Tribal Legends - Traveling Soul
#5 of Tribal Legends
Tribal Legends
a suite of stories
Written down and translated by Sharpfang '99.
You can copy this story freely as long as no contents are changed
Traveling Soul
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The Story of Air.
A tribal legend by Aris, translated and written down by Sharpfang.
No dedication
The tree was cold. The wind was extremely strong and the frost was draining all power from any living being there. The lone pine was the last in the wedge of trees reaching from the forest far behind. The plains and the lake were now one, covered with a thick layer of ice and became hard like ice snow. Another tree would have fallen long time ago, but this pine lived there for a long time and thrived in such conditions, and so struggling in the torturous cold, it survived.
A lone wolf came to the edge of the forest, looking for prey but decided that the lake was too cold, too windy and too dangerous that day, turned back and trotted back into the forest.
A human came. He was wearing a very thick coat made of animal furs, carrying an axe in hand, with a hood covering his head so that only his eyes were visible. Stumbling, he walked to the tree. Unlike in the forest, here he could stand on the surface of the hard snow, not sinking. He lifted his axe to hit the tree.
"Mother Nature, help me!" prayed the tree. And Mother helped. The wind blew stronger than ever. It hit the man and he fell down. Pushed by the wind, like a leaf he began sliding away on the smooth surface of the snow.
Fear clutched the heart of the man. The wind was playing with him like with a toy. He finally stabilised his run, dug into the snow with his heels but the force of the wind threw him high up, and then dropped.
The ice cracked under the weight of the falling body, and the man lay still in a hole in soft snow under the iced snow's surface.
After he had rested, he crawled out. The wind was lighter, so he could crawl to the forest. Then he went back to pick up the axe he had left near the pine. It was there. He picked it up and headed back to the tree. He saw a wolf near the tree. He lifted his axe wanting to attack the wolf, but Mother Nature witnessed the scene, and called the wind's help again. The wolf ran away and the wind struck the man again. He dropped the axe and was pushed violently for the second time. This time his run on the snow was much shorter. In a quick jump he made another hole in the surface of the snow and waited for the wind to subside a bit. Then he crawled out again and retreived his axe. He decided that cutting down the tree would be too dangerous, so he walked to some other, growing in the forest a few steps further down.
He will never learn - sighed the Mother. The wind struck from other direction. This time the man didn't drop the axe. Pushed by incredible force he slid onto the surface of the lake, where smooth, thick ice covered the water and all the snow was blown away. The man hit the surface with his axe to stop but the wooden shaft broke, and the piece of metal in the ice was left behind.
The man looked forward. He was heading towards a group of rocks, that were a small rocky island in the summer. Now they looked to be his imminent death. He prayed to his God, "God, please, help me!", but his God was too busy giving strength to those who fought a war for his glory. The man thought then that his only chance was to jump over the rocks. They were high, but he was moving very fast too. Good position, a strong plunge with his heels, and he jumped, flew, and felt terrible pain in both legs. He lay still in a thick pile of soft snow on the other side of the rocks. His legs, from the knees down, ached terribly. He looked over the snow, seeing a trail of red drops... and both his feet in thick shoes, carried away by the wind, leaving a trail of blood, vanishing in the distance.
The cold dissipated the blood flow from his legs. "God, please, give me the power to get back home," prayed the man, but his God was too busy teaching his new pupils that he will never abandon them if they served him well. So the man lay in the snow, weaker and weaker. Then he prayed: "God, please, my time comes, take me to your kingdom," but he was not the one of the ten thousand most useful ones, so his God ignored him.
Then the man saw a silohuette of an old person, in a coat of icicles. That was The Frost. The Frost spat at him with disgust and turned away. The man felt warm for a moment, and then he felt neither warmth nor coldness. He just saw the old silhouette vanishing in the distance.
Another being was flying around the lake. Wild and unpredictable, aggressive and cruel. The Wind, the one with transparent face, on transparent wings, flew around the man, but didn't come closer, as if disgusted.
Dusk came and the man saw a thousand riders on black pegasi painting the sky black. And then a lady of unseen beauty in a black dress came and began hanging the stars on it. Once she looked at him, but he saw only despise and disgust in her look. And then a silver charriot with many silver horses arrived. And it was the Moon.
At the dawn a thousand blue pegasi riders rode through the sky, painting it blue again and a golden charriot rode from behind the horizon, but The Wind and The Frost placed a big shield against it, that kept its light weak and cold. A young girl in bright blue dress picked the stars and put them to a basket she was carrying. She was smiling and dancing on the sky but when she looked at the man, she turned her face away, looking offended.
The man heard a song of prayer sung by the wolves and for the first time he heard the other prayers - of trees, different animals and all the live beings of the world, thanking Mother Nature for the new day. And then he heard her response, the most beautiful song he ever heard, greeting all the live beings, but not him. And so he felt very sad.
Many beings were passing by and looking at him. The Snow, The Aurora, The Pegasi of Day and Night, many animals, ghosts of the animals he had killed in his life... They all looked at him with disgust, hate, fear, anger, despise.
Many days passed and The Frost was seen less often. One day a lady in a dress of flowers, with flowers in her hair and cheerful smile on her face came. She planted some tiny seeds on the rock behind the man, but when she looked at him, the smile vanished from her face. She turned away from him and walked away quickly.
A very short time later the ice on the lake began cracking and the man sunk under the surface, into the water. This place looked different than the surface, also different from what he knew. The sirens dancing with fish, beautiful nymphs, but they all avoided him. One day a young eel made his nest in the stomach of the man who felt somewhat happy because of it. A being that didn't feel scared of him, one he was useful for. Other fishes were also nibbling him, and then he felt the part of himself that was alive, that was seeing and feeling, was swallowed by one of the fish. Now he could travel all over the lake, attached to the fish and soon he became a part of that fish. But he couldn't control it, he could just watch and feel.
One day a fish was hunting for smaller fish in shallow waters. Suddenly something knocked it out of the water. It was a young racoon, it caught the fish and ate it. Now the man became a part of the racoon. Bound in its body he was climbing high trees and swimming in the lake and the streams... and one day the racoon was killed by a wolf. Again a duration of interesting life, still not as the master of the body, just as a piece of her belly... And then that day... mating, and the darkness came. The man subconsciously knew what was going on. He would be reborn. His memory would be erased, his fault would be forgiven. He would live as a young wolf, and would be able to sing the song to the Mother Nature and she would reply to him! He was waiting impatiently... He could already hear the sounds of the outside world, he could feel his wolf mother moving...
And then suddenly a rumble and everything became still. Her blood stopped flowing into his body, her heart stopped and his too. He heard voices of humans outside. He felt them skin his mother and left her and him there, without hope. Many weeks later he saw the light of the day. Now he looked around and recognised the place. He was a branch of a tree. Of the pine he had intended to cut down. He was so glad he didn't cut it down then... This was not a very good place, he could spend years here suffering loneliness and despise, but he could watch the miracles of the world again... And one day, without noticing it, he fell down from the tree as a seed in a cone.
When the Lady In Flowers came, she looked at him and he forgot his infamous past. He felt he could start growing. And now he was the first tree in the wedge of the forest.
It wasn't an easy life. The Wind, The Frost, The Storm and other powerful beings often passed by and blessed him with the blessings he would have prefered never to receive. But he was also getting positive blessings. Lady Night was helping him growing and The Day was giving him power to live. He was growing slowly but he was stronger than all the other trees. And what was most important, he sung the prayer to the Mother Nature and she replied to him!
One of many winters came. He was cold. The wind was extremely strong and the frost was draining all power from any living being there. The plains and the lake were now one, covered with thick layer of ice, and hard like the ice snow. A lone wolf came to the edge of the forest, looking for prey but it decided that the lake is too cold, too windy and too dangerous that day, turned back and trotted back towards forest.
A human came. He was wearing a very thick coat made of animal furs, carrying an axe, with hood covering his head so only his eyes were visible. Stumbling he walked to the tree. Unlike in the forest, here he could stand on the surface of the hard snow, not sinking. He lifted his axe to hit the tree.
"Mother Nature, help me!" prayed the tree. But Mother Nature was too busy fighting a battle she was losing, to save another hundred of trees that were being cut down by humans who wanted to build a wooden church for their God.
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Sharpfang 14:51 Sat 24/10 1999