The Temple of the Water Orchids of Ohana

After the awe inspiring site of the Twin Suns, I decided I needed a little rest and relaxation. My ever-resourceful guide suggested a quiet stay on an island at a planet nearby where I could enjoy my days and write in my journal. He promptly flew me there and dropped me off, telling me that he would return for me in around a week's time, giving me a communicator if I encountered any emergency. Then, I was alone.

The beautiful sandy beach was fine and glimmering like softly ground jewels. The sea was a beautiful azure. The Island was fairly small but had several buildings upon it of a strange origin. The only inhabitants were a small indigenous people who seemed to be very shy and gentle, living a rustic life in what appeared to be some sort of earlier fallen civilization. They called this place Ohana, meaning "The One".

I wandered around for a while in the quiet of the place for they were not a loud people and kept mostly to themselves. Atop the island was, what seemed to be, an old volcano of some sort. Climbing atop from the dirt paths, I came upon a strange sight, which you see here: a serene picture of a private little lake with odd flowers floating upon it's surface. In the center was a structure of some sort that looked as if it had belonged to something else entirely before having been "erected" in it's new location, or use. A rickety dock of wooden logs enabled me to visit it and led to other various places as well into what appeared to be tunnels going the living rock to other parts of the island. Another similar structure lay in the lake as if it had fallen long ago. Luminescent glows shimmered from beneath the structure itself, but I dared not pry into it yet. I sat here for a while in contemplation: what civilization had previously occupied this place before being abandoned? Were these the same people who had build these structures? Maybe I was with a strange and innocent fallen people.

When I awoke, I saw an old man sitting beside me. He had the look of some sort of shaman to him. I asked him what this place was and he told me that it was the Temple of the Water Orchids of Ohana. My next question concerned the structures and he laughed softly, telling me that they had not built them but they had been here when his people had arrived here long ago, after the gods had left this place. I asked about this strange spire upon which I was leaning and he shrugged and informed me that they could have used the other spire instead, but that the pots for the trees matched this one, and so this was the one that was erected for the temple. Then, he grinned and told me "Or so the legend says."

I wondered about that, curious to find out more about this island with strange and beautiful sights, isolated from everywhere else with a content and innocent quiet folk.

- Traveling Uncle Nat. :)

09/06/00