Prologue - The Beginning Post 1

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This is the story of Lon Wolfbane, a 13 year old Native American Healer, who attends the Hanging Witch just outside of Salem, Massachusetts. Lon, as you will see hates school and would rather stay at home with his mom in Tennesse. Lon is a momma's boy even though he would never admit it, at 13 he is just coming into his powers and what develops is something that he does not like but learns to live with. Come along and enjoy Lon's adventure along with his best friend - Della.

The Adventures of Lon Wolfbane
Spirit Guide

Prologue - The Beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
In the beginning a great Buzzard from Galunlati flew down to the earth. He was so tired by the time he reached the earth that his wings hit the ground. Wherever they hit a mountain or valley was formed creating the land of the Cherokee.
In the beginning, Skywoman fell from the sky onto an island created on the back of the Great Turtle. There, she gave birth to a daughter whose children were the Iroquois.
In the beginning ……. it could be endless - this tale of how everyone came to be and is not the tale I wish to convey.
Since the start of mankind, a different viewpoint of the creation has caused mistrust and even wars. Now seven people from seven different tribes, each with a different view on how they came to be, were brought together to start a new tribe. How would they do it?
I’ll tell you how if you’ll bear with me so let’s start at the beginning.
Wolfbane was suffering from cabin fever. He’d spent the last five months more or less stuck in his cabin; the blizzards that had hit this winter were some of the worst that he could remember. Nor could any of the elders remember a winter with so much snow.
He was the tribal healer for a small village of Cherokee in the southeastern part of the state we now know as Tennessee and he had been forced to clear the entrance to his home several times this year. One time he’d even had to shape shift to get out of the house. He’d turned himself into a field mouse and had crawled up the chimney to get out. It had taken him all day to clear the six foot snow drift away from the front door.
Wolfbane’s wife, Elks Tear, had done well over the summer making sure that the family’s stores were well stocked for the winter.
Not all the families in the village had done as well. Some had gone days without food, eating bowls of snow just to have something in their stomachs.
When Elks Tear had found out she was furious that no one had told her. She immediately began to divide up the remaining supply of the family’s food, using a small stretching spell once in a while to make items go further. Once she was done she delivered the packages to the families who were having the hardest times.
Some she knew would accept her help without complaint, but others had too much pride to accept the packages at all. These she had Wolfbane deliver in his own special way.
These stubborn families would go to bed saying their prayers asking for food, they would try to sleep with their stomachs growling only to wake and find that their prayers had been answered - their table mysterious laden with enough food to get them through the rest of winter.
The hunters had gone far and wide looking for game – most of the time they had returned empty handed - what game they had brought back was nothing but skin and bones providing very little meat for the village.
It had been a very hard winter for everyone.
Today was different, the sky was clear and deep blue, the snow had been slowly melting and patches of green could be seen in the valleys.
Wolfbane had taken down his bow early that morning. Elks Tear had just grinned at him and pointed to the door.
Now he was standing motionless beside a large boulder in a dense thicket of dogwood - just starting to bud. He was watching a large buck make its way down the slope . This buck had seven points and plenty of meat on it. It would go a long way in feeding the village.
If it continued heading in the current direction it would pass right by Wolfbane. Each time the deer would lower its head to graze; Wolfbane would ease his bow upward, inch by inch. Once this was done he needed to get an arrow - realizing that he would not have time to inch the arrow out of his pack, he used a little magic to make one appear in his bow.
The deer snorted and threw its head up and looked right at Wolfbane when the arrow appeared. Wolfbane thought he had lost all that meat for the village and he kept repeating the shifting spell in his head, repeating to himself that he was a rock, he was a rock. The deer stared at Wolfbane for several minutes, Wolfbane was starting to think that the spell hadn’t worked that the buck could actually see him when it lowered its head and started to graze again.
That was a close one - how had the buck sensed his use of magic? Wolfbane was just starting to mull this over when the buck started moving down the slope again and this time it was not pausing to graze.
When the buck was close enough that Wolfbane could have touched it, he changed back into his human form. The instant he made the change he let the arrow fly straight toward the bucks’ heart but at the same time the buck gave a loud snort and jumped almost five feet straight up in the air. His well-placed arrow just grazed the soft area right above the hoof of the buck.
The buck hit the ground running flat out down the ridge into the valley. Wolfbane was stunned, wondering how it had again sensed his use of magic. This only lasted for a few seconds and he was soon in pursuit.
He jogged down the slope and headed toward the valley, the buck had just reached the valley floor, heading toward Tanase - the winding river, it soon disappeared in the woods. This was a narrow tree lined valley with a small stream running down the center of it and a game trail running beside the stream.
Wolfbane reached the valley floor seconds after the deer had and caught a glimpse of its tail just disappearing out of sight. He continued down the valley at a fast pace but was never able to catch more than a glimpse of the deer. He could hear the roar of the river up ahead, swollen with the runoff of melting snow.
Reaching the end of the valley he was stopped by a cliff overlooking a small bench of rock some 20 feet below, there was no deer in sight. The river spread out here as it escaped the narrow canyons to Wolfbanes left, forming deep pools. It was slowly making its way up the side of the bench as the runoff from the mountains caused it to swell. The bench was about 12 feet out of the water, at its widest point, it was about 500 feet wide and shaped like a big wedge of pie. It was covered in grass and some trees were slowly starting to make a stand. Wolfbane had been here many times, using the bench as a hiding place for his canoe.
Wolfbane started to work his way back up the trail he had just came down looking for the deer. He was studying the ground looking for sign of the deer’s passing. He found a set of prints in the soft mud heading toward the left side of the cliff; there was a small pool of blood on the ground behind the print. This was where his arrow had grazed the soft area right above the deer’s hoof. Wolfbane followed the track, finding himself going down a small game trail, hugging the side of the mountain. When he finally reached the bottom, he lost the trail for a few moments. Moving back and forth, watching the ground for signs he found another splash of blood thrown across a patch of snow. The deer was still hugging the side of the mountain as it moved down the bench but if it kept going the way it was it would run right into the river. Maybe it had tried to swim across to the other side, if so it would be miles down the river now. This was the point where the wedge came to a point ending where the river came out of the canyon.
He was turning to make his way back when the sound of a rock falling caught his attention. The sound came from the end of the wedge – was there a spot down there where the deer could hide? Wolfbane couldn’t see how there could be.
Curiosity got the better of him and he had to give the area a closer inspection. He walked down to where the wedge came together, there was nowhere a deer could hide here, it was a large flat sandstone rock ledge, the same color as the cliff it was part of. He could see large sprays of water shoot up at the end of this ledge where the river made its mad dash out of the canyon, but he walked to the end of it anyway and looked down at the river below.
Looking to his left he realized that he was standing out over the river, the canyon wall came out into the rivers path here causing a small calm eddy behind it. He walked over to that side of the ledge, the roar of the water grew even louder as he approached but he wasn’t able to see anything. He grabbed the side of the cliff, leaning out as far as he could he looked to his left to see if the deer was in the eddy.
What he saw surprised him – coming out of the canyon was a small waterfall and standing on a ledge beside the waterfall was the deer – it was looking back at him. The wall he was holding which he thought was solid was only a couple of feet thick. Looking down he realized that at the side of the ledge he was standing on was a smaller ledge sloping down and around the side of the wall. The whole area was made of sandstone; the colors merging so well he never would have noticed the smaller ledge.
Slowly he lowered his foot onto the path expecting it to be slick with all the water, but the sandstone wasn’t – countless animals using the trail over the years had left it pitted and groved. There also seemed to be hand holds just where he needed them. Wolfbane slowly made his way around the wall, the water here was about ankle deep and he realized that when the river reached its highest point no one would use this trail. As he made it around the wall he noticed that the shelf started a slow rise upward and now he could see that it did go past the waterfall and back into the cliff. He kept easing his way up the shelf until he was past the waterfall. Once there he stopped to look back the way he had come and he realized that the waterfall hid the entrance to this trail.
He continued up the trail – at places it was barely wide enough for him to pass through - he finally emerged onto a boulder-strewn ridge. Walking to his left he looked far down to the bench below. To his right the ridge sloped gently down to the valley floor below, covered in great cedars and massive oaks. The whole valley was teeming with wildlife and something ……something that he was having trouble putting his finger on ….something…..magical. That was it!! The whole valley was full of magic, magic so rich, strong and good that now he knew what it was he could feel it deep down in his soul.
Wolfbane spotted a stream running down the center of the valley and turning to his right he followed it to where it ended at the wall separating this valley from the Tennessee River. He realized that this was the source of the waterfall that hide the entrance he’d just came up. But how could it be possible? This stream ended at the base of the wall and the waterfall was coming out of the center of the wall. He studied the wall more intently and soon noticed something that he had over looked; the water was going up the wall heading toward the point where the waterfall came out on the other side. This valley was indeed very strong in magic.
Wolfbane knew this valley was completely hidden and that perhaps he was the first man to ever come here, the deer he was chasing completely forgotten in the wonder of this hidden magical valley.
But the deer hadn’t forgotten about him…..it was standing beneath the branches of a large cedar watching Wolfbane turn slowly looking at the valley around him. As it watched Wolfbane, its body started to transform back into the being it truly was and after only a matter of seconds a man stood where the deer once was. Or was it a man? This being looked exactly like a man but his ears tapered to a point at the top.
The being knelt and applied a salve from a bottle he pulled out of his robes, to the heel the arrow had grazed. The wound immediately healed, leaving a small white scar.
The being stood again and looked at Wolfbane and in a quiet whisper said, “It is time.” With this quiet decloration he drew in a deep breath and let it out, reaching up he snapped a branch on the great cedar.
The snap of the branch sounded like a gunshot in the quiet valley. Wolfbane jerked his head around toward the great cedar looking for the source of the sound and as he did a light, bright as the sun blazed from the cedar. He threw his hands up to ward off the brightness, squinting through his cupped hands, he noticed that the light was starting to dim and that black shapes were starting to move in the center of the light. The shapes started to take on more definition, as they did he was able to put his hands down and start watching what was being played out in the light.