The lay of the land had changed, gentle tree lined hills giving way to steeper slopes that were barren for the most part, save for a few wind dwarfed spruce jutting through a thin layer of soil gathered in the nooks and crannies of dramatic limestone outcrops.
Yahnnah had taken on the role of clan leader in the absence of Jayah, and in so doing continued to follow behind the others even though it was no longer necessary to cover their trail since their enemy who could not manage such steep slopes would give up the chase. They slowed their pace, taking precautions now to better ensure the safety of the younger children as they continued. They were near their destination. Within moments, the land levelled off and the last remnant of forest disappeared.
The crest was a stretch of flat shimmering lime stone that overlooked a majestic gorge. It was deep, vast and beautiful, and on the far side Yahnnah could see cliffs pocked with caves. It was a welcome sight, all were safe... that is, except for Jayah. Yahnnah searched worriedly among the members of her clan until she caught sight of Atar, Jayah’s mate, and for a moment their eyes met, revealing their mutual concern.
The final leg of the journey would be much easier now, but a storm hovered dangerously close, evoking enough concern for Yahnnah to motion for the others to pick up the pace.
Suddenly, the North wind dissipated until an eery stillness swept the land. Yahnnah stopped in her tracks and held her breath... waiting. It was only a moment before she felt the gust, and along with it the strong scent of sea and taste of salt in the air. The wind had turned, coming now from the south. And then came the bone chilling sound, a gurgling roar, and even though she knew that it posed no danger in itself, her body recoiled out of shear instinct. As Yahnna steadied her trembling heart, the babies and youngest children began to whimper and cry with fright.
The roar was due to a natural phenomena that emanated from the bottom of the gorge where large waves crashed onto deep layers of oversized round boulders, forcing them to roll back and forth... in and out of a very large cave, all the sounds combining in a crescendo, an echo so terrifying that it sent the hairs at the nape of the neck standing on end. The sound mimicked perfectly, the gurgling roar of a charging Ursus, magnified a hundred times.
Ursus was a fearsome predator, a great long toothed cave bear that roamed the mainland, the same fearsome creature known by their enemy as bahr. The sound that Yahnnah and her clan now heard only occurred under certain conditions- at mid tide and accompanied by a strong south wind, one powerful enough to move wave and rock.
Of all Ayahs creatures living on the land, aside from the Bahr-Bahr Hunters, ursus posed the greatest danger to the Dyke-lander's. Most predators avoided their people, but not ursus. As for the great cave bear, it was not able to discern the difference between the Dyke-lander's and Hinter-lander's, and if this were possible, it wouldn't be bothered with the former who posed no threat or competition, not like the Hinter-lander tribe who hunted the reindeer and frequently slaughtered the cave bears in order to steal their homes and warm winter fur.
The Dyke-lander's situated their villages among small the islands perched in the mouth of a great River that they named after the Salmon that returned every year to spawn, and from which Yahnnah's people owed much of their survival. The same river was known to the Hinter-landers in their own sign language, as the "E-Bahr"-- the Cave Bear River, because this was the place where the Bahr lived, the river and surrounding land providing all its sustenance-- the reindeer and salmon. All those living within or near this River, be it Dyke-lander, Hinter-lander, Bahr or salmon, were misplaced creatures, their original homes continents away, swallowed by either drought or glacial ice, forcing them to converge here in this foreign territory where each had carved out a precarious niche.
The home of the Dyke-landers was everything to the tribe, sacred lands where Ayah had led them many generations before. Islands that were once a chain of active volcanoes, sleeping now, and encrusted with layers of coral from episodes of history when inundated by sea. It offered a strange existence-- peaceful homes nestled in craters that would otherwise be swamped by the sea once again except for the many labour intensive dykes that reinforced the walls that kept the sea at bay.
###
Jayah was fifteen winters when Yahnna, decided to take the girl under her wing as acolyte, and although she didn't usually take on anyone so young, there was something about Jayah that made her very special-- Ayah had gifted her with the inner-eye, the ability to see future events that the Great Mother Goddess wished to reveal, and as such, she was more than worthy of the opportunity to apprentice as Shaman.
Before Jayah had come along the gift was thought to have been lost, with the residual stories so old that many had come to regard them as only myth, while others believed that Ayah had all but deserted them, cursed for a myriad of unknown sins. Only a small handful believed as Yahnnah-- that Ayah had simply chose to withhold the gift for a greater purpose... such as a means to introduce a much greater gift that would otherwise be rejected by a people too young to reason with. It was a concept that Yahnnah saw written in areas of life that surrounded her, one area in particular being the early stage of pregnancy when many women of their tribe developed a profound aversion to food and to the extent that what little they managed to swallow, came right back up. At one time the Dyke-landers had once regarded this as a curse as well and during Yahnnah's younger days as Shaman she used to worry along with the rest, as the young mothers to be shed weight until they were a mere shadow of what they once were, their swollen bellies protruding more noticeably than pregnant women who had no problem eating. As time went on though, and as Yahnnah became more experienced as Shaman, she took note of the fact that the women afflicted were more likely to bring their babies to full term than the other women, and with this new awareness all came to recognize it no longer as an affliction, but as a gift. Because of this, Yahnnah came to hope that Ayah had not cursed her people, but that they were not yet able to see the greater picture. Yahnnah encouraged her people to consider the possibility that Ayah was simply witholding the gift of the inner eye as a means of introducing another hidden blessing that she would reveal to her children when the time was right.
###
Yahnnah stood at the edge of the cliff looking down, watching as yet another giant wave gathered up boulders that lined the shore, smashing some against cliffs while cascading others along and into the great cave hidden below. As the gurgling roar sounded, Yahnna was seized with profound insight involving a dream that Jayah had many winters ago, a dream that Yahnnah had just suddenly come to realize as a vision of the future.
The passing of eleven winters had faded the memory that the old Shaman now desperately tried to piece together: it was a cold winters night, when a very young Jayah had waken in fright, her body convulsing with sobs. Yahnna had heard the girl cry out and had immediately come to her side, holding up a stone lamp that revealed in its flickering glow, Jayah's wide glassy eyes and frantic fingers. It was hard for the old Shaman to figure out the garbled signs, so she placed her free hand on the girls shoulder, hoping that the warmth would help steady the girl.
Even though Jayah seemed awake, Yahnnah could see that a part of her was asleep, still lingering somewhere between the land of dreams and wakefulness. Yahnnah cooed, her gnarled fingers making comforting gestures meant to coax her young pupil awake, "It's only a dream Jayah... you can wake up now", but to no avail, forcing Yahnnah to sit and wait patiently for Jayah to awaken.
Now, 11 winters later and as the next gurgling roar played out in the background, Yahnna pieced together some of the more poignant details of the dream:
Yahnna's thoughts turned to events of the last two days, all the little discrepancies she had picked up on and had idly pushed aside, now made sense, and it dawned on her the reality of what Jayah had been up to. Filled with despair Yahnnah scolded herself for not paying closer attention, and if Jayah and her baby should die at the hands of the Bahr-Bahr, Yahnna knew that it would be because she failed to protect the one person she loved most.
When the last gurgling roar subsided and things quieted, Yahnna called out to the others. It's not very often that vocals are used to communicate, the sign language of the clan was fluent, with fingers and hands far superior than rudimentary under developed vocal chords. In fact, Ayah had laws against crying out, especially on the main land where predators roamed in great number. However, as with many of Ayah's rules there were exceptions, and with the case of Yahnnah now calling out, time was of the essence... if they were to save Jayah, she had to act fast. The sound of her voice pierced the air, bringing every adult member of the clan to an abrupt halt, each turning to see a frantic Yahnnah pacing back and forth.
“Where would Jayah go?” Yahnna questioned to herself, her gnarled fingers rubbing the creases over a tightly knitted brow. Yahnna rattled her brains, and finally beseeched the great Mother Goddess to intervene. And the answer came. There was one thing that Yahnnah had forgotten, a final detail of Jayah's dream that came rushing to her conscious:
The other clues of Jayah's dream didn't make sense at first, after all, juniper was found at the shoreline and pines trees further in land. How could Jayah be in two places at once? It was the final clue that enabled Yahnna to understand, and all because she herself had a similar experience where her own legs felt as though on fire. It occurred when on a foraging expedition to the mainland and as she made the decision to break away from the group, taking time to venture along a nearby shore in hunt of a certain berry that she often used in tinctures, and although they weren't usually picked during this time of year, she thought that some growing in more sheltered areas would be ripe enough.
It wasn't a good thing to venture from the group, and in fact anyone other than a Shaman doing the same thing would be penalized for breaking one of Ayah's golden rules, but knowing that their food quota was met and that her repertoire of herbal medicine was at an all time low, Yahnna decided that this was one of the moments that as Shaman, she could bend the rule and break from the group.
To save time Yahnna had decided to take a short cut, a route never taken before. The diversion went along uneventfully until she came to a cluster of low lying shrubs that she wasn't familiar with. It wasn't entirely unusual to see new plants appear as old ones died off or moved away to more suitable land. The shrubs looked harmless enough with clusters of beautifully scented bright pink flowers shaped like stars. It was a big patch that would take time to circle around, and she was in a bit of a hurry so she passed through the middle with not so much as a few faint scratches that criss-crossed her legs, and when discovered a patch of berries on the other side, she proceeded to gather the riper of the lot, filling her basket. It wasn't until she began her return that she suddenly realized the shrubs weren't as innocent as they appeared, the pollen possessing a slow release toxin that penetrated the scratches and packed a mean punch, leaving her legs burning so intensely that even water couldn't put out. Not knowing if it was a poison that would eventually kill her, Yahnnah move along as fast as she dared. The burning eventually subsided to a red itchy rash, and a lesson well learned.
Yahnnah made a point of remembering the shrubs location by recognizing prominent features of the immediate area, signposts that would serve to remind others travelling in the area, including herself. A particular feature of the area being what sounded like the blood curdling roar of a charging Ursus, except it wasn't the great cave bear, but a place similar to where she stood at the very moment, a point of land that jutted into the sea at the base of which was a cave, not as large as the one immediately below where she now stood, but non-the-less, it generated the same gurgling roar when circumstances were right-- when the tide was mid way and waves powerful enough to roll the boulders in and out with force. This place was doubly sacred, because at the very tip of the point and directly above the cave atop a knoll stood a tall, lone pine .
Yahnnah had taken on the role of clan leader in the absence of Jayah, and in so doing continued to follow behind the others even though it was no longer necessary to cover their trail since their enemy who could not manage such steep slopes would give up the chase. They slowed their pace, taking precautions now to better ensure the safety of the younger children as they continued. They were near their destination. Within moments, the land levelled off and the last remnant of forest disappeared.
The crest was a stretch of flat shimmering lime stone that overlooked a majestic gorge. It was deep, vast and beautiful, and on the far side Yahnnah could see cliffs pocked with caves. It was a welcome sight, all were safe... that is, except for Jayah. Yahnnah searched worriedly among the members of her clan until she caught sight of Atar, Jayah’s mate, and for a moment their eyes met, revealing their mutual concern.
The final leg of the journey would be much easier now, but a storm hovered dangerously close, evoking enough concern for Yahnnah to motion for the others to pick up the pace.
Suddenly, the North wind dissipated until an eery stillness swept the land. Yahnnah stopped in her tracks and held her breath... waiting. It was only a moment before she felt the gust, and along with it the strong scent of sea and taste of salt in the air. The wind had turned, coming now from the south. And then came the bone chilling sound, a gurgling roar, and even though she knew that it posed no danger in itself, her body recoiled out of shear instinct. As Yahnna steadied her trembling heart, the babies and youngest children began to whimper and cry with fright.
The roar was due to a natural phenomena that emanated from the bottom of the gorge where large waves crashed onto deep layers of oversized round boulders, forcing them to roll back and forth... in and out of a very large cave, all the sounds combining in a crescendo, an echo so terrifying that it sent the hairs at the nape of the neck standing on end. The sound mimicked perfectly, the gurgling roar of a charging Ursus, magnified a hundred times.
Ursus was a fearsome predator, a great long toothed cave bear that roamed the mainland, the same fearsome creature known by their enemy as bahr. The sound that Yahnnah and her clan now heard only occurred under certain conditions- at mid tide and accompanied by a strong south wind, one powerful enough to move wave and rock.
Of all Ayahs creatures living on the land, aside from the Bahr-Bahr Hunters, ursus posed the greatest danger to the Dyke-lander's. Most predators avoided their people, but not ursus. As for the great cave bear, it was not able to discern the difference between the Dyke-lander's and Hinter-lander's, and if this were possible, it wouldn't be bothered with the former who posed no threat or competition, not like the Hinter-lander tribe who hunted the reindeer and frequently slaughtered the cave bears in order to steal their homes and warm winter fur.
The Dyke-lander's situated their villages among small the islands perched in the mouth of a great River that they named after the Salmon that returned every year to spawn, and from which Yahnnah's people owed much of their survival. The same river was known to the Hinter-landers in their own sign language, as the "E-Bahr"-- the Cave Bear River, because this was the place where the Bahr lived, the river and surrounding land providing all its sustenance-- the reindeer and salmon. All those living within or near this River, be it Dyke-lander, Hinter-lander, Bahr or salmon, were misplaced creatures, their original homes continents away, swallowed by either drought or glacial ice, forcing them to converge here in this foreign territory where each had carved out a precarious niche.
The home of the Dyke-landers was everything to the tribe, sacred lands where Ayah had led them many generations before. Islands that were once a chain of active volcanoes, sleeping now, and encrusted with layers of coral from episodes of history when inundated by sea. It offered a strange existence-- peaceful homes nestled in craters that would otherwise be swamped by the sea once again except for the many labour intensive dykes that reinforced the walls that kept the sea at bay.
###
Jayah was fifteen winters when Yahnna, decided to take the girl under her wing as acolyte, and although she didn't usually take on anyone so young, there was something about Jayah that made her very special-- Ayah had gifted her with the inner-eye, the ability to see future events that the Great Mother Goddess wished to reveal, and as such, she was more than worthy of the opportunity to apprentice as Shaman.
Before Jayah had come along the gift was thought to have been lost, with the residual stories so old that many had come to regard them as only myth, while others believed that Ayah had all but deserted them, cursed for a myriad of unknown sins. Only a small handful believed as Yahnnah-- that Ayah had simply chose to withhold the gift for a greater purpose... such as a means to introduce a much greater gift that would otherwise be rejected by a people too young to reason with. It was a concept that Yahnnah saw written in areas of life that surrounded her, one area in particular being the early stage of pregnancy when many women of their tribe developed a profound aversion to food and to the extent that what little they managed to swallow, came right back up. At one time the Dyke-landers had once regarded this as a curse as well and during Yahnnah's younger days as Shaman she used to worry along with the rest, as the young mothers to be shed weight until they were a mere shadow of what they once were, their swollen bellies protruding more noticeably than pregnant women who had no problem eating. As time went on though, and as Yahnnah became more experienced as Shaman, she took note of the fact that the women afflicted were more likely to bring their babies to full term than the other women, and with this new awareness all came to recognize it no longer as an affliction, but as a gift. Because of this, Yahnnah came to hope that Ayah had not cursed her people, but that they were not yet able to see the greater picture. Yahnnah encouraged her people to consider the possibility that Ayah was simply witholding the gift of the inner eye as a means of introducing another hidden blessing that she would reveal to her children when the time was right.
###
Yahnnah stood at the edge of the cliff looking down, watching as yet another giant wave gathered up boulders that lined the shore, smashing some against cliffs while cascading others along and into the great cave hidden below. As the gurgling roar sounded, Yahnna was seized with profound insight involving a dream that Jayah had many winters ago, a dream that Yahnnah had just suddenly come to realize as a vision of the future.
The passing of eleven winters had faded the memory that the old Shaman now desperately tried to piece together: it was a cold winters night, when a very young Jayah had waken in fright, her body convulsing with sobs. Yahnna had heard the girl cry out and had immediately come to her side, holding up a stone lamp that revealed in its flickering glow, Jayah's wide glassy eyes and frantic fingers. It was hard for the old Shaman to figure out the garbled signs, so she placed her free hand on the girls shoulder, hoping that the warmth would help steady the girl.
Even though Jayah seemed awake, Yahnnah could see that a part of her was asleep, still lingering somewhere between the land of dreams and wakefulness. Yahnnah cooed, her gnarled fingers making comforting gestures meant to coax her young pupil awake, "It's only a dream Jayah... you can wake up now", but to no avail, forcing Yahnnah to sit and wait patiently for Jayah to awaken.
Now, 11 winters later and as the next gurgling roar played out in the background, Yahnna pieced together some of the more poignant details of the dream:
- ... Jayah had heard the echoing sound of a charging Ursus;
- ... thunder could be heard above a mist that had rolled in;
- ... through the mist Jayah could see a tall, lone pine;
- ... a strong scent of juniper permeated the air;
- ... a man appeared, his face scarred and eyes filled with hate;
- ... there was a baby, Jayah's baby that had just been born.
Yahnna's thoughts turned to events of the last two days, all the little discrepancies she had picked up on and had idly pushed aside, now made sense, and it dawned on her the reality of what Jayah had been up to. Filled with despair Yahnnah scolded herself for not paying closer attention, and if Jayah and her baby should die at the hands of the Bahr-Bahr, Yahnna knew that it would be because she failed to protect the one person she loved most.
When the last gurgling roar subsided and things quieted, Yahnna called out to the others. It's not very often that vocals are used to communicate, the sign language of the clan was fluent, with fingers and hands far superior than rudimentary under developed vocal chords. In fact, Ayah had laws against crying out, especially on the main land where predators roamed in great number. However, as with many of Ayah's rules there were exceptions, and with the case of Yahnnah now calling out, time was of the essence... if they were to save Jayah, she had to act fast. The sound of her voice pierced the air, bringing every adult member of the clan to an abrupt halt, each turning to see a frantic Yahnnah pacing back and forth.
“Where would Jayah go?” Yahnna questioned to herself, her gnarled fingers rubbing the creases over a tightly knitted brow. Yahnna rattled her brains, and finally beseeched the great Mother Goddess to intervene. And the answer came. There was one thing that Yahnnah had forgotten, a final detail of Jayah's dream that came rushing to her conscious:
...Jayah legs had felt as though on fire.Yahnna remembered that Jayah had repeated this over and over... in broken hard to understand signs as the young girl periodically stopped to rub and pat her legs as though trying to quench the burning she thought was still there. It was the final clue that enlightened Yahnnah as to Jayah's whereabouts.
The other clues of Jayah's dream didn't make sense at first, after all, juniper was found at the shoreline and pines trees further in land. How could Jayah be in two places at once? It was the final clue that enabled Yahnna to understand, and all because she herself had a similar experience where her own legs felt as though on fire. It occurred when on a foraging expedition to the mainland and as she made the decision to break away from the group, taking time to venture along a nearby shore in hunt of a certain berry that she often used in tinctures, and although they weren't usually picked during this time of year, she thought that some growing in more sheltered areas would be ripe enough.
It wasn't a good thing to venture from the group, and in fact anyone other than a Shaman doing the same thing would be penalized for breaking one of Ayah's golden rules, but knowing that their food quota was met and that her repertoire of herbal medicine was at an all time low, Yahnna decided that this was one of the moments that as Shaman, she could bend the rule and break from the group.
To save time Yahnna had decided to take a short cut, a route never taken before. The diversion went along uneventfully until she came to a cluster of low lying shrubs that she wasn't familiar with. It wasn't entirely unusual to see new plants appear as old ones died off or moved away to more suitable land. The shrubs looked harmless enough with clusters of beautifully scented bright pink flowers shaped like stars. It was a big patch that would take time to circle around, and she was in a bit of a hurry so she passed through the middle with not so much as a few faint scratches that criss-crossed her legs, and when discovered a patch of berries on the other side, she proceeded to gather the riper of the lot, filling her basket. It wasn't until she began her return that she suddenly realized the shrubs weren't as innocent as they appeared, the pollen possessing a slow release toxin that penetrated the scratches and packed a mean punch, leaving her legs burning so intensely that even water couldn't put out. Not knowing if it was a poison that would eventually kill her, Yahnnah move along as fast as she dared. The burning eventually subsided to a red itchy rash, and a lesson well learned.
Yahnnah made a point of remembering the shrubs location by recognizing prominent features of the immediate area, signposts that would serve to remind others travelling in the area, including herself. A particular feature of the area being what sounded like the blood curdling roar of a charging Ursus, except it wasn't the great cave bear, but a place similar to where she stood at the very moment, a point of land that jutted into the sea at the base of which was a cave, not as large as the one immediately below where she now stood, but non-the-less, it generated the same gurgling roar when circumstances were right-- when the tide was mid way and waves powerful enough to roll the boulders in and out with force. This place was doubly sacred, because at the very tip of the point and directly above the cave atop a knoll stood a tall, lone pine .
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