People of the Owl(31)

Mud Puppy could see it in the form and beauty of Sun Town. The disparate moieties, the constantly bickering clans, north and south, east and west, sun and moon. Sun Town unified them all in the form of the great Sky Being, Bird Man. He had sailed down from the Sky World on fiery wings to shape the Earth after the Creation.

From above, Sun Town looked like a huge bird, its wings curved protectively around the clan grounds. The Power of the place seemed to pulse in the evening.

And there, out in the purple water, he could see the Turtle’s Back, where his brother should be taking the last of his sweat baths and preparing for the final night of purification.

“Look at what you see, boy,” the Serpent told him. “No other place on Earth is like this. We live at the center of the world. The gods and spirits know this; they are reminded each time they look down. It was here, on this spot, that Bird Man first touched the Earth after the Creation.”

“It is huge,” Mud Puppy said in awe as he looked north across the fields and patches of trees to the distant Star Mound. From here it looked like a bump rising above the tree line. Star Mound provided protection from the terrifying Powers of the North, the way Bird’s Head protected the People from the dangers of the West. Winter came rolling out of the north, dark and cold, while in the West, death lurked, and Mother Sun died.

Two smaller mounds had been built, one to the north, the other to the south on a line that transected the Bird’s Head. The conical Spirit Mound three dart casts due north was where the people offered gifts at sunset on the summer solstice. She would need them to sustain her in her southern flight as she perpetually fled Father Moon’s infidelity.

The flat mound at the end of the earthen causeway three dart casts to the south was called Dying Sun Mound. It was there, on the winter solstice, that people implored Mother Sun to begin her journey northward across the Sky.

“From where you now stand you can look straight south across the Dying Sun Mound.” The Serpent pointed at a pole that rose from the shoulder of the Bird’s Head. “Each day, at midday, that pole marks Mother Sun’s journey across the Sky. On winter solstice, the tip of the shadow falls right here, where your feet now stand, marking the shortest day of the winter.” Then the Serpent turned north. “And at night, you look straight north to the Great North Star, around which the Sky World turns.” He pointed at a second pole. “By standing here, and bending slightly, you can see that star night after night, season after season. It is because the North, for all of its terrors, is a place of stability unlike the realm of Mother Sun. She and Father Moon are forever advancing and retreating across the sky, he pursuing, she fleeing. Forever mindful of the time he betrayed her bed by locking hips with another woman.”

“You said the Sky World turns?” Mud Puppy blurted in surprise. His terror had begun to recede replaced by fascination with the things the Serpent was telling him.

“Indeed it does. If you sit here on a cloudless night, boy, you can watch the stars slowly spin around the North Star. You must be very still and patient and mark the paths of the stars as they circle the heavens. They move so slowly. No one can tell you why. It is only one of the many mysteries.” The Serpent smiled wistfully. “But that is not what I have come to teach you today. No, I just tell you this to tease you, to stimulate your curiosity. There are more mysteries, but they are for the future, boy. Instead I want you to look down at Sun Town and tell me what you see.”

Mud Puppy turned back toward the dusk-heavy town. Cooking fires had begun to sparkle on the concentric ridges. The south wind carried blue tendrils of smoke northward across the ridges and toward Star Mound. Was it imagination, or could he smell the burning hickory and maple from this great height?

“I see Sun Town.” The thought struck him again that it resembled a huge bird, its wings outspread. Power rose around him, slipping along his skin with a feathery touch. “I’ve never seen it from up here before. It’s so different.”

“Yes, it is. There is a reason for that. You see the One. The unity. That is the miracle of this place, boy. The Power of Sun Town—of the moieties, the clans, and the lineages—is that we are all so many pieces. Just like a body, made of bone, muscle, blood, and organs. Each piece separate under the skin. Sun Town is our body, the whole of the People, living, breathing, being … but it is more than that. It is our world. The directions: East, South, West, North, Up and Down. Our mounds rising to the Sky, our borrow pits sinking into the Earth. All the pieces of the world come together here. This place is the reconciliation of the world. What you see around you is the harmony of all the parts of Creation working together.”