Believe - Chapter 13: She-who-breathes-the-wind

Red woke Imya up very early. The sun was just about to go down and it still was twilight. "We shadda go early, yes we should, yo!" he said happily. He was fully awake and full of energy but Imya still felt a bit sleepy. The long run at the last night had exhausted her quite a bit but she did not complain but just yawned. She also wanted to get home as soon as possible. She always had been a sleepy head that slept deep into the night and not only once her father had scolded her for it. "Ya hungry kiddo?" Red asked and smiled. She shook her head. After the meal, the last night she was not hungry yet. "Then ya shadda drink something, yes ya should, yo!" Red replied and led her outside of his den. "We gotta go for a long time, yes we do, yo!" Imya was used to his rhythmical kind of speaking by now. At first his weird language had confused her but now she just filtered it all in her head and she knew what he wanted to say. "Red?" she asked when they started to run in a light job. The star was shining on the darkening sky already and Red only checked on it a few times to adjust the course but else found his way around the trees by instinct. "Yes, kiddo. Whatta want?" she was a bit shy about asking this but she had been curious. She had heard so many stories about the moon but this goddess Red had been talking about interested her. After all she loved stories, even though she did not like the laws or rules and to memorize them. "Can you tell me more about she-who-breathes-the-wind?" Red turned around to Imya and smiled as if he had done him a favor. "Wonna hear about she-who-breathes-da-wind, do ya? Well then, Imma gonna tell you about her, yes I will, yo!" And while they were running he told her the story of the goddess. In her head Imya filtered all his weird phrases and speech out to understand the story.

A long time ago, when the world was young and just a few rocks, the animals were starving and bored. They neither had food nor something to do. All they had to eat was the rocks but it was not tasty and did not satisfy their stomach. It was then, that she-who-breathes-the-wind stepped up. She was a huge animal with a wonderful red fur and white tufts at her ears. She was strong alright, but her best ability was her intelligence. She was clever and always knew what to do. When she saw all the animals starving, she looked at the animals and told them "I will help you. I will create something for you to eat." For one night she went around the world and crushed the rocks. She milled it very thin and created the earth. Then she took a deep breath and blow it at the rock crumbles and a storm appeared that blew the earth around the world and made it cover the rocks everywhere.

Then she took her own hair and ripped it out. She made a very big pile of her hair and then she took a deep breath and blew against the fur and another storm appeared and all the hair flew around the world and landed at the earth. The animals were surprised and did not know what she wanted to do. She looked weak now, that her fur was gone and she stood before them with just her skin and some of them turned away from her and went across the land, not believing that she would help them at all in her state.

But she-who-breathes-the-wind did not stop. She went to the sea and with one big gulp she took a lot of water in and then breathed out. With her breath, she also sprayed the water into the air and clouds were forming. They ventured over the land, driven by her breath and after a while the water began to fall again and the first rain fell on the ground. The animals were surprised by this and wondered what it was but soon after the rain hit the hairs in the earth they started to grow and everywhere trees and bushes, grass and flowers began to spread. None of the animals had seen something like that. At the trees, there were fruits and some of the plants had tasty roots.

The animals who left tasted the fruits and roots and grass and each found something they liked. It was much better than the rock that they ate before. She-who-breathes-the-wind watched them from afar but the animals that stayed with her were shocked by the advance of the others who had stopped believing in her but now ravaged her garden. But she-who-breathes-the-wind calmed them down and said: "Those who left will eat from what I have created but I have a gift for all who stayed here." She took a deep breath again and blew a wind over the animals that prayed to her. And when the wind got over them it changed them and they got big fangs and claws. "I will give you the gift of being a predator. You will hunt those, who will eat the plants. And when you die, you will become plants and they will eat you and so the circle of life will continue and you will never starve again." With these words she left but she promised to always watch over them. No one knows where she went but sometimes you can feel her breath at night and you can hear her whisper if you listen carefully.

It came like she said. All the animals that stayed behind became predators. Their body was transformed in a way that allowed them to digest the other animals, who left and decided to eat plants. And when the predators died they become earth and from the earth new plants were growing. From this time on the world prospered and most animals forgot about she-who-breathes-the-wind but a few of them remembered her and prayed to her every now and then. Those, who were the strongest believers, were changing and soon looked like she-who-breathes-the-wind. They were the first foxes and from her teaching and her gift they inherited her intelligence and cleverness. They understood that every animal, may they believe in her or not, was part of her creation and they watch over them and in times of big danger or emergency we will lend a paw to those who lost their way. This is what it means to be a fox.

Imya was a bit confused by this story. It was so different from what she learned before but Red spoke with so much believe in his voice that she could not call out any disbelieve to him. "If I am bad she will turn me into a prey?" she asked after a while and Red laughed. "Ya donna have ta worry, kiddo, no ya don't, yo!" he showed his white teeth. "Ya a wolf and ya will stay a wolf, yes ya do, yo!" Imya was a bit relieved but the story still went through her head the rest of the night until they got to another of Red's dens. Imya started to wonder how many of these he had but she did not openly ask him. She was totally exhausted from another long run at this night. She had held up longer and seemed to pick up a bit of endurance but as soon as she rolled into a ball next to Red she was already asleep and dreamed of she-who-breathes-the-wind, of the old animals and of red hair that was flying around in the air.