When Darkness Begins

by Tina O’Hailey

  He whittled too hard and the head of the deer broke off. He stared at it as it hit the ground. “Well, you have pulled a sad old story out of this old man. Let us change the subject, shall we? I hear that you garden a bit. Do you, young-one?”

  She smiled and was hesitant to answer.

  “Come on now. I talk of things that are not talked of. Surely you know that by now. I have been here since the first generation that lived through the ritual. I may have seen a thing or two. So tell me about your gardening.”

  She eased into telling him about her love for flowers and plants and the garden she was growing. The old man listened and asked pointed questions. He was curious about what she had found. What worked and what did not work. They passed the time until the rest of the tribe gathered round to talk about their evening’s activities.

  Vechey children played games and ran amuck around the older children.

  Aithagg’s mother, who had come near and sat down, eyed the old man with a raised eyebrow as if she knew he had been telling the teens things he should not. He eyed her in return. Both sat silently next to one another.

  “Mother,” Aithagg asked. “Why do you raise one child to ritual age and then return and raise another? Why not return multiple times at once and have them all at the same time? Then they could play and grow together.” He did not add, for he should not have known, all sync to the same ritual time as well and all go through the ritual together. He would only know if he had been to the ritual site.

  “That is a good question,” Mother answered patiently. “But I only have the one room to sleep in. There are rooms here set aside for each of us. If I returned for all 156 children all overlapped, I would physically be here 156 times and need as many rooms. This cave system is huge. But not that huge to take care of me and thousands of other Vechey times 200 or more visits. Does that make sense?”

  Aithagg considered it for a moment. “I suppose that makes sense. Time travel is very difficult to understand.”

  She nodded her agreement. “I do not think we know all that there is to know about it, either.”

  “Does Eterili?”

  “I believe she is ancient and knows more than she tells us.”

  “She has things that hang on her person I have never seen.” Aithagg looked at his mother. “Ivory beads that come from the tusks of a beast. And I should not know it but I have seen a small hard, clanging thing in her pocket. I witnessed her strike something with it once, when I was young. It made sparks like fire.”

  “Do you think Eterili did not know that you saw?”

  “I did not think she saw me.”

  “If there is anything I have learned, is that Eterili only lets you see what she wants you to see. She tells you want she wants you to hear. There is nothing by chance with her. She has been around this land from as far as you can walk one-way to another and seen more than any of us. I am not surprised she has secrets. A very many secrets.” Kei-tha tussled Aithagg’s head as if he were five.

  “Indeed.” What else could be said?

  The evening continued. Aithagg and Kei-tha had moved apart from the others, sheepishly looking at one another, trying to hide their infatuation and failing miserably.

  Iskeho nudged Kei-tha and once he gained her attention, he nodded in the lovebirds’ direction. She frowned slightly. He nudged her again and they both smiled together knowingly.

  “Where we ever that young?” she asked.

  “Younger, I believe,” he answered.

  The newly awakened tribe members headed off in different directions to feed for the night. Some together in small groups, some alone, some youngsters with a parent. Some carried lanterns. Many carried nothing at all, their vision having developed to see through the darkness.

  Aithagg and Catha walked alongside of one another occasionally bumping shoulders and touching fingers.

  Iskeho and Kei-tha watched the two go.

  “Do you think they will tell us they are promised?” Kei-tha craned slightly to glimpse them through the trees.

  “He will tell us before the parting ritual, surely.”

  “I do not want to see him get his heart broken over her. She may not make it through the ritual.” Kei-tha’s hand crept to her deep pocket.

  Iskeho stayed her hand and held it in his. “If I could only have a few moments of bliss with you, I would promise myself to you anyway.”

  “You are hopeless.” She tried to pull her hand away but did not try very hard.

  “Yet here we are twenty-seven thousand years later.” He kissed her hand, and they walked together towards a grouping of stone benches.

  “A hopeless fool,” she added.

  “Always.”

  ***

  Many moons later, the full moon was high above head when the tribe gathered around the fire. Eterili had not appeared yet, and many were restless. Tonight, the next group would pledge their oath to the tribe and to their duties as a Vechey.

  Aithagg stood near Catha at the end of the fire. A youngster no more than the age of five ran past him and he jumped to get out of the way. He turned to watch him go.

  “Remember when we used to play hide and seek?” he asked Catha. “Otski and Ygolz were always so sneaky about it.”

  “Is that not the point? To be sneaky?” Her smile faltered. “Speaking of sneaky—should we not tell your parents before we begin the pledge?”

  Aithagg glanced at his parents, who both seemed to go out of their way to not make eye contact. “I think they know already.”

  “How could they?”

  “You do not know my mother. You can hide nothing from her. She sees it on you as clear as charcoal upon your forehead.” He smiled and pulled Catha by the hand as he took a step forward. “We should do this properly.”

  Kei-tha was busy with a carving in her lap when the two approached. Iskeho plucked a carving from Kei-tha’s pile and observed it closely. He looked up in feigned shock when the two approached.

  Aithagg pulled himself to his fullest height and over zealously stated, “Father, Mother. I have something to announce to you two.”

  Catha stood by his side and waited patiently for Aithagg to complete his sentence. Kei-tha and Iskeho leaned forward waiting to hear the proclamation. Aithagg paused at a loss for words.

  Catha began to interject, “We are pr…”

  A gasp came from the tribe cut off her words. Eterili hobbled towards the fire pit. Her bracelets of fangs dripped blood as if they procured the well of dark fluid themselves. Red droplets trailed behind her on the packed dirt. Darkened dried blood covered her from head to toe.

  Many of the elders rose to help Eterili. She stayed them with an upheld hand, making a “tssk” noise as if quieting a dreaming puppy.

  All eyes followed her as she took her place at the fire ring.

  Aithagg grabbed Catha’s hands and pulled her behind him slightly. She did not protest and placed her free hand on his shoulder.

  Eterili slowly walked around the fire pit, dripping blood as she went.

  Click. The teeth.

  Drip. Blood drops.

  Click. Click. Gnarled fangs clacking together.

  Drip. Blood dripping from ancient fangs.

  Thud. Her stick resolutely plunging into the earth.

  Silence.

  Even the small children had stopped running about and ran to hide behind their mothers. One small baby began to wail inconsolably.

  “We prepare,” she announced. Then she motioned with her stick for the next ritual bound to take their place with her at the fire ring.

  Aitha
gg turned towards his parents, his eyes wide with the unspoken words he had not had time to deliver.

  His mother smiled and gestured with her chin for him to join the circle. “I know,” she whispered. Her smile was warm and loving, tinged with melancholy.

  Aithagg smiled warmly to his mother, then beamed a broad grin and briefly met his father’s eyes.

  His father was smiling from ear to ear. “Go,” he mouthed and urged Aithagg towards the fire with a gentle flip of his hand.

  Aithagg and Catha approached the fire hand in hand and took their place.

  All stilled.

  Eterili seemed to be without her normal showmanship this evening. Her voice was tired and gruff. “We begin.”

  The youngsters turned with their backs to the fire and faced the tribe. Eterili continued to circle them, walking, clicking, dripping putrid blood.

  “What do you pledge to me, to the moon, to the sky, to your tribe?” she growled.

  Catha squeezed Aithagg’s hand, and they shared a brief smile before reciting, “I will go forth and find my time, my place, my home. Turning away from my family and my friends, I will dedicate my eternity to keeping the universe whole. Should another adjust my time, my place, my home I will defend it until my last thought, through all eternity.”

  Eterili stopped in front of Aithagg. She held out her bony finger as if to touch his chest as she had before in the white light of the ritual site. Her eyelids crinkled with a small smile that did not touch her lips. Turning she shouted with a little more gusto, “What do you protect?”

  “Time.” Aithagg’s voice was quiet as he wondered what that encounter had meant.

  “Why?” Eterili stood in front of Catha and patted her shoulder, leaving bloody smear marks on Catha’s furs.

  Catha looked straight ahead, afraid to move and answered with the others. “Lest the sky pull my bones apart as the tribe is lost across all of time.”

  Eterili moved on around the ritual circle but paid no further tokens of affection or attention to the youths there. She turned her back to them. “Will you survive the ritual?”

  In unison, they hesitated then answered, “If I heed my teachings, we will survive the ritual.”

  “It is the way.” Eterili quietly and with no further show walked away from the fire and disappeared into the darkness.

  The mood was somber around the fire. Slowly the silence filled with uncomfortable chatter. A younger boy stood and with encouragement from a nearby elder he blew a trumpeting sound through a large animal tusk. A few of the youth, including Otski and Ygolz shouted and raised their fists to the sky. Aithagg and Catha raised their clasped hands above their heads. Neither spoke a word. A few more picked up the battle cry and shouted. Eventually the energy of the youths picked up. The crowd broke into its usual exuberance and celebrated the young adolescence and their ritual to come.

  The celebration lasted late into the morning. Elders gave their best wishes to the ritual group. Many stopped to shower compliments over Aithagg and Catha.

  “What a fine pairing to go through time with. You will make your clan proud, Aithagg,” commented one redheaded elder who gave a large fur to Catha before walking away.

  “I know you will do fine in the ritual.” An elder male approached Catha. He was beaming, his grin nearly wider than his head. “I knew your father,” he blinked, looked away, then continued, “before he came back and paired with your mother. We went through the ritual together, you know. He came back eons later and met your mother. When we were young, we tried to hide Eterili’s staff. Fools that we were. She boxed our ears.” He tucked a small pouch into Catha’s belt then continued on with his story to a companion, “It was a freezing winter and we had snuck…”

  His voice trailed off as he walked away.

  One after the other, dozens of well-wishers bestowed gifts and tokens to the ritual group. Aithagg and Catha received an ample armful of furs and closed leather pouches.

  “How will we carry all of this for our journey?” Catha worried.

  “It will roll up neatly and be useful to us.” Aithagg accepted a rawhide bag and a small packet of bone needles from a couple.

  They fawned at Catha, “I know this is hard for you with your…” The woman stopped mid-sentence unsure of how to go on. She continued, “I knew your mom. She means well but can not…”

  Catha patted the woman’s hands. “It is best that she go on. I remind her of all she has lost and I understand. She cannot. Her spirit broke thousands of years ago.”

  The woman patted Catha’s hands in return and then hugged her with such emotion the Catha nearly lost her balance. Aithagg placed a steadying hand on her back.

  “We should go pack,” he told Catha.

  They bid their farewell and gave a last nod of thank you to the elders. In the cool dome of what Aithagg now thought of as their room, they began rolling furs and necessities into their rawhide bags.

  Catha had nearly 25 small rawhide bags filled with a thin, hard something. She began opening them. One by one she opened a pouch, looked in, dropped it, picked up another pouch and then continued.

  Aithagg examined his rolled furs; he did not need many, and did not notice Catha’s examination of the small pouches.

  “Look at this.” She shoved a pouch towards him. “These are all filled with dried meat.” She scooped up a half dozen pouches and held them towards Aithagg. “All of them. Dried meat.” She looked at the packs of meat that would sustain her through the journey. Packs of meat Aithagg had no need of. Only a Linear or a Vechey with Linear traits would need such food items. “All of this time, the tribe knew? And they.” She sat slowly on the cold, dirt ground.

  Aithagg looked at the contents of the pouches. “This one has.” He sniffed the contents. “Dried fruit of some type.” He nodded. “Well, that takes care of some concern.”

  “I am strong enough.” She looked at the pouches. “With the food and you helping me see through time for the jumps, I can do this. I can make it there to the ritual site.”

  “We have trained for this our whole lives.” He kissed her on the top of the head and then helped Catha to her feet.

  “Why is being Linear-like not talked about? Why is it shunned? If they knew the whole time and supported me, why not say so earlier?” She took a nibble of the fruit then offered some to Aithagg. “This is good.”

  He nibbled as well and frowned. “Not bad. If you like that sort of thing.” He smiled at her. “Not everyone in the tribe is supportive or knows. The ones that do know—keep it secret. There is a stigma with it. A perceived weakness.” He brushed her hair behind her ear to soften the blow of the words. “They will be far behind us soon.”

  They packed their bags tightly, leaving what did not fit for others to have.

  Catha opened her small bag and looked at the shell one last time before placing it safely away. She patted the bag. “Ready?”

  They walked towards the cave entrance and away from the only place they had ever called home, never to return.

  16 JOURNEY

  They set off, light on their feet, and urgent in their pace. Eterili still covered with darkened, dried, sticky blood—moved at the front of the group and set the pace. The trail underfoot was hardly visible, even by those who had developed their night vision, as it was a moonless night. By the time they arrived at the ritual site, the moon would be full.

  Aithagg tried not to question Catha at every step, but his concern for her was apparent. “Can you see well enough in the dark?”

  She nodded and seemed to keep pace well with the group.

  He continued his enquiry, “Let me know if you need to slow down.” He had been quest
ioning her to try to gauge her abilities for the past four hours.

  “We will have to get something straight. I am not a broken thing needing protection.” She stared at him and deftly ducked a branch at the same time. “I cannot see through time, and I do not seem to gain sustenance from Linear blood as you do. That is all. In all else, I am as Vechey as you.” She broke off a twig and threw it at him.

  It bounced off his chest harmlessly.

  They stayed apart from the group to talk freely. Otski and Ygolz ran ahead and stayed as close to Eterili as anyone dared. Occasionally, the group would stop for a small break. Eterili would walk amongst the group and eyeball the teens. Aithagg imagined she was looking for weaknesses.

  During the last break she stated their directions, “When the sun rises, we will shift in time to the beginning of this night. Each sunrise we will continue to do the same so we travel all in the same moonless night. It makes us harder to see.”

  Aithagg wondered who would possibly see them: the tribes in this time were few. Vechey had very little prey being able to slide out of time easily to avoid larger animals. Even if attacked, their strength was formidable. He thought of Catha’s distant relative being bitten by the lowly venomous snake and considered perhaps he was being foolish—an inconvenient attack by larger animals was possible, perhaps.