Son of The Night Wanderer
Imagine if you will, a gentle tribe of hunter-gatherers, Native Americans...before the coming of so-called civilization, before the time when the other people came. They considered themselves human beings. No less, and no more than all the creatures on the earth. They shared the earth with all of them, and they were all watched over by the Sun. And at night, the Moon, the Night Wanderer. And in all of this, was the Everywhere Spirit.
One young man sought the meaning of the Everywhere Spirit...instead, he found The Twilight Zone.
Two Bears was asleep in his tent. He was warm and content, because he was with Swan. He had loved Swan ever since he could remember, and now, in his twentieth summer, she was his...and he was hers. Earlier that evening there had been a feast, celebrating a great hunt. The moon, Goddess of the Hunt, The Night Wanderer, had looked down on his people with favor.
The evening before, the hunters had danced around the fire, dressed in animal skins, some holding antlers above their heads. With precision, they danced as in a rehearsal, in every detail of the hunt that was to come. How the deer would be found, how it would be stalked, and how it would be killed. The women and children watched intensely. But the dance was performed for the moon goddess, so that the hunters' desires would be known to her. If she had been pleased with their dance, it would be a good hunt.
After the ceremony was done, they all sat in silence, knowing that an important and ancient magic had taken place among them. And the moon goddess, the Night Wanderer, slowly made her way across the sky. Two Bears watched, never taking his eye off the moon.
The next day was indeed a good hunt! And a great feast afterward. Everyone ate, danced, and they were happy and content.
But Two Bears was afraid of the moon, especially when she showed her full face. Why was she a wanderer anyway? Why couldn't she be reliable and stationery in the sky, like the Sun and the stars? Was she afraid of the Sun? Maybe that's why she only showed her full face every 28 days, only to hide it again more and more as nights wore on, and wander among the stars and disappear completely. But then she would reappear during the day, as if to challenge the Sun. But she never dared, she wandered through the night sky as she always did.
Two Bears was afraid of her. Especially when she showed her face. He was afraid that her son might appear again.
He rolled over and buried his face in Swan's neck and softly smiled, she was warm. He wished the moment could last forever. Then he heard it...that sound...a distant thunder, it was unmistakable. Two Bears sat up. "Could it be?" Quietly he rose and left his tent. Looking up at the full moon, he walked out to a clearing away from the other tents. His gaze never left the moon, "Night Wanderer?" His heart was racing as he listened to that distant sound, a constant rumble, a thunder that didn't cease.
In his mind, he was transported to five years earlier, when he was sent away on his vision quest. His father had thought it was time for him to be a man. To venture forth in the wilderness and seek his spirit helper, usually in the form of an animal. "Perhaps you'll find your bear friends!" his father laughed.
When he was four years old, he wandered away from the village, his parents were frantic...everyone was looking for him. His father finally found him by a creek, playing with two bear cubs. "Come with me quickly, Two Bears! Before Mama Bear arrives!"
So Two Bears had set out on his vision quest, five years ago. And as he left, "Two Bears?" It was Swan, she had run after him..."Take these!" She gave him a pouch of water and corn cakes. "Swan!..." before he could thank her she was already running back home....
The moon was hiding most of her face in the sky as he went on his vision quest.
Seven days and nights later, he was starving. He had no vision, no idea of any sort of destiny. "I'm a stupid boy, alone in the wilderness. I may die here!" He felt frightened and alone. He was weak from a lack of food, and water. It was dusk, and he knew that the moon, the Night Wanderer, was going to finally show her full face soon. If he could just make it up the nearby hill, nearer to her....
Slowly he made it up to the summit, and he stared, straight into the full moon. "Night Wanderer? Please...show me how to be a man."
He felt faint, "Everywhere Spirit...are you there? Will you help me?" He plopped down on the hill. Then he saw it...a star, moving on its own, away from the moon. He watched as it circled around in the sky. This was not an ordinary star, because it moved!...not like the other stars. Not like shooting stars. He watched as it moved. "Night Wanderer, is this your son?"
He watched the moving star as it circled around him and he heard its thunder. In his exhaustion, he was terrified and amazed. The star moved closer, in a downward spiral. The thunder became louder. "Night Wanderer? Is this your son?"
Suddenly a bright light blinded him. Then he saw the thing descending toward him, and he was terrified. He saw its claws, its wings...and he felt the wind of its hot breath. "This is NOT your son, this is a monster!"
Two Bears turned and ran down the hill, he could feel the hot breath of the monster behind him, ready to devour him at any moment. Running downhill, he tripped and fell forward, hitting the ground face-first. Then everything went black.
When he awoke, it was daylight. His head was throbbing with pain. Slowly he sat up, and noticed he was covered by a woolen blanket. It was warm, with a fine weave. Where did it come from? Then he thought of the monster from the night before and looked around him with a sudden sense of urgency, fearing it was still nearby. But he was completely alone on the slope of the hill. His head still hurt, not just from the bruises from his fall, but from an ache behind his ear. He felt it and noticed a small bump, and a trace of drying blood. He must have hit a rock there too.
He noticed something else...he felt curiously energized, and he wasn't hungry or thirsty, as he had been for days. Looking around him, he was astonished to see that his water pouch was once again filled, and there were pieces of cornbread in another small bag. Where did this all come from? Did someone come along in the night and leave him these things?
Then he thought of the monster. Surely not...He even began to wonder if the whole experience was just a dream, a hallucination. He got up and stretched, he felt rested and rejuvenated. Something profound did happen, there was no question. Perhaps his vision quest was complete, and it was time to return home, and contemplate the nature of his spirit helper, for he indeed had come.
When he returned home, he was greeted warmly by everyone, and his father asked him, "Did you find your spirit helper?"
"Yes father I did. I believe he was the son of the Night Wanderer. He came to me in the form of a monster." His father raised his eyebrows, almost scoffing. "Well, whatever your vision was, you seem to have truly seen it."
That was all five long years ago. And ever since, Two Bears looked at every full moon with apprehension. If the Son of the Night Wanderer...that monster...had indeed been his spirit helper, he never wanted to experience it again.
And now he could hear it. He stared up at the moon, shaking with fear. "Two Bears? What is it?" Swan had joined him.
Two Bears never took his gaze off the moon. "Do you hear it?...that thunder?"
Swan stared at him, and then up at the moon. "Yes...yes I do hear it!"
Then he saw it, the star. It was moving away from the moon. Two Bears was terrified. He turned to Swan, "Go back! Run! Our people are in danger!" He turned and ran as fast as he could away from the camp. "Two Bears! Wait! What is it?" Swan was running after him.
"Swan! Go back! I must get as far away from our people as possible! Do you see that star?"
She looked up, "Yes! I see it moving!"
"That is the Son of the Night Wanderer, it is a monster!"