"Only time can teach us what is truth and what is legend." "Some truths do not survive the ages." "But the legend of the child with the blue eyes will live forever and be whispered in all four winds of the great white mountains." "We, the Yagahl, were hunters of the mightiest of all beasts, the manak." "But our world began to change." "The manaks came later and later to our valley and there were times when they did not come at all." "Our hunters grew restless, and our people grew hungry." "Only one amongst us, the one we called Old Mother, the last of her kind, only she could speak to the spirits of the earth" "and ask the wisdom of the Fathers to save our people." "Many times she asked." "Until one night, they answered her call and sent us a sign." "A sign of the beginning of the end." "We found her in the mountains." "She was holding onto a dead woman." "The Fathers have sent her." "She came to tell us of four-legged demons that will put an end to our world." "They will come to our valley at the time when we go on our last hunt." "But do not fear." "From this hunt, a warrior will arise." "And this one will be his woman." "They will lead us into a new life where the Yagahl will know hunger no more." "That night, Old Mother did not see the face of the warrior which spoke, but she knew that the child with the blue eyes was a blessing that she must protect." "To our people, she was Evolet, the promise of life." "To a boy named D'Leh, she was much more than that." "Only one of the Yagahl did not believe in Old Mother's prophecy:" "The young boy's father, the one who carried the White Spear and blew the whistle for the hunt." "I will watch over your son as if he were my own." "I know you will." "But promise me you will tell no one why I left." "We cannot wait for the last hunt." "Throw again!" "Good throw!" "Ka'Ren." "Ka'Ren." "No, not you." "Your father abandoned our people." "Go away." "Leave him!" "Ka'Ren, I said, leave him!" " D'Leh..." " He's the son of a coward." "You never say that again." "Any of you." "You are alone." "Like me." "What happened to your people?" "They were killed." "By four-legged demons." "You will never be alone, Evolet." "Do you see that light?" "That one?" "It does not move across the sky like all the others do." "That light is like you, in my heart." "It will never go away." "It will never go away?" "No." "Never." "Evolet, come here." "Don't stray from the hut without telling me." "And for many moons Evolet and D'Leh looked at each other, and the love in their hearts grew stronger." "Until finally, after many years, the day of the last hunt arrived." "D'Leh, how long do we have to keep watching?" "Until the manaks come." " And when will they come?" " I don't know." " D'Leh, when will I become a hunter?" " When you stop asking so many questions." "Great hunter Tic'Tic came to Old Mother's hut." "She thinks the time of prophecy has come." "She told him not to kill the manak this hunt." "She thinks Ka'Ren will win the White Spear and claim Evolet." "Baku, look what I found for you." "You know what a good hunter Ka'Ren is." "We must run away." "Together we can cross the Great Mountains." "Abandon our people?" "Like my father?" "I cannot do that." "I've waited for this so many moons." "The only way to be together is," "I must kill the manak." "They are here!" "They are here!" "Look!" "Look how many they are!" "Today, I will not pierce the heart of the manak." "It will be one of you." "One of you will claim the White Spear." "May the Fathers of the Yagahr and the spirit of the mighty manak choose the best of you." " Ka'Ren, you have the first throw." " Ka'Ren, the manak is yours." "You will be our leader." "D'Leh, what about you?" "I want to win Evolet." "All together, at once!" "Tic'Tic found the lead bull." "Slow down!" "D'Leh!" "They're breaking away!" "Hold him back!" "Baku, they are coming!" "They are coming!" "They are coming!" "They are..." "The last one is coming!" "It is a big bull!" "D'Leh is coming!" "Ka'Ren, make your throw!" "Keep him low!" "Hold him back!" "He's too strong." "Let go, Ka'Ren." " D'Leh, we have to let go." " I can't." "My hand is caught." "Look, look!" "It's D'Leh!" "You killed him!" "All alone!" "No one has ever done that." "That was brave." "D'Leh killed the manak." "He did not let go of the net." "He was the only one." "What are you waiting for?" "Wise Spirit, I killed the manak." "I claim the White Spear." "And with it my woman." "From that day on, D'Leh was no longer the son of a coward." "Now the Yagahl would honor his name for bringing to them the blessings of the manak for one last time." "And though Old Mother was pleased in her heart to see Evolet so happy, she feared in her soul that the one who had slain the mighty beast did not have the courage for what was to come." "Why does Tic'Tic not celebrate with us?" " D'Leh?" " There's something I must do." "What do you want?" "I was not brave." "And I did not hunt as one." "The Fathers of the Yagahl played with us today." "What should I do?" "If I give up the White Spear, I give up Evolet." "What should I do?" "If I give up the White Spear, I give up Evolet." "Is she yours to give up?" "It is not the way of the Yagahl to claim the White Spear with a lie." " I gave the White Spear back to Tic'Tic." " Why would you do such a thing?" " I did not kill the manak, Evolet." " Yes you did." "You held on to the net." "No, I lied!" "I tried to let go with all the others." "My hand was caught in it." "Then the manak ran into my spear." "I did nothing!" "Evolet, remember what I told you about our light?" "I still feel the same." "You will always be in my heart." "That will never go away." "But still... you're giving me up." "That night the great white rain came to the valley of the Yagahl." "And like an icy rain, sadness fell over D'Leh's heart." "And with the white rain came the four-legged demons." "Stay here." "Moha!" "Watch out!" "Baku, hide you!" "Yes mother." "We cannot help them." "Let me..." "Let me go!" " What are you doing?" " I'm going after them." "Over the Great Mountains?" "That is not possible." "They came over the Great Mountains, did they not?" " They are demons." "Maybe they can fly." " I did not see wings on them, did you?" "You think you can bring a God down alone?" "Who are you?" "He is not alone." "I go with him." "Without the other hunters, we all will die." " I will go too." " No, Baku, you will stay here." "But you, Ka'Ren, you must go with him." "Don't touch me!" "And as they bade farewell to the elders and the children of our people, the Wise Spirit of the Yagahl blessed them and the spears by their sides." "Old Mother knew they would never be hunters again but warriors since then." "It will be night, so we stay here." "No, we go on." "We are getting closer." "I cannot see in the dark, can you?" "We stay here." "We stay here, we eat and sleep." "Why do you not carry the White Spear?" "Are you afraid?" " Answer!" " Ka'Ren, go to sleep." "Baku?" "Baku!" "What are you doing here?" " Go home!" " I can help you." " I can carry the water bag." " Go home!" "They killed my mother!" "He's alone." "He will only slow us down." "D'Leh, I'm thirsty." " The fire still lives in these stones." " D'Leh!" "She is alive." "We must hurry!" "Why is Old Mother freezing?" "White rain is not a friend of the hunter." "It swallowed all the marks of the stolen brothers and sisters." "It was now to the Fathers of the Yagahl to guide their way." "And they walked for many days and night to a faraway land where the Great Mountains ended and where the story of the child with the blue eyes began." "The place where the four-legged demons killed Evolet's people." "We've walked for days now." "And still no marks!" " Maybe they do have wings." " Maybe they do." "But our brothers and sisters do not." "Don't forget to chew." "Maybe she only lost it." " It is hot here." " Baku, stay close." "What was that?" " We must free them tonight." " Not tonight." "This is not a good place." "They know there is danger out there, and they keep a good watch." "We do the same." "I will go first, then Ka'Ren, then you." "D'Leh!" "Come!" "I understand your pain." "But you must be patient." "D'Leh!" "I will never give you up again." "This way!" "Go!" "D'Leh!" "Run!" "Over here!" "This way!" "Ka'Ren!" "Run!" "Run!" "Tic'Tic!" "Go!" "Tic'Tic!" "D'Leh, Evolet, up here!" " D'Leh!" " I'll get the boy!" " No, do not go!" " I will come back for you." "I promise." "Baku!" "You should not be here." "I think he speaks of D'Leh." "D'Leh will come back." "He promised it to me." " Ka'Ren, do you think he's still alive?" " Does not matter now." "He tried to save us!" "Forgive me, Tic'Tic." "I should have listened to you." "Tonight, I'll bring you food." "Old Mother was watching over their journey with all her strength and her spirit stayed always by their side." "But that night she could not rule over the forces of the earth and could not stop the waters of the heavens." "D'Leh would have to face alone the mighty beast who rules these lands." "Do not eat me when I set you free!" " I feared you were dead." " Do not fear for me." "Look, over there." "There was an attack." "I heard them screaming." "This is where they went." "Tic'Tic, move away." "Come!" "D'Leh, come back." "Move away!" "You must remember me." "I gave you life." "Speak to the Spear Tooth?" "How do you come to speak our words?" "Do not like Naku food?" "It's different, but good." " We come from over the mountains." " We know where you come from." "How do you know?" "How do you come to speak our words?" "A man come from the mountain before." "He was looking for a new land." "Our wise man told me to learn his words." "You, you have his face." "What happened to him?" "He was taken a long time ago." "Taken where?" "Come." "When your father came to us, he became my friend." "Then the evil spirits stole your father, like many of our people." "They bring them to the nest of the great birds and fly away over the sand." "Where do they take them?" "To the Mountain of the Gods." "No one has ever returned." "Our wise man says you will lead us there." "Me?" "We have a telling that one day the one will come" "who will free our people." "The one who speaks to the Spear Tooth." "And as the brave people of the Naku buried their dead, they sent word to all the tribes of the land" "that the one who speaks to Spear Tooth had come." "Their call was a call for war." "Why do they think I can free their people?" "There's something you must know about your father." "When your mother died bringing you life, your father took upon himself not only the weight of you, but all our people." "We were starving." "He could not wait for Old Mother's prophecy to come true." "Your father did not run away." "He left to save our people." "How could you let me believe all this time that my father betrayed us?" "Because he wanted you to be that way." "Your father carried the White Spear." "He feared that when he left, others would follow him and abandon our people." "And why do you tell me this now?" "A good man... draws a circle around himself and cares for those within." "His woman, his children." "Other men draw a larger circle and bring within their brothers and sisters." "Some men have a great destiny." "They must draw around themselves a circle that encloses many, many more." "Your father... was one of those men." "You must decide for yourself whether you are as well." "This is Kawu, our fastest runner." "He bring voice from the people who live that way." "They stole many more men." "And now they are moving to the great birds, fast." "We must find them before they reach these birds." "You have no woman?" "The day before you came, they took her life." "And they stole our son." "I am Baku." " Tudu." " No, I am Baku." "Baku, Tudu." "Baku, Tudu." "He's killing him!" "You must help!" "The word of the Naku traveled fast and from all winds came many warriors." "The TukTuk, who move like big running birds and hide their eyes behind trees." "And from the valley without sun came the ones with blood on their heads." "But the strongest of them all were the Huta." "Their leader spoke for all the warriors of the land." "Tell him if his people walk with us, we will bring them down." "He says you are only a boy." "Tell him I am older than I look." "Quina is a Hoda." "Hoda do not laugh." "They walked faster and faster and did not slow down to eat or to rest." "And more spears joined them with each passing day." "This word "yahala", what does it mean?" "They are your words:" ""We must bring them down."" "The great birds have arrived." "Evolet!" "Evolet!" "Baku, D'Leh's here!" "Tudu, that man with the spear, he will not give up." "Him and her." "Maybe the boy is right." "D'Leh cannot fly over the water like they can." "But who the fuck could fight so many spears?" "This river moves like a snake in the sun." "He says the eye of the snake rest under the sun and under the moon does not move." "Is there a shorter way to the head of the snake?" "We must look beyond the Great Sand." "But no one can walk that far." "The mountains and the sand, they all look the same." "And we will lose our way." "We will all day." "We will find the head of the snake." "And we will free our people!" "We must rest." "The man from the river had spoken the truth." "They had walked in circles for many days and lost their way." "And the eye of the snake was nowhere to be found." "Tic'Tic, Tic'Tic..." "I found the eye of the snake!" "You see that light?" "That one?" "Remember what the river people said?" "It rests under the sun, but under the moon it does not move." "Nakudu, tell them what I said." "It will guide us to the head of the snake." "And as the last moon had come to the valley of the Yagahl, it seemed that all spirits had left Old Mother." "She did not eat or speak for many moons because she knew there was one last destiny to fulfill." "Wise Spirit..." "It's me, Katan." "The mountains of the gods and the head of the snake." " Evolet, you are well?" " Ssh, don't speak." "Baku, over here!" "How can a man do such a thing to a father manak?" "They are not men like us, Baku." "Then what are they?" "Some say they came from the stars." "Others believe that they flew across the Great Water when their land sank into the sea." "The ones they force to do their work," "They are even more." "You think they will fight with us?" "That is for you to find out." "D'Leh!" "D'Leh!" "Do not be afraid, Baku." "I'll bring you home." " Where is Evolet?" " The women sleep in different huts." "But I saw her today." "Tic'Tic is waiting with many spears by the sand." "They killed Moha today." "He was sacrificed." "It is my mistake that they are in this terrible mess." "I need your forgiveness." "The Fathers chose you to lead us." "And we will stand by your side." "Tell them how many spears we have." "The number of spears does not matter." "Men cannot bring down Gods." "He says the blind man knows much about the Gods." "He was once their servant, but ran away." "They have hidden him here ever since." "Wise man.." "Tell us more of these Gods." "They were three, but now there's only one left." "There must be a way to defeat him." "He said, once, only once he heard the God speak of one he fears." "They have a telling of one who wears the mark that you can see in the sky at night." "They call it Uruana, "the Mark of the Hunter"." "The brightest star of all heaven." "He asks if you wear the Mark of the Hunter." "Without the mark, you cannot bring down the God." "Wait, wait." "The band on your arm." "Where did you get it?" " The man who saved his life." " Where is he?" "His bones are buried in the sand with all the others." "He wants to know why you ask of this man." "He was my father." "Ask him where Tic'Tic is." "They got on us!" "I am full of days." "Please, great hunter, do not say that." "We need you." "They will not fight with us." "They have their own prophecy." "A prophecy has many faces, many ways to come true." "Your father, he gave this to me." " No, great hunter, this is yours" " Take it." "Be as your father." "Be as your father." "I know how it feels to lose a good friend." "Your father was mine." "I barely remember him." "He remembered you." "His heart hurt when he spoke about a boy beyond the Great Mountains." "He was preparing to leave to go back to you." "That is when he was taken." "D'Leh, the men are waiting." "We, the people of the Yagahl, hunt the mightiest of beasts, the manak." "He is great and we are small, and still we bring him down." "Because we hunt together." "As one." "When the sun arises, we will join our brothers and sisters on the Mountain of the God" "and convince them to fight with us together, as one!" "What just happened?" "Listen, Baku, today you must become a hunter." "Me?" ""Yahala."" "Look." "That one." "Baku, we found the real bull." "Go." "Ka'Ren, look!" "We must go everybody up the ramp!" "Go, go!" "Ka'Ren!" "No!" "Stop!" "He says the one who follows this woman should turn back, or she will die." "Like this traitor." "Turn back to your mountains." "You can take your woman." "Tell him I'll take his offer." "Tell him I accept." "Tell him!" "But I will take all my people with me." "Each and every Yagahl." "Tell him!" "They are yours!" "Ask him what will happen to the others!" "They belong to the God, he says." "They will do his work." "Forever." "No.." "I will not!" "He is not a God!" "D'Leh!" "No!" "Nooo!" "Help!" "Help!" "She is bleeding!" "You came for me." "Please, no." "Please." "To have journeyed so far, to have walked till the end of the world to bring down the one they call the Almighty only to return without Evolet," "this was not what Old Mother had foretold." "But just as she was lost to him forever, the legend of the child with the blue eyes began" "Evolet had brought the promise of life to our people." "And now, with her last breath," "Old Mother had given it back." "Your father wanted to bring these back to you." "They will feed your people." "Tell them the people of the Yagahl thank the Naku people." "Thank you, brother Nakudu." "My heart walks with you, brother D'Leh." "That was the last time they saw their friends the Naku." "And then the long journey home began." "They're back!" "They're back!" "And as the ones who walked with the Fathers looked down on them and guided their way," "so the Yagahl looked to Evolet and D'Leh to guide their people." "And when the first moon was born again to their valley, it brought with it the first fruits of their land." "Look how fast it is growing." "And so it came to pass that the promise of life was fulfilled." "Edited by LeapinLar"