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STORIES
Kibi and the Search for Happiness
2010
Rini and the Old Slave
2010
Buna's New World
2011
First Taste of Freedom
2011
Neti's Temptation
2012
What're Friends For?
2012
Sata's Strength
2012
Boro and Sata
2012
Buna's Search
2013
The Magic Needle
2014
Still Voices
2016
Floating Away
2016
The Lonely Space Dragon
2016
This page begins with images, descriptions, and backstories for Ilika, the ten original students, and their one travelling companion. Farther down on the page you will find lists of the secondary characters.
In Book One, he reveals that he left his original home at age 8, and studied and trained on ships from age 10. He is in his early 20's as the story begins, and must find and train his own crew as a final test to become a ship's captain.
He is deeply touched by events around him, but able to quietly use his perception and intuition before committing himself to action. Although young and inexperienced, he obviously has a broad education, a long perspective, and a noticeable lack of human fears. He is clearly from "somewhere else."
BACK-STORY:
Shaggy-haired and almost 17, she is a person of the heart, but has become strong and practical after a childhood with simple parents, then many years of slavery.
An intuitive, Kibi gathers information from many sources other than her eyes and ears. She listens to her "heart," which includes all the small, still voices of the universe. This allows her to see the subtle patterns around her and sense dangers before most people.
She is immediately drawn to Ilika during the test day, and quickly becomes the student he can rely on to lead well and make good decisions, even with little time to think.
BACK-STORY:
An innkeeper's daughter, Sata is a member of the very small medieval middle class. She began working full-time at her parents' inn as soon as she was old enough, about age 5. As the story begins, she is 10, and still acts a bit childish around her parents, but craves to sink her teeth into something challenging, which her work at the inn is not.
BACK-STORY:
Fourteen years old as the story begins, Boro is large and muscular, but also shy and clumsy. Unlike Kibi, who excells at language skills, and Sata, who is good with numbers, Boro's gift is with things he can see and feel. Even though he is at first timid, he quickly shows Ilika that he is extremely reliable and has leadership potential.
BACK-STORY:
As the healer discovered, Mati's bad knee was an injury in early childhood. Although perhaps deeply scarred by a life experience that would crush most people, she has a strong spirit and a determination to succeed, even though she has no idea how that could be possible, given her handicap.
BACK-STORY:
Rini has a personality and a value system that is always very rare. In some societies, he would be respected as a mystic, shaman, priest, or prophet. In others, he would just scrape by, staying in the bottom rungs of society, perhaps being some kind of artist. In either case, he would be happier than most people could imagine.
BACK-STORY:
Sixteen and committed to Neti before the story begins, Miko is intense and romantic, but also very respectful. His weakness can be glimpsed in Book One by a very observant reader, but will not really show until the group is in the wilderness in Book Two.
BACK-STORY:
One of those rare people who can gracefully experience humiliation that would deeply wound most people, Neti's dream is to have a real home and her own family. Shortly before the story begins, Miko offered her that possibility, even though neither one, at the time, knew how it could happen.
BACK-STORY:
Some people might criticize Neti for not feeling her humiliation during slavery, and the death of her mother, more deeply. This is an example of the "point of view fallacy," explained on the Fallacies page.
Probably the most intelligent student in the group, his lack of social and emotional maturity soon comes to light. He develops a relationship with Buna, but time will tell whether or not he has the maturity to keep her.
BACK-STORY:
Not afraid to be different, Buna has crude and quirky mannerisms that have protected her through years of slavery. Her strength only reveals itself during the weeks of travel through the wilderness in Books Two and Three.
BACK-STORY:
At age 12, Kodi's obvious intelligence causes Ilika to choose him, but the boy's ethical values are not yet visible.
BACK-STORY:
BACK-STORY:
Remember them?
Below is a list of all the secondary characters, the ones we got to know a little, sometimes more than a little, usually (but not always) learned their names, and then had to say good-bye as they (in one way or another) departed the story.
Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four
Book Five
Book Six
Book Seven
Book Eight
Book Nine
Book Ten (Escape from Sonmatia Two)
Ilika
"My father was drunk half the time, my mother was afraid of everything and everybody, and my older sister tormented me constantly. I had no friends - all the boys wanted to be big, strong factory workers like their fathers, and all the girls wanted to get married and have babies. I spent all my free time on a little flat roof I could get to by crawling out a window. I could see the factories all around me, and the smoke stacks belching fumes day and night.
"But the real reason I went up there was to look at the stars. I couldn't see very many, but every night I would send a wish up to a different star, until my sister started yelling for me to do chores.
"I was eight years old when I was offered a chance to leave. I was on a long walk alone in the barren hills overlooking the town, and the only thing I had with me was a toy animal I would talk to. I was afraid that if I went back home for anything, I'd lose my chance, so I just held my toy and didn't look back.
"For the next two years, I had to learn countless things about my new home. I didn't even speak the language at first. One class I took showed me all the different professions I could follow. I had always liked ships, so when I was ten, I chose the Transport Service.
"For the next nine years I studied and worked on ships, eventually learning every job that most ships have. Then I applied for a command, and after two more years of study, I was given a little ship and my final exam, to find and train my own crew. So here I am."
Kibi
"I've always felt I was in the wrong place," Kibi said from her heart when they returned from lunch. The others all gathered to listen.
"I've always loved words, especially important words that say a lot. I learned quickly that I couldn't ask my parents about words. The list Ilika gave us this morning would have been enough for them. So I talked to every traveler who came by. When my father found out, he started beating me and telling me strangers were dangerous."
Everyone could see she was holding in tears.
"By the time I was eight, everyone around knew I was smarter than my parents. When another farmer came by to trade something, he'd talk to me first. So my parents told me that if I was so smart ..." She stopped to deal with her deep feelings. "If I was so smart, I should go off on my own.
"They were wrong," she continued with mixed sadness and anger. "I needed them. But I went, because I was really tired of the beatings. I didn't last long, of course. Once I was a slave, most of the masters liked me because I could figure out how to do complicated things. But their wives hated me. I knew words they didn't know. I knew how to do things they couldn't. So they had me beaten and whipped when their husbands weren't around. I learned to keep my mouth shut."
Sata
"I used to think my life was rough, but now I know I was wrong. You guys have been through a lot more than I have, and I'm really glad you're my friends now."
"You've worked hard and had few choices too," Kibi said with sympathy. "We're glad you're our friend."
"I've probably had some choices ... I don't know ... but the first time I ever opened my mouth and said I wanted something was to be tested by Ilika. And I'm sure glad I did. I've always wanted to learn things, but there was never anyone to ask, except ... you know, my mother about cooking and sewing and stuff. Even though we've just started, already the things I'm learning are swirling around in my head. I think I counted dots in my dreams last night ..."
The room erupted with laughter.
"The truth is ... my parents are going to give the inn to my brother, and I'm sure he'd let me work here, but someday he'll probably get married, and then there would be two women running the inn ..."
"Bad idea," Buna said with a scrunched face.
"Yeah. And ... there's something out there I want to find, something I don't know anything about yet, but I want to keep looking until I find it."
Boro
The silence stretched for nearly a minute and a dark shadow came over Boro. His eyes looked far away as he began to tell his story.
"My earliest memory is living on a cattle ranch, maybe four years old, but I can't see it clearly. I think I was happy. Then I remember a day when someone said there was a stampede, and I never saw my mother and father again.
"After that I lived with aunts and uncles, but they were always saying I was too gentle for man's work, too clumsy for woman's work. They would make me take a cow on a lead rope from one ranch to another, which was way too dangerous for a little kid. Twice I lost the cow and got whipped for it.
"One day I was walking a cow and a soldier came by. He didn't believe me when I told him where I lived, said that if someone cared about me, they'd come to the guard house to pay my fine and get me out. No one showed, so I became a slave.
"I guess I'm still too gentle and too clumsy. The last master I had made me wash dishes. I broke one and he jabbed me with the broken piece."
Mati
"But ... someone already said the answer," she whimpered in a voice close to tears. "Someone else always gets to do things instead of me, it's always been like that, all my life."
Sata put her arm around the trembling girl, and Ilika came close to listen to what she had to say.
"I guess I had parents once, but they just passed me around from one relative to another. The other kids had copper pieces to spend, but not me. The other kids got to learn how to cook, or garden, or keep animals, but not me. I think my parents eventually forgot who I was staying with, and the relatives forgot I was a relative.
"For a while I slept in a shed with the slave, a big, simple boy who was kind and kept me warm. I helped him weed the garden sometimes, and that made me so happy. But then the relative got sick, his farm was sold, and I went with the slave.
"I've been sold and resold many times since then. I'm worth a little silver piece at the most, sometimes just a few coppers ..." Her words broke into deep sobs as Sata and Neti surrounded her with their arms.
Rini
"I'm the last at something else too," the slender lad said. "I've listened to everyone tell their stories, but I haven't told mine. Every time someone tells about how they got into slavery, it makes my stomach all twisted into knots, especially the girls dealing with ... you know. My story is very different. I chose to be a slave."
Looks of shock and disbelief came to almost everyone. Only Ilika didn't seem too surprised.
"I wasn't very old when I realized I didn't want to be like other people. Everyone around me, even my parents and my brothers and sisters, were hurting themselves, using each other, and abusing all the wonderful animals and plants. Everywhere I looked people were taking beautiful things and making them ugly ... taking truth and changing it into lies ... and making good into bad. It made my stomach twist up just like your stories do.
"I began walking into the woods and the hills, as far as I could go. At first my father would whip me when I got back. But I kept going, walking for hours, then all day, then several days. My father finally gave up when he realized I wasn't taking any food with me, just finding things in the wild.
"One day I met a man. He told me what it was like being a slave, since he had been one. I knew I didn't want to be a slave all my life, but I decided it might help me understand people. So I became a slave and it taught me many, many things. But now I'm really happy I'm with all of you."
Miko
"Yeah. I was about nine. I hated my mother, 'cause everything had to be done exactly her way. Even if me or my brother knew a better way, she'd beat us if she caught us. If we asked why we had to do it her stupid way, she'd just say, 'Because I said so!' and then she'd beat us for asking.
"My father would never lift a finger to her. She even told him exactly how to do things, and he'd say, 'Yes, Honey,' and then do it the way he knew was best.
"I don't regret leaving home, but I should have waited a little longer. I just left one day when she made me really mad, and I didn't have anything but the clothes I was wearing. I wish I'd waited another year or two, saved up some coppers and stuff. I lasted about a week, stealing food from gardens and cellars. Then I got caught and I've been a slave ever since."
Neti
"With our new clothes, can we go into Cobble Town?" Neti asked, a huge smile on her face. "I used to live there."
Many eyes turned in her direction with a mixture of shock and wonder.
"Tell us all about it!" Buna said from across the table after quickly swallowing a bite.
"You can wait for the privacy of our room if you want," Ilika said.
"I don't care. Miko knows. I've had three different masters who bought me for ... you know ... affection. Two of them lived in Cobble Town. But even though I've lived there, I could never go out and see anything."
"How did you become a slave?" Kibi asked.
"I think my parents couldn't pay their taxes or something like that. I was about six. I saw my mother in a slave compound about two years ago. She was dying."
Toli
"I was very young, so I'm not sure if I remember it right. I know my mother died. Then it seemed like my father had a new wife right away. For a while I was really confused, 'cause my father wanted me to think she was my mother.
"The only problem was, she hated me - at least that's what it felt like. I think she wanted a slave, but my father wouldn't get one. So she used me for one."
"So you were a slave before you were a slave," Buna said with understanding.
"Yeah. Then my father died, so there was nothing to stop her from treating me like a slave. I slept in the shed, worked all day ... you know. But it made me mad, so I didn't do things very well. By that time I was about ten.
"Eventually she started running out of money, so she sold most of the land, and then she sold me. I yelled and screamed that I was her step-son and she couldn't sell me, but no one listened."
Toli paused to deal with the painful memory. After swallowing several times, he continued. "I think my father was smart, and would have taught me many things, but we just didn't have time ..."
Buna
"Can I tell my story now?" Buna asked as they splashed and frolicked in the bathing pool later that afternoon.
"Sure," Ilika said, "unless you want the privacy of our room."
"No, I want to do it while I'm in a good mood. If I let myself get gloomy about it, I might throw things or kill someone."
Ilika and the other students sensed she was at least half-serious, so they gave her their complete attention.
The story began with a very poor family who lived in one small room somewhere in Rumble Town. Buna remembered clearly the day, sometime during the winter of her seventh year, when her mother, tears streaming down her face, explained that her father was dead, and there was only one way they could both survive the winter. A strange man handed her mother a coin and took Buna, kicking and screaming, to the slave compound.
As the years passed, Buna saw how the pretty girls were used by men, so she hardened herself and did everything possible to make herself ugly and crude.
"I guess it worked. I know it made me kind of ... rough. It was just what I had to do. I don't blame Neti for doing it differently. And if I'm ever rough with any of you ... it's not because I want to be ... it's just a habit."
Kodi
"You see," Rini began, "we know a lot more about Kodi than you do."
"Kodi's been a thief all his life," Buna blurted out. "Always stealing from his masters."
"We don't much care about that ..." Kibi began.
"But he's a snitch, too," Miko spat out. "Always ratting on other slaves. If a master offered an extra potato to find out who'd been goofing off, Kodi was always right there, naming names and pointing fingers."
"The really funny part," Neti said, shaking her head, "is that he always goofed off as much as anyone else."
Misa
Three more times that day the strange guide led donkey and people back into the smoke, each time finding a child petrified with fear or howling with grief, not daring to venture closer to the devastated town, not willing to leave. A seven-year-old girl was barefoot so Ilika carried her on his shoulders.
...
"I was up on the hill playing, and saw my parents running away from the fire, toward the capital road," Misa announced, trying to act grown-up like the others who had just made their reports.
Doko, Mosa, son
Tori, wife, son
slave master
Jobi, Namo, Pica
Doti, Tibo
Zini
high priest
captain of the guard
sage
Tera
Keni, wife, Kora
Noni, Ri, Bo
Port Town healer
Kit
Port Town baker
Tati
Rosi
Kamo, uncle Boti
Koto, wife, sons, daughters, Josa
young goatherd
old shepherd
high priestess
Kali
Cattle Town guards
Doko, Mosa, son
Tori
Doti, old woman
Ss'klexna Rrr'tak-fi
high priest
trader
rich man, middle daughter
Timod Gor, Risan Gor
Drrrim-na
King Zolko
Councilors Ganlo, Memna, Sarto
Nosta
Dakalio
K'stimla
Drrrim-na
Glorm
Sorrano, Rossilia
Krish-ka
Toran Takil, Silmula Sorafax
G'sonk
Memsala
Sss'rol'ti
Trekila Spimalo
Captain Kam'rrral-ta
K'storpo
M'palta
T'shlix
Tizoromulia, Timorafilia, Timorasimia, Timorazonia, Timoradalia, Timoratamia
Liberty Buchanan, Senator Michael Buchanan, Harold Neils
Shawn Mitchell, Reverend Tommy Mitchell, wife
Reverend Walker
Ashley Riddle, mother, father
Nancy
Rebecca, Jacob
Claudia, Randy, Joan, Sheena, Howard, Tim, Maria
Rachael
Sarah
Clyde
Chad
Kenneth, Marscha
Jenny
Malcolm
Metateron
Ashley
T'sss'lisss
Kolarrr'ka
Jimox, Teina
Rrr'tana
Brora
Giona
Kasssor-k'm
Syble Ko-korna
Jan Ko-korna, a.k.a. Heather, a.k.a. Priscilla Ka-mentha
General Malcolm Ko-fenral
Major/Colonel Lisa Ka-markla
General Samuel Bo-seklin
Major/Colonel Sarah Ma-soran
Colonel/General George Ba-kerga
Sergeant/Lieutenant Ben Ta-Nibon
Captain Drinn-tala
Shemultavia
Corporal/Lieutenant Ginny Do-forva
Corporal Matthew Tu-lorat
Maria Ta-benro
Simon
Mark
Mandy, mother
Doctor Susan Bo-kamla, psychologist
Doctor Richard Tu-feltin, historian
Doctor Chris Po-selem, physicist
Doctor Larry Bo-leden, philosopher
Doctor Betty Ko-silma, chemist
Doctor To-marin, climatologist
Colonel/Doctor John Bo-torin, political scientist
Brian Lo-saran
Sergeant Rachael Ma-tirol
Doctor Tanya Po-morna, biologist
Doctor Ko-rensis, anthropologist
Professor Dennis Ma-zolen, agriculture
Doctor Jargen Bo-tora, non-renewable resources
Doctor Donella Po-tirel, pollution
William Ko-poran, industrial output
Harold To-kamra
Tiffany Ko-moran
General Ko-doran
Doctor Jean Bo-hilson, languages
Kelatorrra
Ashley, T'sss'lisss, Kolarrr'ka
Malika-Terno
Toran Takil
Ss'klexna Rrr'tak'fi
Trekila Spimalo
Memsala
Mayor Do-salan
Colonel Bo-hefra
Tir
Dem
Jin
Tik
Bel
Fen
Fim
Tol
Ril
Bim
Min
Dil
Sim
Feli-tala Rima
Book by Book
Book One:
The Test
Spring 2010
Book Two:
Journey
Summer 2010
Book Three:
Selection
Fall 2010
Book Four:
Flight Training
Spring 2011
Book Five:
Back to the Stars
Fall 2011
Book Six:
Star Station
Summer 2012
Book Seven:
The Local Universe
Summer 2013
Book Eight:
Witness
Summer 2014
Book Nine:
A Cry for Help
Summer 2015
Book Ten:
Stories from Sonmatia
Summer 2016
Copyright © 2009-2017
by J. Z. Colby
unless otherwise attributed