Snippet #1593277

This great evil… Where’s it come from?
How’d it steal into the world?

The seal was old. Things were whispering from the blood that Machai couldn’t dream of ever understanding. The words bled into his soul, down his spine, seeping into every orifice and filling his spirit with lies and deceit that he couldn’t help but believe. Things were wrong. The world was not right and he could never fix it. He couldn’t help her. She would die. His Mother would be lost into this place that he was finding himself and he would never get her out.

He would watch the world end. Machai would sit, limp, forlorn, lost in some kind of shadow as the world around him fell apart. He was no match for his enemy. His father had proven that the Wolf Clan could not succeed in its task as protector of Mother Nature. This young man with a secret power not even he knew about, would never manage what his ancestors had done for hundreds of years. They were hiding away, like cowards. But they had been found. Nike knew they would be. That is why she was so much greater than he. She knew the Father would find her and yet she was not frightened by it.

But Machai… he was content with staying underground. He was content with not facing what was really happening in the world. Never seeing the murder, the neglect, the hatred and the pain. He could stay here, a lost little pup in a tiny little den, feeding off the superficial courage of the one he secretly called “Mother” in his heart.

What seed, what root, did it grow from?

Something was tearing him apart. A grief he couldn’t describe. His legs, still, wouldn’t budge from the carpet in the hallway. The walls seemed so far away from him and Katarina was a dream lost in his nightmare. Why was he feeling this way? Why was his heart decaying with this sadness? Everything was so unreachable to him and he didn’t want to fight it anymore. This internal battle was wearing him thin and the smell of the blood seal placed carefully, mindfully, on the door to their sanctuary, racked his soul.

Nike had told him earlier what to do. Burn it down… And he’d called to Katarina soon after. But now, even as she spoke to him, looked into his eyes, he couldn’t speak. All he could do was despair.

Who’s doing this?
Who’s killing us? Robbing us of life and light. Mocking us with the sight of what we mighta known?

The day his father died was a day he tried to remember as a lesson. It was not a day he wanted to look back on and grieve or feel vengeance or anger. But as much as Machai was Chief of the Wolf Clan, he was also human. His emotions, carefully hidden and fought, were still there and no manner of hiding or of pretending their existence was false, could keep them from rearing their ugly heads. It was now that they struck at him, aided by this evil that planned to rule the world, end the Human Race and stop all the good things.

Why? Why us? Machai ran the question through his mind over and over. He tasted the question, smelled it, felt it in his heart and then tossed it aside. It was not a matter of why any longer. These feelings, Machai could no longer fight them. He could no longer hide the forbidden image of his father, dying on the ground, looking up at the Father with wide, fearful eyes. That fear, the one that haunted Machai. Not the fear of death, not even the fear of the man who embodied evil. The fear that Nike would fall under his hand. It was the fear that she would have no one to watch over her.

The blood. The tears. The words. Machai had to hear them all again, feel that day once more and grow from the emotion, the hate, the pain. The young Chief did not have to walk a path of vengeance. No. He would make sure that when he died, that Nike was taken care of. Machai would do what was right for her. He would train them, the Descendants of his sibling clans. They would know his responsibility and they would all share it.

Does our ruin benefit the earth? Does it help the grass to grow or the sun to shine?

Nike whispered again. Fighting through their curse and urging them to fight back, to trust in themselves and to save what was rightfully their’s. They were allowed to be happy. Machai was allowed to grieve, to feel loss, to be happy again. Going through ups and downs was what living meant. No one deserved to live in the darkness He promised.

Something in his chest pounded at his ribs. His entire body began to hum with something he’d never felt before. Machai knew that his blood, the blood of the Wolf, was different from normal humans, but he had never felt this before. Nike’s words sent some beast within him to wake. It stirred, sending his muscles into spasms that he though for a moment he could see. A growl, coupled with the high-pitched howl of his body echoed through his mind and through the walls of their home. Then it was silent and he felt stronger in some ways.

Is this darkness in you, too?

Katarina’s hand was light, small, barely making its way around his wrist. He looked down at it as she pulled him from the place where he’d been trapped. So easily. It was like she was plucking a fresh strawberry from its vine. He followed behind her, watching her hair flow with the wind, feeling the warmth of her palm, and feeding off the strength that she sent through the atmosphere. Her fire was bright.

Machai did everything Katarina silently directed him to do. He couldn’t seem to stop looking at her. Something about her was making fighting this curse so much easier. Machai didn’t feel trapped in the darkness. He was being lead toward the light at the end of the tunnel. Katarina was not the light there. No, that role was taken by the woman who’s hand now lay limp in his calloused fingers. Machai feather his fingertips over her linen skin.

Katarina was the fire that guided him through the shadows. She lead him from his despair and into the sunshine. He smiled, closing his eyes and resting his head upon the hand of his mother. They would fight back. They would do it for her, for her people, and most of all, they would do it for themselves. What was a world without belief? What kind of a place would exist if no one believed in themselves or in the beautiful world around them? Machai could smile, really smile, and feel the beast inside him quake with his determination and passion to end the evil.

Have you passed through this night?

Yes, he answered. And I have felt the sunshine of the new dawn.