Chavaux

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Collaborators welcome.

Pick a name and a place in this paleolithic tribe. We are not knuckle-dragging morons. We are intelligent and organised. We are peaceful but strong if challenged. There is no marriage. Children belong to the mother first and the tribe second. The Great Mother is our deity and Daynuk speaks from her.
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I am Lug and I am a hunter. On the land I have seen many animals, some small and quick, others large and slow. On the great river, I have hunted bright fish and furred swimmers. The world is wide and full of such things as is needed for my tribe to live.

Harrum makes the spear and arrow points that I use. He is of great value to all of us and is given first choice of fish and shells I find. The sharp edges of his cutting tools make fast work.

Daynuk is our shaman. It is she who tells the moons and knows the time of the herds that thunder in the valleys. To her go all the skins taken in the hunt. She is the leader who decides all things and it is to her where choice is left when change comes.

Today is 4 suns before the first new moon of the planting season and a cold misty rain sweeps across the land. The women are excited as they prepare the seeds held from the last warm season.

We are many in our tribe and have made shelters outside of the great cave for the warm time coming. My shelter lies there, close by the small stream, and it is only one of 27 hands of shelters. Smoke from cooking fires rises slowly through the canopy of the trees as the sun rises and I see my people are gathering around the sacred fire which will never grow cold.

The smell of cooking fish is strong in the air and I am happy now that I have eaten until my stomach is full.

Daynuk will speak today. She had gone back into the cave alone since the evening of the full moon to deal with the spirits and the whole tribe is waiting for her to emerge. She will tell us what the herds will want of us and also what the Great Mother desires of seeds. She will decide if we will stay here at the great cave another full circle or if we will need to find a new cave. There are many suitable caves in the land that other tribes are not using. I want to move to new hunting grounds but only because it will be different to this place where I have hunted for 15 full circles.

I see Harrum by the sacred fire and sit beside him.

Lug: "Harrum, how is your journey?"

Harrum: "It is good, Lug. My bed is soft and the insects have not yet found it. The cedar smells good in my dreams. How is your journey, Lug?"

Lug: "It is good. My dreams are of travels and bright suns, Harrum. I long for the hunts on the land and away from the cold waters of the river. Have you a store of points and knives? Today I will cut saplings for spear and arrow and need a good edge for the work.

Harrum nods, rising and walking his shelter to choose a heavy stone for me.

I burp from deep within my guts, once again tasting the morning meal. My eyes turn to the coals of the sacred fire and I quietly wait for Daynuks return.

The bed of coals under the flames draw me deeper into memory. Waves seem to pass over them as the morning breeze picks up, fanning them first a bright orange, then a dull red. My mind goes back to the days before my initiation to the hunts. I was still in my mother's care then, well before she had passed into the underworld. She, Saithe, had held my arms tightly as she proudly presented her child to Daynuk standing in her shelter within the cave entrance. Shaking with fear at the sight of the shaman staring into my eyes, I had wished feverishly to be anywhere else but there.

Daynuk is short for an elder and her eyes looked up at me, dark as pools of deep water. Her hair, white as the early snows, floated as a cloud about her wrinkled brown face, round as the moon itself. Many strands of seashells circled her neck, arms and ankles and strange designs in red and black covered her skin from neck to toes. Her wrinkled lips opened to reveal sharpened teeth when she spoke to me.

Daynuk: "Your time is come to seek manhood, Lug. Say farewell to your mother."

Trembling, I tried to turn to my mothers comfort, but her hands tightened on my biceps and forced away me towards Daynuk. I remembered the tears welling up in my eyes and a pure terror threatening to empty my bladder. Daynuk's eyes widened, glaring heat at my resistance. I stopped struggling at that, knowing the strength of power Daynuk had. There was no choice. Two women together is no match, even for a full grown hunter, and, slumping in acceptance to my fate, I stepped forward to the old woman.

Daynuk: "Brave Lug. Give me your hand."

She then reached out and shells rattled as she had grabbed my wrist, pulling me further away from Saithe. I looked back at my mother then, just in time to see pride in her eyes directed at the shaman.

Daynuk: "Lug, say farewell to your mother. She has birthed you, suckled and fed you, protected you from harm until this time of initiation. You are to become a man now. From this time on she will no longer be your mother. Release her from this bond to live life as her own once more."

I turned then and Daynuk released my wrist.

Lug: "Thank you, Saithe, for giving me life. I am no longer your burden."

Saithe smiled at me and two small rivers bled from her eyes. Nodding and wiping her tears with her long brown hair, she turned and walked into the fading sunlight of that long ago day. Daynuk put her hand on my shoulder then and pulled me around to once again face her.

Daynuk: It is time for your journey into the underworld where you will meet the great spirits. Come with me, Lug, to find your place in the world.

With that, she turned and entered the cave mouth from which all life had sprung into existence. I hesitated, fearing what was to come. Looking over my shoulder to see where Saithe had gone, I saw the eyes of many men watching me, their hands raised in the gesture of friendship. My fear fell away then, replaced with renewed courage and I turned once again to the darkness before me and stepped into the underworld.


[edit on 22-4-2009 by Lug]

Harrum returned to the fire and, holding a stone out to me, told its story.

Harrum: This stone came from the mines in the northeast, many days away, near the great salt sea. I traded skins and finished arrow heads for all I could carry. The weight on this axe is good and the cutting edge thick, so it will not break easily. This stone I worked on for almost a four days. If you wish to keep it, you must give me herd meat in trade. Enough for one moon cycle will do. For the cutting you need to do, and, if it is returned to me as it is, I will instead ask only ten big fillets of fish. Agreed?

I took the stone he held and it felt heavy for its size. Holding the rounded blunt end, I peered closely at the beauty of his work. The edge was knapped and polished at the widest but thinnest side with most of the weight still in my grip. Chipped carefully to make a smoothe uniform crescent, I could see no roughness or variance in the cutting end. I also knew from experience that testing the sharpness with a finger would quickly make the red blood flow. It was beautiful.

I nodded and agreed to the herd meat and would claim it as my own, a prized posession and well worth all the flesh an Auroch carried. I knew he would also want the antlers for tooling.

Harrum left me alone then and I rose to return to my shelter and wrap the axe in skin. With care, this axe should not only cut spear and smoothe arrows, but also serve for skinning and butchery, it was so well worked.

With the axe now carefully wrapped and tucked into my shoulder pouch, I once again looked out into the warming dawn. Low clouds hung in patches, revealing blue patches above the budding tree branches. A haze of red, pink and yellow covered the thin twigs, telling me which each tree was already... some good for bending and bows, others good for spears by their sturdyness. I knew other small bushes and trees which provided arrows and made fish traps because they were supple but strong. All this I had learned from Saithe, among so much else that she had taught me about what the Great Mother provides.

I looked down from the skies and towards the central fire, now busy with the gathering people mingling, children running every which way. Their laughter and excitement rang off the low hills to my right and filled the air. Once again I thought of Daynuk and the cave from which she is expected to emerge today.

I closed my eyes and remembered my initiation by her again, how she had shuffled softly ahead of me into the dark interior past her shelter. The cave was very deep and long. Our only light the small lamp she carried with her. In it, a tiny chip of fibre burned, fed by some oily liquid I did not know of. The flame barely as long as my thumb flickered as she moved deeper and deeper, climbing down stone ledges or wooden timbers tied together to make a path.

The shadows upon the rough walls jumped about ferociously and reflections of the flame sparkled in the dampness that seeped here and there. In some places I saw silent motionless animals on smoothe surfaces, in others there were piles of bones on the sandy floor. But still deeper and deeper we went as Daynuk began to speak softly.

Daynuk: "Great Mother, here is Lug. He will come to your breast. Great Mother, welcome your son. Greal Mother, take his eyes so he may see. Great Mother, take his hands so he may feel. Great Mother, take his feet so he may stand. Great mother, take his heart so he may understand."

She repeated this and more, over and over, as we descended, sometimes emerging into huge open spaces, echoing even the sounds of our skin-wrapped feet on the stone, other times we crawled into small tunnels where we could not raise our heads above our backs. More and more animals came into view upon the ceilings and walls. Life was to be seen everywhere. Bison, Auroch and horse leapt out in the lamplight and I stared in wonder at what emerged from the stone.

Then we came to a small open place and I could see large pile of warm furred skins and several water jars placed against one side. It was there that Daynuk turned to face me and placed the small lamp to the side.

Daynuk: "The skins are yours to keep. Drink the water slowly and do not leave this place until I come for you again. It will be a long time, but I WILL come back. When I do, we will talk and discuss what the Great mother wants of you. Listen to her speak. Do not be afraid."

With that, she touched my face and, nodding, her eyes glimmering in the light, she picked up the lantern and left me.

The darkness was as black as the silence was complete when the sounds of her movements faded into nothing.


[edit on 23-4-2009 by Lug]