When Darkness Begins

by Tina O’Hailey

  “I will follow the group tomorrow night when they go to the ritual site.” Aithagg grasped her hand, and they walked down the path.

  “Eterili will see. She sees everything,” Catha protested.

  “I do not know that she will. And if she did—what does it matter? We have all of time. We can go through the ritual and I can come back and put the markers there for you.”

  Catha considered the concept.

  While they walked the moon crept higher into the sky and accompanied the stars. The night air was crisp.

  “Do you know what happens at the ritual site?” she finally asked.

  “The elders will not say. All that I can understand is that we gather around a fire ring much like we do here. But we have to move to a certain time forty-thousand winters ago and then from that moment we are pushed into our individual times where we will sync.” Aithagg shrugged. “Then we begin our journey to find the place that will give us energy and begin our task of protecting time.”

  “The journey is long. Even those who can see through time do not always endure,” Catha said despondently.

  “But before then…” Aithagg placed both hands on Catha’s shoulders and turned her to face him.

  Just then, a small group of youngsters came running down the path. Exuberant squeals warned of their approach. The children ran past Aithagg and Catha.

  “Last one there!” one of them shouted. The others were in hot pursuit.

  Aithagg and Catha watched them go. She turned to Aithagg and said, “Let us do something with the evening then, if I am not going to run away and join the Linears.” She smiled. “Let us go watch the stars in this near moonless night.”

  “What do you do if you can not feed on them?” Aithagg ventured.

  “I take some of their food and eat as they do. As we did when we were young.”

  “Your parents do not notice?” he knew but asked anyway, hating to hear the answer.

  “My parents have not tried to train me since I was young. They know. They ignore me and are waiting for me to…” A hitch caught in her voice. “They will not return to their time until after the ritual.”

  “Let us enjoy the night then and talk no more of this for now, shall we?” He held his hand out to her.

  ***

  A moon sliver sunk low like a glowing, grim grin. The fire reached towards it. All gathered round for the parting ritual. The adolescence of age would bid their farewells. Tomorrow evening, they would begin the trek to a distant place for the ritual. The parents proudly and worriedly stood at one end of the gathering area.

  Iskeho held Kei-tha’s hand, and they smiled gently to one another. He squeezed her hand encouragingly.

  Eterili was unusually quiet and stood facing the fire. The heat shimmered around her and some imagined it magnified her stench.

  As practiced, the Vechey of age filed in silently and stood around the circle facing the fire alongside of Eterili.

  Those closest to Eterili braved the worst of her smell. She claimed to be as old as dirt and unable to tolerate water. The ancient one would anoint herself with oils and mysterious substances and had so for hundreds of moons. The anklets of canine teeth smeared with dried blood aided to the overall bouquet.

  A drumbeat sounded slowly and methodically. The hollow thuds boomed from stretched hides beat with baton animal leg bones. Four such drums hid in the shadows. The musicians covered their faces with red ochre paint mixed with mud. It cracked and pitted. The shadows cast from the fire made the cracks seem to dance eerily like snakes across their faces.

  All took their place and the beat of the drums echoed in the dark night. No one else made a sound. Even the insects seemed to wait in hushed silence.

  Boom. The drums sounded.

  Rattle. The teeth around Eterili’s ankle.

  Boom. Thud. The drums.

  Clink. Dead teeth on dead teeth.

  Only the youngest of the Vechey made any noise at all. They fidgeted at their parent’s side, frightened by Eterili, the drums, the solemn adolescent and their long tortured shadows which seemed to shift and dance. The shadows seem disembodied, as if not cast by the youth at all. The shadows grew from the teen’s heels as a writhing symbol of the change they would soon endure.

  At once, Eterili turned from the fire and the drums stopped. Quietly, she called each adolescent by name. Her voice carried across the still night air. Each teenager turned their back to the fire when Eterili called their name.

  Aithagg and Catha stood near each other watching the circle of teens older than them. Kei-tha searched the crowd till she laid eyes on Aithagg. She smiled gently when their eyes met briefly.

  “What do you protect?” Eterili called out dramatically to the air.

  “Time.”

  “Why?”

  “Lest the sky pull my bones apart as the tribe is lost across all of time.”

  Eterili turned to face the fire again and raised both arms. “Have you heeded your teachings?”

  “Yes.”

  “You are the next wave of Watchers. Sworn to protect time and keep it safe from the Manipulators.”

  “Yes.”

  “We will travel to the ritual circle where you will be pushed into your own time and away from all others.”

  “Yes.”

  One by one, the circle of teenagers turned away from their parents, their siblings, their younger friends, and faced the fire. They cast their eyes skywards and recited, “We will protect our time, the tribe, our Eterili. Lest our souls be rent from our bones.”

  Eterili threw something into the fire. It exploded into green flames. The green light flickered on their faces and then dwindled.

  “It is the way,” she said solemnly.

  ***

  The sun rose to a misting morning. Fog hung heavy around the trees. No one was there to see Catha shoulder her pack and without turning back walk away from the tribe’s cave.

  ***

  Aithagg woke in the night. He hurried to see Catha outside of her room. As he approached the entrance, he sensed she wasn’t there. The air was too still. He called out in vain, “Catha, are you awake yet?”

  No answer.

  He peeked in to see she had neatly folded the furs. The sound of his feet echoed coldly in the room. Aithagg looked in vain for a hint of occupation in the room, found none. He hurried to the front of the cave hoping he would find her there, knowing he would not.

  He spotted Catha’s parents seated nearby on a log. They did not seem upset or concerned. Perhaps they did not know yet. He moved on not wanting to alert them to what he only suspected.

  Given the years of comings and goings it was difficult to see through all the visions of the past. Aithagg tried anyway. The sun bleached any movements during the day from his vision. He still tried, hoping to find a glimpse of which way she had gone.

  Distracted, he did not notice when his mother approached. She stood directly before him, hands on hips, half grinning.

  “Did you lose something young one?” she enquired.

  “Mother.” Aithagg tried to not look suspicious, making him look more suspicious. “I am waiting for the group. We will watch the ritual group depart.”

  “They have already left after sunset. You know that.” Her smile widened.

  “Oh I,” he stammered.

  She pulled him in for a hug. He tried to resist. She pulled him in even tighter. “I do not get many more of these before you take your ritual journey next year.” She rested her head on his shoulder for a moment then stepped back, holding him with both hands at arms’ leng
th. “I suppose you have to go look for her.” It was not a question.

  Aithagg was truly shocked; he did not know his mother was aware. The shock showed on his face.

  “You lovely mooning puppy, I am over twenty-seven thousand years old. You do not get that old without learning much.” She squeezed his shoulders. “I have seen much, and this is not an uncommon occurrence.”

  Just then a group of small children went running by at top speed. A small amulet was being tossed between them high over the head of a shorter child who was shouting for them to give it back. An older, taller youth stepped in and stopped the shenanigans and gave the amulet to the younger child.

  “I have to try,” Aithagg finally whispered. “I can not just let her go without trying to help.”

  “Many have left, Aithagg,” Kei-tha assured. “They do. They go to the tribes and live their lives in the sun.” She tilted her head down. “That is the best outcome. The alternative.” She smiled a sad smile leaving the alternative unspoken.

  Aithagg pulled away. “So that is it? Become a Linear or die in the ritual? What type of choice is that?” He stood rigid then softened. He touched his mother’s arm, remembering she had lost children to the ritual. “There has to be another way.”

  Kei-tha patted his hand. “You will only find rage in yourself if you do not find another way. It is what you must do. I fear you will only end up with a broken soul. Do not let this define you.”

  “I must try,” Aithagg reiterated.

  “Then you will need this.” Kei-tha pulled a wrapped fur from off of her back and gave it to Aithagg. “Travel light and stay behind Eterili in time. After you find Catha, that is. You will not be the first to follow the ritual group in their journey.”

  Stunned and speechless, he took the pack from her.

  Kei-tha smiled. “Come back to me. I get one more winter before letting you go to your own ritual.”

  They embraced, and she held on for a moment too long before releasing him.

  Aithagg was already moving to the woods and away from the camp. “Thank you!” he called over his shoulder.

  Iskeho approached Kei-tha and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Do you think I should follow?”

  “And retrace your own footsteps when you set off to see the secrets of the ritual? Back when you were a whelp?” Kei-tha put an arm around him. “He has to follow his path.”

  They watched the moon rise and their 157th child run off into the woods as if he was the first one to have the thought of saving a failing Vechey who would become a Linear, the first one to sneak to the ritual site to understand its secrets.

  “It is the way,” Iskeho stated—wistfulness in his voice.

  ***

  The night held a slight moon, barely a sliver. Seeing through time was more difficult when the moon was not full. Aithagg had a guess she would have gone to one of the nearby tribes. There were few. Not being able to sync with main-time she would join a barely developed tribe and try to live amongst them. They might kill her on-sight for being different. Main-time’s tribes, where he fed, were twenty-six thousand winters in the future. Those people were different more developed. They used different tools, had a small command of language. She’d be lucky to find a group in this time that would take her in. They wouldn’t speak a language Catha would understand; he was sure of it. They themselves, the Vechey, had their own language separate from any Linear group they came across. The Vechey had developed as a people in an isolated pocket of time for thousands of winters.

  He paused at the tree where they used to play hide and seek. He remembered the near miss when he almost collided with himself and she had kept his secret from the others.

  There, he glimpsed her sitting near the tree recently. She had sat beneath the tree repacking a fur roll so it tucked neatly under her pack. Now that he had caught the trail, peering more closely he saw slight glimpses of her here and there. She had traveled off to the west. He assumed she was heading towards the river. If there were a chance of finding a tribe, it would be near the water.

  He quickened his pace, following the trail until he found where she had camped for the evening. She was still there, asleep. The unusualness of it caused him to pause. Sleeping in the open. Vechey would die if they slept in the open. Aithagg covered his eyes, ashamed for being shocked at a non-Vechey trait of Catha’s.

  He sat next to her, afraid to wake her. How was he going to convince her to stay with him? How was he going to convince her to trust him to get her through the ritual safely?

  Unable to aid her time-walking, she would have to shift on her own. He might show her safe places to stand where she would not collide with anything. She could do the rest. Then when their ritual time came, she could jump to the safe spots. When the push—the whatever pushed them into their personal frozen-time—came, she would get pushed along too.

  Aithagg thought about it for a moment. He would have to figure out what in the ritual pushed the Vechey to their time. Something big, he surmised.

  Then synced to her own time she would be safe. She wouldn’t have to sync into time to feed since she did not feed. Things would be frozen in time, so hunting and gathering might be easy. How long would her life span last? Would she be a Linear out of time or a Vechey living as a Linear out of time? Is she immortal as he or a Linear? She has some abilities of a Vechey. His brain reeled trying to puzzle out the best solution.

  Aithagg slumped. He looked at her sleeping figure; she must have been exhausted for she had not stirred at his presence.

  What if their frozen time was further back during the long winter? The ice and cold had been abundant. Linear food was scarce.

  Aithagg worried as the moon slipped by overhead and the stars dwindled in the night’s sky.

  Catha stirred and spoke quietly, “You worry so loudly.” She smiled, the fur she lay upon half covered her mouth.

  “We have to try. Let me try.” He put a hand on her ankle, for he sat at her feet. “If it does not work, then you can run away to the Linears,” he pleaded.

  She sat up and rubbed at her eyes. “Aithagg, you are fighting the inevitable.”

  “What will you feed on?” He held out his hand to gesture to the woods about them. “There are barely any tribes in this time.”

  Crystal-clear tears sprung to her eyes, and she wiped them away angrily, upset at their appearance. “Remember, Aithagg, I am the what in your statement.” She leveled a gaze at him. “I do not feed upon Linears. I. Am. A. Linear.”

  “Not really, though.” He dropped his gaze. “You see a little through time. You can move through time.” Aithagg brightened. “And most powerful of all you can walk in the day without pain.” He tried to smile.

  She did not return the smile. “Exile then. Alone.”

  He patted her ankle one more time, his thumb softly caressing the skin. Absently he looked off into the night’s sky. “If you won’t go to the ritual, let me get you to a time where there are tribes that you can fit in with. It is not safe out here on your own.”

  “Why not? You will go through the ritual and sync into your own time—alone. You will live your enormous amount of eternal days with nothing for companionship—alone. You have no worry for yourself in solitude. Why worry for my life alone?” Her words stung as she spat them.

  “Things do not move in frozen-time. One is not prey there. There is no need to worry,” he whispered.

  She sat up and leaned close to him. “Fair point.” She leaned her head against his shoulder. “I do not even know if I have the long life of a Vechey or the short one of a Linear. It is so shameful to be what I am that I cannot ask. I can glean no knowledge from the clan.”

  “I could find out.�
� Aithagg sat up straighter. Catha’s head bobbed forward with his weight shift. “I can go to the ritual site. I can follow your siblings. Find out what happens to them. Fifty or one hundred winters to look through for them. I can see if they lived the life of a Linear or a Vechey after the moment of the ritual.”

  “They did not survive,” Catha stated matter-of-factly.

  “Are we sure of that?” Aithagg challenged. “If they could not sync with time and continued on as a Linear would the tribe not declare them dead?”

  She blinked and considered the options. “If the earliest one lived as a Linear he would have died by now. He was born a hundred winters ago.”

  “That will give us some information to go on.” Aithagg bent and kissed the top of her head in his excitement. “Will you come back to the cave and stay with the tribe for now?”

  “Why? You can go see the whole hundred years that have passed and be back to me in an instant. You are not thinking like a Vechey.” She tilted her head up to look at him.

  “I will have to be careful that Eterili does not see me.” Aithagg considered.

  “The group has already left. You will see them in time ahead of you. She will not be looking back over her shoulder.” Catha reached up and placed a hand on the side of his cheek. “Come back to me and travel safely.”

  Aithagg looked at her upturned face. “I can only hope she does not look back. I can walk in the footsteps of the other travelers to hide in their ghost images. That should work.”

  She smiled and gave a half laugh. “You do not take hints well.” She pulled his face close to hers and kissed him.

  “I,” Aithagg stammered, “suppose that I do not.”

  He held her close and their first kiss was awkward and sweet.

  Catha sat up straight and away from him. “No matter what you find. Return and tell me the truth. I can not base my life on lies.”