The Game of Shepherd and Dawse

by William Shepherd

  “Teewok", Soladus would say, “Juju doesn’t make you unhappy and neither does Aman’s passing make you unhappy. It is Teewok who makes Teewok unhappy”.

  On one particular occasion after consulting Soladus, the message that Soladus was giving him finally resonated in Teewok's head. To try and make himself feel better, he decided to go for a little stroll and found himself over on the far left of the encampment. In days gone by, he and the other boys would run stone throwing competitions there to see who could win Aman’s heart. He remembered that he could barely even throw as far as Aman, let alone twice the distance she could throw a stone.

  The more he thought about Aman, the more upset he became, until his emotions had nowhere else to go. He picked up a brownish white looking rock and threw it with every ounce of the repressed energy and pent up emotion that was inside him. Sure enough it flew, and flew and flew. The brownish white rock landed in the grass right next to the double-way marker and this at least pleased him, as this was the first time he or anyone had come so close to it. Teewok made a run for the marker to see exactly how close he had come and to his amazement the stone was about one centimetre over the marker line.

  Teewok cried for joy that day. Later when he cleaned up the stone, he discovered it was a beautiful, rounded piece of alabaster. It may have been a gust of wind that carried the stone so far that day, or it may have been a fluke throw, or it may have even been some form of divine intervention. He’d never know for sure, but from that day forth, Teewok made a promise to the spirit of Aman that he would do all he could in helping Juju on his path.

  Teewok took his role as mentor to the half-breed child very seriously, so much so that he never did take a soul partner. He deeply believed his soul partner had come and gone and he was more than prepared to wait for his next life to meet her again. Out of all the inhabitants on the plain, it was Teewok who could best gauge when Juju was about to flip or lash out at someone, almost as though he had some form of guidance from a higher source.

  As Juju grew older, he developed a measure of respect for Teewok, as did Teewok for Juju. Even at the age of 14 summers strong, Juju could easily have overpowered Teewok as Juju was a very tough lad, but Teewok’s mind was sharper than Juju’s and that always gave Teewok the upper hand.

  Sasha had all but given up on Juju. The end for him came the winter Aisha passed over to the other side and Juju spat on her face as she lay there, even though he had spent the first half hour of the ceremony appearing to mourn her. It was antics like this that had made so many of the inhabitants grow weary of Juju.

  Soladus was by now as old as anyone could remember any previous resident being and some thought he was immortal. No one really knew exactly how old Soladus was and when someone did ask him when he born, he just replied, “In the winter”. And that was that. However, Soladus now sensed his time had come and he was ready to go after his long life spent on the plain. He had gotten to the stage where he could barely use his hands anymore and therefore could no longer contribute to the community.

  Once a person became like this in Shepherd Wood, they could choose to pass over in the comfort of their adode or they go out into the cold of night, take off their top clothes and let the elements take them. Not because they had to, of course, but because they wanted to. It was considered the greatest honour a human could bestow upon one’s Self.

  As the time drew near, Soladus called one final meeting with the elders. Even though they were the elders of the tribe they were like children compared to Soladus. They all gathered around in a large stone circle with the fire pit in the middle that was slightly sunken into the ground so that everyone could see everyone.

  He began his last speech, but Soladus began not by talking himself but by allowing every member of the elders to talk about the fondest memory they had of him or to talk about the way he may have helped them grow along their journey. To the amazement of Soladus, most of the fond memories and best advice he had given came from times when he hadn’t consciously tried to give any advice. True to his nature, Soladus shared one last piece of knowledge with the other elders in an attempt to show that no matter how wise you are or how wise other people think you are, you never stop learning until the day you pass over.

  Once all of the elders had shared the best experiences they'd had with Soladus, he shared the magic moments that he'd had with them. It was a very joyous occasion and many tears were shed but these were not tears of pain or mourning, as these were tears of pure joy. The evening centered upon the celebration of the life this amazing man had lived. Once everyone had said all they wanted to say, Soladus shared his final words.

  “My children, my people, my dear friends”, he began. “It has been an honour to have been among you, and it has been a pleasure learning so much from you on this night of nights. Now I bid you all farewell and I look forward to meeting you in another life. My choice for Passover partner,” he paused, “is Juju”.

  And that was it. That was his final speech.

  On this, his last day, he wanted them to remember just one thing, and that was no matter how old or wise you think you are, you can never stop learning from the young.

  A Passover partner was a member of the community who helped the dying person make his or her last preparations. It was usually a member who had helped that particular person greatly at some point in the dying person’s life. A couple of the younger of the elders made no attempt at hiding their confusion and trepidation at this choice, while the older more experienced ones knew that such a wise old man had made his choice for good reason.

  Makeshaw who was by now gaining quite a reputation for being wise himself remained the calmest, but he couldn’t help but smile at the immensity of the last deed that Soladus was leaving them with. Soladus acknowledged Makeshaw’s smile as if to say, “You have learned well, my child”, even though these thoughts passed back and forth without either uttering a word to the other.

  When one of the Elders decided to pass over like this, it would only be the other elders who would be present in the meeting hall. The rest of the community would, in a mark of respect, stay in their dwellings – at least until the elder had gotten to their final resting place. There wasn’t a lot left in the world that could surprise Soladas; he had been around for many years. But as he walked out of the meeting arena, he did get his very last surprise. On the other side of the river, every single inhabitant of Shepherd Wood had gathered on the riverbank and each of them held a candle to light the way for their ageing seer. It wasn’t supposed to be done like this but because of their immense respect for him, they couldn’t help themselves and it touched Soladus very deeply.

  Juju was none too pleased about having to perform this task. He saw no honor in it. Winter had set in and he was quite comfy where he was (thank you very much). Teewok and Makeshaw knew how to appeal to his better half though, and with a grumble or two he made his way across to the place where the elders had gathered. As Juju drew closer, Soladus held out his arm as if to say, ‘Please steady me as I walk, dear boy’.

  Soladus and Juju turned and made their way to the spot where Soladus had chosen as his last in this lifetime. In the background, the elders and the younger’s had started chanting a farewell mantra in admiration of their ageing seer.

  Soladus and Juju had to walk a long way and this was hard on the dying man, but Soladus had wanted it like this. He had always wanted one last trial of endurance before he went. Juju on the other hand could have done without it and knowing full well that the old man couldn’t hear, he quipped,

  “You better find your spot soon old man or I might as well kill you right here and be done with it”.

  To Juju’s amazement Soladus replied without even looking at him, “And what would be the point in killing a dying man, Juju”?

  You see, the thing was Soladus never had lost the use of his hearing. He only pretended he had so that people wouldn’t talk too much when he was trying to guide them through their worries. He had heard it all
before, so many times before.

  Juju didn’t like the old man. There was just something about him that he didn’t get, and it would be fair to say that even as frail as this old man was and as muscular as Juju was, Juju feared him. They finally arrived at the resting place and Soladus knelt down.

  “Come sit before me, my child”, Soladus said, and Juju did as he was asked.

  Soladus didn’t speak to Juju with any disrespect or anger. Instead he spoke to him very gently and with so much love, the kind of love that Juju had craved for so, so long. This brought tears to one of Juju’s eyes and he just sat and listened.

  “I’ve been watching you, Juju. I know what you've been doing and this place isn’t safe for you anymore. In one week’s time, there will be a lot of angry fathers wanting your blood, so it is time for you to leave. You know where you need to go. You have seen it in your dreams and there you will be lord and master. It is your destiny”.

  Juju knew exactly where Soladus meant, if only by psychic intuition, and he had seen the place Soladus spoke of in his dreams. To be honest, Juju had had enough of Shepherd Wood anyway.

  “Now if you really want to kill me, child, help me take off my top, dear old friend”.

  This was the part that Juju actually found really difficult. When it was laid on a plate like that, he didn’t want to do it. But he managed it. Then, he left Soladus kneeling in the woods while he made his way back to the village.

  Any slight purity that Soladus’s presence had imparted soon vanished when Juju thought about being evicted from Shepherd Wood. His frustration soon turned to anger and his anger soon turned to hate. Juju decided to commit once final act of atrocity before leaving, and this would be to slash Sasha’s throat.

  There was a part of him that really didn’t want to do this but a greater part of him that did, and that fact enraged him. He reached the hut where he and Sasha slept and found Sasha asleep. He stood over his grandfather with a tear running down his cheek and reached for the knife he always wore on his hip. It was a very good knife. He had made it himself and had used it to kill many an animal (and to wound a few people in the village too on occasion).

  To his astonishment, the knife wasn’t there. He must have dropped it when he was helping the old man to his resting spot. He was annoyed at losing his knife but also grateful for the fact that he couldn’t slash Sasha’s throat because he still had lingering feelings of affection. Juju left the village and didn’t so much as look back at it. Shepherd Wood would never see Juju again.

  Soladus folded his top neatly and placed the knife on top of it. He had pulled it from Juju’s sheath as they were walking. Soladus didn’t actually need Juju’s help in holding his arm; he had just done this as a ruse to get hold of the lethal weapon. When the elders came for Soladus’s body they would see the knife, plus an absent Juju, and put two and two together, realizing what had happened.

  Soladus very last words to the world would be, “Such a shame to spoil such a beautiful thing, but it has been such an honour to be a part of it”.

  Life in Shepherd Wood suddenly took on a whole new meaning once the inhabitants realised Juju had gone for good. Something lifted and people were joyous. To those who were old enough, it reminded them of the times that had been, before all the troubles in recent years had started. It really was a truly wonderful time and even the weather had changed to bright, sunny and warm - which was odd as they were in the middle of the onset of winter. There was a quite euphoric feeling about the place now. There was even talk about dismantling the barrier around the settlement. However, within a week everything had turned again.

  Winter came in for real and there was no more talk of taking down the barrier. What caused this sudden change of heart and change of minds was the sudden swell in so many of the young girl’s bellies.

  Gemini the farmer was becoming quite a dab hand at growing things, but now he felt for the other members of the tribe. He was pleased that he and his family had been spared Juju’s attentions as his daughter was too young to get pregnant. But just one week later, daughter Libra started showing a bump too, at the grand old age of only nine summers strong.

  Before leaving, Juju had gone on a monumental shagging spree, and there didn’t seem to be any Shepherd girl left untouched. He had charmed some and forced others, but the end result was mass pregnancy and many angry fathers baying for Juju’s blood.

  Some of the pregnancies were just as difficult as the one that Aman had had to endure. There would have been many more deaths had someone not come up with the notion that if you made a horizontal incision in the stomach of the pregnant woman and took the baby out that way and then sewed it up like you would a piece of clothing that you might just save the lives of both mother and child. By and large this worked and after a few hiccups, the women of the village learned how to become good at it. The knife that was always used because of its sharpness was the one that Juju had used to kill so many animals, so it was quite fitting that it was now being used to save lives rather than destroying them.

  The initial reaction to the oncoming onslaught of offspring from Juju on their way to the tribe was one of dread. When they actually arrived though, it wasn’t as bad as everyone had thought. The children were known as the ‘quarter children’ - being three quarters good and only one quarter bad. The Dawse energy had been diluted and each child would show this in different traits and in varying degrees. Some were messy but intelligent, some were clean but not very clever, some were attractive but nasty, and some were ugly but really kind hearted. Every child had its issues and every child had its talents. They all ate differently as well, with some preferring their meat well done while others ate their meat raw. A few liked their meat half and half, and some at no meat at all.

  Compared to the original children of Shepherd Wood, they would still be quite a handful. This was probably the time in history when mothers and fathers first started to nag their children.

  For some of the tribal members, it was just too much having so much Dawsey energy in one place, so they began to drift away from Shepherd Wood in hopes of dispersing the Dawsey energy even further. Each member would take their offspring and move to a separate tribe. This didn’t have the desired effect they hoped it would though, as this only seemed to speed up the interbreeding process.

  Within a very short 500 years or so, almost every Shepherd tribe on the planet had changed beyond its original recognition. Each new generation diluted the dark energy a bit further, yet every so often through probability and chance, nature would throw up an almost pure Dawse or an almost pure Shepherd, and one would wreak havoc while the other would bring calm.

  For the most part though, the influences the children grew up with helped to determine which side of the fence they would swing to. If they were brought up around negativity, their nature would veer toward the Dawse side of things and if they were brought up around positivity, they would veer toward the Shepherd way of thinking. The only time when their environment had no impact at all was when all the right genes came together and made them an almost pure Shepherd or an almost pure Dawse. In these cases, no external influences could change them. They were what they were.

  Every so often a pure Dawse would be born and wreak havoc in their community: they would commit murder (sometimes on a massive scale), they would rape and bully and they would spend their lives trying to take what was not rightfully theirs. These people would either be punished or banished from their community, but if they were strong enough they would encourage others of that nature to do the same dark deeds. Over time, they would build themselves a small army of people who would control and dominate the area that they were in.

  Still, they didn’t have it all their own way. For the part of the world they were in was predominantly inhabited by people of a Shepherd nature, so whenever one of these vile creatures rose to prominence there would always be someone of a strong Shepherd nature to try and block them. Shepherds too would raise an army of people and hunt down the wron
gdoers until justice and peace prevailed.

  There was a land far away from where it all started, that by and large managed to keep to a very Shepherd way of living and thinking. These people lived in harmony with the land and respected all of the animals that lived upon it. These people would become known as the Native American Indians and they would keep their way of life intact for many thousands of years. Until, that is, some people of a rather Dawsey nature came and invaded their lands and nigh on wiped out their whole civilization.

  Joe closed the book very gently and looked over at Charlie and asked, “Do you know what this means, my old friend”?

  Charlie was smart enough to know that this wasn’t the end of the book. No books ended like that. “I would hazard to say that there is one final part to this amazing story, Joe. I’d stake money on it”, he said confidently.