The Tales Tammy Told (SP-RP13.2)
Tammy remembered a cold river running, and a voice calling her name.
"Tammy!" The voice echoed down the long tunnel of time. "Tammy!" It called, and the sound got lost along the way. "Tammy!" He called presently in her ear.
Green and gold entwined as Tammy looked up from the riverbed; colors and light twirling in her view until they resembled trees and leaves, fluttering, blurry images weaving to and fro like the ripples on the water.
A young man with wet black hair met her eyes. He stood beside her with his eyes looking down. Then he was gone. "Tammy..." His voice whispered in the movement of the trees.
****
A cold wind replaces the colors and the light. A dreary winter wind blows through barren trees.
"One of the stories we are told by our ancestors, tells us about a hunter who lived here a long time ago." Tammy said.
A man walks through the snow. He is laden by many furs. He crosses an empty landscape, silently walking alone. The light is draining away out of a hazy grey sky. Three small lights lay in the field, flickering like small stars alight in the valley. The man goes down to them.
"The hunter was skilled with many weapons - the throw spear, and the arrow, the little knife, and the jagged jaw-blade. The people said he came from the water, and was adopted by the earth's children. He set traps to catch animals for them to eat - fish, and birds that fly, antelope, and creeping lizards. He cut the fur of bear skins and wolf skins and dressed the people in the cold winter."
The man arrives in a small village and is greeted by the native people there. One woman in particular goes to meet him. She comes out of an earthen house, dressed thickly in furs and skins of animals. Her hair is dark and long. Her hands are covered.
"One year, the people were very hungry, and the winter came especially fast. The wind destroyed all the food from the ground that the people ate, and there was nothing for them to harvest. So the hunter went out to hunt food for the people. But when he went out, he found nothing to eat. So the hunter returned."
The hunter greets the woman.
"I have found no food." He tells her in her language. "All the animals have moved on, or died in the storm."
The hunter's face is grave, and he goes from the woman. She stands in the snow by the house and watches him enter into another...
The sun is bright in the morning, but it shines through a thick grey haze. The fires which have died in the night are being rekindled by weary people, carrying wood across the snow. As they journey into the village, the hunter is journeying out across the barren landscape.
"The next day, the hunter went out again, but he could not find any animals. The people were very hungry. The next day, the hunter went out and found tracks to follow, but he could not find the animal that made them. So the hunter went home and made traps. The next day, he laid his traps on the tracks. Then the hunter returned to the village. The day after that, the hunter went out to check his traps, but he did not come home."
The woman stands by the empty door of her earthen home, staring out toward the forest. Her eyes are dark and her lips frown. She goes back into her house.
"When the hunter did not come home, the woman went out to look for him. She did not travel fast, because the snow was very deep. She continued to look for the hunter until it was dark. When it became very dark, she found the hunter laying in the snow."
"The woman could not carry him back to the village, so she built a house of sticks over him, to keep him from the cold. She built a fire inside the house to keep him warm, and put a hole in the top of the house for the smoke to go out. The smoke from the fire rose into the sky through the hole in the house of sticks."
~Continued....
It was a beautiful spring afternoon. Tammy was lost in thought as she lightly tapped a nearby stream with the end of her stick. She watched the ripples in the water and the water striders scatter to and fro across its shimmery surface. Their long strange legs bent over the stream reminded her of a story her grandfather told about a spider who, despite being the smallest of all its community, did what everyone else failed to do by carrying the first fire across the water.
"Look at this."
Tammy was called from her thoughts by the boy's voice. She looked up and saw him holding an acorn between his dirt-covered fingers. The golden light and the trees shown behind it; green and gold weaving together in blurry motions around the smooth pale skin and scaly brown cap of the nut.
He was laying on his back over the roots of the old oak trees, with moss and fern stretched out under him like a puffy-padded bed. He tossed the nut into the air over his head and caught before it touched the ground. Then he tossed it higher, and caught it with the same precision. A third time he tossed it, this time so high it nearly touched the long winding boughs of the oak tree. This time, the nut bounced off his hand when he tried to catch it, then it bounced off the roots, and across the sloping earth, and finally into the rushing stream.
"You lost it," Tammy said, disappointed after having admired it.
"No," the boy said. He sat up and looked down at her with a smile, and she remembered how shimmery his face appeared. "No, I've planted a new tree. Someday, that tree will be as big as these, maybe even bigger."
Tammy smiled, thinking of the little acorn and remembering the old story.
"That's like grandpa's story," she said. "About the spider, and all the animals."
"How is that like that story at all?" The boy wondered. He hopped off the roots and came down to sit beside Tammy and put his feet in the stream.
"The spider was the very smallest. It wasn't brave and strong like raccoon, or raven, or owl. The little acorn can fit in the palm of your hand, but what it can become is stronger than the wind."
The boy smiled. "Maybe you'll tell my acorn story someday."
******
"This story also tells us about a healer who lived here a long time ago."
"The healer was skilled with many herbs - the leaves of the plants, the bark of the trees, the roots of the ground, and the fruits of the bushes. The people say that she was the earth's fair daughter, for whenever she prayed, her prayers were answered. She cared for all the people like a mother, and all the animals would come to her when they were hurt - the fish caught in the weeds, the bird with his broken wing, the doe with her fawn, and the lizard with his bitten tail. She covered the wounds of the injured, and fed the sick and the old."
"When the winter came especially fast, and the wind destroyed all the food from the ground, the people became very sick. There was no food for the people, and the animals stopped coming. The healer's dried herbs began to run out, so she went out to search for more. But when she went out, she found that all the herbs were buried under the deep snow. So the healer returned."
"The next day, the healer went out again, but she could not dig deep enough to get herbs. The people were very sick. So the healer prayed. That night, while the healer slept, a knock came at her door. The healer woke up, but was too afraid to answer the door, fearing that it was the winter come to kill her. The knock came again, but she did not answer. The knock came a third time, even louder. But the healer was too afraid to answer. The next day, when the healer opened her door, she saw tracks leading into the forest. The healer followed the tracks, and came to a place where all the snow had been moved and the herbs and roots could be reached. So the healer gathered herbs for the people and returned."
"The next day, when the hunter did not come home, the healer went out to look for him. She did not travel fast, because the snow was very deep. She continued to look for the hunter until it was dark. When it became very dark, she found the hunter laying in the snow."
"The healer could not carry him back to the village, so she built a house of sticks over him, to keep him from the cold. She built a fire inside the house to keep him warm, and put a hole in the top of the house for the smoke to go out. The smoke from the fire rose into the sky through the hole in the house of sticks."
