Chapter Five

 

“Caretaker Yucca, would you like to address us first?” Gray Rabbit asked.

 

“I will,” Yucca smiled. “Mother has started to feel more alive this last year. The Darkness still weighs on her, but we have two Voices now to bring the light back to the world. The first of them was Doc. Lady Luck sent him to our world to save Mother. His strides to spread word of the gods has rapidly grown over the last few months. It was his doing so much that Trade looked to the world again, naming a Voice of her own. I know you worry about him— he looks human and has my sister collared beside him— but he is Mother’s greatest hope. He should tell his story to you.”

 

“Caretaker,” Wildflower spoke up, “we are honored to have you join us. Are you sure that Ponderosa isn’t being controlled and lying to Mother?”

 

Yucca laughed lightly. “None of us, even my sisters decades collared, can lie to Mother. When we connect to her our thoughts, all of them are bare to her. Even if we were told to lie to her, our thoughts would show her the truth.”

 

“I see. Thank you, Caretaker.”

 

“Rosa could tell you how well she is treated, but you won’t believe her, so I will tell you what Mother has told me. You pity her for the collar and hold some hatred in your hearts toward the man who has done so. Rosa gave herself willingly to him; the collar he placed on her neck is so she can walk in towns and cities with him. Why would she do so? Because she had been with him multiple times before he came to her with the collar.”

 

“Three times. Once, I caught him alone and tried to take everything from him only for him to heal himself. He didn’t try to stop me; he kept healing himself, sating me in the process,” Rosa said. “Mother was mad with me for almost killing him, for he is Luck’s Voice, but the next morning, he didn’t run. He held me, spoke kindly to me, and asked to see me again.”

 

The elves stared in open shock, their eyes drifting back and forth between Rosa and Doc.

 

“The second time, he fought a corrupted wood-walker.”

 

The elves’ eyes grew larger at the idea of fighting a se’sxac— much less a corrupted one— as that was not something any of them would want to do alone.

 

“With the aid of the now elder of the Treeheart tribe, Jesamin, and myself, we managed to wound it enough that he could cleanse its corruption. The wounds still proved too much, but the mighty wood-walker went back to Mother instead of being lost to the Darkness. Both of us were injured after that fight, but he stayed with me for days. With his healing, by the time he left, we were both in perfect condition.”

 

“Tough fight… nearly cost all of us our lives,” Doc murmured.

 

“The third time he came to see me, he brought his first wife,” Rosa said softly, a smile on her lips. “Together, they accepted me, and Doc asked if I would wear the collar so I could walk beside him. It was the next time he came out that he gave me more than just the collar. Voice, may I?”

 

“Go ahead.”

 

Rosa touched her chest and, a moment later, she pulled her hand away. Opening her fingers, she showed the elves what lay on her palm. “He gave me a ring equal to his wives’ rings. I am his secret wife. Society would never accept it, so I hide this near my core. You are being told to show you that he doesn’t view me as lesser— he sees me as his wife, not as a tool.”

 

Gasps rose from the elders as they stared at the ring.

 

Rosa touched it back to her chest, letting the jewelry sink into her again. “My husband is not who you fear, but who you all have hoped for.”

 

Silence filled the tent for a few seconds before Doc cleared his throat, “Why don’t I tell you my full story? This will take a few hours, but it will give you a better understanding of who I am.” When no one objected, Doc took a calming breath. “I am not from this world. I came from a place called Earth…”

 

~*~*~

 

Doc was just finishing his tale when a chime came from outside the teepee. “Which brought me this way with plans for what the next step should be.”

 

“That is a lot for us to process, Voice,” Gray Rabbit said. “The chime of pausing has come. Food will be served, and then the dances will begin. Tomorrow at midday, we will gather here again to speak.” Standing slowly, Gray Rabbit grunted as he stretched his back as much as he could. “Let us rejoin our people.”

 

As they left the lodge, Doc stepped over to Gray Rabbit who was holding the flap open for the others. “Elder, might I help you with your pains?”

 

“It is age and old injuries. There is no cure for it.”

 

“I have been blessed by Luck to heal many things, Elder, if you are willing to let me try.”

 

“At the end of the pau-wau, not before. I do not want others to accuse you of using magic to bend me to your will.”

 

Doc was surprised that that was something that might happen. “Very well, Elder. I am at your disposal, and I am willing to heal any who wish it.”

 

“I will let others know so they may approach you.”

 

“Thank you.” Doc saw Lia heading his way and went to meet her.

 

“Doc, how was it?” Lia asked.

 

“I spoke for the majority of today,” Doc said as he let her guide him around the circle. “Yucca and Rosa both vouched for me before that. Tomorrow, I know there’ll be questions. There’s supposed to be dinner and dancing?”

 

“I’m leading you over to the teepee that’s been set aside for us. It’ll be snug if Yucca joins us, but I’m sure we can make it work,” Lia smirked at him.

 

“For a night, at least,” Doc replied, accepting the implication.

 

“This one is ours, as one of the speakers,” Lia said, bringing them to a stop before a teepee with clouds painted on it. “Next to us are Wildflower and Dancing Squirrel.” She motioned to the two teepees. “And on the far side of Wildflower is Sunshine.”

 

When she finished explaining, Doc smiled as the elders and their small entourages came their way. “All of them will stay in each teepee?”

 

“No; the elders will stay in these. Their people will share space with others of the Curled Horn tribe. I am your wife and Rosa is your dryad, so we are both a given. Yucca can stay anywhere and be welcomed, but I knew she would want to stay with us.”

 

“If that is acceptable, Voice?” Yucca asked Doc, her eyes softly glowing.

 

“For tonight,” Doc chuckled.

 

“Greetings. It is always good to meet your neighbors at these meetings,” Wildflower said, surprisingly fluent when not speaking Elvish.

 

“It’s always good to know who rests nearby,” Lia agreed. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Wildflower. We are honored you journeyed to make this gathering.”

 

“A collared Caretaker walked with Death Flower and asked us to speak with her husband, a supposed Voice. I couldn’t not come; the need to verify was too great. He has given me much to think about tonight.”

 

“Same with me, but I only had rumors of a Voice who would attend,” Dancing Squirrel added, coming up from the other side. Her command of humanity’s common tongue wasn’t as smooth. “To then see two Caretakers, one of whom was willingly collared… surely events run ahead.”

 

“Things will change faster than many will be comfortable with,” Doc said softly. “It will fall on the leaders to help their people accept those changes.”

 

Another chime drifted in the air.

 

“We shall speak again later,” Dancing Squirrel smiled.

 

“I look forward to it,” Wildflower added.

 

“As do I,” Doc replied as the two elders moved closer to their teepees.

 

“Dinner,” Lia said softly. “We sit by our teepee and the food will be brought around to us. Honored guests have their dinner brought to them.”

 

Doc took a seat, amused that the two dryads bookended him. Lia sat on the other side of Rosa with a knowing smirk on her lips. After a few minutes, a couple of young women brought them dinner. It was a stew made of elk and wild roots— it was different than anything Doc had ever had before, but still tasty.

 

~*~*~

 

Dinner came to an end as the sun set. The bonfire in the middle of the circle was the only illumination besides the waxing moon. The drums, which had been beating a steady rhythm, slowly began to pick up the pace.

 

“Just watch,” Lia whispered.

 

Doc nodded, handing his empty bowl to the young woman who’d delivered it earlier. “Thank you.”

 

“Be welcome, Shaman,” the young woman replied before moving on to collect other dishes.

 

A few minutes later, people began gathering in the open space near the fire. Each of them wore bright colors, feathers, and beads that made noise as they moved. Each step was in step to the drums; they were slowly coming in from the east, circling clockwise until the drums suddenly paused.

 

“Thank you for the hunt,” Lia whispered.

 

The drums began again, and Doc watched in awe. He’d been to a powwow on Earth a decade ago, but this was different. Something here felt more primal, more raw, more unfiltered. The men and women shifted and swayed with the drum beat. They began to circle the fire, each following their own dance of thanks for the hunt. Thirty people, some from the different tribes visiting, used the circle to reenact through the dance their own hunts.

 

Mesmerized by how so many different people dancing their own way could still become something so interconnected, Doc watched, slack-jawed. A power he could feel built as the dance progressed, and it seemed to energize the dancers. When the dance came to an end, the hunters all cheered at the sky. With a slow beat, they circled out of the middle.

 

“The second dance tonight is thanking Mother,” Lia whispered.

 

“Excuse us,” Rosa murmured as she and Yucca got to their feet. Without another word, she slipped her sundress off and walked with Yucca toward where the dancers would enter the circle.

 

“Naked?” Doc asked.

 

“If a dryad comes to dance, they are always naked,” Lia chuckled. “The young women who will dance with them will be mostly naked, too, but they’ll be wearing fetishes. The dance is to thank Mother for the tribe, but also for the dancers to hope that Mother will bless them with fertility. Until they marry, the young women who hope to bear children dance every year.”

 

Doc went quiet as the drumbeat changed.

 

The dancers again entered the circle in time to the drums. Twenty elves, one half-elf, and two dryads took up position before the drums paused. Right in front of Doc was Raindrop, Gray Rabbit’s daughter, with Rosa and Yucca bracketing her. Doc tried not to stare, but Raindrop wore only leather straps to which the fetishes were tied. The only women not wearing leather straps and fetishes were the dryads.

 

Doc swallowed as the dance started— it was like nothing he’d ever experienced. While it wasn’t overtly sexual, it was still erotic as the women bent, swayed, and stretched in time to the drums. As the dance went on, it shifted to the women mostly touching their bellies as they spun, twisted, and swayed. The prayer for a child was clear, even to Doc who’d never seen the dance before. As the song built toward the end, the energy that built in the dancers was far from tame. Cries of need and moans of pleasure filled the air as the women cavorted. When the drums went suddenly quiet again, all the dancers were on their knees, their heads bowed and their hands flat to the ground. Each spoke, asking Mother to bless them, before the drum began a slow beat. The dancers rose and, with steady steps, each walked around to where they’d left the circle.

 

“That’s it for tonight,” Lia whispered, having shifted to sit beside Doc, her warm breath making him shiver. “Come now, husband. Our lovely Weed will be bringing Yucca to join us. We can retire to our tent for the night.”

 

Doc let out a ragged breath. “Uh… yeah… that works.”