Morning sunlight spilled from the edge of the sky across the quiet wilderness.
Anke raised his head and looked out the window at the mountain range and the grand city beyond it. He took a deep breath. "I'm back." "Is that Visen?" He Ao's voice sounded beside his ear.
"Yes." Anke pointed to the city beyond the mountains. "That's Visen."
The city stood on a flat valley floor among the mountains. A winding river seemed to enter from behind it, run through the entire city, then flow out along the valley.
The city appeared to have filled every bit of usable valley floor. Some sections of its towering walls had even been built on the cliffs.
The foundations of some buildings jutted beyond the flat ground, as if towers had been squeezed up out of the plain.
"What's that river called?" He Ao asked.
"That river's been there as long as Visen has, I think," Anke said softly. "We call it the Katla River. The name's a bit of a mouthful. We don't know when people started calling it that, but it's been there for as long as Visen has."
He paused, realizing the river's name sounded strangely familiar.
He turned it over in his mind for a moment, then asked quietly, "Old sir, did Kwotela have a river like that back then?"
"Yes," He Ao said slowly. "That river was called Kwotela. It meant 'great river at the bottom of the valley.' That's where the city got its name."
"Could they be the same river?" Anke mused. "Kwotela and Katla sound a lot alike." "The pronunciation may have changed over the years," He Ao said calmly. He was not particularly surprised; he had guessed as much long ago.
The Floating Fighter Jet began to descend toward a relatively flat