Of Fire and Clay
This is another story set in my world of Pherkad with a tribal theme. This story is clean and deals with the coming of age ritual and creation myth of the Wa'Jarra, a tribe of black jackals that live in a volcanic wasteland. A young jackal hunter must prove his manhood by slaying a great predatory beast before discovering the reason for this tradition.
"Of Fire and Clay",
by WolfHound Baxton
Ja'gel crept slowly along the blackened ground. The pitch black fur of the young jackal blended well with the ash and sooty stones that covered the ground in this land.
The wastes of Dekkala were what this young hunter and his tribe called home. It was an unforgiving land of dry ashen soil and dust-filled skies. The ground gave little in the way of food and this ashen desert was often prowled by strange and savage beasts. It was in this harsh and unforgiving wilderness that the Wa'Jara, Ja'gel's people, made their home and lived however they could off the blackened land.
Ja'gel was stalking a spotted sagmir, one of the exotic creatures native to this land, known as wites. The sagmir was a long, lizardlike creature of about two meters in length. Its smooth skin was dark black, though with a light shimmer. On its back were six glowing teal-green spots that sagmirs often flashed at each other for communication. They had a paddle-shaped tail with a single teal-green fin lining it, which they used to move about in the water-holes they stalked. The head of the sagmir was adorned with two bright-green eyes and a jaw full of monstrous and menacing teeth. Three fangs protruded from a sagmir's jaws - smaller ones from the top and a longer one from its lower jaw, curving inward and interlocking like a pair of scissors.
The sagmir was a severe danger to the Wa'jara people and they held it in great respect and awe, but knew that their able-bodied men must be able to defend them from this terror of the water. The sagmir haunted the rare watering holes of this ash desert, lurking beneath the surface and spotting its victims on the other side with its keen eyes before striking out. The sagmir was still as much of a threat on land as in the water, for it clambered about shiftily on its four clawed feet, seeking its prey.
There were even tales from the past of sagmirs that attacked Wa'jara villages at night, killing and devouring people in their sleep.
Because of this, every Wa'jara man knew it was his duty to destroy the sagmir for the protection of his people and that was why Ja'gel was here today.
The surface of the small watering hole rippled with the wind as the beast wandered about by its edge, bleating in a loud voice. Its spots on its back flashed brightly and it whipped its tail through the air and against the ashy mud, producing a powerful thumping noise. It was mating season for the sagmir and this male was establishing his dominance over this watering hole.
Ja'gel crept stealthily up behind a rock near the watering hole, keeping his presence unknown. He gripped his atlatl, a spear-throwing weapon, tightly in his right paw as he peered over the edge of the rock at his quarry. Today was Ja'gel's sixteenth birthday - the day when he was to become a man according to the traditions of his people.
Ja'gel knew the sagmir's weak spot -- from behind. Unlike many of the beasts hunted by the Wa'jara, the sagmir had very poor peripheral vision, adapted as it was to see and focus on its victims directly ahead from a position of stealth beneath the murky waters.
Ja'gel waited patiently for the moment to come when the sagmir would turn its back to him. Finally the moment came! He jumped out from his hiding place and thrust his arm forward, the atlatl snapping forward and launching his spear towards the fearsome beast.
The dart shot swiftly through the air, its tip lodging itself in the spine of the sagmir, paralyzing it. The beast fell flat on the ground like a giant ragdoll.
Ja'gel approached the creature and pulled his obsidian knife from a loop on the edge of his loincloth. He gripped one of the beast's protruding fangs and pulled its head back, slitting its throat. He was now ready to take his place as a man among his people.
Ja'gel returned to his village later that evening, the sun sinking low in the west as he was greeted by the welcome scent of the fires of his people.
The women smiled and waved at him, cheering him as they saw him returning home with the proof of his success, the body of the great sagmir, dragged behind him by a strong rope tied to its rear legs.
The women of the village busied themselves with the growing of green plants in the Good Earth with water they carried back to the village in clay vessels. It was the deeds of brave hunters like Ja'gel who kept them safe as they performed this task, so critical to the survival of their people. Finally, Ja'gel came to the Council House, a circular earthen building with a hole in the roof from which smoke billowed.
He dropped his prize outside the door and, taking his knife and pulling the creature's ravenous maw open, he cut the large protruding fang from its lower jaw and entered the Council House.
Once inside the dark building, lit only by the flickering council fire and filled with smoke, Ja'gel's transition to manhood would be completed. It was here that he met with his father and the other male elders of the village, presenting the fang of the sagmir as proof of his deed. The elders had been here since morning, praying to the ancestor spirits for his safe and successful return.
"You have done well, my son," said the village elder, Ja'gel's father. "For today you may proudly call yourself a man."
Ja'gel took the simple rope necklace from around his neck and presented it to his father, along with the sagmir fang. His father and the other elders all wore similar rope necklaces, each with a sagmir fang hanging from them.
"Father?," asked Ja'gel.
"Yes, son?," replied the father.
"Why must we hunt the sagmir before we can call ourselves men?"
This question had been burning in the young hunter's mind for many years, though he dared not ask it until after he had proven himself by doing the deed.
"Son," said the father. "it proves your strength and courage as a man."
"I know, father," replied Ja'gel, "but why the sagmir? surely there are other tasks that are just as courageous and difficult to perform, if not more so."
"To answer that," said the father, "you must understand where the sagmir came from and where our people came from."
"We were always taught that our people were made by the All-Maker from a ball of clay, along with the rest of the world."
"The story goes a bit deeper than that, son. And now is the time for you to hear the tale of the beginning told in its complete form."
"For long ago, back before the dawn of time there was only the Void. The Void was empty, as one might call it, but within the Void moved strange and invisible energies. Slowly, these energies began to manifest and gather into a form. The form of a great ball of clay, the Denden.
Denden is our great ancestor. All things good came from Denden -- the green plants, the green trees, and the Good Earth. And when Denden formed, this being of clay was granted consciousness.
Denden opened its eyes, but could see nothing. It could sense itself, but floated in the darkness of the Void. Now and then, Denden could feel flickers or courses of energy going through its body and see the flashes of primordial energy briefly with its opened eyes.
'There must be more to existence than this,' said Denden in the first primal tongue, the speaking of which imparts great power.
The energy around Denden crackled for a moment and seemed to make another form, for there was still a great deal of energy left in the Void after the formation of Denden that, for some reason, had not gone into the great lump of living clay. Though the energy dissipated again as quickly as it had formed.
Time passed. Nobody is sure how long it was. It could have been seconds, hours, years, centuries, eons. Such things mattered little in the time before the beginning. Finally, Denden could bear its sole existence no more.
'I'm lonely and I want to meet someone!,' called out the primeval form, uttering this into the Void in that powerful ancient tongue.
The energy crackled around Denden again and began to move in a great force, collecting and gathering itself from all over the Void until at last it formed a second form, formed from all the energy that had not gone into the making of Denden.
As the energy came together, it glowed bright as a great furnace. Its light was blinding and hurt Denden's eyes. Its heat was oppressive and assaulted the body of the clay being, hardening parts of it and causing it pain. Soon, the fire of new creation abated and another being occupied the Void, facing Denden.
The new being, called Chaomyr, was a demon as we would call it. It had a face that was wretched to behold, for it had the head of a troll, the ears of a bat, and the jaws and fangs of the sagmir. Chaomyr's eyes glowed bright red with a fiery fury.
'Who are you?' asked Denden of the new being.
'I'm what you asked for!,' yelled Chaomyr in a taunting voice.
Denden shrank back from Chaomyr and shivered fearfully. 'Are you my friend?,' asked the mound of clay.
'No,' said Chaomyr. 'I am your lord and master, for you would not exist without me. You will worship and serve me and do as I say, or I will destroy you.'
'But how can you say that,' protested Denden, 'when I was here before you?'
'I was always here,' said Chaomyr, propelling himself around the ball of clay through the ethereal Void with his batlike wings. 'But I was cut off and left out when you took shape, and this is why you would not exist if not for me.'
'You cannot make me serve you,' said Denden. 'It is not right for someone to force themselves on someone without their consent.'
At this, the demon Chaomyr erupted into a hideous laughter, not her since, mocking the words of the ball of clay.
'You speak of right and wrong,' said the demon. 'But I do not recognize that these things exist, for I see and feel them not. I only recognize that I have the power to make you do as I say.'
'You have no power over me,' said Denden, 'for I am the one who brought you into being.'
Energy flashed from these beings as they spoke in that ancient tongue, for their words had the power to define reality.
'It matters not that I came into being at your words,' said Chaomyr. 'All that matters is that I was created with the power to burn and destroy, and you were not.'
'I will resist your power,' said Denden, 'for I am the essence of all things and I am indestructable.'
'I have heard enough of your pointless babble,' said Chaomyr. 'I give you one last chance. Surrender to my power and become my slave, or face my wrath and fury as you are destroyed.'
'No,' was all the Denden could say, firmly.
The demon hissed, flinging himself at the soft ball of clay and burying his fangs and claws into Denden. Fire erupted from his nostrils and mouth as he struggled with the primordial mound.
Denden would not give way, for while parts of it were rent asunder, other parts grew back and enveloped the demon, forcing Chaomyr to strain his energy.
Denden would not give way to destruction though, and Chaomyr would not relent, pouring more of his fire and fury into the ball of clay, disfiguring and mutating it into different and twisted forms as he exhausted himself.
Finally, Chaomyr thrust deep into Denden and shattered it, the bits of the ball of clay scattering across the Void in the form of a great cloud.
Chaomyr laughed once more, the demon thinking himself victorious as he flitted around the cloudy remnants of Denden, but then something wondrous happened.
The clouds gathered together, and soon drops of muddy rain began to form, falling from the clouds and forming the Good Earth.
The earth spoke with the voice of Denden. 'See, I told you that you could not destroy me.'
The demon wandered about this new land, furious. From the Good Earth there began to flow springs of clear water and green grass and trees grew up from the dirt, waving at Chaomyr, laughing at and taunting him in his powerlessness.
All manner of cute and fluffy animals, also formed from the Good Earth, pranced about the fiery demon, squirrels, rabbits, and birds chittering their songs of victory.
Chaomyr was furious at being so mocked and gnashed his fangs together.
'You have not won!!!," he shouted in defiance, unleashing a great circle of flame and destroying the innocent creatures gathered around him.
Chaomyr smoldered. He knew that his enemy had now become too big for him to destroy as before, but he had an idea. Did he not have just as much energy in him as Denden had? Could he not create his own world of evil and foul things to destroy the beautiful world that Denden had made? He closed his flaming eyes and searched within himself, finding to his dismay that he did not, for he was a being of chaos and destruction.
Finally, the solution came to him. He could not create these things, but he could twist and pervert Denden's creations into corrupt forms that would ruin and destroy his ancient foe. And so, that is what he did.
Stretching his great wings, Chaomyr took off from the Good Earth and flew high into the sky, alighting at the center of the happy and green world that Denden had made. Here, with a great shout, he reached his claws deep into his chest and tore it open, creating a fatal wound.
Fire and ash spewed forth from Chaomyr's chest in a great infernal storm that covered the world with ash and soot. Beneath him rose a great mountain of fire and all forms of rocks broke through the ground, destroying the grass and trees as the great mountains lifted, forever splitting the world in two. At the center is Mount Chaomyr, where the greater essence of the demon's life force setttled. From its unholy peak spewed forth fire and ash, polluting Denden's pure blue sky, corrupting and killing his green world wherever it settled.
From the deformed earth grew a new set of creatures, those that we call wites, those who are not are ancestors -- trolls, goblins, ash-worms, the foul demi-beasts, and the great sagmir, which contains the essence of Chaomyr himself. It is Sagmir who jealously guards the pools of Denden's life-giving waters, and while Sagmir reigned, none of Denden's creatures could partake of his waters.
But all was not lost, for Denden still had a plan. From the last of his pure primordial clay, he carefully crafted the Wa'jara people and gave them a sacred duty, to destroy the sagmir so that all his creatures may partake of his life-giving waters and life.
But take care my son, for the spirit of Chaomyr even wanders among our people, trying to corrupt us with greed and self-centered pride, away from the good path that Denden, the All-maker, has laid out for us."
"I understand now father," said Ja'gel.
"There is no creature more powerful than the sagmir, except for a Wa'jara hunter. And that is why our boys must hunt the sagmir to become men," said the elder.
The drums sounded as the entrails of the sagmir were added to the council fire and consumed. Music and dancing followed as Ja'gel's ebony fur was decorated in the tribal paint of a hunter with traditional designs. His necklace was placed back on his neck, the great fang of the sagmir he had killed hanging from it over his chest. Ja'gel was now a man among his people.