This is Applegate Lake, he told himself, I know this lake. And he did, besides coming here with friends to swim in the lake above it, Squaw, his mom lived here as well. So since he was starving, and had just realized that his journey had only progressed about 90 miles in the past two weeks, he decided to go visit his mom. Maybe she would give him some food, and direction.
When he got to her trailer, it was desolate. There was no one around and an eerie silence filled the air, and a dead emptiness filled his moms trailer. So he got the fuck out of there.
He crossed Carberry Creek and went up into the woods. He climbed a hill, then decided to camp at the top for the night, for he was very tired. In the night he heard weird noises in his dreams and awoke to make them real. Voices echoing in valley not far away. Jon sat up shivering and afraid long into the night until he fell asleep.
The next day he decided to walk far away considering the noises he had heard. Up and down mountains, left and right, over and out he roamed. At sunset he found a nice hill top to sleep at, which looked familiar and homelike. That night was them same, chanting but he could not make out the words. Jon huddled up into a ball and prayed for the noise to go away.
The next day he woke early and took off hiking. His mind began wondering if these noises of the night were a part of his own imagination. Either way he was getting out of there.
At sunset he found a nice hilltop to spend the night at. As he lay awake trying to go to sleep he stared at a tree that he had stared at the night before?And the night before that? Had he been hiking in circles? Was it possible that some energy, some force was drawing him to this hilltop, to this exact setting to whiteness, what he had been witnessing?
As the chanting began, Jon got up and looked around. He saw a flicker in a valley below, and could tell that this was where the sounds were coming from. Back in his ball, he begged himself to go see what was going on. To explore this alluring unknown before him. But he did not. He went to sleep instead.
The chanting grew louder in his dreams, as he walked through the forest towards it. People were jumping around and chanting in unison, words that he could not make out. His mom was there, she was not his mom though. Her face was distorted and looked like a horses head. Headstrong, aware, and accepting. There were many others as well. A lion man beast, with great courage. A squirrel man, friend to all. A wolf person, timid and powerful. A bear, with huge spirit and huge claws. A bull, hardheaded, and caring.
As Jon walked up they took notice of him, but that was all, their dancing and chanting kept their focus. Jon walk up and went to the middle of the circle, to the fire. He stared into it, felt it, It was so strong and he so close that he should have been burned, but he was not. Then the horse looked at him. Pulled him next to her, and he obeyed. He was changed, another squirrel had joined the circle. His body becoming it and all that feels like a squirrel. And he began chanting. The words just came to him. More than that the feeling came to him. Creation and power, love and acceptance. Feeling the change, Jon danced to the moon. He turned to the fire and sent it up into the sky, burning it through the night, dark blue and starred. His feet stomped the hard solid ground of mother earth. His ears listened to the sound of the creek. It was far away, but it grew louder, and louder. He could hear the water jumping over rocks and crashing into the body of itself. Air bubbles forming underwater, and the mixing and separating of it.
In the realm of what he was experiencing something new came to him. Aether. All of these different aspects were all happening at the same time. They were mixing, but each was just as loud in his mind. He could feel each just as strong, singularly. But in pulses, with the rhythm of the dancing, of all those around the fire, he felt them as one. One powerful force, one whole energy, pulsing through his body. And Jon howled. He became a wolf for just a moment and howled to the bright white moon, and called to it. I love you, I am you, I will you. As his squirrel form returned to him she answered back. I love you, I am you, I will you.
As the sun rose over the tree line, the sky was red and the dancer stopped to observe it. Everything slowed, the energy, and the receiving and giving. And their forms returned to human. Jon took his mothers had and they walked back to her trailer, the cool mist stuck to their sweaty faces, refreshing them, and cooling their hears still strong with creation.
t-roc
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