The Gods Among Us

Chapter 9 - After The Loss of Tata

After the loss of Tata, everyone returned to their homes in groups. This is not only harvest time for us, but in the abundance of life, for the leopard who also has an abundance of harvesting available to him, I told my gathering. But we still broke out into song and dance to give thanks to Ocean.

The next day, the Sun rose quickly and as I stood on the rock where Julie passed, I felt it would be a good harvest. Protus brought an abundant flock to shore. The sands were littered with seals and even more on the low-lying lying salt rocks. A fire was lit. And in the early morning light, we sacrifice the first kill to Julie and Orius.

It was a fat day, and as always, I threw the first spear, because that is the way the old ones did it.

But long ago, I found it better and easier to use nets made from the fibrous vines particular to the palms of the area. And we caught a great deal of the beasts. And my clan would use that method from then on.

Those who are good swimmers and can fight the strong current, stand guard with spears keeping an eye out for the sharks that inevitably arrive soon after the first blood is spilt.

Once, when Julie was still alive, we saw a black monster, and he feasted heavily on the seals, and that helped to force them onto the shore. They were afraid to venture out in the water and seemed confused about what to do when we approached. This shark was different from the rest because he would jump out of the water and catch the seals in his large mouth and thrash them back and forth to kill them quickly. But this monster was black and white, and a great beast to behold. His back fin was at least the height of a man and could be seen far out in the water.

Julie was squatting over the first kill, slicing open its belly, and reaching inside, ever deeper to find its heart when she heard the commotion from those who had already seen the great creature. She looked up from the bloody entrails and peered out into the waves. Then she quickly stood and pointed and screamed, Orca. I thought she was calling the name of an Ori we hadn't heard of before, and many of us gazed into the sky. She was jumping wildly as though her feet burned from the hot sand, and pointing into the water screaming Orca, Orca, look at the Orca, and she walked into the waves smiling. Wow, she said, I ain't never seen one of them in real life before. It's so beautiful. And she looked around at those of us gathered near her, and cooed, Ain't it perty?

I'm here to tell you that I didn't go swimming during harvest for that entire season. Yes, it was perty, but the next year one of those black and white sea creatures washed up on shore and lay there a good while before anyone found enough courage to get close enough to hear its plaintive moans. I figured that this thing was sent to us by Ocean as a gift because we had been rather short on fish up till then since the dry season came. But Julie later told us that they just wash up on shore every now and then and no one ever knew why.

Not even the Ori?

Not even the Ori.

Some of the young men wanted to kill the beast immediately, they wanted the teeth as trophies of their prowess, but I gave them a look that stopped them short. I am Jason Blue Eyes, and they obeyed. Julie came running down to the shore and approached slowly, mouth agape and in obvious awe. She stood next to me.

Back home, she said in a near whisper, people used to try and save the poor bastards thinking it was God's will that they have to live. Those gathered drew close to listen to her words.

But then even if they did succeed in getting them back into the water, the stupid things would just wash up again some other time, the Ocean just spits them out.

Then she turned to the boys who were going to kill it and told them to make a fire. Fires were still sacred to those boys because their parents were of the old folks from before we arrived. Fire was still magical, but the one boy looked almost ebullient. He was the defiant one of the group and by winter's end, I would have to kill him when he challenged me for the leadership of the clan. He was a large and squarely built man of 17 years, and his name was Teaki, and he ran with a welter of younger men who feared him as much as admired him.

He was as black as the black of the Orca lying on the beach before us, and his hair was a long curly brown. He claims his grandfather killed a band of wild Southern's who tried to steal their women years ago and took for his own the women that came with them. They were a clan of tall pitch black people with long hair down their backs which they coated with fat, and then soil, or sand, and they plaited their hair in long braids and tied bones on the ends. Above their eyes, their foreheads stuck out thick and bony, and their teeth looked like stones set in the massive jaws, heavy and square. Their noses were almost as broad as their mouths and looked like large holes bored into the front of their faces. This is true because I have seen them.

Teaki's arms rippled and he had not a few battle scars of his own. He had reached manhood when he killed his first boar with only a net and a club, and still proudly wore his boar-tooth necklace, which I wear to this day when I lead a hunting party.

It was Kamrasi's pleasure to kill Teaki's grandfather when we arrived to this region, and during that battle, I killed my first man. I was ten. We had to kill many before they were subdued. It was almost sad to see, but Kamrasi and Julie taught the survivors to burn their dead and so send their spirits to the Borealis. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, world without end, amen.

After Julie told the boys to build a fire, Teaki ran to the eternal fire and grabbed a burning brand. His mother later chastised him for that. And with that brand, he started the fire on the beach.

With the fire blaring, Julie took her knife and approached the hulking beast. Its great fin that sprouted out of his back had fallen over and hung flaccidly. We all stood back unsure if it could still move its massive body and maybe roll on top of her. His eyes followed her as she neared.

They faced each other for some time, and it seemed that Julie would back down and walk away, but she turned and took a long spear form my hand thrusting it deep into the Orca behind its eyes. The beast rolled its eyes into its head and convulsed, sighing, and passing gas out its rear end. The boys chuckled.

Then Julie climbed on top of the fish with a knife in her hands and thrust it deep into its back. It had a tough and thick hide and she cut out a small square piece and threw it into the Watersea, and said thanks to Ocean.