People of the Weeping Eye(13)

Power will find a way to punish you for this!

He stilled the voice in his head. Rot it all, he’d find a way to make it right with Power. As a rich man, he could assuage the gods. Far more worrisome would be if other people found out. Such a thing could ruin the Trade. Cause his people to be boycotted, avoided for years, should word leak out. In defense, his own people might murder him, sending word down the rivers that the vile Snow Otter had been punished for his misdeeds.

So do it right!

He filled his lungs as he stopped before his daughter’s bedding, and carefully reached for the blanket with his free hand. The miracle was that no one seemed to hear his pounding heart. Fear ran electrically down his nerves and muscles. His mouth had gone so dry that his tongue stuck to the roof.

As if lifting the cover from a serpent’s lair, he eased the blanket away from the still form. Even as he did, he knew something was wrong. The shape wasn’t right.

In the dim glow of the fire, he could make out his daughter’s slight form. She was curled on her side, dark hair a tangle on the bedding. Her breathing indicated that she was sleeping most soundly. Where the Trader should have been lay two familiar and bulky fabric bags—the ones his wife used to store hickory nuts beneath the sleeping bench.

Trader was gone.





Origins


Where did the People come from, you ask? We Albaamaha know the truth. Watch me as I reach down. See this black earth that I claw from the ground? See how moist it is? Smell it; is it not rich? We are of this land, unlike these silly and pretentious Chikosi. Let them babble away in their Mos’kogee tongue about being born of distant mountains. We, the Albaamaha, come from here. From this soil! This earth I hold even now in my hand.

“Down south, just over there, across the hills, flows the Albaamaha River. Back in the first times, just after the earth had been raised from the waters, a great tree grew. The World Tree that the Chikosi perverted into their Tree of Life. The World Tree’s roots wound deeply into the ground, sucking nourishment from the Below Worlds. Its branches reached high into the sky, caressing the winds, clouds, and Abba Mikko: He-Who-Sits-Above-and-Never-Dies.

“Our people lived in a great cave way down inside the earth. They had been molded and formed of clay, made into the shape of people. It was down there, deep in the earth, that they found the roots of the great World Tree growing along their cave walls. In the Council House they talked about the roots and wondered what they portended. After many days it was decided that they should investigate.

“It took those first People a long time to find pine-knot torches. As you can imagine, such torches are rather rare deep in the Below Worlds. But when they had enough, they lit them, and began climbing up along the roots. The journey wasn’t easy. Climbing, as you know, is strenuous. Nor was the way without risk. The Below Worlds are filled with terrible monsters. Tie snakes would dart out of the shadows and drag people back into the darkness. Witches left poisoned food, and when some people ate it, they became paralyzed and had to be left behind. No one knows what the witches did with them. At least four different water panthers preyed upon the people.

“Four times they made camp, lighting fires in the shape of a spiral to ward off evil beasts and malevolent little people. In the light of the fire they could see Cannibal Giants in the gloom, but the flames kept them away.

“Finally, after the fourth camp, they climbed out into this world. Some, the Albaamaha, emerged from one side of a huge root. The others, who would become the Koasati, climbed out on the other side, which is why to this day we are so similar in all but the pronunciation of a few words. It was coming out on either side of that root that separated us.

“And then the first Albaamaha looked up. What they saw amazed them. The great trunk of the World Tree towered above the mouth of their cave, its base so huge it took days to walk all the way around it. Then they saw the branches stretching out in all directions. Finally there was the sky with all of the thousands of Star People. Sister Moon glowed down from the west, almost full. They had never seen such bright light.

“Ah, I can see your expression. You can guess, can’t you? Yes, they emerged at night, first felt the wind on their faces, and sucked the cool smells of the forest, river, and rain into their nostrils. Here, they thought, was paradise.

“The people Danced and celebrated. They clapped their hands, Singing their thanks for the new world they had found. They were so loud that Owl looked down, saw them, and cried, Hoo Hoo Hoooo Hoo.

“What did you ask? Of course panic broke out. People screamed, fearing this new beast that hooted from the high branches. Some froze in fear; others scattered, running this way and that. But many of them ran back into the cave. So great was their fear that they charged heads and heels back down the way they had come, never to return again … .