People of the Owl(32)

“You said that we are at the center of the world.”

“Ah,” the Serpent replied, his old toothless mouth agape, “now you begin to understand. I am an old man, but the wonder I see in your eyes still fills me when I stand up here. All those tens of winters have flowed past like the Father Water, and still I look and marvel at who and what we are. It is here, of all the places on Earth, that the One is knit together.”

“The One?”

The old man’s eyes had turned dreamy. “The One, the Dance, the terrible disruptive harmony.”

Mud Puppy shivered, hearing the words of Masked Owl reverberating from his dreams. The One! The Dance! A tingle of excitement ran through him.

The Serpent waved a callused hand out to encompass the curving lines of houses below them. “They don’t see it, don’t feel it, don’t Dance it in their souls. No, boy, they stand at the center of the world, bathed in a pitch-black brightness, and study the mud between their toes. They scheme, dicker, bargain, and plot to gain prestige or authority—and forget the miracle of who they are.”

The venom in the old man’s words shocked Mud Puppy. He couldn’t help but think of his mother, the Clan Elder, and her constant preoccupation with the demands of keeping clan and lineage preeminent.

“You are different, boy,” the Serpent whispered. “No matter what they do to you, remember that. If you ever doubt, climb up here and look down. See with the eyes of your souls and listen to the deafening silence. They will try to take the harmony away from you, to weight your feet down until you cannot follow the Dance.”

“I don’t understand.”

The old man glanced at him, his thin form silhouetted against the scudding charcoal clouds. The wind sent its fingers rippling through the frail white hair and tugged at the old man’s sash. Despite the growing darkness, the Serpent’s eyes were aglow. “He came to me in a Dream. He told me your mother would come, that she would give me this chance.”

He? He, who? The old man’s words made no sense. Fingers of sudden worry stroked at Mud Puppy’s souls. He turned his eyes back to the darkening lake and the dimple created by the Turtle’s Back. A flickering fire had sprung to life there. “I would have thought you would be out with my brother. It’s his last night of purification.”

The Serpent muttered something under his breath, sighed, and finally said, “Tell me about how people first came into this world.”

Mud Puppy squinted as the wind batted his straight black hair against his forehead. “It was after the Creator split the Sky from the Earth. Everything was water. The Sky Beings looked down from above the dome of the Sky and saw water everywhere. It was Water Beetle who finally flew from the Sky on his wings, dived into the water, and swam to the bottom of the ocean. There, he found mud and brought it up to the surface. Time after time he dived down and brought up mud. That’s why to this day Water Beetle’s children dive to the depths. They are still making the Earth a bit at a time.”

“Yes, that’s right. What happened then?”

“The mud was soft and wet and sticky, and the Sky Beings who flew to Earth couldn’t land lest they sink into the mud. That was when Bird Man soared across the world, and with each beat of his wings, he pushed the land down or pulled it up. From that, mountains were formed. In the low places, Brother Snake crawled out of the Underworld and slithered down to become the river.” Mud Puppy looked out to the east, where he knew the great Father Water flowed beyond the flooded sweetgum swamps.

“And the animals?”

“They were fashioned out of dirt, molded into their shapes and sizes by the Sky Beings and the Earth Monsters. Wolf was the one who dug into a giant earthen mound and fashioned the dirt he dug out into the shape of First Man and First Woman. He breathed his soul into them and led them out into Mother Sun’s light.”

“That’s right. So tell me, Mud Puppy, having looked down on Sun Town, do you understand why we raise soil into giant mounds?”

“It is to remind us that we are of the Earth.”

“What purpose does that serve?”

“I don’t know.”

“It is to remind us of what we are, where we came from. Our bodies come not from the Sky, but from the soil itself. It is our souls that are of the Sky, breathed into us by Wolf just after the Creation. Very well, you have just told me the story of First Man and First Woman. How did the other people come into being?”

Mud Puppy frowned. “They were born of the Hero Twins, the two sons of First Man and First Woman. One, Light Boy, was born of the joining of First Man and First Woman when they lay together. He passed from her womb into air and light. The second twin, Dark Boy, was born of blood and water.”