked a dog which had attacked our group when it was looking for reindeers along with some two-legged monsters. The monsters jeered at the dog when it got kicked by Sergey. It was strange since we thought that the dog was their friend. Elders used to say that those monsters had no friends. They were mean even though they walked like us on two legs. Never mind, I am again digressing. One fine day, Zenaida and I approached Sergey and told him about our plan. He said we were insane to think we should try to look for this land which no living member had seen. However, after much coaxing and cajoling, Sergey agreed to join our group provided we addressed him as our” Great leader”. We agreed to this proposal since it was a pointless thing which only an insane person like Sergey could desire.

So, finally the time has come. Tomorrow morning at daybreak our whole group will start on our annual long journey. While we will be part of this large group tomorrow, I know in my heart that Zinaida and I will be a part of our folklore soon. Siberian Cranes will remember us as the ones who re-discovered the second land of plenty when we reunite with this group next spring on the banks of the Ob. We will also be credited with proving that there could be multiple suns or maybe the sun splits into pieces during fall and goes to different parts of the world and we can make choices instead of blindly following traditions.