Seems Naake ni has me starting to write again, something I haven't done for a long time... Like 20 years...
anyway, this short story is still just a first draft, will be edited and some areas expounded on to give more depth, I think... It was written in about an hour while waiting to get my rig loaded. It was inspired by a song on a Native American Shamanic Journey cd I was listening to, and has been percolating for a week or so.
As a side note, shortly after I finished the hand written draft a Bald Eagle flew into the loading area, landed on a light pole about 25' from me, looked straight at me and then flew off again.. Was kind of surreal
Wolf and Eagle
I woke to the sound of rain, not a heavy rain, but the tapering rain at the end of the storm. It’s just false dawn, bright colors filtering through the breaking clouds as the Sun fights to break past the hills opposite my den. I chose this place for the morning sun, the awakening of the new day.
As I rise and stretch, shaking off the night’s dreams, I look out into the surrounding woods. They are old, older than my packs history, untouched by man. Leaving the den, my mate and pups still sleeping, to greet the new day, I pad silently down the hill to the creek and stop to drink the clear, cold water before continuing on, always listening to the life around me. Above me I hear the whisper of the wind through wings, looking up to see Eagle riding the currents only he can see, his white head and golden body alternately playing in the morning light and the night’s leftover shadows. I know he sees me from the slight shift of his circles to move just ahead of me, watching for any prey my passing moves.
I continue on the path, arriving at the ledge above it all just as the Sun finally breaks over the distant spires and through the clouds, bathing me in its early morning warmth. Eagle continues to circle above and in front of me, always looking, always watching. I wonder what the world looks like from his view. Does he see the way the last raindrops cascade down through the leaves, playing their music as they fall leaf to leaf, then finally to Mother Earth to begin the cycle again? Or, does he see it in ways I never will?
I lie down on the cool rock outcropping where I come to ponder, to listen, or to think as I do today. The warmth of the sun on my graying fur helps me forget, at least for now, my scars, each earned providing for and protecting my pack. As I let my thoughts drift Eagle circles close, closer with each rotation, his feathers each clear, the whistle and rustle of his passing fills my ears.
Looking up I call out “Speak to me my Brother of the Air, tell me what you see and what you feel on the wind. What is like to rise above Mother Earth, to ride the wind? Can you still feel Her heartbeat as you soar, or is it peaceful and silent as you wheel above? I see you watching me, do you ever wonder what it is like to be forever grounded?” Wheeling past so close, Eagle touches me on the head with his wing as he passes, the feathers of the wing tip just stirring my fur as gently as the breeze itself.
Suddenly I am above the earth looking down at myself! I can hear Eagles thoughts, his answers to my questions, and feel and see what he does! I feel, and more so, understand the air that carries us, moving like the waters of the brook around the rocks and banks, its essence alive. I can see the world as I never have before, Eagle eyes indeed! The world goes on forever, though I can see where man has touched it. We rise higher, riding the currents, one to the next, rising higher than the mountain where myself still lies. Above the snowline, then the tree line, the mountain bare in it’s white winter clothes.
I have lost myself in the distance but Eagle reassures me. This is his gift to me, his answers to my questions. He shows me and shares with me all he can, my mind awash in the sensations, working hard to understand and experience it all. The wind in my fur at full run has never felt this alive, this real, as it does flowing through the feathers that carry us ever higher, above the clouds. I have seen the valley holding the clouds, looked across them like water in a lake, but to be truly above it all, to see nothing but clouds, and the earth below through the gaps, takes my breath away. I live a lifetime in seconds, the seconds stretching into a lifetime. I know this feeling, this experience, is mine for the rest of my days, unable to truly share it even with my mate, we have no words able to describe it.
Too soon Eagle wheels back down through the scudding clouds, gliding gracefully back to where myself lays still and quiet as if in sleep there below. As we turn circles, descending, I see my den, and just at the edge of the light and shadow I see my pack, still sleeping. Eagle lands on the outcropping, standing looking out to see what I see from my open but currently sightless eyes. It is so much less than he has shown me. Turning, he touches my head, then ruffle the fur of my ear with his beak.
I blink, once, twice, a third time. I look skyward, but Eagle is gone. The Sun has moved high up from the eastern mountains, from when we looked out of his eyes together, not long, but enough. I wonder, was I dreaming? Was it real or fantasy in my mind? Shaking off the raindrops that gathered as I lay I rise and stretch again, bowing down before the now fully risen Sun. As I turn to go back to my pack I see it, just in the periphery of my vision. Afraid to look again I lope down to the creek, looking in the water as a mirror, seeing it is really there.
There! There in the fur of my left ear are two grey/gold feathers intertwined in the fur… No, not intertwined … PART of the fur!!! A final gift shared, a connection to the Air and my Brother who rides it. I understand now, and as I leave the creek bank I am calm but connected, feeling it all anew.
How do I explain it to my mate, to my pack? Will they call it a dream, a figment of my over-active imagination? How can they with the feathers there!
Padding quietly into the den I nuzzle my mate lovingly, asking her to come out in the morning Sun.
I whisper to her "We need to talk…."
Topic: Naake ni's stories and stuff (Read 1231 times)