Chapter 1: The Journey Begins
Chapter 2: The Beast of Lore
Chapter 3: The Cave
Chapter 4: A New Way of Thinking
Chapter 5: Holding on and Letting Go
Chapter 6: Gods and Monsters
Chapter 7: The Doctor Will See You Now
Chapter 8: Thoughts on Life
Chapter 9: Escape into the Mind
Chapter 10: The White Room
Chapter 11: Destiny Awaits
Chapter 12: Dark Wood
Chapter 13: Gabriel’s Final Battle
Chapter 14: The Story is Told
Chapter 15: A Hero is Born
Chapter 1: The Journey Begins
In the foothills of South Dakota, young Hakota had never known a life outside Blackfoot County. His adopted grandfather, Maahe, looked after the boy ever since the boy’s father died too long ago for Hakota to remember. Now, the peace of a tranquil sky seemed like it could give way to tragedy at any moment. This world, to the boy, garnered more disparity than hope, more chaos than anyone could bear, yet somehow he survived. Without a reference of a better life, Hakota was more or less content that at least two people truly loved him no matter if the roof leaked when it rained or if he went to sleep hungry most nights.
In the early morning hours, the desert was bearable. Hakota always looked forward to his adventures with his grandfather. Most of the time, the boy and his grandfather took a predictable path, checking the traps from the night before and gathering edible plants. The boy would always ask his grandfather what he thought they would catch, and the grandfather always seemed to come up with new and wondrous animals for him to ponder. By the time Hakota slipped on his tattered blue jeans, t-shirt, and old cowboy boots, took one fast bite of his breakfast, and kissed his adoring mother, his grandfather had already finished one and a half cups of hot black coffee. The old man stood like a permanent fixture of the landscape just outside the front door, gazing out at the distant mountains. The big blue North Dakota sky stretched out before him forever.
“G’morning, grandfather,” Hakota cheerily chirped as he bolted through the front screen door.
His grandfather smiled subtlety at the irony that he was at once proud of his grandson and happy for his good heath, but also troubled that a few more assaults like that one on the screen door will have him repairing it sooner rather than later. Maahe erased the smirk from his face by the time he turned to look upon Hakota’s beaming smile.
“Good morning, Hakota,” Maahe said.
“Where are you going to take me today, grandfather? An ancient burial ground, the old creek bed, or a secret battle field?” Hakota wondered.
Maahe grew stern as if to communicate something special to Hakota. “Not today, Hakota. Today, I have something very important to show you.”
Hakota was eternally bewildered at his grandfather’s ability to change his mood to fit an agenda. He hoped that someday he would be able to replicate the tactic. The old man bent down and placed his right hand on his grandchild’s shoulder. He looked proudly into Hakota’s eyes. “Someday,” he said, “you will become a great warrior.”
“Can it be today?” Hakota interjected.
“I hope not,” Maahe replied as he rose and headed toward his truck.
“Grandpa, we’re taking the truck?” Hakota gasped.
Maahe didn’t want to frighten the boy no matter how terrifying the day’s journey might become. He quickly retorted, “It’s two days walk to get to where we’re headed.” He turned back toward the boy, “Don’t worry, we’ll be back before the sun goes down.”
Hakota’s mother, Magena, appeared from inside the shack. This trip was unexpected to everyone but Maahe. Her timid voice persisted despite the little she was willing to do to stop the adventurers.
“Be careful!” she called through the screen door as Hakota hurried off to his destiny.
Her son answered as the dust kicked up behind him, “I will, ma.”
Maahe closed the rusty door of the truck as Hakota eagerly jumped into the passenger seat. Notwithstanding the miles and weathered look of the once red truck, the engine started up as excited to hit the road as Hakota. The boy patted the dashboard optimistically as the truck kicked into gear. Maahe tried his best to conceal his anxiety.
“Ready to go?” he asked Hakota.
“Yep,” the boy answered.
Hakota could tell there was something disturbing the mind of his grandfather, but he had learned the patience of a man three times his age. He knew eventually his grandfather would tell him what was bothering him. The boy’s silence on the matter would only hasten the revelation. They both looked out at the wild untamed land, and at that moment they were both thinking the same thing – so much goes unsaid.
Chapter 2: The Beast of Lore
Maahe and Hakota traveled only a short distance before the old man began to tell the story. The grandfather had struggled considerably with the best way to tell Hakota about the cave dwellers. In the end, he just decided to start from the beginning.
“Hakota, when I was your age, I was wild. There were times my friends and me wouldn’t come home for over a week. As far as we were concerned, our home was among the prairie dogs. Many of the places I take you are places I scouted as a boy. But there is one place I have been waiting to show you until the time was right.”
Hakota’s jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide when he heard his grandfather say his name. He knew whenever that happened in the precise tone that his grandfather had just used, it meant something very import was about to happen.
“Why grandfather?” he managed.
His grandfather only continued, “This place…it’s an evil place. Full of deep mysterious caves. It’s a secret place. If I didn’t stumble onto it when I was a boy, my life would probably be totally different.” The old man glanced over at the boy. “And so would yours.”
“What happened?” the boy inquired instinctively.
Maahe turned his focus from the road and gazed longer into Hakota’s eyes, “I heard screams. Deep wailing noises - groans coming from miles underground.” The grandfather turned his attention back to the road before them. “There was a stench coming from the cave. Like un-bathed animals.”
Hakota was fixed on his grandfather. This was something he would never be able to forget. He immediately felt compelled that he must find that cave entrance. Both travelers knew something had just changed. The boy was scared, yet also very curious about the inner workings of the mysterious caves.
“What was down there?” Hakota asked.
“Well, I didn’t know back then, but there was one old man that lived close to me, and he eventually told me about the creatures that inhabited the caves. He called them, Uktena. He said tribes of great horned lizard men lived beneath the Earth since the beginning of time.”
Hakota was feeling tricked, “lizard men?” he scoffed.
Sensing Hakota’s disbelief, the grandfather turned back swiftly to his grandson, “Yes.” He dragged out the small word like it was itself a snake slithering into the reeds. “Have you ever heard of dinosaurs?” Maahe asked.
“We learned about them in school,” Hakota answered.
“And did you know that the birds, the alligators, and the crocodiles came from them?” Maahe continued.
“The birds?” Hakota was bewildered.
“Yes, my grandson. Even the birds came from the dinosaurs. Our ancestors used bird feathers in sacred rituals. They paid respect to the spirits of the predatory birds.”
Maahe paused to look once more at Hakota. He was assured by his grandson’s attentiveness that he had not been mistaken about the wisdom of em
barking on the day’s journey. Hakota, for once, remained very still and very quiet.
“But, what many people don’t understand is why our ancestors paid such high respect to those birds,” Maahe continued. “They think indigenous peoples worshiped all kinds of animals because they were naïve. I found out that this is not the case. They wore the feathered headdresses because of the kinship between the Uktena and the birds, especially birds of prey.”
Maahe adjusted himself in the warm vinyl seat. At his age, remaining in one position too long was bad for circulation and became increasingly uncomfortable. The two had only been driving for about ten minutes, and they had at least another fifty to go.
“The old man told me that by wearing the headdresses and treating birds of prey with sincere respect, a tentative peace between our people and the Uktena was maintained,” Maahe added.
“Is this for real?” Hakota queried partly hoping it wasn’t.
Maahe stretched out his right hand and placed it firmly on Hakota’s left knee. With a chuckle he replied, “This is for real, son.”
The old man had never called Hakota son before. A flood of feelings emerged from a boy too small to process them all simultaneously. His grandfather had purposely reminded him that he was once a son to someone, and in the absence of his father, his grandfather would have to do. Hakota was bewildered. He did not expect to be having this conversation with his grandfather, yet surprisingly something inside him knew it was inevitable.
There was a long pause between the two. Maahe tried to think of the next part of the story without missing any details. It was too important to make even the slightest mistake. He owed it to his son, Hakota’s father.
Hakota sorted through what was occurring as the pair traveled fifty miles an hour down an abandoned South Dakota highway. He hesitated, but knew it was time. Just at that moment, the travelers once again had the same thought. They glanced at each other seeing what must come next in each other’s eyes.
“Tell me about my father,” Hakota managed in a voice that was surprisingly inconsistent for him. He looked off into the distance as if the answer might come from there, then he focused again on his grandfather who was beaming with pride.
Maahe began the next part of the tale in a voice filled with the pain of losing the most precious of gifts, “Your father, my son, was a true warrior. He was taken too soon.”
Then, to break the tension that had built, Maahe concluded with a slight chuckle, “But then again, we are not the ones who decide such things.”
Hakota had wondered about his father for as long as he could remember. He stopped asking his mother about him when it became clear that remembering him only brought her back to the depression that once consumed her waking life. Better to let the memories come back briefly as would an old friend waving from far away. As a result, Hakota only had bits and pieces: the way he smelled to his mother, the way he would eat his breakfast with her, the creases in his forehead when he would become worried.
“You never talk about him,” Hakota pushed.
The wise grandfather quickly answered, “I am now. Gabriel was a fine boy. You remind me of him in so many ways sometimes I get confused, and think for a moment that you are him.”
“How did he die?” Hakota continued. He felt this was his only chance to find out as much as he could - a brief window when all other doors were firmly shut.
Maahe took a long deep breath in through the nose and out the same way. His face clenched, and his mouth drooped sadly. After another heavy breath, Maahe finally answered the boy, “I will tell you about your father, Hakota. And when we are finished today, you will understand why I have not told you the truth until this day. You will understand.”
Hakota believed him, and sat back in his oversized vinyl seat to absorb the unforeseeable no matter what it was. The cool morning air rushed in from the small opening of the window, the distant sun rose fast off the horizon, and the pain and chaos that had gripped him only a moment earlier all faded with every word that passed from his grandfather’s lips. The few pictures of his father scattered throughout his home now came to life in Hakota’s mind. Hakota’s smiling, strong, and thin father was a warrior just like his father and just like his son.
“The story begins,” Maahe proclaimed, “when you were only a baby. Your father was as skinny as a rail,” Maahe anxiously laughed. “And he was a go-getter. He had just started working for a big mining developer. He was paid to lead two prospectors into the wilderness. They wanted him to go around and show them the area so they could more easily take good samples. I remember he was so excited. He told me that he would finally be able to use all the knowledge I passed down to him about the land.”
Hakota glanced upon his grandfather’s face sensing the man’s guilt. A sharp pain shot through Maahe’s brow and his jaws clenched although he was still managing a kind smile. Hakota knew in that instant that his grandfather blamed himself for his father’s death.
“There wasn’t nothing that boy couldn’t accomplish, and he knew it,” a lone tear rolled off Maahe’s cheek.
Chapter 3: The Cave
The mining company had hired Gabriel based on his experience and knowledge of the North Dakota wilderness. A manager had recruited him during a chance encounter in the foothills, far from any paved roads. Gabriel had appeared to the lost crew as if he were an apparition. After assisting with much-needed directions and firmly refusing a ride back into town, Gabriel vanished back into the landscape by the time the manager looked back from the escaping off-white, all-terrain vehicle. Gabriel eventually decided to take the manager up on his offer to become a scout for the company. He appeared to the man again as if to emerge from nowhere one random, hot afternoon.
Dust clouds surrounded the enormous mining vehicles as the manager explained some plans to his subordinates. From the time he looked up from the maps still scrolled in his hands to the moment Gabriel walked away taking two mid-level prospectors with him, the concept of time eluded the decision maker. There was something about Gabriel that allowed those around him to live in the present unworried by the past or by what had not yet happened.
Now, after traveling by truck for hours, the only thing the two prospectors could tell for sure was the direction of the sun. Gabriel had purposely taken the men in a circuitous route to ensure he would receive payment for his services should the men find what they were looking for. If he wanted to, he could have left them there with a one in a million chance of ever finding their way back. The thought did cross his mind after putting up with the two men arguing incessantly about their favorite sports teams and players. Their world was consumed with win/lose scenarios, and he did not trust them. Gabriel smirked at the names of some of their heroes: “Magic and Birds”, he smiled to himself.
Nevertheless, Gabriel had a small family to look after now, and they took priority over life’s simple annoyances. He would take this opportunity because it could eventually lead to a better life for them. Gabriel thought that he may be able to secure long-term employment if he could lead the men to a good find, so he had taken them to the biggest cave he knew of, a cave his father had shown him once and only briefly before warning him never to return to it. It was a foreboding place that seemed to be contaminated by an evil the rain would never wash away. Gabriel was determined to become the provider he had always secretly wished his own father would have been, if the old man wasn’t so fixed on ancient ways.
“What are we doing out here?” one of the men asked exhausted and sweaty.
“Are you leading us on a wild goose chase?” the other added as if the two shared an equally short sighted and impatient mind.
“We are here,” Gabriel answered.
The three men exited the cab of the truck. After a few steps, the cave revealed itself within a deep ravine totally hidden from view unless one was nearly on top of it.
“That’s the cave,” Gabriel pointed.
“Holy…,” one began
“Cow,” the other ob
liged.
“We can get to it if we climb down this way,” he pointed again showing the men a tricky slope with handgrips all the way down. “Can you make it?” he asked them.
The tired and perspiring prospectors stared for a moment, mouths agape. Then, one finally uttered, “Yeah, I think we can do that.”
Gabriel went first. He steadily descended into the ravine expertly. “Careful, some of the rocks are loose,” he said.
At the bottom, he stood well back as the two overweight amateurs attempted a graceful decent. Rocks were dislodged in rapid succession, and a few times it looked as if one or both would fall the ten or so feet to the ground. Eventually, they made it, and dusted themselves off. With the prospectors secured, Gabriel turned his attention toward the entrance of the cavern. For more than a decade, he had wondered about the mysterious hole. Now, out of necessity, he was about to find out what awaited him inside. He sat at the mouth of the opening as he gazed into the emptiness within. The prospectors stumbled up behind the scout with flashlights at the ready.
“Are we going in or what?” one asked.
“Yeah, what are you doing?” the other added.
“Listening,” Gabriel replied clearly, “or at least I was.”
“I haven’t really got all day here,” a prospector concluded as he charged past Gabriel into cave.
Just then, a low, drawn-out groan seemed to emanate from somewhere deep within the earth, echoing off the walls of the cavern until it finally reached the men.
“What was that?” one of the prospectors immediately wanted to know.
All three men stared at each other and listened again. Gabriel suddenly smelled something in the air that traveled up from the hole. He concentrated on the smell trying to identify it.
“That’s people,” he thought. “Animals don’t smell like that.”
“What is it?” one prospector noticed Gabriel’s reaction.
“It’s nothing,” Gabriel replied, “Caves play tricks on small noises. Amplifies them.” He had hoped he was wrong about the faint smell. Maybe it wasn’t the body odor of people and scent of death mixing with the open air at the entrance. In any event, he had come too far now to go back, and he wasn’t about to go in alone. Perhaps someone needed help, or an animal had crawled inside to die. While the men crouched at the six by six entrance silently waiting for the sounds and odors to explain themselves, nothing more occurred. All became still as if something inside knew they were there.
Anunnaki Volume One: Rise of the Warrior Page 1
