The Elora Sky Sanctuary

This excerpt comes from a series of chapters I wrote during Labour Day Weekend 2020 as part of The 3-Day Novel Contest. It was inspired by a few friends who proposed I write about a group of women living in a forest and suggested titles like The Hidden Resilience of Women and A Journey Worth Travelling. As well, one of them provided this prompt: “As the sun rose, she felt a power rise within her.” Finally, at some point before writing, I watched an episode from Apple TV’s documentary series Home, which influenced the setting. Please read How Bali’s Sharma Springs Inspired My Eco-Fiction Novel for more about that.

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As the sun rose on the third day, the young woman felt her power return. A new strength surged through every cell of her body and she again heard the gentle hum of The Mothers’ chant. There were nine of them gathered in the room and their voices rose and fell in a gentle murmuration. Even with her eyes closed, she sensed them watching her.

On her next breath, she sent her mind inward like The Mother with the gentle, dark eyes had taught her. She could pick out his voice amongst the softness of the other murmurs. “Stretch the exhalation,” he had said. “Send the breath to your baby. Touch their mind with yours and smile. Send them love and comfort.” Since arriving at the Elora Sky Sanctuary a month ago, Badger, as she was known back at the Guild, had been practicing this calming breath every day.

More recently, another Mother had taught her a breath for the surges. This Mother was small and smiled a lot. She often patted Badger’s shoulders as though making sure she was real. In the past hour, the surges had grown in strength, and Badger felt sure, with this sudden renewal of energy, she would soon breathe the baby into the world. Her body had become like a rippling ocean, the waves rising and falling at ever quickening intervals. At the moment, she’d chosen to squat to ease the pressure and gently stroked the baby’s crowning head.

These Mothers were the last of the last to have birthed and so carried the name, the title, the honour of motherhood, despite the fact the babies were simply theirs to carry in their wombs. There had been no new embryos since the Leaving though. None since that moment when the Luxury Liners had rocketed up past the blue sky and disappeared, leaving Earth to finally begin its healing.

“And the world grew up and over,” was a favourite saying in the Re-Earthers Guild when anyone brought up the Filthy Rich and their departure. In these moments, everyone put their hands over their hearts and answered AMEN!

“And good freakin’ riddance,” Samuel would sometimes yell instead, which sent Badger into fits of laughter. Sam was her best friend and like no-one else in the Guild. They had entered it the same year, although he was older than her. “Perhaps Sam and I came from the same source,” Badger would often think. After all, they looked like mirror images of each other.

“We are all the last of the cells of the cells of our ancestors,” Sam would say when he was in a mood. And Badger would nod, because what he said was true. They were mere memories of people long gone from both Earth and Sky.

Until now, Badger was reminded, as a new surge arose, and her womb lifted like a balloon trying to break free. The Mothers had left her to her own rhythms and did not speak or direct. Every once in a while, someone would cover her with a blanket; later, someone else would remove it. There was an occasional word of encouragement. Several times one of the stronger ones supported her during a particularly strong surge. At the moment, a Mother cupped her body as she squatted. She wished for Sam’s presence, but he had not come; she had not told him she was leaving.

Badger was one of the 3,000 viable embryos of the Last Generation to be born after the Great Leaving. For a moment, she wondered if one of the remaining Mothers had been her own. They seemed old. How old, she wasn’t sure. The one with the gentle eyes could have been anywhere between fifty and one-hundred years old.

After the Leaving, the embryos were not able to be renewed. The last of them, along with the cell technology and their sources, had left with the ships. The Mothers who’d been left behind had gathered here at The Sanctuary to birth, and the Guild’s Searchers had begun looking for answers. The only truth to surface was that soon the last of the humans would be gone.

“And good freakin’ riddance,” Sam would say when he was angry.

Sam was like that. He could repeat the same thing over and over, but each time, the meaning might change. When he said it like that, tears burned behind Badger’s eyes.

From afar, The Elora Sky Sanctuary appeared to float in midair. The buildings bobbed amongst the treetops like ships at sea and were made entirely of bamboo. The Grounders referred to this place as The Island, since from Greater Cob it appeared like an oasis of green rising out of the rocky, barren terrain of the now defunct Oil Sands.

Everything about this place seemed miraculous. The Mothers’ home rose up on supple, winding timber, all stilts and spires, a palatial shelter built of timber that had taken no more than four years to grow. Some of the bamboo here reached more than 50 feet. Those who entered immediately felt the benefits of the plants’ aerosols on their skin.

Badger had forgotten how beautiful The Island was. Sam would have been awestruck even in his bitterness and anger. But he had not come with her. She had made the journey alone for only she knew her body was changing in ways that made her wonder.

That she was carrying a baby had not even crossed her mind. That she may be dying seemed more certain. And so, she’d prepared for the trip in secret as The Mothers had instructed the Last Generation to do if they found their bodies failing.

She had come here maybe to die, maybe to be cured. She’d never dreamed she’d come home to birth.

Thank you for reading. ❤️

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