Waiting
With each passing day the river grew deeper, stronger and
faster. The trees grew greener, and they filled out with new growth. The birds
were returning, and the fish would soon fill the crowded stream and provide a
bounty for those who were waking up from the hard winter and were hungry.
With each passing day, it grew warmer and warmer, and more
of the dwellers grew busier. This was the time of birth, and as such, it was a
noisy time. There were bears and wildcats and other large animals that would
return to the traditional patterns, to reclaiming their ranges and finding food
for their young ones. Outside, it was no different. The big brown ones would
return from the north, and would graze on the open lands. But lately, they had
been growing fewer, and this was due to the work of the intruders and their
loud sticks.
They knew about the power of those weapons, and they
despised them. They brought death from a distance, and as such, they went
against the natural order. That sort of death was wanton because it was too
easy, and it made the wielder of such weapons greedy. They knew enough to fear
those weapons, and they relied, as ever, on their craft and stealth.
The cubs would need much instruction and many sharp lessons.
They were vulnerable, because they were young, and naturally curious. They were
feared by most of the animals of the forest, for they were strong and crafty,
and they hunted together in teams. No one could stand up to them, and even the
bears made it a point to turn aside when approached by the white ones. But the
cubs were foolish, and it was the lack of restraint and caution that had killed
one of them last year, when it had wandered into a metal trap that had been
laid on the edge of the forest. It was a hard but necessary lesson that was
learned that day.
The white ones were always watchful, but lately, they had
been stretched to their limits. They were the guardians of the deep, and they
had been taxed over the winter. They had lost a few of the adults, but they had
little time for mourning. The threat from outside was great, but the threat
from inside was even greater, and they couldn’t afford to let down their watch.
Outside, things had settled down over the last five years.
The intruders had retaken the land they had lost before, and had overpowered
the slow ones who had dwelt on the land for thousands of years. The slow ones
had fought back, but they simple had not been careful, and they had brought
their defeat upon themselves by virtue of a lack of caution.
It was foolish to believe that the intruders would not
return. It was foolish not to have joined together and led the intruders into
traps. It was foolish to rely on the power of the hooved ones, as they had
done, as a means of escape. They should have been wary, and they should have
attacked the intruders from the south before they penetrated back into their
lost lands.
The slow ones had seen their defeat coming, and a few of the
younger ones had made a desperate appeal to the white ones to emerge from the
forest and to help defeat them. They appealed to the memory of Sa, the one who
they had spoken to several generations back, and who the white ones had invited
to join them in the forest. But they were not Sa, and they refused to heed
their pleas.
Of course they saw hunting everywhere, and they considered
it inevitable. Of course the intruders would arrive once again, in their
wagons, and of course they would begin to rebuild what they had lost before.
They would bring their loud and stupid animals, and they would carve out
enormous plots of land to grow foodstuffs, while paying no head to the way
these scars disturbed the balance and led to great big clouds of dirt and
debris that was lifted and spread far and wide when the winds arrived. They
watched them burn the grasses of the plains, and deprive the wandering herds of
the food they needed. They were killing all the game as well, and changing the
color of the night. This would be noticed eventually inside the forest, and
they knew that they would soon be forced to act.
They could be preemptive when they needed to be, but it wasn’t
the right time yet. They needed help, for their burden was becoming more
onerous, and they wouldn’t be able to spend another winter as they had this
past one. The dark ones within were becoming more brazen and stronger, and the
fires now did little to control them. They were strong, and more numerous, and
in a way, they were also in the midst of retaking what had been theirs. The
white ones knew that the balance was being upset.
Perhaps it would be best to use the intruders to fight against
the dark ones. They would have to craft a strategy, for they knew that sooner
or later the intruders would penetrate the forest. They had tried to do it in
the past, generations ago, but their ancestors had been much stronger back
then, and had easily discouraged and intimidated the intruders. Now this was
not the case, for the intruders had returned in force as well.
Craft and stealth were necessary, and it was part of their nature. In Sa, they had recognized a kindred spirit, and they had told Sa secrets they had never told anyone else among the two-legged ones they called the slow ones. The had told Sa of their protectorship, and of their struggles. And they had done so revealing one of their most cherished secrets, which was that not only could they understand the speech of the slow ones, but could also use it if necessary.
They continued to hold watch inside, but they also ventured
outside the forest when they needed to do so. There was no terrain that they
couldn’t traverse when they needed to do so, in an invisible fashion. The noisy
watchdogs of the settlers were no threat. Those dogs knew better than to give
warning, because they recognized in the white ones their distant kin, more
frightening by far than any other threat. Just a hint of the scent of the white
ones, which they modified as well to convey complex chemical messages, was
enough to make the noisy ones grow silent, and to curl their tails in terror
and cringe. The watchdogs were no match for the wolves, and by this means, by
roaming in the middle of the darkest nights, quiet as the distant stars, they
kept of their surveillance of the settlers.
Soon the party of intruders would enter their domain. They
had witnessed the many preparations, and knew of the arsenal of weapons they
carried with them. They would need to be
as stealthy as they had ever been, in order to guide them to carry out their
will and act, however unknowlingly, according to their plans. They had decided
that they would allow the settlers to enter the forest, but would not reveal
themselves openly to them. It was their intention to lead them to the caves
deep within the forest, and to use them against the dark ones. The overconfidence of the settlers would be a
vulnerability they would exploit.
They waited, and made plans.
(January 18, 2014)
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