The Rise of the Nations

Chapter 1

***Hello! Thank you for reading my first piece. This will be the only time I'll write something at the top like this. I feel like it takes too much away from the story, but since this is the beginning, I have an excuse to add it ^^ Further in the story there will be some adventure and romance (there will be some sexual elements (so watch out all you younger readers)) and some other awesome cool fantasy thingies too. Hope you all enjoy and feel free to leave any comments below~***

It was a Monday night and I was at a hotel bar; not the most shining moment of my life, but it was my 21st birthday and I couldn’t end the day without a drink. I had taken a flight from my home in Philadelphia, all the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the 2014 annual Gathering of the Nations, the largest Native American pow-wow in the Americas. I had always been interested in Native American culture, after discovering my own Native American heritage. It was a part of me I wanted to connect to and learn more about, because of all the things I am mixed with; African American, German, Chinese, none of those parts of me were as surpressed as the Native Americans were and are. I mean, when you go to Fridays, you never see a Native American family sitting together, enjoying a nice dinner. Their struggle reminded me of my own family's struggle; moving from foster home to foster home, finally being adopted but by a family of a different race, the scattering of my siblings to different families in different States, the State which took us away from our parents and the set backs my parents have faced since then. I never really identified with any other race like I have with the Native Americans. Even my tribe, the Chickasaw, were almost wiped out in the early 1800's by Andrew Jackson, but they survived and because of that, I was here now. So I figured, what better way to get intouch with that part of my past and pay homage to them, than to go to the largest Native American pow-wow in North America for my 21st birthday.

So here I was, in some cheap hotel in Albuquerque, sitting alone with a glass of Wild Turkey at the bar. When I had arrived, it had been bustling with guests checking in, most of which were also attending the Gathering of the Nations. 'The Gathering' flew from everyone’s lips and coated the air with excitement. But come the evening, everyone had retired to their rooms and the excitement which had been in the air, laid down to sleep leaving me lonesome at the bar. The bartender was nice enough; wishing me a happy birthday and whatnot, but she had, 5 minutes since, gone into the back room to unpack supplies, leaving me. A fabulous birthday this was.

“Why do you keep sighing into your drink?”  a voice said from behind me.

I turned my head and saw a thin man with a weathered face and wrinkles as deep as the Grand Canyon etched into his face. His skin had a deep earthy tone, not unlike mine, but I could tell he got his from hours in the sun instead of by blood. By his prominent nose and long silvery white hair separated into two braids, I could tell he was Native American and very old. He was the type of person you'd expect to see in a Western, wearing a long feathered headress while leading his tribe to war or as a medicine man who conversed with the Great Spirits. He had an aura around him; an aura that made you sort of intimidated because you just knew, this man had great power.

“You’re too young to be sighing so,” he said with a small smile.

“It’s my 21st birthday,” I said to the man, “does this look like a proper birthday celebration to you?”

The man chuckled and took the bar stool to my right, “Well then let me join you and we can make quite a party of it,” he said.

Just at that moment, as if summoned, the bartender came back and grabbed the gent. a bourbon, pouring it into a crystal glass on the rocks and handed him the drink. It struck me as odd that the man hadn't even told her what he wanted, but I figured he must have been a regular.