Howl of the Heavens ch.07

    Jeff Jones sits down at his table across from Samantha and Mike beginning his story.

 

     “Way back before their were any towns around here, back when the Indians still lived here my ancestor Patrick Jones moved here with  his family and some other settlers to search for gold and trap fur. Now this was before the government of the time forced the natives to leave, and as the story goes the original settlers got along fine with the Indians who warned the settlers not to go to the opposite side of the mountain that lays just North West of the town. The Indians told them that a powerful wilderness goddess lived there and that she wasn’t too fond of people trespassing on her home.”

 

    Jeff pauses for a minute to get a beer out of the fridge before continuing, taking a moment to remember exactly how the story goes,

 

        “Well” he continues, “When the settlers asked them to clarify, this is the story the Indians told them. Ever since the dawn of time the goddess Versa has lived on this mountain, she is a powerful goddess of the beasts but not of man. She has the appearance of a cross between a woman, a fox, a wolf, and a mountain cat. She was feared by the hunters who would try to sneak into her hunting grounds only to be cursed or killed by her.”

 

    “Cursed?” asks Mike, “what do you mean by that?”

 

     “The legend doesn’t explain, but I would hazard a guess it meant they got sick or something. Well any way, as I was saying; the Indians would try to sneak in to her forest, until one day she saved their whole tribe. According to the legend a group of sorcerers who had the power to take the form of beasts and ate the flesh of men, unlike the goddess Versa who only ate beasts, moved in just north of the camp close to what is Brooksville. Well one day these sorcerers attacked the Indians camp burning it down.

 

     The majority of the tribe escaped but many didn’t; the invaders killed men, women, even children. The elders of the tribe sent a group of their best hunters to spy on the sorcerer clan who had taken up residence in the still burning village. They say the sorcerers didn’t seem to mind the fire which started to spread to the forest going south. What the hunters saw in the village scared them to death, they say the hunters saw the clan of sorcerers cooking the bodies of the dead villagers and dancing around them chanting. The sorcerers then changed into human like coyote creatures just a little bigger than a man.”

 

      “Skin Walkers” thinks Mike while Jeff continues his story.

 

      “It was at this moment that a horrifying howl came from the south in the burning forest, the howl summoned thunder clouds which caused a terrible storm which was so intense that it rained out the forest fire and the burning village. The hunters saw a strange naked woman they had never seen before come out of the forest from the south. She was pale skinned and had long grey hair like a cloud about her head and shoulders with lightning in her eyes.”

 

    Jeff stops talking, gets up and goes to his room for a minute saying as he leaves, “One moment I just need to get something to help explain.”

 

      “Interesting story” thinks Samantha, “this story might help explain some things, I will just have to hear the rest of it before coming to any conclusions.”

 

      Mike is also thinking, but not as pleasant of a thought, “So skin walkers were once here as was what ever kind of demon I am dealing with, but it still doesn’t explain the black wolf. But than again the black one did accuse me of coming here to try and kill his mate. That must be this Versa in the story.”

 

    Jeff returns shortly with an old wood carving and shows it to Samantha and Mike; it is a carving of a woman with European facial features and long wavy hair with little lighting bolts coming from her eyes,

 

   “This is her” says Jeff, “the woman in the legend and the exact same likeness as the woman I told you about Mike who has been going to the trading post every three months for the last two hundred years.”

 

     “What?” asks Mike.

 

     “Sorry” says Jeff, “I didn’t know you didn’t know about this. People in town say it’s a different woman, but my grandfather, my father, my self, and my boys, no one I know in fact has ever seem a woman that looks older, younger, or more than one woman at a time, always the same woman.”

 

    “Not to interrupt” says Samantha, “but what happened in the legend?” Jeff stops for a moment and both he and Mike notice that she seems to be genuinely interested in hearing it.

 

    “Well” continues Jeff, “Where was I? Oh yeah the pale woman looking just like the woman on this wood carving which was given to my ancestor by the Indians. Any way the hunters on the ridge watching saw her enter the clearing and walk right up to the now monstrous sorcerers and said something to their leader. The hunters didn’t hear what she said but what ever it was caused the sorcerers to start running around her in a circle and chant. Then she raised her hand and lightning struck one of the sorcerers. She then changed into a giant wolf or fox like grey furred creature that walked on its hind legs, it was more than twice the height of a man and the legend says, well it gets kind of descriptive and I can’t remember off the top of my head all the details like my own dad could, but in summary she ripped apart most of the sorcerers and even ate one of them.

 

    According to the legend some of them escaped and are said to still live to the north out side of Brooksville and even in the town it’s self. That they live in Brooksville is not in the legend but some Indian folk that came back here say that. But the legend does say some escaped never to return to that mountain. Well anyway the legend continues to say she then jumped and landed just behind the hunters who were on the ridge. She told them her name was Versa and basically they made a deal that so long as the hunters don’t go into her forest on the far side of the mountain she would keep the shape shifting sorcerers away. And that’s the whole legend in a nut shell.”

 

    Samantha stands, thanked Jeff for the information, to the confusion of both Jeff and Mike, and leaves.

 

    “Well” thinks Samantha as she gets in her truck and drives away, “That was more informative than I thought it would be. The Native Americans encountered an animal they weren’t use to on that mountain that was probably bigger and stranger looking than what they were used to. One day a rival tribe invades their village later coyotes or wolves come in to eat the dead and this strange predator comes in attracted by the smell and chases away the coyotes or wolves and possibly the rival tribe became afraid of it as well. This just might be more lucrative than I thought.”

 

     She had a sly smile on her face at that last thought, “the locals are seeing an animal their not use to and even the Native Americans weren’t use to it enough to be comfortable around it. This just might be a remnant species left over from the ice age. Any number of North American Ice Age predators could have started legends about a wilderness god, like the so called god bear in Siberia, or maybe even an undiscovered species.”

 

    Unknown to Samantha as she drives away and even to the people inside the house there is an interloper just out side of view in the shadows hearing her thoughts and eavesdropping on the entire legend.