“Our leader? Yes, leader would be close to what it means. He runs the village, administers the laws, settles disputes, talks to the other villages and procures trade with them.”
Allana had the fire going now and put an iron kettle on top of a structure she’d placed over the fire. When the water boiled she put some herbs in the water and let them boil.
Tana wasn’t happy to learn that the rather rude, ugly as sin man that had insulted her so rudely was the leader of the village, but she wasn’t surprised. Women went stupid over the strangest things. Still no answer on whether he was the chief impregnator of the cult but she didn’t really care; she just wanted to get out of the village, she wasn’t spending two days up here.
“Where’s my phone? Have you seen it?” Tana looked around for her bag but didn’t see it.
“What is a phone?” Allana asked, bringing Tana a cup of whatever concoction she’d mixed up. Tana took the mug, but didn’t drink.
“It will ease your pain. You’ll rest then we can talk more, if you choose. Drink up now.” Allana said with an encouraging smile. Tana took a sip and found it tasted rather pleasant. She sipped at it some more and soon started to feel all of the aches and pains easing. Sometimes you had no idea just how badly you hurt until you stopped hurting.
Chapter Two
Tana was still at the village a week later. Her belongings could not be found anywhere and she was starting to think someone had taken her things. She’d had all of her gear on her back when she climbed up the mountain. At the very least, she may have set it down but that was all. Nobody knew what she was talking about, however; and even she was starting to doubt herself by the end of the week.
Without her phone she couldn’t call for help and she certainly wasn’t going to be walking out, not with an ankle as badly sprained as hers was. Nope, no walking for her, though she had started to hobble around the village a bit. Kajika may have been cruel but he was right, she was a giant compared to the other women in the village. She stood over a foot taller than most of them; none were overweight, and they were all beautiful. She’d hate them all if they weren’t such kind, accepting people. Each had offered something to Tana, a bite of food, a cool drink, an extra blanket, and she felt grateful, even if they were a cult.
After many talks with Mingan and observing the people of the village, Tana figured out these people thought they were a part of some kind of spirit world. Mingan believed she was a shaman and that’s why she could cross over from the land of the living to the spirit world. They really believed that gods, ghosts, and other supernatural beings came from their “land”. Tana hadn’t seen anything yet to prove them right. For that matter, she hadn’t seen anything to prove them wrong.
She had an idea one evening and went out with Allana’s help to the highest part of the village and looked out at the mountains in the distance, looking for other lights, for towers, airplanes, anything from the modern world to prove them wrong but couldn’t see anything. She should at least see ranger stations from up here but she didn’t see any of those either. There simply wasn’t anything but the lights of fires from another village that Allana pointed out to her. No streetlights, no home lights, no blinking airplane lights, nothing.
The next morning she watched for contrails from a plane but didn’t see any all day. Not even a helicopter going to the resort that had a helipad 5 miles from the office she’d signed into earlier in the week. Something was wrong.
Tana started to accept that something strange was definitely happening. From her talks with Mingan and the stories the elders told the children around a fire each night, Tana learned about the people of the spirit world. They thought they were actually the ghosts of people that had lived in the land of the living. When someone passed in the land of the living they came here, forgetting who they were. When a woman became pregnant in the spirit world, the elders said, this was the entry of a spirit from the land of the living to the spirit world. The child would not remember who they were in their previous life; they would only know this life. Occasionally someone from the land of the living would be able to see people from the spirit world, but not often.
Tana cornered Mingan that evening and questioned the logic. “How do you explain my presence, Mingan? I’m here, fully formed. I wasn’t born here but I’m from your land of the living.”
“Shaman’s are powerful, Tana, you are a shaman. I can sense that in you. Somehow you have the magic to be in either place. You could return to your land if you chose to.” Mingan replied in an almost off-hand way.
“I could just…what, just blink myself back?” Tana spluttered. “I want to go back to my world desperately, I’m blinking like mad here, and I’m still here!”
“You’ll go when you have completed the task you came for. Not before.”
“What task is that?” Tana asked briskly, stamping her foot. Mingan was becoming used to her moods and smiled at her serenely, placing a hand on Tana’s shoulder.
“The task you were sent for. Only you can find out what that task is.”
“Maybe her task is to eat all of the deer in the forest, or to turn all of our women into slaves waiting on her immense form.”
Tana heard the words and knew who was behind her, snorting in laughter. “How about you just take a long walk off a short pier there super stud?”
“What is a pier?” Kajika asked, not understanding.
“Get lost, in other words.” Tana retorted.
“Why would I want to lose myself? I like where I live.” Kajika asked, frustrating Tana even more.
“Forget it, I’ll do the getting lost part, again.” Tana stalked off to her wigwam, slapping the hide aside to slip in and plop down on her pallet. As if to torment her even more, the pallet creaked and almost turned over.
“I hate this place,” Tana said to herself before punching her blankets and going to sleep.
Kajika seemed to be everywhere she went over the next week, constantly taunting, constantly determined to bring tears to her eyes. She knew he wanted her gone, that was blatantly obvious. She’d managed to keep her boots and clothes but over the days her clothes had become filthy so she’d started to wear the clothing of the men and that brought a tong of ridicule down on her head. Luckily the village didn’t follow their ‘Great Father’s’ lead and do the same. Many pitied her, mainly the women, and a couple of the men her age actually gave her interested looks once they saw her body garbed in the tight buckskin.
By the end of the second week her ankle was healing and Tana started to test it, taking longer and longer walks each day. There was still a twinge after she walked on it for an hour but she’d swallow the pain if it meant getting back to reality. She couldn’t stand the torment anymore.
She spoke with Mingan and told him she didn’t see any job she was supposed to be doing and she wanted to go home.
“You don’t see that there’s a job for you here?” Mingan questioned.
“No, and I’m starting to think if I stay here much longer I’ll be stuck here. Somebody must be looking for me. My family may not be but someone at the office will be. Or my employer will be by Monday when I don’t show up for work. Security officers tend to be missed.”
“What is a security officer?” Mingan asked, seeming to let the question about her job in the spirit world go.
“I guard a bank at night; make sure people don’t break in and steal the valuables inside.” Tana had learned by now to put things as plainly as she could. The practice saved time and frustration for all parties.
“So you have the job of a man in the LOL?” Tana had all of the village calling the land of the living that now. She thought it was funny, anyway.
“No, women and men can do a variety of jobs in the LOL. There aren’t male jobs and female jobs; we share burdens and base employment on ability, not gender. Some women are better at guarding than they are sewing, you know?” Tana couldn’t sew a straight line if it meant saving her own life. She hated it and always stabbed herself
more than she did the cloth she was trying to sew.
“Well, I guess if you’re ready to go then you must go. I cannot stop you. When do you plan to leave?” He asked, handing her a plate of food he’d prepared for the evening meal.
“This is really good, Mingan, I will miss your food. I guess I’ll give my ankle one more day then I have to go.”
“We will feast tomorrow night then, to wish you well on your journey. Do you want me to get someone to help you down the mountain?”
“No, I should be fine. I’ll stop halfway down and then finish on the next day. I’ll be late getting back to work but if I get stuck, then at least maybe someone will come looking for me.” She said, scraping up the last of the food with a flat bread made by the village women.
“The people of your world cannot find you here, Tana; they will never find you here no matter how long they search for you.” Mingan said as he carried a plate of food to another villager.
The next night Tana settled onto a pile of buckskin blankets with some of the village women she’d built friendships with and watched as the villagers performed dances for her. She was the guest of honour and felt like it as the ladies decorated her hair with late-summer flowers and brought her the best plates of food. She’d become accustomed to the slate slabs used as plates and was careful to make sure she didn’t cut her hands on the sometimes sharp rock. She was enjoying the evening and felt sadness at the idea of leaving the people. It was time to go back to her world though.
Tana had thought them all mad when she first came to the village, a cult with very strange ideas but she’d come to respect their ways over time, even if she still wasn’t certain if they were truly of the spirit world or just a bunch of lunatics. They were living with what nature provided them, making everything from the food they ate, to the soap they used for cleaning, eating utensils, and clothing. Everything else was gathered from the woods and they were thankful for every bit of it. There was no electricity, no running water, any of it. Just a communal life of hunting and gathering that Tana thought left the people far happier than the modern conveniences of her world provided. All that mattered was the village and the people in it.
Tana’s thoughts soured as she spotted Kajika heading in her direction. Here it comes, more insults.
“Ah, please, do not fall asleep and roll over or you will crush our women.” He looked down at her with a snide grin then walked away, seeking out Mingan.
“He deserves to have a thousand small fish swim up his tackle and bite him from the inside” Allana whispered to her, and then giggled at her mention of Kajika’s man-parts.
“Yes, he does. It would serve him right.” Tana returned, laughing as Allana’s blush deepened. “Oh, do stop being so innocent, Allana. Men have parts, so do women; it’s nature, darling.”
“I know, I am far too shy; it is why I remain unmarried. I just do not have what it takes to flirt like other women do.”
“Oh, is there someone you fancy then?” Tana hoped it wasn’t Kajika because he didn’t deserve Allana’s adoration.
“No, not that I have met. Maybe in the winter when the villages gather for our annual trading fair. I am not in a hurry.”
“No need to be really, is there?” Tana asked, watching as Mingan offered a cup of tea to Kajika and then headed towards Tana with another cup in his hand.
“I have brought you the tea of the gods. This will give you good sleep so you can wake rested in the morning for your journey down. Drink it now or later, as you wish.”
Tana was planning on going to bed soon so she sipped at the tea, hoping that would slow the effects but help her to rest later. That was something else she’d found out about this place, herbal medicines seemed to be far better than anything she’d ever taken from a pharmaceutical company.
She sat back on the buckskins, Allana running her fingers through Tana’s hair as they listened to one of the elders telling a new story and gazed up at the stars. She so longed to be home but life was simply beautiful here, she thought. Her gaze drifted until she spotted Kajika and then lingered on the man. He was the only blemish on her time here, a hateful man who enjoyed tormenting her. She hoped he ended up with little fishies swimming up his plumbing as well.
Her mind drifted as she watched Kajika, and she felt drawn to him. She resisted the urge to go over to him and turned on her side, talking with Allana and others in her group instead. He may be the most beautiful man on earth physically, but he was ugly at his core.
“Tana, will you come with me please?” Kajika asked.
“Pardon?” She asked as she turned over, shocked by the request.
“Will you come with me? I would like to speak with you please, before you leave in the morning.” He actually seemed to want to speak with her.
“No, I don’t think so Kajika, I don’t feel like being asked if Greenpeace are protecting me, or if when I sit around the house; I actually sit around the house. Not tonight. Let’s leave it at goodbye shall we? Have a nice life.”
“I promise, I will not be cruel to you, which is what your statement implies I suppose as I don’t know what Greenpeace is, but I would like to apologize to you and explain myself, please, if you would allow it.” He rushed the words out as if he only had seconds to say them.
Tana looked up from her place on the ground with the other women and saw honesty there, and something that looked similar to shame. This ought to be worth hearing, at least, she thought as she got up from her spot.
“Alright then? Where do you want to go?” She asked, looking around the village.
“Just over to the other side of the fire. Thank you for agreeing to speak with me.”
“It might be worth hearing. But the first crack of an insult sees me getting up to leave, do you understand? Tana asked sternly.
“Yes, I think so but not necessarily how you put it. But, yes, overall I believe I understand you.” He said, motioning for her to sit down on some blankets.
“Right. Well then, what do you have to say for yourself?” Tana asked, almost impatiently. That herbal tea was starting to kick in and she was getting sleepy.
“First, I would like to say I’m sorry for my behaviour over the last couple of weeks. I have acted childishly and spitefully and none of that was truly your fault. You are a beautiful woman, even if you look different from the women of my world. You have acted with honour, pride, and respect the whole time you have been here, but I have not. My wife left me many years ago for another, and I have not allowed myself to choose another wife. None have really caught my interest, honestly, but you did. To protect myself I have tormented you and though I do not deserve it, I ask for your forgiveness. I simply cannot allow you to leave hating me and I hope that you would come back to visit us again, whenever you are ready.”
Tana, sitting cross-legged on the blankets reeled back and looked at Kajika as if he had three heads. Whoa. Her head was spinning now but she was certain he’d just apologized and rather humbly asked for her forgiveness.
“Wow. Um, yeah, thank you, Kajika, I appreciate the honesty and the apology. If I ever find my way back, I’ll be glad to visit. I can’t believe you just said all of that. Wow.” Tana flopped onto her back, looking up at the stars.
“If I stay now, I will have to taste your lips and that cannot be, so I will leave you now. I’ve said what I could no longer hold back. Pleasant dreams, Tana, and safe voyage.”
With that, Kajika left and Tana was alone, staring up at the stars. Pulling one of the blankets over herself, she fell asleep there, hoping that what Kajika had just said wasn’t just a hallucination.
Chapter Three
Two days later Tana knew she was lost and she wasn’t going to find her way home. The villagers had provided her with enough food and water and blankets to get her back down the mountain, but the food was only meant to last her a day and a half. She had been able to gather more water from streams, but food was scarce. She’d realized she was lost when she made camp the first night. She�
�d wandered the entire day, searching for her first camping point halfway down the mountain but either she was coming down on the wrong side of the mountain or it had disappeared.
After another day of searching with very little food, her ankle now throbbing in protest again, Tana made camp and fell asleep, tears defying her will and rolling down her face. She was lost and she couldn’t even find her way back up to the top of the mountain now to find a village. Going straight up should have brought her back to it but even that led her back to the middle of the mountain somehow. She was stuck and had no idea how to fix it.
If nothing else had convinced her about where she’d been the last two weeks, walking straight up a mountain only to find you were right back in the middle when you should have been at the top did. She was not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Definitely not in Kansas.
Tana fell into an exhausted sleep and dreamed of pleading with Mingan to find her, of chasing around the mountain for months, until her legs gave out and she died cold and alone, and of Kajika keeping her warm with his body in a different dream. That dream started to turn steamy and that confused her so she made herself wake up, staring up at the line of sunlight just breaking through the trees. Turning onto her other side, she started as she realized someone was sitting there.
“Kajika! How did you find me?” Tana launched herself at the scowling man, hugging his neck tightly. “Never mind, I’m just glad you are here! I’ve been so lost.”
“Mingan sent me to find you; he heard your pleas in his dreams. I suppose I must now take you back to the village again. I don’t know what Mingan gave me that night or what I did that you now find it necessary to launch yourself at me, but please refrain from doing it again.” The cold words were a shock to Tana and his curt removal of her arms, flinging them away from him, saddened her.
Thriller: Horror: Conceived (Mystery Suspense Thrillers) (Haunted Paranormal Short Story) Page 44