“Hey you! Open the gate and let us in.” Night Star called out, her and my sister stopping their horses a dozen feet from the entrance.
For a moment nothing happened, the gaunt and scared faces just stared at the pair, mouths opening and closing like trout.
“Didn’t you hear my sister? Let us in fools! Don’t you recognize us?” Ice Blossom jeered, raising her fist and shaking it at the men on the wall.
“Is… is that you Night Star, Ice Blossom? Where are the Chiefs heirs? Are they… are they gone? Are you really you?” The one on the left began rattling off questions, now that he’d started talking, he couldn’t stop.
“Enough!” Night Star called, loudly silencing the guard. “Let us in, I need to speak with Chief Crow’s Feet, it is an emergency, now get this thing you are using as a gate out of my wat!”
The men leapt to obey, both disappearing behind the rock wall and then reappearing at the wooden barricade. At first it was just the two of them, but then some calls for assistance and there were half a dozen old men clearing the way. A few minutes later Ice Blossom motioned us forward and we trotted into the Crow village. The inside was as I had feared, just as broken and beat down looking as the outside.
The guard who had asked all the questions led us through the village to the Chief. My sisters took the lead, with the rest of us riding single file behind them. I used the time to study the village and people, while keeping one ear on their conversation. All around were the signs of a people barely hanging on. All the children hid by their mother’s legs, or in their shabby frayed yurts. Everyone’s ribs were showing, and they looked on the edge of breaking. We meandered through the village and I was surprised at the amount of people here. The whole Crow tribe must have been here, that was almost a thousand people last time Thunder Foot had talked about it.
Everywhere I turned haunted sunken faces full of fear looked back. I heard bits and pieces of my sister’s conversation.
“…the Chief is in the great yurt, he will see you there, he never leaves, ever since…”
“Ever since what?” Ice Blossom insisted.
“The Chief will tell you, I wish Thunder Foot and Lightning Fist were here, the Chief was always better with them around, and now with everything…” He trailed off again.
My sister was about to engage him again, but we arrived at the center of the village and the great yurt of Chief Crow’s Feet. I ordered all the Riders except for my sisters, Dancing Lion, and Stone Fox, whom I began referring to as my command cadre, or CC, in my mind.
“Sissy’s?” What is that?” Dancing Lion asked, as we walked in.
“No, CC’s.” I explained.
“Sissy’s it is.” Stone Fox said, matter of fact.
I shook my head in defeat, there was no changing it now, the name was Sissy’s, oh well. Changing tracks in my head, I can’t believe I thought that the Crow Village was something noteworthy just a few scant weeks ago. This place was a veritable shithole. Well, it was the shithole we had, and we’d make do. Hopefully Chief Crow’s Feet would be of some use.
When I first saw the Crow Chief’s great yurt in my youth I was awed. It was gigantic, double the size of my fathers, and done in a riot of colors. Never had I seen such vibrant blues, reds, yellows, and greens made by man. Now, ten years later, it was nothing but a former shell of itself.
The guard, whose name was Squawking Robin, stopped at the entrance to the yurt, opened the flap, and bade us enter. I followed along and once inside, it was hard for me to stifle a gasp, the rest of the party wasn’t as tactful. Gasps and scrunched faces were abundant on my people. I couldn’t blame them, I wanted to do the same. The inside of the yurt smelled of disease and rot. It wasn’t surprising, as I looked about, I could tell the place hadn’t been aired out, not to mention cleaned, in weeks, if not longer.
The room was dim, lit by torches, and the smoke lingered, causing a haze to cover everything, making the air stale and smoky. Filth encrusted fur rugs covered the ground and sides of the yurt, even hanging above obscuring the light entry, and smoke exit at the top of the structure. A raised dais was in the rear of the yurt, upon it sat a grey faced old man, covered in furs, and surrounded by burning torches and a large fire for warmth. There he was, Chief Crow’s Feet.
Two guards flanked the Chief, and three more lined both sides of the tent. It seemed like all the capable fighters were here, in this yurt. Our group stopped a few feet from the Chief’s dais and we all bowed our heads slightly in greeting.
“Well, they said my two lovely daughters-in-law were here, I hardly believed them, thinking it some trick. Yet, here you are before me, not alone it seems, with beasts of legend as a matter of fact. Welcome my dear Ice Blossom and Night Star, why are my sons, your husbands, not with you?” Chief Crow’s Feet asked, his voice low and gravelly, raspy, almost sibilant.
“Hello Chief…” Ice Blossom started to say
“Come dear, how many times have I told you to call me father.” Chief Crow’s Feet interjected.
“…our husbands are not here because they are off fighting the bringers of The Great Suffering. Have you not received any of our messengers?” Ice Blossom finished, ignoring his interruption, and asking the last incredulously.
“Of course, I received your messengers with their fool drivel about The Great Suffering, as you can see though, we’ve been rather busy as of late.” Chief Crow’s Feet harrumphed, while gesturing at the air around him.
“It is not drivel! We have fought a great battle against them already and defeated them, your sons did themselves and you proud. We ride legendary beasts, horses, mine is named Wind, as he rides like it, because we are blessed by the gods and goddesses. They gave us magic, a connection with our partners.” Night Star said, taking over. “We are here now because we are rallying the tribes to fight and take our revenge against those who caused us so much pain and death.”
“Enough!” Chief Crow’s Feet yelled, rising to his feet, and doubling over in a fit of coughing. After a few bouts of phlegm spraying and hacking, he breathed deeply for a minute, then glared at us. “I will hear no more of your lies! You already stole my sons from me! It is your fault! All of your faults, that this darkness, these monsters have come!”
“What do you mean?” Night Star asked.
“Ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha!” Chief Crow’s Feet cackled. “What do I mean? We are a dead people, we are under siege. What’s left of my tribe, the once powerful Crow are here, in my village. Not since The Great Suffering has it been so bleak. We are dying, no, we are dead. The monsters have won. The Nirumbee are coming, they will kill us all.” He trailed off and sat down heavily, his furs encompassing him again.
“Please, Father…” Ice Blossom started to say.
“Enough!” I commanded, my voice sharp as a whip, cutting my sister off.
She gave me a surprised look, but I just motioned her aside with a gesture of my head, and stepped forward, until I was directly in front of Chief Crow’s Feet, just a few steps away. My posture must have been aggressive because all the guards startled and watched me, readying themselves for action. I turned my gaze slowly from left to right, matching stares with each guard, cowing them with my stare, causing each of them to swallow and step back an inch.
Good, they knew who was in charge here. Law told me a story his dad told him once, everyone thinks they are the baddest mother fucking dog in the yard, most of the dogs just bark. It’s your job to show them that your bite is way worse than their bark. I turned my glare upon the Chief.
“I am Moon Flower. The daughter of Chief Running Hawk, fiancé to the War Shaman Lawrence Lawrence Wrath. I am the leader of the Riders of Earth and Sky.” I paused, not breaking eye contact with the Chief, and slowly drew my Fiery Saber from its sheath. The guards tensed but made no move, as I raised my sword high, then with a thought, activated the Flame Skill. My blade burst into orange-red fire, pushing the gloom in the room away and shining light into the furthest corners. “I am Moon Flower! Blessed
by the god Coyote and the Goddesses, Hasteoltoi, Shakaru, and Ateantsic. You are honor bound, by your ancestors and your own vows to the gods, to fight for your people. Join me Chief Crow’s Feet, join me and War Shaman Wrath, your sons, my sisters, and all the tribes, let us take our revenge, let us fight!”
My sword flared on the last part, and my Sissy’s and the guards in the room cheered my words. Chief Crow’s feet though, did not cheer, he began to laugh, softly at first, low and breathy. Then his laughter began to grow in volume, as it did, an aura, a sickly brown and yellow thing, started to appear around him. His cackling rose in volume and he stood as well, the aura now almost as bright as the fire on my sword.
With one final booming cackle he stood upright and flung the furs covering him to the ground. His emaciated body was thin you could see every bone on his ribs, not only that but his skin was a motley of disturbing colors, ranging from rotting yellows and browns, to dead looking greys, and bruised purples. Before our eyes, his skin began to melt and slough off, yet still he cackled. His aura began to pulse and with a final blinding flash stopped. Slowly, I opened my eyes and looked at the scene before me.
“Moon, what is that?” Ice Blossom exclaimed.
I shook my head unsure. The Chief was gone and in his place was a monster.
My periphery began to flash, and I quickly pulled up the message.
YEE NAALDLOOSHII (LEVEL – Unknown)
More commonly called a Skin-walker, is a type of harmful witch, most commonly from Navajo lore, who has the ability, to turn into, possess, or disguise themselves as an animal or person. Skin-walkers can possess living animals or people and walk around in their bodies by locking eyes with them, depending on their target’s willpower and personal strength, they can fight off the gaze of a Skin-walker. They can be male or female. They are considered one of the, if not the most dangerous monster, in Navajo culture.
I closed the message as the monster stopped laughing and began to growl, deep in its throat, which was a more appropriate sound to come from the massive monster. The Skin-walker was eight feet tall, half man, from the waist down, and half beast on top. He was some amalgamation of either mountain lion or jaguar. Clawed talons replaced his hands and his fur covered body bulged with muscle. His fanged maw and glowing red eyes focused on me. I involuntarily took a step back and readied my guard.
“It is a Skin-walker.” I answered. “A monster like the Skudakumooch. It must die!”
“Ha! Try little human, come I will lick the blood from my talons, after I rip your heart out.” The Skin-walker growled, in his low voice, laughing evilly as he did so. “All of you will die! Your weak little weapons can’t hurt me! I will crunch your bones and gorge on your sweet meats! I will…”
“Fire at will!” I commanded, interrupting the monster, while flaring my fire and lunging forward at the same time, covering the few feet in an instant, the tip of my Fiery Cavalry Saber piercing into the muscled abdomen of the monster. Black blood sprayed out, then smoking and burning, as the fire from my magic saber cauterized the wound. I put all my strength into my lunge and stabbed deep into the monster.
I recovered from my lunge, my blade slipping out of the monster, as he roared in pain, a trio of burning arrows flew by on either side of me, coming so close, I could hear the whine of the air, and feel the heat of their passage. All three arrows hit the monster in the chest, pushing him back and causing more roars of pain and rage. The monsters fur began to smolder, then smoke and burn from the Fire-Steel Arrows, and he howled louder then ever.
“This isn’t the end, I will be back, and you will die, my Nirumbee army will leave nothing but bones!” He screamed, then turned and leapt into the rear of the yurt, his massive burning frame bursting through the decrepit hide wall.
The guards stood frozen in shock, while my Sissy’s took off after the monster.
“Stop, don’t chase after him, he will be back.” I called out.
“You don’t see that every day now, do you?” Ice Blossom joked, as she came jogging back up.
“Actually, you’d be surprised.” I replied, thinking back to my late-night rendezvous with the Skudakumooch.
“That’s the end of the Fire-Steel Arrows.” Stone Fox said, as she returned.
“I’m just glad we had those last ones.” I replied.
Just then the rest of the Riders came running and burst into the tent, weapons drawn. They looked around but when they saw us just talking, they lowered their weapons confused.
“Good, you’re all here, come we have much work to do.” I said, turning and walking out of the yurt.
TRACK 30 – KNOCK YOU DOWN – KERI HILSON, KANYE WEST, NE-YO
My muscles were sore, my brain hurt, and I was filthy. Yet, I felt amazing. I had raised the entire wall around our encampment, well three-fourths of it, the water side was left open, for boat access. Wood had been gathered, tents had been pitched, and the venison was dressed and cooking on the fire. Freak was laid out by said fire, snoozing, after having eaten his fill of the choice bits of deer, as he was the hunter who bagged it.
I was so exhausted and so hungry I felt as if I could eat the whole deer. The crew was sitting around the fire, waiting on Cunning Wolf, who had volunteered for the cook role, saying he was the only who could make food that wouldn’t kill us, to say the deer was ready.
Patty and Billy nodded as I walked up, I did the same in return. I approached the fire, holding my dirt covered hands over it to warm them up.
“How long till dinner Cookie?” I asked Cunning Wolf jokingly, reaching out to rip a small piece of venison off the spit. Quick as a striking snake he smacked my outstretched hand with his make shift spit tender, a three-foot long pronged piece of wood, with a loud snap. “Ouch! What the fuck man?” I whined, nursing my hand and the newly given red welt.
“You and each of them, go clean your filth covered selves up, then dinner will be ready. Now shoo!” Cunning Wolf said imperiously, gesturing at us all with his wooden torture device.
I looked myself over, then glanced at my crew, yep they were almost as filthy as me. Rowing all day, then making camp, sweat and dirt covered us all. With a loud sigh, I waved everyone to me.
“Come on you all, he’s right, let’s go clean up.” I said tiredly, turning and walking to the little sandy beach.
Freak side-eyed me as I left, but huffed, as if saying have fun buddy, gonna nap by this warm fire, enjoy the cold ass water. At least, that’s what I gleaned from it. I stripped down to my Mawashi and began washing my clothes at the water’s edge. From my sides the rest of the crew approached with loud groans and not a little bit of whining, but all began stripping and washing up.
“Awe fuck! This water is colder than Hel’s teats!” Billy guffawed.
“Don’t be such a whiny arseling.” Shadow Bear joked, finally giving the cousins from Eire a taste of their own medicine. “Come on in the water’s fine.”
Everybody laughed, and we all began to wade out into the water. It was cold as fuck but invigorating as well. With all the hard work we’d done the cold water soothed our tired muscles and washing all the dirt and sweat off felt amazing. Dawn was the only girl, but no one said a thing as she stripped and cleaned with us all. Nakedness really wasn’t taboo with these people, it helped that she was still more girl then woman, Patty and Billy didn’t even spare her a second glance.
Somehow, someone splashed someone else and suddenly we were having a splash war, everyone laughing and trying to splash someone else with a deluge of cold water.
“Eat this Law!” Thunder Foot called, slapping the water with both hands and sending a wall of water at me.
The wave crashed in on me and I spluttered, covered with the cold water, laughing and splashing back at the big man. Suddenly, my Danger Sense went off, coming from all around us in the water, and someone yelped. I turned to see Lightning Fist gone, with only ripples of water in his stead. Everyone had noticed the yelp and the splashing had stopped, everyone looking around at th
e water now and where the missing man had been. I walked over to where he disappeared and looked around, the water was waist high, but clear and I could see to the rocky bottom.
“What the…” Patty exclaimed, a loud splash and when I turned he was gone, everyone else already looking where he was.
“What happened?” I asked.
“He just, fell into the water with a yelp.” Dusk said.
“Be on your guard. Walk back to shore and get your weapons.” I commanded.
A round of nods replied to me and we began our walk back to shore. Then something slipped around my feet, I looked down in time to see a scaly serpent of some kind, then I was yanked and pulled into the water. The serpent pulled me into deeper water in an instant, even though I flailed and tried to fight it. I caught snippets of the watery world around me and saw Patty and Thunder Foot flailing in the water close by. Their serpents wrapping around their bodies and trying to drag them to their deaths. This wouldn’t end well unless I did something. My periphery flashed, and a message popped up.
WEEWILLMEKQ (LEVEL – 2)
Most tribes have a legend somewhat similar to the Weewillmekq, or horned serpent. It is said to lurk in lakes and eat humans. Its name literally means Great Serpent. It is said that the Great Serpent grabs unsuspecting prey and drowns them, then devours them whole. They are extremely fearful of fire as it hurts them being their natural enemy element.
I dismissed the message with a thought, as quickly as it came. The monster began to wrap itself around my body, as I tried to fight it, but it was futile, the serpent kept wrapping around and around. I was getting pulled next to my friends, then the coils loosened, and the serpent screamed in the water, a high-pitched sound that made my nerves squeal. There was commotion around me and then I saw my savior, Freak! He had come and swam down to us, then bit into the serpent that had taken me. A few crunches with his massive maw, and some deep scoring with his claws and the serpent went limp. I pulled free and sent a command to Freak to go help the beleaguered Patty.
I Am Gamer II Page 17