the First Times

(the First Times)

“No. It is much more than that.” The elder looked at him seriously. “The Wonderwork came and went and we still were. We did lose by it, though. But before the Kings was a Dying greater still, one that left Her Face almost empty.

Who reigned before the Kings? We don’t know.” He took a deep breath.

“If you fight, maybe it can stop. Maybe the End won’t come. Maybe it will. Maybe fighting makes it worse. The more you destroy, the more is gone. Don’t stop fighting. But we will go on.”

Morwangu looked up at the blue, blue sky and fell silent. Peter wondered what patience it had taken to shape humans from rats. What mammal could match it? Mammals scurrying from burrow to hunt to mate to die while the Kings basked lazily in the sun, hairy little things sniffing in the dark to find food or a mate, gorging and gorging to stoke their ravenous metabolismsHe started. For a moment - how had it happened? He had seen wolf and man through the eyes of a reptile.

He was becoming Mokol6. The certainty filled his mind.

In a world of darkness, here were Sun’s Chosen. He had seen himself from far away. How many Garou, how many anything, had ever been given that gift? Peter felt grateful.

Grateful and sunburned. Australia was visible ahead.

Morning: Was The Cast Times (the First Times) She was born in the eye of a hurricane Laughter all around the bed At night the Sun was looking down Into a hole beneath the sky The songs of angels filled her head Chris Leitch, ”Julula”

The four sat in the shade of a rock outcrop tufted with mulga. Wind spirits drew on the desert sand. Morwangu and Jeffo wore the lizard-shape, to stand the heat. Their ancestor coiled by the cliff, wind waving her crest. Resting her head across the coils of her body, she spoke.

“We had chased and driven you, saved the smart ones, eaten the dumb ones. We had watched and waited while forest and ice walked back and forth on the land. We never spoke. You needed your own words. We never used tools before you. You needed to learn by yourselves or make the same mistakes we did.

“That’s the worst thing about those damned bloodsuckers.

They fiddle with your lives and herd you like cattle. But they never think that you might do better than them. How could they know what’s best for you any better than you can? We never made that mistake. But when we saw you dipping water from a stream in gourds, we knew the Way had worked. There was another toolmaker species. Someone had to bridge the gap then, restore what we had lost in the Wonderwork.

“Two Thumbs was the first. She was a Shining. She stole yourshapewithaGift, learnedhow adaptableandhow clever you rats could be, and used her sense of humor to find a mate, Lightning Crashes, among the human band who camped by her wallow. She bore seven children, who became the first Mokok with three forms since the Kings failed. Two Thumbs always joked that if anyone had warned her how much it hurt to hatch a human egg then the Age of Sleep would never have ended. Her eldest, Mokol6-Mbembe, was born when day became night. He was the greatest of all, the Mighty One, the King. They say he lives still in the heart of Entoban.”

“Where ?”

“Africa,” Jeffo interjected.

“No one remembers the First Changer or what Breed he was from. This is the second of the Three Paths that we can’t walk down. We were stirred by the ancient memory of the Kings, so we joined with the new toolmakers in Entoban.

Your own Shrouded Suns know that. We remember a time when there were no Garou, but you can’t remember a time when there were no MokolC.

“Gaia washed Her face with ice to clean off the corruption of the Dissolver, washed it four times. We spread with humans. We liked warm weather the best. Two other Breeds divided from our own. There were some Mokolk who remained with Sun but gave up Mnesis in return for the powers of the Umbra. They became the Corax, messengers of Gaia. Likewise, the Mokok who had no limbs made a special contract with Gaia. In return for losing Mnesis, they would gain the power to judge and slay Her lawbreakers. They kept our sun auspices and our reptile coolness. They’re the closest to us in blood, if not in mind and heart. Sometimes, one of them will have flashes of Mnesis. If we could awaken the Memory that lies sleeping in them a great fissure in Gaia’s mind would close and She would move closer to being One.

“The Bears were the First to waken. Why? It was Gaia’s will. They taught humans to walk on two legs and store food for the winter. This was when they and their two-leg cousins learned to paint and draw on cave walls, when they learned to sing and dance. We never knew till later - they were too far north. But like us, they culled humans who broke Gaia’s Law. Later we taught the bears to Sleep like Dragon.”

“Then we learned of other shapeshifters, the BCte.”

“What is that?” ‘‘I think it means ‘beasts.”’ “0 h . ”

Mokole‘ Many Tribes or &ne? of the Get, Fianna or are sanctioned by all arou elders. The fact t Garou belong to “the me varna” makes the idea of having many tribes seem “The Shrouded Suns explained that Gaia, mother of all, had made them and that each had their purpose. The Bastet were the Mother’s eyes. The Corax and the Camazotz were Her messengers; the Grondr, the boar-skins, cleaned and groomed Her. The Ananasi wove and unwove the Great Web, and the Ratkin and Apis nursed and protected Man. The many BCte were one, parts of the Mother’s body, and Gaia was whole. It hurts me to remember this time.

Many adepts who do so have fallen from despair. Last came the Garou, who were the Warriors of Gaia, and their cousins the Nuwisha.”

“What was that time like?”

The serpent shook her huge, plumed head.

“You may not believe it, but in the Last Times we were all friends. I remember it myself, and even I don’t believe it.

The wolf-skins sat wide-eyed at Midnight Suns’ tales of the mighty Kings, hunted with the Rising Suns, and exchanged GiftsandriteswiththeShroudedSuns. Someofyou joinedour wallows, especially females of breeding age, as the Dragon Breed’s skills could ensure more and healthier offspring.

Many pups saw the Moon’s light in the arms of a dragonnanny. Mnesis, the true labor of Sun’s children, meant that none of the shapeshifters invented writing. MokolC sat to watch your tales and rites so that they could not be lost, and we witnessed contracts and treaties. Usually the contract made that a condition.

“Many Gifts entered into Mnesis then. We have some you’ve forgotten. We gave you everything. Even the Memory, when you had a reason. You swam into the Memory with us, deep into time, and saw the dawn age of Gaia.”

“We did? Wow, we have changed.”

“We have not.

“Then the Dissolver became trapped in the Designer’s web, and went mad. You know the story. That was bad. But what followed was worse.’)