The Pole Shift

Sassafras Speaks

It took moments for Sassafras to realise the people wanted her to guide them. With that came grappling uncertainty. Guide them how? Sassafras stood motionless, apart from swiping chestnut curls from her eyes with an agitated hand. Two sisters had followed her from the Earth Bunkers and now they moved to each shoulder. One of the oldest men spoke:

"The Young Lord Vet has set out on Quest. The Smiling Face Captains found stone houses on an island many days away! We may have friends or foe!" The man paused, looked on the three females then suddenly spoke softly. " With what activity should we wait for their return, Sassafras?" The man, ravaged by a difficult life, was perhaps forty. He looked at Sassafras hopefully, and her intuition warned her - how she answered must be careful. Old She tensed at her left shoulder sensing challenge. Her body was mature and knotted with muscle born of work and difficulty. Old She had grabbed Sassafras's arm as they had left the Earth Bunkers. I am for you, she had whispered and Sassafras knew it was the truth. The youngest She, at pre adolescence, followed without thought. Her remaining Earth Bunker Sister had not trailed, instead insisting the crab broth must be tended to.

Sassafras felt comforted by the two, even Old She. Sassafras announced:

"The Lord Vet says to work. New work. Who has an idea?" The people muttered on crowded Flat Head Rock. Work, ideas? They had hoped for answers born not of themselves, not that their nescient minds weren't yearning to be challenged, but they wanted to see why Sassafras, a young teenage girl had been given custody of them. A humour was born and a mischievous boy said:

"We need a shipping container full of Crab Broth, make it happen." Laughter greeted the suggestion then someone else recommended:

"The Wild Sheep on High Hill are too fleet to catch, will you go and speak with them? Ask the flock to Flat Head rock for discussion, and dinner." More laughter, but Sassafras remembered a moment of conversation with The Lord Vet - Don't you remember your stories? The Witch Woman stole the hounds. She stepped forward and said:

"Who remembers the Witch Woman?" Silence met the question. No one alive had seen the Goddess, but the stories were powerful and filled them with dread. She saw the crossing of fingers, the sign they used to ward off malevolence. Every eye was on her now and laughter had fled like the wild sheep they had joked about. Her sisters felt the swing and Old She put a hand on Sassafras's shoulder as she continued:

"The Witch Woman stole the hounds, the first Lord Vet had power over them. They were fast," Sassafras made a hand motion with fingers as legs, mimicking a running animal "they were fierce!" She snapped her hands together. Her theatrical story telling had them spell bound. "They could catch sheep!" The people were now nodding. Sassafras finished by announcing:

'We need them back."

"How to?" It was the older man who had spoke first. "Perhaps the Sun and Moon will visit the Island, they will tell us?"

"The Sun and Moon have not been here since they delivered Toorak, the second Lord Vet. Toorak taught us to look to ourselves for answers, he has set us on a path we cannot shake unless we are destroyed. Who prefers destruction than sucking limpets off rocks? Who prefers striding forward rather than hiding in our ancestors ruins?" Sassafras spoke with feeling and animation, her clever hands shaped her words as she spoke. The people nodded at first, then there were shouts of avowal. She had won them. Sassafras continued:

" There remains one Smiling Face boat, who is it's captain?" A man stepped forward and nodded, maintaining eye contact. Sassafras knew him as one of the people but no more, he was robust and clear skinned, his dress was careful and clean and he had the look of one who admires detail. "Prepare. Tonight I visit the Wizard. He will tell you where to sail."