[Fiction] The Wheel in the Sky Keeps on Turning

[Ptesan-Wi]

There's so many of them, Ptesan-Wi thought as she looked out from the beaded curtain marking the end of the cave that was her home. How do I tell them this, mihinga ki?

There was no answer, no feeling of reassurance from her mate... no sense of her mate at all. Their minds no longer touched, and she was left to fend for herself. And this particular bit of fending scares me silly.

But what had to be done was obvious. She had, after all, put out the word for the elders and medicine folk of the tribe to gather here, at the door to her home on the sacred slopes of Inyan Kara... and oh, how they had come. Hundreds of the People, all respected for their years and their talents, waited patiently on the rocky ground for the words of the White Buffalo Calf Woman. And if Ptesan-Wi was to live up to her name, she had no choice but to do what came next.

With her leather disk strapped to her back and a touch of energy devoted to bringing an azure glow to her eyes, Ptesan-Wi parted the curtain and stepped before the gathered tribe to speak.

"Hau, and welcome. I have news for you to take to all the People. There is sadness in this news, but hope and joy as well.

"Wakinyan the Thunderbird has gone."

A murmur erupted from the elders, and only after a moment of raised hands was the young goddess able to quiet them again.

"As I said, Wakinyan has gone. He has passed to a Summerland, a place where the People are still proud and strong and where the Wasicu cannot harm the buffalo or touch the land. He has gone to be one with Wakan Tanka and these Summerland People, for his life and role here has only just begun.

"Wakinyan will return to us. Seasons will pass, and the snows will sit heavy upon this land again and again before that day is here, but Wakinyan will return to us. He remains my mate, and I his, and his vow to return the People is even greater than his vow to return to me. Wakan Tanka will help Wakinyan, will prepare him for our needs, and the People of the Summerland will do so as well.

"When he returns to us, his shoulders will be broad enough to carry the heavy load that it is to be Wakinyan."

Ptesan-Wi allowed the gathered folk time to accept this, and watched a sort of crowd mind as they did so. She could see the elements of doubt warring with the core of faith... and was pleased to see faith carry the day in the end.

"Until Wakinyan returns, his wish is that the People continue to grow in our renewal of the old ways. We must honor the old traditions, so that we can be as ready for his return as he will be to return to us. As Ptesan-Wi, the White Buffalo Calf Woman, I will guide you when needed, but the real strength must be in your own hearts and minds. It must be you who pulls yourself free from the ties that a Wasicu world has placed upon you - ties of poisons like alchohol and drugs, ties of vices like lying and hatred, ties of sins like forgetting the sacred nature of the earth and all creatures that live upon her. The People that greet Wakinyan upon his return must be a strong people, for trials are ahead of us all and your strength will be needed.

"Until the day when he soars in the sky above, remember that the wheel in the sky keeps turning. Go now in peace, brothers and sisters of the People, and know that the sorrow will pass in time into joy."

With a smile that was warmer than one of her years had any right to possess, Ptesan-Wi nodded to the People, and retreated into her cave. And there, alone, her tears lasted through the rest of the day.