There are many travelers in the mythical world; Tenashar was one of these people, as were many other people, like the travelers who lived on the continent of Uaulsavaeikiphzen or the Sahanavium, sailors that traveled to the western and eastern seas. Some of the merchants used vehicles and horses, or they walked. This is about the travelers who walked all about the mythical world; why they did this is unknown. Were they too poor to own an animal or a self-propelled vehicle? Some of the reasons were very deep and highly personal as they walked; some were called star travelers because they traveled only at night, probably because the nights were more relaxed, especially during winter, and were sometimes considered strange by other people. One of the night travelers said the night was a place of contemplation, the stars brought rejuvenation as if they were talking to the stars, and the stars were companions to a lone traveler. Some night travelers carried a small but mighty telescope that could observe anywhere in the universe. The telescope didn’t look like a tube; it was a carved instrument resembling a bow with an eyepiece; it seemed to contain a mini-vision of the universe. It knew and understood everything in the universe as if it could talk to the universe; this means that those night travelers never almost traveled by day. The day travelers never met the night ones they disappeared or hid.

There were places for night travelers where they could rest; sometimes, they could observe that these dwellings were substantial, then that same night traveler would be amazed to see that same dwelling being taken down as if it were a tent, which it wasn’t, it was a solid structure, that could be dismantled into a backpack size thing and carried away. The resting place for the night was the cube-like place; when they entered the cube, they entered another universe where they could rest in comfort and not worry about the outside world; no one would serve the traveler could only imagine something, the food, and other amenities would be there. Not all cubes were like that; some servants would bring things needed to make the traveler comfortable. The day travelers were of a different type. They would always rest at night and continue their travels during daybreak. They traveled to observe, inquire, write down, and record images of everything they encountered that interested them. What was the reason for their traveling? Some of the things they did were for fun, for the pleasure of travel; for others, it was for business connections, to map a place, probably to bring them up to current date. But some maps were updated automatically; there might have been other reasons for these mapping expeditions. Some places changed rapidly, some day by day, another month by month. Other travelers were migrants seeking another home. Some just traveled for the sake of travel. The sky people traveled from place to place through the air; derogatorily, they were called the “balloon people,” a term they didn’t particularly like. The door people traveled through dimensional doors; these are places they created on their own. There were mind travelers who never physically traveled but traveled through their minds with imagination, creating real businesses they could physically touch. Travelers that journeyed through the ocean, projecting themselves beneath the sea and on its surface, didn’t use boats or ships, but they could create them into physical form and go anywhere along the world’s oceans.

There was a type of map some travelers had that, as they traveled, drew itself with greater detail. The map was not a digital screen when a traveler arrived at a particular location. It could be called a screen with moving images. It was a paper cloth with symbols, lines, color, rendition of land, compass directions, words, and letters that would change with time and location. The map drew itself on its own or with the help of the traveler’s mind. The travelers just thought of a place, and the map would redraw itself. The map could talk to the traveler through telepathy, with words and symbols that appeared on the map or speak in an actual voice. These maps could also become relief maps, with two-dimensional representations of elevations and a physical form of mountain high places and plateaus.

Traveler’s maps were sometimes personal or cultural, the symbols or ways of representing certain lands, bodies of water, cities, towns, or anything else other travelers had not recognized many. Some had the outlines of land and ocean, triangular symbols, strange symbols resembling unknown letters, and overlapping transparent bars with lines going through them, almost representing musical scales. Some maps looked abstract, with splotches of color and symbols that looked like branches; these weren’t representations of rivers; they could have represented the direction of other travelers and mountains, sometimes personal characters. All types of symbols of expression were possible on a map. Signs appeared on the map from the thoughts of the traveler or mapmaker. Many of the characters are personal and cultural.

Maps on paper can turn into a relief maps with three-dimensional images of light; the symbols appear on the map. There was nothing special about the article; the three-dimensional image originated from the traveler’s mind. Some maps had no photos, just blank paper; then images appeared from the traveler’s mind. Travelers also used maps of the mind and their thoughts; the images can be recalled as if the map is physically in front of them. Some travelers travel with the stars of the night as if they can speak with those distant suns.

People made their way overland to the sea using a vehicle called a sun ship, which was powered by the sun’s solar energy. The sails were solar collectors; unlike conventional solar panels, these pulled in the sun’s energy with more significant attraction and power. The sun ships had their power source as a backup to the solar. The power source came from another universe that was artificially created by human beings, and it was called a power source universe. The ship could store its solar energy and batteries; a third power source was water; the engines also used water. This ship didn’t need much navigation; beams emanated from land that would guide the ship to its destination.

Wide roads existed where travelers had an assurance of their destination; some of these highways also accommodated self-propelled vehicles. Under these highways, underground arteries were going in the same direction as other divergent pathways. Some travelers made their ways known to them at different times, discovered and known to others. There were pathways to unknown places into mountains and crystal towers; some of these towers resembled the insides of a sea shell with spiraling stairs leading into the clouds. There had been rumors that mountain travelers entered the inner regions of the mountains and traveled deep within the mountains. Maybe they are looking for pure spring water.

Image travelers who are wanderers never seem to have a home because they are looking for something. That’s why they wander, perhaps until they find something they can stop walking. What is this thing they are searching for? Some people say that travelers are trying to find themselves.

Out towards the southwestern seas, there is a long straight causeway (smooth, shiny octagon pathway) raised high from the ocean. Travelers go onto these sea roads to journey to a structure resembling a jellyfish with light levels in its inner area with landscapes and sky rivers. Some say there are priests there, where they can reach their ultimate goal of achieving higher grades. Some people found them to be ruined or as a place recently built. As for others, this was considered the proper path for all travelers. Perhaps one priest never wished certain people to enter their realm; they would find ruins. A sea path could lead up to the sky to nowhere. The traveler would come onto a sizeable transparent plane and clouds, and a path led into a forest or maze of places before ending up in the woods. Along the sea paths, there are places to stay that come up from the ocean; they are small structures, humble, just one room, and no one accommodates them; they appear to be rounded structures, but when travelers leave them, they somehow mysteriously become clean ready for the next occupant. The round facilities are comfortable and large but humble; some have stilts that support them from the ocean floors. Others seem to hang there from the sky from cords with no attachments or origins of what they are hanging from, and no one ever discovered where the cables were connected. Others float and stay in one place. People who walk along these sea paths mainly do it for pleasure. Only a few seem to visit the priests.

Travelers go to shrines that celebrate nature; others respect certain historical people. Some travel only to get free food, places to stay along traveling routes and serve good things to eat. As said before, some are in pursuit of knowledge, some to find star fields, where in specific locations, almost any part of the universe appears regardless of place in the sky. Many travels for the pleasure of doing anything they wish. But there are many more wonders to see in the mythical world. Some waterspouts originate from the ground that shoots up to the sky, a place of burning glass, with decorative elements never done by human hands. A waterfall a thousand paces across, falling to forty miles below. Traveling in the mythical world can be a treat.

Robert J. Matsunaga