Dark Wind's Song

[Joker]

OOC: Trying to kick my imagination into gear as I am having trouble working out my thoughts again. I usually end up writing about five or so stories like this that I never really finish, although it is good practice in me getting my writing where it needs to be again. Thanks to Erdawn for the advice about practicing and not giving up on my writing.

The place is earth, nearly thirteen billion years after all life has been extinguished from her womb. It has taken this long for her second rebirth to come to its climax. All the remnants of her inhabitants who once roamed her seas, lands and airs are now gone. And in their place new life has sprung about from their ashes. Animals and all manner of creatures begin to breath and walk once again. Creatures never before born to this world during its first cycle of life are now roaming the lands. Animals that lived in different times from their ancestors now share in the same warm light that comes from the burning Sun. And when the world is once more ready for them, the nation of man is born. They begin as simple creatures learning the ways of the new world around them. It does not take long however for the nature of man to rise to the surface and feed the nation of men’s desire to conquer and dominate over the other creatures of this earth. As they grow in strength and numbers and begin to understand science and magic, a very odd thing happens upon the earth that had not happened before.

A second nation of men is born, a nation mixed with the various breeds of the animals of the earth. They are called the Yaqui, and although they appear as humans they can take the form of the animal family they have been born into. This nation of men in particular are closer to the creatures and animals of the earth and shy away from their cousins whose weakness run strong in their blood as well. The weakness of greed and power swells in the hearts of men and it serves as both the basis for their existence as well as their eventual destruction. Yet this time, the creatures and animals themselves share a strong bond with humanity. For Mother Nature has made them like men, they talk and think as men do. They act upon logic as well as instinct and can this time defy those how would be their masters. As time repeats itself so do the actions of those living with in its endless stream. War is born and the nations of men faction off into those seeking peace and harmony with the creations of mother earth and those who seek only to dominate and force their will upon all life.

The time is now at a crucial point were a battle between the opposing factions can once again wipe out life from the planet. A great warrior from the nation of men has risen; his name is Memnock. Memnock is the leader of the largest nation of men, the faction that seeks to control all life on this planet and bring every creature under his rule.

Kaldor, a 7 foot lion and ruler of the western kingdom arrives at the meeting place. The king of the southern lands Twix the grandfather Dragon follows closely behind. Soon the two leaders of men arrive together. Shala-vel and Wild Horse, one the Queen of the East and the other the King of the North represent the only nations of men left that do not side with Memnock. They have gathered at a sacred place once called ‘stone hedge’ by the old kingdom to speak of an omen that has visited the leader of each nation in a dream.

Kaldor: “ I take it that many of you have received this same vision as I, or else our meeting here to night would not be possible”

Shala-vel: “ Yes lord Kaldor, the voice of the mother earth whispered to me and told me of this place. And that light would be born of pure darkness.”

Twix: “ Yes, light born from darkness, these words have echoed in my mind for days upon end. What do you think they mean?”

Kaldor: “ Of that I know not, only that the Memnock has unlocked a great power deep with in the tomb of the earth. A power that was sealed by the mother earth herself, swallowed up into her womb so that it may never be used against her or any of her children again.”

Wild Horse: “ Memnoch has freed this device of power, a device from the old world one with the power of the sun itself…..”

Kaldor: “ Wild Horse, I am happy that you chose to come, I know that your wife is with child and may give life any day”

Wild Horse: “ Thank you lord Kaldor, as leader of the Yaqui nation it is my duty to be here and discuss the meaning of the mothers vision”

Shala-vel: “ Kaldor, this vision of light being born of darkness, perhaps it speaks of Wild Horse and Wind's child? His wife Wind is the sister of Memnoch is she not?”

Wild Horse: “ You speak of my family with a loose tongue fairy queen, mind you that my wife is not cut from the same cloth as that bastard Memnoch!!”

Kaldor: “ Oh but she is lord Wild Horse, her fathers blood is the very same that runs through Memnoch. We all know your wife not to be of the same mind as her brother, her innocent mother is to thank for that I know for she was my daughter. Shala-vel speaks truth in so much that Wind may be the darkness from which light will be born.”

Twix: “ Yes! The light that will bathe the world in peace and silence the darkness in men’s hearts as whispered by the mother earth herself.”

Wild Horse: “ Kaldor, Twix, Shala-vel I hear your words and pray that you are all wrong. I would not wish for my child to have such a fate cast upon them.”

Shala-vel: “ Would you rather that fate deal them a destiny where they are a slave to the lord Memnoch who rules the mother earth as her GOD??!”

Kaldor: “Enough !! If Memnoch unlocks the secret of this great power and uses it against the mother earth, then all is lost. Our armies and combined might has served us well to keep the balance in this world, but with this new device in the hands of that evil man the balance will be tipped in his favor. I believe this to be the reason that the mother earth speaks to us of this vision. She must be sending us a sign that the balance will be kept, that into our possession will come a device of great power with which to counter that of Memnochs.”



That was the last night that all four leaders of the nations of men, animals and creatures had gathered together. Now in the protected lands of my people by the light of an eclipsed moon, I listen to Wind my wife scream as she brings life into this world.

Many years have passed since another has been born with the spirit of the ancestors. My son, Black Wind is such a child. For no other child of our tribe, clan or nation has ever been born on the night of a total Lunar Eclipse. The sign of hope, of pure light being born of the darkest magic, and it favors my son the son of a shaman a leader of his people. Even now I look into his newly born eyes and marvel at how the spirits of our ancestors work in him. For just behind those beautiful dark eyes, glow a red hue of energy a type of spiritual energy passed down to him from all the Yaqui elders who have come before. Upon his skin is the mark given only to the Yoeme, a special seal that will allow him to traverse the planes of time and space. He will become strong and he will come to know pain….for the world is such now that only pain and despair await all who dwell in her, and all who dwell in her must be strong. His journey will begin on the fifth moon of his birth. The ways of the spirit and the journey of the mind will be the most difficult for him…..but soon he will grow strong in spirit, mind and body. By the twentieth moon of his birth he will be a man and ready for the trial.

These were my thoughts the night you were born my son. I tell them to you now, so that you may know my faith in you was conceived upon your first breath. Your trials will begin once you leave our protected forest. Keep my teachings and the teachings of our people close to your heart. Never forget that you are Yaqui !! Never !!


I bowed my head to my father and hugged him one last time before I started off. My mind was full of questions as to what lay ahead of me. For the past twenty years all I can remember is nothing but pure training. Learning to speak to spirits, to control animals, to command the winds and seasons. Training in the ways of the ‘Wild Hunt’ and in the healing practices of my people, learning the sacred medicines and herbs. I am given a map of the mother earth showing me all four kingdoms that I must travel. First is the kingdom of my grandfather Kaldor to the southwest. Father tells me that he will teach me the art of Gia…magic of the earth. Then I must travel deeper south to the kingdom of Twix the Dragon Lord, where the secrets of fire will be shown to me. Then East to the princess Shala-bal daughter of the imprisoned Queen, here they will teach me the art of Primus….father never told me what Primus was.


As the light fades and the trail to our nations protected woods disappears into the horizon behind me, I pull from my deerskin pouch my fathers pipe and place a small herb called ‘river bend’ into its piece. I summon a small fire to my finger and ignite the piece as a long drag of air is pulled from the pipe into my lungs. The sweet smoky taste of the ‘river bend’ is like a soft breeze of warm air as it touches my lungs and seeps into my blood stream working its way through my body’s vast network of veins. I can feel my head becoming lighter and my sight is now glossy and more aware of those things, which pass us daily, unnoticed by normal eyes. But not these eyes, these eyes that burn with a red fire behind them, they see all that passes before me. As I walk, the trail of smoke lingers in the air taking shapes of imagination much like the way clouds appear to an astute observer. It is not very long before I encounter an angry spirit wandering through the everglades of Rohiem trail.