Ki'ti's Story, 75,000 BC

by Bonnye Matthews

  Ki’ti had passed thirty years. The People would plan what necessary supplies and food could be carried to follow their Wise One to a new land. Unlike the former trek where the Wise One was last in line, because of the dream, Ki’ti would lead with Manak-na and Untuk. Following the ancient path, the dragon path, they hoped to move to the large lake the Mol had described long ago. They trekked past the cave of the man with the green bag, past the fallen down cave filled with amazing animals, and then turning to follow the path to the land of the Mol. They feasted for three days with the Mol, and then continued. Two Mol couples asked to join them. They were told they had to become People to do that. They agreed. They understood the role of Wisdom, and wanted that guidance.

  When the People crossed the river, they reached the bridge where they continued the ancient path. No one had been prepared for the Gar caves that still smelled foul after all those years. The trekkers found the footpath to the bridge north of the Gar caves to be in bad shape. Hunters would have to carry the dogs across. Extreme caution was necessary. Even young children were carried across.

  After traveling for more than thirty days, the People arrived at a hill overlooking a huge valley. Ki’ti came to an abrupt halt. She had seen this once long ago. It was from her dream. And there below was the light. She had to deviate from the path as it could no longer be seen. A landslide had wiped it out. She would follow the light. She gazed out over the new land, her walking stick held in her right hand.

  Ki’ti’s eyes dilated. In an instant, she moved imperceptibly into the world of the spirit, where she would know of things to come. The People would continue to place their trust in Wisdom, and they would flourish by adding the Mol and Minguat until they became very different in appearance. Ki’ti had never asked Wamumur why he shook his fists in the direction of the volcano, but after many years he told her. Wisdom moved them for a reason, and she had discovered the reason. Often the reason could not be understood for many years. Sometimes the People might think that Wisdom was doing anything but looking out for their welfare. Such was never the case, but passing time was sometimes required to understand actions in outcomes. Their line had been suffering with low birth rates, and some children, and even their mothers, failed to survive birth. By merging with Others and the Mol, they would continue on, different but stronger. Ki’ti had seen the improved growth in their numbers. In those cases, where there was joining of People with Mol or People with Others, birth rates rose. It was even higher when the woman was not People.

  Wisdom brought no evil, but instead a great blessing. She finally fully understood. Those for whom Ki’ti would be an ancestor would not die out, but rather would continue through the ages to come. The original People would be there in their descendants. Ki’ti could see the future in her own children. She had a moment of assurance—that certainty of knowing. She understood what Wisdom approved when Baambas caused their move long ago. Wisdom saved them from extinction, first, from the volcano by forcing the trek, and, second, from their own birth difficulties by providing the Others and the Mol with whom they would intermingle and thrive as long as the stars and moon shone by night and the sun by day. Wamumur, the Wise One, simply had had a momentary lapse in faith during the time of the volcano’s explosion, when he shook his fists. Without awareness of the significance, later on he had unwittingly fully supported Wisdom’s real blessing. The People, The Others, and the Mol—Wamumur said they were all People. As one, Ki’ti knew, they would continue. She hugged herself, wishing Wamumur was within her arms. How she wished he knew what she had come to understand, but in death and in Wisdom’s company, perhaps he did.

  Ki’ti looked up. “Wisdom,” she said aloud but quietly. “I almost credited myself with reasoning out the mystery. I do recognize it is from you that my mind web gained the understanding—just as it was you who gave me the stories. From the bottom of my belly, I give you thanks.”

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