Where'd You Go?

Ralla · 02-19-2011, 03:25 PM

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The little girl's voice of conviction and hope brightened Ralla's spirits, encouraging her own thoughts to believe that she would, indeed, be granted a Spirit Guide. For a moment, Sakari seemed to be off in distant thought again, as if the entire world stopped for a time to allow her a moment's solace. Just as quickly that spell was broken, and she was back in front of the Great Fire with Ralla and the snow. What and how much must a little pup think about, to appear so wise beyond her years? She chalked it up to perhaps being of Chief Dawali's line; the moon and Great Spirits often favored those who led the tribes the most, so why would it be any different then?

"Of course she can," she reassured her. "Spirit Guides never really go away, do they? They are one with everything around us, always watching." With that she smiled and settled herself more comfortably into the log, happy to have found something that might've distracted the pup for a time from her sadness. "Let's see, a story... I know; there's a story from where I come from called 'The Old Grandmother'.

"Once upon a time, there was an old grandmother who lived in a village filled with wolves. There, she took care of three of her grandsons, whose parents had gone off to war and never returned. The eldest was the bravest and strongest. The middle brother was clever and cunning. The youngest was a little foolish, but kind. Always the grandmother would tell her two oldest grandsons that she would be there when they needed her, although she never told this to the youngest grandson. This confused him greatly, and, although the grandmother never showed any sort of favortism to his older brothers, she never told him what she told them. As the years passed, the two eldest brothers got more and more independent, although the youngest brother--still years behind from independence--yet relied on them.

"One day, the old grandmother died in her sleep, without a word otherwise of the illness that had been in her for a long time. The three grandsons cried and mourned over her, more so the youngest, who cried hardest of all. The eldest brother asked him 'Do you cry because she left so early?' and the youngest responded 'In part.' The middle brother asked 'Do you cry because she left when you still needed her?' and the youngest responded 'In part.' And when the eldest and middle brother asked the true reason, the youngest responded: 'Because I never understood till now that she needed to go, and that she only stayed to make sure that you two could take care of me.' And this was the truth. Now older and more able, the eldest and middle brother could do what their grandmother had done for them, and she would not worry as her spirit went to those of her ancestors."

Ralla sighed, taking a breath to replenish what she had lost during the story. It was a bit sad, but it was what sparked the practice of 'tribe-raising'--the practice where an entire tribe takes responsibility for caring for a pup--back where she came from. She could see it was present in AniWaya, too. But she also told the story because of its events, and hoped that Sakari could see the similarities, and that things always happened for a reason. "I'm sure she did what she could for you before she was called back, Sakari. She can hear you."

Moon walks. "Moon talks." Moon thinks.

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