THE NIGHTWAY

It was 3am, that obscure hour when the night held its breath, waiting for the slow advance of dawn to drive it away. The hot flush of the hunt was just starting to fade from your veins. The trees whispered over you in their secret language, rustling furtively. The full moon peeked through the branches like an inquisitive eye through nervous fingers.

Ruskalya was just a gleam of teeth and eyes in the shadows. She crouched, a dark sleek statue motionless against the menagerie of rustling life around her. The little clearing on the side of the mountain barely contained the two of you. Ruskalya reached out, deliberately slow, to the small pile of wood and pine cones. A spark flew, caught and a tiny fire sprang to life, dancing in the wind. Then she stood and lifted her face to the moon with arms outstretched. She breathed deeply while bringing her hands to her face as if trying to breathe in the moonlight. She did this three times and then gracefully slide back down to a crouch. The restless lick of flames reflected in her feral eyes as she stared thoughtfully at you and she said,

"As my mentor taught me, I will teach you how to pay homage to the night, if you are willing, but first I will tell you why. The Nightway is our story."

"At first, there was the Vast Water and the Sky Without Light. Out of the Sky Without Light, a small cloud appeared that condensed into Silver Fox. Then a fog arose from the Vast Water and condensed into Coyote. They were so happy, they danced around and around, faster and faster, until a huge mass of mud and dust formed between them which became the world. Their brushy tails waved so fast that sparks flew up and joined together to form the Sun."

Ruskalya took your hand and led you around the fire silently in a quick dancing circle while she threw a handful of dirt to the four corners. Then crouching again, she continued,

"Silver Fox and Coyote explored the world for many days but soon realized that it was empty. So they formed all the plants and animals and people from the dirt to fill the world. But their creations were just dolls with no spark of life. They asked the Sun if he would share some of his fire with them to quicken the world but he refused and turned his face away. Silver Fox tried to reflect the Sun's light onto the world using her silvery tail and breathed the Breath of Life over everything but though this granted awareness to the statues, they still could not move. So, through cunning and trickery, Coyote stole fire from the Sun. Both Coyote and Silver Fox burned their tails in the attempt and they had ash on the tip of their tails forever after. The fire brought life to the world and Silver Fox and Coyote taught all the plants and animals and people how to live together in harmony and all was good on Grandmother Earth."

Ruskalya tossed a pinecone into the tiny fire which flared and spit brightly for a moment.

"After awhile, Coyote noticed that nothing died yet everything reproduced and that soon there wouldn't be any room left in the world. So Coyote decided to bring death to everything to make room for the young by sending the old into the Ghost Country. He looked and looked and found a man sitting alone away from everyone else. Coyote took the fire from the man but stilled his breath before he breathed out the Breath of Life so he was still aware but no longer alive. Coyote created a Walking Ghost; the man's spirit was now trapped in a lifeless body and hungered fiercely for the fire that had been stolen from him. Coyote called him Long Tooth Boy and taught him that without fire he could not move so to continue living he had to steal the fire from others to sustain himself. And since he no longer had the sun's fire within him, the sun's burning stare would destroy him. Then Coyote sent Long Tooth Boy out into the world to bring death to all living things."

She gazed thoughtfully at her pale slender hand as black claws sprouted forth.

"Long Tooth Boy could only bring death to a few at a time and the rest of the world continued to overpopulate. Coyote looked at his Walking Ghost and felt guilty and taught him many tricks and magic powers to aid him in his duty. Silver Fox saw what Coyote did and told him that his creation wouldn't work. And so she breathed the Breath of Death over every living thing in the world. Now death came to the people in many ways and many traveled to the Ghost Country. But everyone was still ageless and the young still continued filling the world too quickly. Long Tooth Boy wandered aimlessly, taking fire from others. But the fire would burn out very quickly and he searched endlessly for more fire, always hungry. Soon all living things, now fearing death, shunned him and he became unhappy and lonely. Coyote saw this and felt guilty and taught him how to make others like himself by taking their fire and then sharing his breath of life with them. So Long Tooth Boy made other Walking Ghosts to keep him company and also taught them his magic powers. After awhile, against Long Tooth Boy's wishes, his companions learned how to make more Walking Ghosts and they in turn made more too and soon they ran across the world causing great destruction and death. Silver Fox and Coyote saw this and realized they would need to start over entirely. Both Coyote and Silver Fox went off to warn their favorite folk of the impeding destruction unbeknownst to the other. Then Coyote raised the waters and drowned the world bringing death to all but a hidden few."

Ruskalya looked rueful and threw a few drops of dew onto the fire which hissed and dimmed slightly.

'The people and animals who came after had their fire dampened by the flood and died of old age when their fire ran out. Balance had finally been created. Many of the Totem animals survived the flood and this is why they were so powerful and brought much knowledge to the new people. Also many spirits of the dead became lost during the flood and could not find the Ghost Country so they became wandering ghosts crying in the wind and causing bad dreams. Some flew into Grandfather Sky and became Cloud People. The 'skyfire' or Aurora Borealis is said to be formed of Cloud People. Only a few of the First People survived from before the flood including Long Tooth Boy. Soon he became lonely again and made more Walking Ghosts, but again they increased out of his control and brought death and destruction everywhere."

She paused and threw more wood on the fire, feeding it into a bright eye-searing blaze of dwarf proportions.

"Silver Fox saw this disruption of the new balance and was sad. She decided that these misfit children of Coyote needed guidance to bring them back into harmony with the world. So she called to Long Tooth Boy and his children with her silvery light to listen and learn from her, to walk back to the True Path. Many listened to her but many also turned away to other totems such as Wolf, Serpent and Old Woman Spider among others and some turned away and listened to noone."

She stood without haste and turned to you,

"Her words were this; To live you must feed and to feed you must do what is natural to you. But you must also accept that all life is precious and must not be wasted or treated as valueless. Only take what you need out of necessity. To take life out of greed or pride shows disrespect to your ancestors and to yourself and leaves you without peace and beauty. You will be reviled because you are the Wolf and the world is the Rabbit and all living things fear death. You are a Walking Ghost, with one foot in the living world and one foot in the Ghost Country. You have both Life and Death within you and you must bring harmony between these two halves of yourself. That is your place in the Wheel of Life, nothing more and nothing less. You must understand and accept my words to walk in harmony with Grandmother Earth. Look to me for guidance in the night sky and I will fill you with my wisdom if you but listen."

Ruskalya swiftly opened her wrist with her fangs and bent over the fire, letting 3 black drops fall hissing and smoking into the fire, almost guttering it out. She smudged herself with the rising smoke and retreated quickly. She licked her wrist clean and said,

"By my offering of fire and spirit, I will now walk the True Path. I give honor and respect to my teachers and all those who came before me on this journey. May the Good Spirits guide me with their wisdom."

Ruskalya turned to you, fixing you with a piercing stare, and said,

"No true path, walked from the heart, is an easy one. One must pass through many tests to gain understanding and peace. Only through acceptance of one's dual nature can this be done. I walked the Coyote path, thoughtless, heedless, for many years, rejecting my mentor's wisdom out of anger and pain. I have uneasily walked the path of the living for almost a hundred years to survive amongst the Kindred. Now I can hear my teacher's voice again and I will walk the path of my heart."

She reached her clawed hand out to you, a lithe predator with green eyes woven into the tapestry of shadows and moonlight, tall trees and rustling leaves.

"Do you wish to join me and learn to walk the True Path?"

The trees whispered to each other above you. The faint ghost of dawn pushed at the edges of the world though still at least an hour away. And the moonlight streamed across your skin like a blessing from on high...