Tribal Legends [last] - Cold
#6 of Tribal Legends
Tribal Legends
A suite of stories.
Written down and translated by Sharpfang' 2001.
You may copy this story freely as long as no contents are changed.
Cold
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The story of Sun.
A tribal legend by Aris, translated and written down by Sharpfang.
Dedicated to: Hetman
Somewhere far there was a country where Sun was never seen. Eternal winter and frost were covering the land, after long night a short day followed, but the sky was always covered with dark clouds, giving little light and hardly any warmth. In the middle of void on the desert of ice a small tribe was struggling for survival. They were digging deep wells in the ice to reach the sea and hunt some fish and animals that lived in the sea waters under the ice, to eat their meat and to make weapons and tools of their bones and sometimes, very rarely, when there was enough meat so they weren't hungry, they lit some animal fat in a small lamp made of rock, legacy from the times when their grand-grandfathers lived in countries where rock was common. Then the whole tribe gathered in the igloo around the fire and listened the stories about places, where heat comes from the sky, where sleep under the sky doesn't mean death. They imagined and listened about the Sun, this magical ball which is so bright, that you can't look at it and gives enough warmth, that it can heal diseases. Here, whoever got ill - died.
The tribe was existing and suffering and instead of growing it was getting smaller with each year. Not many children lived long enough to grow adult and the adults were dying from diseases and in the work of keeping the pit from freezing. There was no elder at all, nobody lived so long. Whenever the pit froze, they had to dig with the bone axes deep in the ice and when the last layer of ice was broken the water was flushing from under the ice, filling the pit and whoever was breaking the last layer of ice couldn't avoid getting into the water. Even if they survived such a bath they usually died from a disease very soon afterward so always through the night two guards were watching the pit, breaking the ice and removing its pieces from water, but sometimes in the morning on the bottom of the pit only two frozen corpses were found over a fresh, thick layer of ice.
And so, after years from the tribe only one family was left - Him, her and their child. When the last of the others died their child began showing the first signs of the disease. They decided that they had to go to the countries where the Sun shines. They packed some of their goods on a bone sled and moved in the direction that seemed warmest to them.
They traveled for a week and the ice desert turned into snow desert, a few days later changing into scattered jagged blocks of ice. The child was getting weaker and they ran out of food supplies. They found a bird frozen nobody knows how long ago and crushed its frozen meat with their teeth before they ate it. A few days later they reached the sea shore and caught a few fishes. The sky over them was still steel-gray at day and absolutely black at night, but far on the horizon a thin stripe of blue was splitting the water from the sky and when the dusk came on the horizon a thin line of gold appeared.
They had no choice, their child hadn't much time left. Using the bone axes they cut the ice forming a boat of shape they knew from ancient legends. The next evening their work was finished and using the axes as paddles they started rowing toward the full sea.
They were rowing all night and the morning greeted them with the clouds behind their backs and the blue sky over their heads. Filled with new hope, they kept rowing getting further from the land of ice. Finally, from behind the clouds the Sun appeared and they felt its warmth for the first time in their life. They exposed the child's face to its rays and enjoyed its shining themselves.
They stopped rowing when the land vanished from their view and some ocean drift carried their ice boat further into the sea. They only from time to time removed some water from melted ice, that was gathering on the bottom of the boat. It was early afternoon when they understood. Not much time passed until water filled the remains of the melting boat and before dusk came they died because of the Sun they wanted so much.
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SharpFang
Thu Feb 22 12:51:31 CET 2001